Waterdrop uses tennis as a global growth strategy as players invest

When Waterdrop received a call from Novak Djokovic expressing interest in the product, the team knew they were on the right track. Now an investor in the sustainable hydration company, Djokovic has collaborated on products. That's just one example of how the Vienna-based company is fully embracing tennis as a global growth strategy, as it announces six new global tennis players as investors.

Waterdrop launched in Europe in 2016, first with dissolvable, sugar-free hydration cubes intended to promote sustainable hydration by encouraging consumers to bypass single-use plastic bottles in favor of sustainable bottles with the added Waterdrop product.

Tennis soon offered a vehicle to tell the story.

How do you get people motivated to try something new and create a global emotion? It was clear we wanted to get into sports marketing and work with athletes, says Henry Murray, co-founder and CMO of Waterdrop. Tennis stood out early on. It is the perfect sport for us.

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A company that from day one was all about helping people drink better. It started with the tasty cubes and then expanded to electrolyte cubes that attracted athletes. There was no sport that involved drinking water as much as tennis. Hydration is super essential and very present, says Murray. In no other sport do you see so much drinking. In every changeover it is a key element and part of the game.

Add to this the sport's global flavor attracting people wanting to live healthier lives and a clear problem with the overuse of single-use plastics, and Murray says tennis provided an ideal foundation on which to build.

Build it, that's what they did.

The athlete's first endorsement came from American Taylor Fritz. Others soon followed. By the end of 2022, Waterdrop was an official partner of the ATP, providing, among other things, hydration banks on the field at tournaments and sustainable hydration products for players, guests, staff and volunteers.

Waterdrop welcomed an investment from Djokovic in 2023 and added six new tennis stars as investors in April, including Fritz, Elina Svitolina, Sebastian Korda, Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz and Cameron Norrie.

Murray says it was the partnership with the ATP that caught the attention of Djokovic and other players. From creating a Waterdrop bench with a drinking station inside to eliminating plastic water bottles, the partnership allowed the company to both raise awareness and educate players.

Working with Djokovic was not strategic. Initial. We could only dream of working with Novak Djokovic, the greatest tennis player of all time, says Murray. When we started, we somehow caught his attention in the field of hydration and sustainability, and Novak and the team are very interested in health, hydration and sustainability. We got their interest.

Once the two spoke, they decided that Djokovic would take an investment stake, leading to a partnership with his personal brand Sila and Waterdrop. Becoming an investor allowed the partnership discussions to focus on long-term commitments and building for the future. That was awesome, Murray says, and today it's probably one of the coolest things we've ever done.

Although Waterdrop is not against having ambassador relationships, this is still the case in tennis and other sports. Having an athlete willing to invest increases leverage. These athletes can all get great deals from brands everywhere, Murray says. They choose very carefully what they commit to and what they put their name on.

Signing Fritz in early 2022 was initially about an ambassadorial relationship. That grew into the new investment. Being in a position to align your interests long-term shows a belief in the story and a belief in what we're doing, Murray says. It creates a different atmosphere. If they are there as a business partner, it unlocks much more that would not be possible if they were a normal ambassador. It results in a credible story and a long-term commitment.

The Waterdrop tennis story is just beginning. Along with the ATP, Djokovic and six new investors, Waterdrop also saw a partnership with the Australian Open in January 2024, marking the brands' first deal with one of the four major sporting tournaments that took place before Waterdrop's launch in that country.

As they continue to grow, Waterdrop now has a presence in more than 5,000 retail locations in the United States and 20,000 locations worldwide are expecting more tennis-related activations. At Indian Wells in March, Waterdrop teamed up with Djokovic to have him deliver his first American product on a bicycle to a store in Los Angeles. In 2023, Waterdrop took over Times Square in New York City for an event surrounding the US Open.

With a focus on building the US market, Waterdrop hopes to host more events with ambassadors, tell additional partnership stories with Djokovic, expand to more tournaments and partnerships with athletes and grow a relationship with the WTA. We want to make sure everyone knows about Waterdrop in the tennis world, says Murray. There is much more work for us to do.