There’s a new New York City-based coconut water brand on the market and it isn’t looking to build through the typical channels.
Strange Water, created via a partnership between live events company Stranger Than and promoter TCE Presents officially launched this week with two SKUs – still and sparkling – packed in 11.2 oz. cans. The brand has been steadily building up awareness through its events since its first test run in October.
Stranger Than organizes music festivals, parties, cultural events and other gatherings in non-traditional venues such as museums, streets and parks, explained founder Tal Ohana, noting that these activations typically bring anywhere from 2,000 to 12,000 attendees. This year, the company will reach an annual total of about 1 million tickets sold.
“Our main focus is how to sell as many [coconut waters] as we can in the events and how to get as much exposure there,” explained Ohana. “The interest is high for us to push it in the right way. The branding… is what we’re focusing on, keeping it very unique to all types of events and not just ours.”
In addition to building brand awareness through the events space, Strange Water itself has been fully developed in-house by the Stranger Than team. Ohana said the infrastructure in place from the events company has helped get the brand off the ground, explaining that its bar staff has also been integral in moving the product beyond on-premise and helping self-distribute to retail partners since the test run.
“The intention of it when we [started] was to have more of a hydration approach on our music events, outdoor events [especially on hot summer days] with anything that is affiliated to music [or] affiliated to cool things that we already love,” said Ohana. “Once we got it into all our events, it sparked up… a lot of Instagram messages from cafes and stores and some distributors.”
The company has been financed by the events company up until this point and Ohana aims to keep it that way as long as possible. But, after nearly eight months of testing, Strange Water is gaining traction and looking to begin scaling up. The product was recently sold during music festivals including Coachella and Lightning In A Bottle in California and Ohana said it is also in talks with potential partners at other larger venues on the East Coast. The company has already locked in a deal with Sofi Stadium and is awaiting its first order.
Ahead of its formal rollout, Strange Water’s look and formulation was tweaked slightly per feedback garnered during its events and it will continue to build through that platform alongside a small but growing retail footprint. The brand is currently sold in about 200 local and independent retailers in the New York and Los Angeles area and although it is still self-distributing at the moment, Ohana said that will likely change soon.
“Coming from the distribution world, I knew how tough it would be to get into stores,” said Ohana, who grew up in a family of food distributors and importers in the New York area. “The business model itself was – let’s base it on events and see if we can get into all these bars and clubs… because fighting for shelf space with like Coca Cola, Vita Coco and all these bigger companies – I knew it was not something we wanted to go into war with.”
However, now, Ohana said he believes both channels will be integral to the brand’s future growth. The events side of the strategy will help build a following for the brand and Ohana hopes it will attract interest from musical artists or other brand-aligned supporters. He emphasized that simultaneously building in retail is also essential so that attendees can find the brand outside of Stranger Than activations.
“I definitely think we have an advantage being part of the event side of the world,” said Ohana “A lot of brands pay a lot of money for placement in festivals. A lot of [other] brands are more targeted on online marketing and [getting] stores shelves. I don’t personally know any other brand, especially in coconut water, that takes this kind of approach.”