If Your Company Notably Misses the Mark on TikTok, Is the Brand Awareness Worth It?

Electrolyte brand Waterboy hosted a Tulum trip for influencers and community, but it played out poorly on social media. The misstep got people talking, but whether it's pushing sales is questionable.

I’ll be the first to admit, I now know about electrolyte brand Waterboy. I’d heard the name very minimally in passing, but I honestly got it confused with that Loverboy canned cocktail drink from the Summer House people, so it came and went from my mind. However, after spending this past weekend at home with TikTok as my main source of social interaction, I quickly learned everything I needed to know (more on that in a bit).

I’ve been vocal about my use of electrolytes, and how I implement them into my pre- and post- going out routine. Years ago, like many, I’d make a pre-drink while blasting my Spotify Starred list and applying makeup. It was fun in the moment, until I realized that one pre-drink was often one too many, and I didn’t like showing up to a function already under the influence. Now, I’ve traded Grey Goose for green powder, and Spotify for Gen-Z drama on my FYP. Bottom line: I’m always down for a healthy “pre-drink” that can also help get me through the next day after going out.

Waterboy had long been promoting a brand trip to Tulum, which would include the usual cast of 20-something characters (Hallie Kate, Jaz, Bran Flakes, Ken Eurich etc.), along with select followers from their individual communities, along with contest winners from Waterboy’s community. So all-in-all, this was aimed to be an all-encompassing “community”-focused trip that would play out on social media and presumably entice people to purchase Waterboy packets.

After learning about the brand against my will, the major takeaway is that they really go hard with hangover “cure” marketing. While they don’t use that exact word, the packaging of their Weekend Recovery collection definitively states, “Eases nausea, hangxiety & fatigue,” even directly calling out competitor Liquid IV (“Not to name names, but 1 Waterboy stick = 3.7 Liquid IVs in electrolytes alone”). Sidenote: I think it’s tacky when brands call out other brands. Let your products speak for themselves.

So here’s where the brand missed a major opportunity to sell their point of view…

Countless eyes were on their account all weekend as the hyped-up trip to Tulum played out in real time. Waterboy’s TikTok account kicked off the extravaganza with a brief intro from brand new “social media manager” Madi Marotta—a TikToker with approximately 200K followers. What began as fun, behind-the-scenes footage of the team setting up for its guests, turned into basically a takeover of Marotta’s personal experience on the trip. She barely mentions Waterboy, and instead shows off her outfits and talks about drinking the whole time.

A full, cohesive breakdown of what went wrong can be found HERE (and you can always look to good ol’ Reddit for insight HERE), but to give you the Cliff’s Notes, the biggest argument, aside from Marotta’s personal focus, was that much of the content showed people hungover. There was so much binge-drinking content but not enough Waterboy content to match it. The whole purpose was to show how this product “eases hangxiety,” yet guests looked like they were going to die.

One Reddit user recapped the gist of discourse I saw on TikTok (I’m summarizing the post): “Why are they only posting about the influencers? And the only activities were getting drunk and working out which both looked like a hot mess. It makes you want to not support the brand as a whole. I feel so bad for the non influencers and mike and conner for trusting poorly equipped people to run things. Even the new social media manager just gives bad vibes. The content is awful and this was supposed to be a trip for customers but instead they're making it about all the influencers. They are making themselves seem like such clout chasers with the way things went down.”

The Reddit user also pointed out that the influencers themselves barely posted anything from the trip. And to be fair, I did do a deep dive and they really didn’t post much from the trip (especially with direct Waterboy content or tags). This is especially interesting because at the very least, influencers are big on doing the room tours/swag hauls. We got none of that. There was a little bit of general Tulum and alcohol content. But again, direct Waterboy love from the influencers was limited (on TikTok at least).

Marotta also missed the mark when it came to easy ways of tying the brand into other content. At one point, she had guests go around and share their death row meal. It felt very out of place. Instead, she could have asked them to share the last time they desperately needed a Waterboy. Or anything like that at all. She also failed to showcase the “community” members on the trip. It was all influencers. Which, OK, there’s definitely an audience for that. But “regular people” like seeing other regular people in the wild, intermingling with these TikTokers and getting these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The overarching argument was that just because someone can can post effectively on their personal account doesn’t mean it will translate over to handling a brand account.

The other issue from various TikTok users was that instead of the brand accepting constructive feedback in the comments, they were blocking users who shared opinions (so if you don’t see any negative comments on the brand’s account, there’s your answer). Marotta posted a snarky video mocking the hate, and the brand jokingly changed its account tagline to “Madi’s burner account.”

It honestly gave me flashbacks to working at “the failing startup” (IYKYK), where there was zero structure or cohesion and social media posts were all over the place, never really getting to the point. I don’t think brands should be too formal (on TikTok especially), but I think strategy is key. I am no social media expert, but it’s very clear when brands (like Tarte, for example) have thought things through. They may be controversial, but their brand trip coverage always aligns with the latest sounds and trends and flows effortlessly. Love it or hate it, you want to keep tuning in.

So, where does this leave the state of Waterboy, now that the trip is over? Most of their content from the trip received an average of 300K views—which isn’t that many in the grand scheme of things. So while I think the trip generated some weekend buzz, it’s tough to say if it will make a dent in sales, or just turn people off from the brand altogether. But, I am sitting here writing about them, and as I’ve said, I’m not above trying another electrolyte brand. But on the flipside, I don’t get the best vibes from them so I likely wouldn’t go out and buy their products. So, I guess that’s where we’re at.

Did you pay attention to how this unfolded on TikTok? Are you a Waterboy fan? Please share all your thoughts in the comments!