Glacéau Vitaminwater is offering a Canadian entrepreneur $10,000 and one-on-one mentorship time with a Dragon as part of a contest that goes back to the company’s entrepreneurial roots.
The #totalboss promotion harkens back to the brand’s formation in New York City in 1996 by John Darius Bikoff. His company, Energy Brands, was sold to Coca-Cola in 2007 for US $4.1 billion.
“We were a start-up before start-ups were cool,” notes a YouTube video describing the contest. Now, “we’re throwing our weight behind the doers because we know great things happen when you decide to do.”
“We are all really focused on that hustle, that drive, that spirit of the entrepreneur, whether you start your own business or not,” says Daniella Macri, marketing and communications manager at Glacéau Vitaminwater and Smartwater.
Until September 30, Canadians can enter by taking a photo that displays what inspires them, posting it on Instagram and including the hashtag #totalboss and @vitaminwatercanada.
“We wanted to create the contest in a way that would allow ideas to come from anywhere,” Macri says. “We wanted to keep the barrier to entry quite low.”
The winner will be randomly selected by Vitaminwater in October. Aside from the cash, the winner receives four hours of mentoring from Michele Romanow , co-founder of Buytopia and the mobile savings platform SnapSaves, and a new Dragon this year on CBC-TV’s Dragons’ Den.
“She’s incredibly passionate about mentoring start-ups,” says Macri. “If the winner doesn’t have an idea that’s Dragons’ Den-ready, Michele can work with them to say ‘what inspires you, what are you passionate about, how can we make that a business for you?’”
The campaign is being promoted on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook). As well, the Thunderclap crowdspeaking platform is being used to amplify the message to Vitaminwater’s Facebook community.
In-store displays are also touting the contest. Small booklets will be attached to bottles in September to showcase the contest and provide information about each Vitaminwater SKU.
Romanow says she found it cool that the campaign is “inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs. It really fits with the things I care about most.”
She notes that start-ups have longed fuelled the economy, but technology has recently allowed companies to go from small to global scale in about five years, citing Uber as an example.
Because of a soft job market, starting a company has “also become a really awesome career for young people,” Romanow says.
“Hopefully I can help out with the ideation phases and get someone to prototype at the end of it and hopefully launch (a start-up),” she says of the winner of the #totalboss promotion.
Environics Communications is handling public relations for the campaign.
