Discerning people pick smartwater. They see the difference between us and other brands. Coincidentally, one of the most memorable scenes in the first movie was about being discerning — the iconic cerulean scene.
In collaboration with smartwater and The Devil Wears Prada 2, we turned a subtle shade shift into a nationwide campaign spanning special-edition bottles, a gamified digital experience to find cerulean, retail activations, and influencer/PR kits, transforming a cultural reference into something people could play, find, and win. From shelf to screen, every touchpoint became an invitation to participate. (And it got some press: LBBonline, Variety, Indie Agency, Campaign US, Brit+Co, WWD, Hello Partner, Marketing Dive, Today)
GCD: Jon Ong | ACD Art: myself | ACD CW: Brian SzAbo
digital experience: color matching Game
Built in-house in collaboration with our dev, ux, and design teams! And yes, every one of those 112 shades of blues were named by Brian (also included: a fun little easter egg!)
Kicked off with a nationwide irl bottle hunt
Two weeks ahead of the DWP2 premiere, we dropped our special-edition bottles at select Targets nationwide for discerning shoppers to spot and play.
To play into the discernment of our audience, the changes in design were simple for those eagle-eyed fans. I just shifted the shade to cerulean from smartwater’s brand blue, added the iconic double devil heels on the inner raindrop label, and placed the iconic quote on the side with our scannable code. Subtle yet still premium, like the brand.
influencer / Press Kits
In-tangent to the IRL bottle hunt, we created and sent out kits to influencers and media outlets to drum up awareness of the digital experience.
When designing the box, I was inspired by the color matching tiles in our experience to make the physical shape of the box itself a playful monochromatic aesthetic that even Miranda Priestly would approve of.
some UGC content from kit + organic irl bottle hunt
:15 OLVs
To broaden our visibility among discerning audiences both online and IRL, we created :15s paid OLVs for YouTube and Meta with two seperate messagings. National ads focused on promoting the game while the localized ads focused on the IRL bottle hunt at select Targets across the country.