Alex Cooper is the host of Call Her Daddy, the #1 listened to podcast among women globally. She was named by Time Magazine in 2021 as ‘arguably the most successful woman in podcasting’ after signing a three-year exclusive deal with Spotify worth $60m.
The podcast focuses on female empowerment, relationships, mental health and features conversations with high profile guests in pop culture (including Miley Cyrus, Jane Fonda and Hailey Bieber). That’s led by Cooper: who ‘cuts through the BS and shows up as her true, unapologetic self with her guests’, and has amassed a huge loyal following. Cooper is also behind The Unwell Network: a wider community for Gen Z audiences.
But Cooper was also a Division 1 college athlete at Boston University, playing soccer while majoring in film and television.
And that’s where Unwell Hydration comes in. In the same way Cooper has gone from college athlete to female mascot, the drink bridges the world between the sports field and the everyday hydration need.
Unwell Hydration has become the official hydration partner of the National Women’s Soccer League: but it’s also there for women in their every day lives (‘designed for life’s most unwell moments, Unwell Hydration is the ultimate companion to our community’s bold and busy lifestyles, keeping you refreshed and ready to take on anything’.)
Unwell Hydration
The name ‘unwell’ references every followers’ ‘unwell experiences’… ‘If you’re sitting at work but you were out until 4am – you’re unwell. If you’re exhausted and have a million things to do, but somehow made time for your workout today – you’re unwell. And if you sent that risky text to land a second date – you’re definitely unwell.’
“Unwell Hydration is an enhanced electrolyte beverage challenging stereotypes within the hydration category,” explained Kristin Lentz, Unwell Hydration’s commercial lead.
“It was designed to fit seamlessly into our consumers’ lives, meeting the widest variety of hydration needs - whether they’re hitting the club or hitting the gym,”
“As a former D1 athlete, Alex has spoken extensively about her relationship with hydration and her struggles over the years to find a product that checked off all of her boxes.
“Something that helps you hydrate, focus, refresh and replenish with essential nutrients, tastes great, and isn’t full of sugar or unnecessary junk. It was important that we launched a beverage that was made without artificial colors or flavors, but didn’t sacrifice on taste. Unwell Hydration was launched to address this gap in the market.”
Unwell Hydration launched in the US at the beginning of this year with three flavors (orange hibiscus, mango citrus and strawberry), which have since been joined by Target exclusive Kiwi Pineapple.
Each flavor delivers rapid hydration and focus with over 700mg of electrolytes, a blend of essential B-complex vitamins, and a gentle dose of natural caffeine from green coffee extract (coming in at 75mg, it’s a little less than a cup of coffee). It is sweetened with cane sugar and natural sweetener.
“In today’s world, we are often expected to juggle multiple roles and be everything to everyone, so we created Unwell Hydration to help anyone who needs it replenish what we give out,” said Lentz.
That’s a message designed to appeal to all demographics within the female market. And it’s also intended to appeal to women with its concept of ‘Unwell’.
“Hydration also isn’t just for the sports athlete – it’s for everyone every day and there aren’t many hydration brands speaking to the universal need for hydration. Along with that, we see many hydration products talk about the pursuit of perfection. But true wellness isn’t about being perfect, it’s about embracing life’s chaos.”
Social media strategy
Unwell Hydration has naturally been able to use the brand equity built up by Call Her Daddy and has 111K followers on Instagram alone.
“Alex has built an incredible community with her Daddy Gang, and we’ve been able to leverage that power on our own channels as well,” said Lentz.
“We take pride in ensuring that not only is our product authentic to Alex and our audience, but so is the content we’re sharing as we truly see our fans as a community of friends.
“We started our platform as an account for “Alex’s Super Secret Project” to capture the attention of Alex’s fans, build intrigue and get people guessing.
“Once we launched and changed it to our Unwell Hydration page that you see today, that initial group of followers stayed with us and we saw new followers who were attracted to the product once we hit stores.
“Our social strategy is all about making sure what we’re sharing resonates while being informational across channels with a mix of hi-fi, lo-fi and viral video formats to keep it fun and engaging. That shows as our follower base continues to grow.”
