Hydro Flask x Hopper
Ad Campaign
Tools
Adobe Photoshop
Hydro Flask has to compete with the ever-changing trendiness of water bottles by keeping its original audience and building new markets in teens and young adults. The design of this ad campaign addresses that problem by utilizing Hopper paintings to connect with its audience. The ads place a Hydro Flask into the lonely landscapes of his paintings and winks at our love for our water-bottles. Humor mixes with a nugget of sincerity in these tableaus and says: You are never alone in this world, your Hydro Flask is always here for you.
Process
I began by searching for paintings by Hopper that feature women and that have an empty space where the water bottle could be featured. I found three Hydro Flask images, then I removed the background on them and turned them into a mask layer. I brought them into the painting and began to use adjustments to make them blend in. To match Hopper’s prominent brushstrokes, I used the eye-dropper tool and paint tool to allow for a more seamless composite. Finally, I brought in the company name and logo as well as a large photo of the product. I wrote a tagline and some humorous text to hold the attention of the viewer.
Museum Banners
The ad campaign expanded beyond billboards to adapt to new marketing formats. The design of the museum banners utilize 90s music lyrics to land a chuckle in our millennial target audience. The extreme vertical format proved a challenge and generative AI within Photoshop was a successful solution in expanding the image upwards. Typography is the key design feature of these banners. The ad campaign’s typeface is Mostra Nuova and after careful experimentation, I was able to find a solution that worked for this vertical format.
Social Media & Merch
The final step in designing the Hydro Flask x Hopper Ad Campaign was creating a social media ad campaign and merch. For both, I continued with the theme of independence from loneliness. The social media campaign takes a more humorous approach, where the characters show an attachment to their water bottles and hydration that appears more intimate than their social connections.
The tote bag approaches with a more sincere tone and an anthem: Alone, never lonely. It’s the kind of bag one could buy from the museum gift store, that balances gravitas with silliness. It speaks to how the Hydro Flask brand can be playful with its consumer, but never forgets true sincerity when it counts.