A Texas startup company aims to disrupt the food and beverage industry by turning the marketing of such products on its head. Austin-based FreeWater sells advertising on paper cartons and aluminum bottles of drinking water and then gives away those containers for free.

The company has ambitious plans to extend the concept well beyond water, to an entire supermarket full of “free” goods, according to founder and CEO Josh Cliffords. This, he says, includes food, beverages, clothing, medicine, computers, transportation, and travel. Each category of product will donate a percentage of its revenue to a different charitable cause.

The company, which launched in May 2021, currently donates 10 cents from each beverage to a variety of nonprofits that are building water wells and systems in Africa. Cliffords extrapolates this to say: “When only 10 percent of Americans save money and drink one FreeWater daily we will donate more than $1 billion to charity annually.”

This ties in to Cliffords’ personal history. A former Airborne Infantryman with the U.S. Army, he founded Save the Refugees as a grassroots movement in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2015. The group’s main objective, he said, “is to treat refugees as a friend instead of a number.” The group is still operating in southeastern Serbia teaching English to children under the new name Refugee Aid Serbia.

The company claims its advertising is very cost-effective. Image: FreeWater

HELPING TO FIGHT WATER SCARCITY

Cliffords created FreeWater after volunteering with refugees who had revealed the water scarcity issues they had faced. At present, he says, 800 million people lack access to safe drinking water while slightly less than half of the global population, 3.6 billion people or 47 percent, live in areas that suffer water scarcity at least one month each year. Cliffords sought to create a for-profit solution to provide free, clean water and build infrastructure for communities to obtain water.

So far, Cliffords notes, “We’ve distributed more than 300,000 beverages and financed two water projects in Kenya and eight micro-projects in India.”

FreeWater prints paid ads directly onto 500 ml rectangular paper cartons and 474 ml cylindrical aluminum bottles. Why only those materials? The company says that “Looking carefully at the pros and cons of both aluminum bottles and paper cartons, we know neither is perfect –– but both are far more sustainable than plastic bottles. Our long term goal is to cultivate, manufacture, fill, distribute, and recycle all our beverages in 100 percent hemp cartons from the same location.”

Founder and CEO Josh Cliffords has plans to expand this concept beyond water to an entire supermarket full of “free” products. Image: FreeWater

Advertisers can make use of FreeWater's physical packaging by connecting QR codes for consumers to scan in order to collect coupons, watch videos and breaking news, order food, take surveys, register to vote, download music, movies, tv shows, video games, and software, augmented reality and more.

With this B-to-B model, FreeWater says some advertisers may choose to distribute the product for free while others may choose to sell it. With their B-to-C model, the water is always free. Cliffords has said that part of the company's mission is to pay its members to consume free products in the future.

CLAIMS OF ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

The other option is these 500 ml paper cartons, which can carry up to 8 ads each. Image: FreeWater

Cliffords claims that FreeWater’s unique advertising channel produces 10x more impressions than direct mail, is $2.50 cheaper per 10 impressions than direct mail, and boasts a 29 percent return on investment.

The cost to advertise depends on several factors, the company notes, including: the container of choice; the number of units; the distribution location; whether the ad space is split with another party; whether the advertiser or FreeWater is distributing the water; and whether FreeWater needs to do the graphic design of the ad or not.

It notes that aluminum bottles have a minimum order quantity (MOQ) of a pallet, which has 1,680 units. Advertisers can split the label’s real estate with a total of three brands. Paper cartons, on the other hand, have an MOQ of 10,000 units and the label’s real estate can be split with a total of eight brands.

The company says it also will construct special partnerships for other 501(c)(3) organizations or any other positive community outlets such as church groups, sports programs, and schools.

FreeWater aims to be “a positive and prominent advertising channel that doesn't annoy or harass its audience.” Instead, Cliffords says, they want to make people happy by saving them money, saving lives and helping the environment.

View a 42-minute podcast with FreeWater’s Josh Cliffords.