Rapidly Growing Essentia Water Begins Agency Review of Creative and Strategy Work

“Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide further details at this time as the process is currently ongoing,” said an Essentia Water spokesman in a statement.

The up and coming water brand only retained its first creative agency of record in March 2017, choosing indie shop Periscope to lead marketing strategies across all communications channels, including advertising, digital, social, paid search and retail. Notably since then, Essentia appointed a new chief marketing officer, Karyn Abrahamson, who was promoted from vice president of marketing and brand innovation in April.

Periscope did not return several requests for comment, but a person close to the review said Periscope is not participating. All other competing agencies are unknown.

Essentia spent $1.3 million on measured media in the U.S. last year, and $22,000 in the first half of 2018, according to Kantar Media.

Although the company is 20 years old, Essentia only began expanding its marketing efforts with the appointment of Periscope last year. At the time, Essentia was aiming to break through an increasingly crowded marketplace, where beverage behemoths like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have been heavily investing as consumers increasingly choose healthier drinking options over soda.

In March, Essentia announced that 2017 had been its “most successful year to date.” The company said its product availability was now with 60,000 retailers nationwide, reaching nearly 100 percent of the U.S. population, and its 2017 revenue doubled from the previous year to $124 million in retail-measured sales.

Last week, Essentia reported sales grew 72 percent to $153 million over the last year.

Essentia, which claims to be the pioneer of ionized alkaline water, has garnered a lot of attention in recent years from celebrities and socialites like Joe Jonas, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin, who have all either touted the brand on social media or have been spotted with its products. The elite praise has been so great that Forbes named Essentia to its list of “up-and-coming brands gaining the most momentum with celebrities” this year.

“In 2017, my overall focus was to support Essentia’s projected growth by helping bring every aspect of our business up to the level of performance that rapid growth requires,” said Ken Uptain, CEO and founder of Essentia Water, in a March statement. “We achieved this through our team members demonstrating an unwavering commitment to broadening our visibility across the country, whether that was through sales, marketing or operations.”