Vitaminwater is expanding a branded content platform that celebrates the power of public art with a new installment in its Neighborhue series, Marketing Dive can share.
The Coca-Cola-owned beverage marketer is again spotlighting mural artists and the communities they enliven in season two, which features a mix of outdoor art, documentary and behind-the-scenes video, long-form editorial and social-first content. The effort targeted at Hispanic consumers brings a broader geographical focus for the platform as well, covering New York City — where Vitaminwater is based — as well as Orlando, Florida.
Neighborhue is developed in partnership with My Code, a multicultural media and marketing agency that owns properties including Remezcla Media Group, HipLatina, La Opinión and El Diario. My Code will distribute the Vitaminwater content through its owned channels, including Remezcla’s digital and social footprint, as well as on Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
“We have a plethora of exclusive properties that we own outright. It’s going to go across our entire media ecosystem,” said My Code CEO Amani Duncan. “We didn’t just expand the city: We've expanded the outreach and all the platforms that we're going to utilize to get this story out wide.”
The first iteration of Vitaminwater’s Neighborhue concept, which launched last August, zeroed in on a trio of murals and the artists behind them in Latine neighborhoods around New York’s outer boroughs. Season two, subtitled “Still in Color,” profiles Puerto Rican artist Don Rimx, whose real name is David Sepulveda, and Cuban artist Carlos Mateu. The theme shifts from a focus on restoration to one of continuation, or examining how public art provides an enduring pillar of heritage and belonging. The spotlight on Orlando-based Don Rimx debuts Thursday while the content tracking Mateu’s Brooklyn-based endeavors will roll out July 20.
“We believe creativity is a powerful force for connection and self-expression, and the response to the first season of Neighborhue reinforced just how deeply people connect with stories rooted in community and culture,” said Hillary Horton, Vitaminwater’s brand director, in a press statement.
Driving audience connection
Vitaminwater wants to reach a fast-growing cohort of Hispanic consumers in the U.S. with its Neighborhue initiative. Hispanic households make up about $2.7 trillion in spending power, or 15% of consumer spending in the country, according to NIQ data published last year. My Code reaches over 20 million unique Hispanic consumers across its portfolio, per Duncan, and enhances its targeting for brands through an audience graph that is supported by first-party data and a partnership with Experian.
“Our intelligence center is what powers all of our campaigns, it powers all of our strategy,” said Duncan. “It is table stakes for us because we’re sitting on this treasure trove of data and insights that we’ve been mining.”
Part of the agency’s philosophy is that multicultural audiences, which it calls growth audiences, no longer make up a sliver but rather a substantial portion of the consumer pie, a factor that isn’t always accounted for in brand marketing. My Code has worked with other Coca-Cola brands, including Fanta and Sprite.
“People want to support the brands that see them. We’re talking about marginalized groups, we’re talking about people that don't always get seen on a large scale,” said Duncan. “When you do this in the right way, and you do it consistently, you’re going to see a positive impact to your bottom line.”
Vitaminwater began ramping marketing activity back up in 2024 with “Vitaminwater from New York,” which at the time marked its first ad campaign in two years. Spike Lee directed creative that captured city staples like bodegas, late-night food trucks and the Brooklyn Bridge. Open X, WPP’s bespoke agency unit for the Coke business, was behind “Vitaminwater from New York.”
