When Mark Wahlberg was training for the 2010 film “The Fighter,” he discovered AquaHydrate, a water supplemented with minerals and electrolytes. He apparently liked the stuff so much that he wanted in on the company.
Wahlberg now owns about 20 percent of the company, according to the Wall Street Journal, and his involvement no doubt helped rope in P. Diddy as an investor as well. The man sometimes known as Sean Combs also has a stake worth about 20 percent.
After having the product sold in Walgreens and other such US outlets, Wahlberg, Diddy, and their fellow investors are taking the beverage abroad. AquaHydrate may make its Australian debut in the next few weeks and “is advancing talks to expand into Asian markets through a joint venture covering Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan, as well as distribution in ja*an,” the Journal notes.
Diddy isn’t promoting a company to 9 million people about the brand’s product placement in Glee if he didn’t have a piece of the company. Consumers are drinking less soda than they used to and are more and more interested in purchasing items that have a healthy bent to their marketing. Research firm Innova Market Insights recently reported that fruit-based drinks have “dominated launch activity, accounting for over 43% of total” beverage launches in the last two years. Water isn’t growing as quickly, but the concept of AquaHydrate is to provide an alternative to the sugared sodas that ruled the beverage world’s recent past history.
The question is how long before we start seeing AquaHydrate sold in every night club like Ciroc?
Well played, sir.
