Victoria Secrets model Adriana Lima lent her name and image to a new Brazilian health drink that’s trying to compete with the likes of Red Bull, Vitamin Water and Vita Coco.
The company, known as AMAZON Beverage, will have a lot of competition to square off with in the niche functional water markets, now a dominate feature on supermarket shelves.
The two year old company was the brainchild of Nivea Brasil CEO Paulo Zottolo. The company has been in California markets for nearly two years before making its official, nationwide debut in New York on Monday night with the Brazilian model at the helm.
Adriana leads a handful of lesser known Brazilian models — call them the “Amazon women” if you must — who will be the face of the product.
“It was not easy bringing her on board. Money was not enough. We had to sell her on the idea of the company,” Paulo Zottolo told FORBES last night. The 32 year old Brazilian model, in town for New York Fashion Week, is not an investor in the company but has already given Zottolo some word of advice. If they wanted her image plastered all over their packaging, they had to source some of the ingredients from her home state of Bahia in northeast Brazil.
“We were getting our coconut water from Asia. We will get it from Bahia now,” Zottolo said.
On Monday night, Adriana took to a tiny stage at The Beach bar at the Dream Downtown, a boutique hotel as pretentious as it is sophisticated. While she was not called upon to speak about the product, Adriana spent most of the afternoon in photo ops throughout the city, from Greenwich Village to a downtown boxing ring where she was photographed resting against the ropes with a bottle of AMAZON coconut water spiked with a shot of guarana, a fruit found in the Amazon.
The company has been hosting glam-slam pool parties at the Dream since August as part of its branding scheme for the target 25-35 year old trendy, health-wise consumer.
The flavored drinks are a blend of either water, tea or coconut water with different ingredients known in Brazilian culture and folklore to be a source of vitality and energy.
“We’re trying to be the drink you take with you from the health club to the night club,” said AMAZON Beverage’s chief marketing officer Nicolas Maurer.
Zottolo hopes that Adriana’s brand support will eventually land him in major New York retailers Duane Reade and Food Emporium.