Nestlé
Background
Nestlé Waters North America wanted to refresh the digital presence of its six regional spring water brands — from sites to social. Each regional brand featured its own distinct identity and connection to the local culture. To tap into this, we strategically redesigned each website and overhauled their social presence across all channels, establishing a unique visual identity and tone of voice specific to the distribution region.
My Role
As senior copywriter, I was responsible for managing three iconic regional spring water brands: Poland Spring (Northeast), Arrowhead (West Coast), and Deer Park (Mid-Atlantic). I created a new regionally-inspired voice and tone for each brand, led the website redesigns, and managed monthly editorial social calendars focusing on localized content.
This case study will focus on the Poland Spring brand to illustrate the breadth and depth of the work.
From here. For here.
Nestlé’s regional spring water brands are exclusive to their particular region in the U.S. They’re from that region and only for that region. They keep the water close to the source — so it’s fresh, sustainable, and grounded in the community. We took this campaign and weaved it into every digital touchpoint. Reinforcing the idea that as a local brand, we’re part of the local fabric.
Localized Content
We traveled around the Northeast, capturing local content for Poland Spring — from photography to video and gifs – highlighting hidden gems and popular favorites along the way. By creating localized content, we tapped into what makes the Northeast so unique, distancing ourselves from competitors mostly using stock or studio content.
Social Strategy
With six bottled water brands from six different regions of the U.S. and a campaign driven by a localized message — we had to think local and act local. We worked with media partners to develop a strategic targeting approach on social media so we could reach our fans on their home turf. We highlighted our favorite places to eat and hang out, joined current conversations, and inserted each brand into the local fabric of its region.
Community Management
As one of the most popular beverages in the Northeast, Poland Spring has a lot of fans. We tapped into this community by responding to conversations in real time, asking engaging questions, and giving a voice to the brand they love. So, when a popular cartoonist started illustrating a new comic on Twitter about a fish that lives exclusively in Poland Spring water, we joined the conversation and became part of the series.
Building a Digital Hub
Creating websites for six regional spring water brands that told their unique brand story, showcased local imagery, highlighted their entire product line, and made it easy to schedule deliveries was no easy feat. We worked with UX and content strategy to develop a templatized approach, allowing us to put each brand’s personality front and center while creating a library of design elements and components that made it easy to scale. Our development team then created a custom CMS, so we wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel whenever we built a new site.
Results
The launch of the new Genesis.com marked a significant milestone for the brand. The site was launched with zero accessibility errors, catapulting it to the top 5% of most accessible websites worldwide. Engagement increased almost immediately, with the average time on site increasing and a substantial increase in high-value action leads.
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1:1 engagement rate for Poland Spring across social channels
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in Twitter followers for Deer Park in the first 20 days
