Overview: GT’s Living Foods launched Agua de Kefir, a hydrating, low-sugar fermented beverage inspired by traditional Mexican agua fresca. As a new sub-brand in an emerging beverage category, it needed a distinct identity and launch story that could build awareness, educate consumers, and stand apart from GT’s established kombucha portfolio.

Creative Approach: Led the campaign from concept through execution, transforming limited launch guidelines into a vibrant cross-platform brand experience. I developed and wrote the Mexico-inspired Origin Story, sourced the voice-over artist, and directed a multidisciplinary team across custom illustration, animation, video, social, and paid media. The three-phase campaign introduced the product through heritage and fermentation craft before expanding into benefit-led creative and Gen Z-focused lifestyle content.

Working closely with GT’s founder, client marketing team, and paid media strategists, we adapted messaging and formats for fitness, wellness, and health-conscious audiences across YouTube, TikTok, Meta, and Snapchat.

Role: Creative Director, Designer and Copy + Concept Lead

  1. Creative Team
    Design: Jason Hernandez, Ramesh R. and Murali Iyer
    Video Editing: Mario Moreno
    Copywriting: Maggie Morgan

Agua De Kefir

GT’s Living Foods’s sub- brand

 

Challenge
Agua de Kefir launched with an emerging identity and limited watercolor references. The paid campaign needed to build awareness for a new beverage category while balancing product benefits with Mexican cultural heritage.

Creative Approach
Expanded the initial direction into a paid-media system across static and custom video. I designed the graphic assets, developed benefit-led concepts, and led video storyboarding, partnering with Mario Moreno to animate the work for YouTube, TikTok, Meta, and Snapchat.

Key Results:
Reached 11M+ unique users and generated 3.1M YouTube views, with a 29% lift in view rate, 36% increase in YouTube Shorts CTR, and 525% increase in Meta CTR across campaign phases.

Defining the Brand Through Paid Media

Custom Watercolor Animation

Defining a New Brand Through Three Storytelling Lenses

  • Cultural Heritage: Introducing the Origin Story
    Connected Agua de Kefir to its Mexican roots through watercolor storytelling, desert imagery, and a narrative inspired by traditional agua fresca and fermentation.

  • Ingredient Discovery:Bringing the Desert to Life
    Used animated cactus, fruit, water, and botanical elements to highlight the ingredients and create a distinctive, ownable visual world.

  • Functional Benefits:Turning Education Into Emotion
    Translated hydration, restoration, and nourishment benefits into concise, visually engaging stories designed for paid-media audiences.

 

Unified Brand Journey: Extended the campaign’s visual system and storytelling from paid media into a cohesive website experience.

Conversion-Focused Experience: Collaborated with Assembly’s CRO team to balance product education, benefit-led messaging, and clear pathways to purchase.

Scalable Content System: Provided the brand elements and content framework used by the experience design team to establish a consistent digital foundation.

Web Design, CRO & Content Direction

 

Work: For the Agua de Kefir brand launch and the first digital cross-platform ads, GT's Living Foods founder GT Dave aimed to pay homage to Mexico, as kefir originates from Mexico as a hydrating elixir from the desert oasis. To honor this heritage, we created an origin story ad that was featured on CTV for YouTube and social channels. We developed bespoke animations and focused on beautiful storytelling that highlighted the product's heritage, benefits, and cultural significance.

Key Results: The campaign was incredibly successful, achieving outstanding results:

  • YouTube: 3.1 million views

  • YouTube: 5.6 million unique users

CTV Launch Storytelling

CTV VIDEO: 30 sec and 15 seconds

 

PAID SOCIAL VIDEOS

Lifestyle-Led Storytelling: Transformed existing footage into playful “Thirst Trap” videos, layering watercolor elements, music, and benefit-led messaging to build familiarity during the campaign’s second phase.

Platform Optimization: Adapted the creative for TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, testing intro and outro cards, music, copy, and branding to identify stronger engagement signals.

Cross-Platform Reach: Reached 5.6M unique users on Meta and 2.7M on TikTok, while generating 3.12M impressions on Snapchat.