🎧 On this episode of the DTC pod, we’re asking the question: will advertising save the world? 🌎🤔
Josh Cliffords thinks so. Josh is the founder of FreeWater, an innovative advertising platform that promotes philanthropy and sustainability by using premium spring water as a new type of advertising medium.
Selling ad space on the water bottles themselves renders the water to be completely free while donating ten cents from each beverage to be donated to charity for building water wells for people in need.
In today’s pod, you’ll learn about how changing the perception of advertising has the potential to change consumer behavior, and how FreeWater is wielding advertising to end the global water crisis permanently.
The Takeaways 👇
🌤️ A new perception
Most consumers would agree that ads are more than likely to be thought of as an interruptive experience than anything else. Watching your favorite show that just got to the good part? Cue the ad. On the edge of your seat in the last five minutes of a big game? Another ad. This experience leads consumers to associate those ads and brands with negative feelings they tend to carry with them and let these feelings inform their actions upon future impressions.
But what if there was an ad experience that makes consumers associate those ads with feelings of happiness, fulfillment, or even inspiration? That’s what Josh and his team at FreeWater strive for with their unique ad platform and what they believe is the future of advertising as a whole.
“What’s most unique about [FreeWater] is we’re saving them money and we’re making them happy. And from that feeling of saving money, being happy, helping the environment, and donating to charity… That’s when you want them to [see the ad and] absorb that message.”
This lets the consumer connect the ad and the brand with those positive feelings that they will carry, and potentially influence their actions upon future impressions.
Talk about a win, win… Win. 😏
💧Tackling the global water crisis
Josh and his team’s research has shown that they only need 10% of Americans to choose FreeWater to solve the global water crisis permanently. 🤯 That nets out to approximately 5 to 7 billion dollars in selling ad placements on water bottles.
Even though ending the global water crisis is no easy feat, FreeWater is paving the way for companies and consumers alike to participate in this philanthropic journey with as little effort and as much gain as possible.
“The goal behind FreeWater was to make saving a life as easy as drinking water. [There’s] no need to go to a website, hit a ‘Donate Now’ button, or swipe your credit card… Just drink water like you do every day and you’re saving lives.”
💰 What Josh would do with an extra $50K:
“We would get roughly 40,000 half-liter boxes of water… And we would distribute them, most likely in New York City, as that’s the next market we want to break into. And then on top of that, all of those ten cents per beverage donations to charity would finance its own small water project in rural Kenya.”
So essentially… Giving out free water 🤝 Saving lives.
👉 Listen to the full episode with Josh Cliffords here!
