A Californian hydration brand built on sunshine and hustle culture was expanding into Europe with a creator strategy, starting in Germany, and brought in cultural strategy to test how that approach could resonate across markets.
Work
Work
In Germany, herbal tea does the job of performance hydration for most people, so I mapped where hydration sits in everyday life. That meant how German ideas about health and performance shape the category, why "work hard, play hard" doesn't land here, how wellness products earn trust, and which flavors appeal locally.
Germany is known for scrutinizing claims and checking the ratings, so the work identified which parts of the brand's DNA to lead with here and which to dial down.
That became the basis for choosing creators, messaging and channels in Germany, and the launch went ahead.