Water Works

Brandweek, August 21, 2000 by Jennifer Owens

Evian entices Gen-Y bottled-water drinkers with a Flash-y online effort. Will they take a sip?

HISTORY

Once a pioneer in the branded, bottled-water business, Evian had staked its claim on the Gen-X market in the late '80s and early '90s. Today, though, as the marketplace for soft drinks has become increasingly crowded, the bottled-water brand most often associated with Yuppiedom is now seeking to attract Gen Yers. Evian's importer and marketer, Great Brands of Europe, tapped New York-based interactive shop Cythere to add more depth and interactivity to its existing Web site.

Up until this point, says Cythere creative director Aifredo Tadiar, Evian's advertising efforts, both online and offline, had stayed fairly straightforward.

"[The campaigns] were always just about the drink-Evian as unexpected, original, cool," says Tadiar, whose agency created the original brand site nearly two years before. That site had worked well enough with Gen X, so Evian's brand managers felt "they couldn't really change direction in their traditional advertising campaigns," explains Tadiar. "So they decided to have a special section [within the existing site] for this new audience."

Called "L'original," this new section is an all-Flash, primarily proprietary section of evian.com, focusing on Gen-Y interests and the "original" artists and athletes who best represent youth culture.

"We took a look at what Gen Y is into these days," says Cythere account director Cynthia Damon. "You'll find a common thread among Gen Y-targeted sites. It's what most kids are into-music, fashion and sports. But we definitely didn't want to be a generic Gen-Y site. We wanted to offer content about music and fashion and being cool, but we didn't want it to be about Britney Spears and 'N Sync."

Instead, L'original, which launched June 21, highlights Datach'i, a New York-based electronica artist, and skateboarder Jaime Reyes--both of whom star in their own series of short QuickTime films on the site. Two new "L'originals" will be added to the site every six months.

The originals are, of course, young and hip. They also never mention Evian by name. "We don't want them to say, 'Drink Evian,'" says Tadiar. Instead, he says, the sell "is by association."

In the meantime, says Will Waggaman, vp of worldwide marketing for Evian, the overall Evian site can retain its traditional product-focused bent. "There's a lot that we want to say about the brand that remains constant over the years," he says. "And then there's the imagery behind the brand and that evolves, so that really lends itself to having a product-directed portion of the site as well as a really targeted, younger person's lifestyle section."

A targeted lifestyle section that is interactive in multiple ways. According to Waggaman, that's critical. "Nobody's going to look at a bottled-water site that's just brochure-ware," he says. "It's got to be interactive, and I think there's a way that it can be fun. You can have sweepstakes, you can play games. You always want to provide a bit of a reward to the people who spend time there."

Nevertheless, says Damon, Cythere still had to consider the question of how to make what is essentially a premier brand appeal to a Gen-Y consumer. "It was relatively straightforward--I'm not going to say easy--but I'd say straightforward thinking on how to do that with Gen X because they have the money to spend on better brands if they want to," she says. "But Gen Y doesn't, really. So basically, [Cythere had to fignre out] how do you influence them to want to buy a premier brand?"

It's a question that most other potential Gen-Y beverage brands, such as Mountain Dew or Pepsi, don't have to contend with. "We do," she says, "so the way we try to address that is with our artists and talent. We try to choose people who make qualitative judgements about their career and their work. So when you hear Datach'i talk, he's very serious about his work, and we feel that's a way to keep the status."

THE SITE

Hip to the core, L'original opens with several methods of navigation, including an expandable "ducky" navigational tool on the right and a set of more traditional-seeming vertical bars on the lower left.

"We wanted to do something that was both new and yet still intuitive," explains Damon as she clicks on the pink duckie to link to a section featuring three different interview video segments with Datach'i. "It's constructed in a specific and dynamic way," says Damon. "And with each interview segment, he goes on to talk about his philosophy and where he sees himself going."

Users can also listen to Datach'i's music, view a list of his upcoming performances and click through a photo gallery about him that pops up in its own smaller window. Users can also submit questions to Datach'i, who will likely answer about five each month, and enter a contest to see him play in conjunction with a Rolling Stone event.

Not that Datach'i's un-hummable, electronic music is for everyone. "Our feeling is that he's definitely original," says Sean Perkins, a promotions and Web site manager for GBE. "He's unique and a pioneer in what he's doing. We realize that maybe not everybody's going to sit down and listen to his music, but you have to agree that he's original, and that's the purpose of highlighting him."