• by Larissa Faw , November 11, 2015

Last year, R&B singer Ashanti teamed with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) to release an album titled, “Songs for a Healthier America" to encourage people to get moving and embrace healthier lifestyles. This year, the collaboration is taking it up a notch for a more extensive project that relies on audience participation.

Created by ad agencies Young & Rubicam (Y&R) and VML New York, the #DrinkUpAshanti social campaign is building an experience around Ashanti to "dramatize the power and benefits of PHA’s pledge to drink more water, more often."

The campaign first released Ashanti's new single "Let's Go" on Nov. 5 at DrinkUpAshanti.com in a "fully dehydrated form." This meant the song had reduced vocals and various sounds and instrumentation were missing. At the same time, the site introduced the music video as a dull black, white and gray monochrome scheme.

Then, in three additional phases, fans are encouraged to drink water both physically and virtually by using the hashtag #DrinkUpAshanti on Instagram and Twitter in order to "hydrate" the song and video.

The single and music video will only get to full bloom if fans support the campaign through these social media channels. The more often the hashtag appears on Instagram or Twitter, the more ‘hydrated’ the single becomes, until eventually the complete song is released.

Plus, as an extra incentive, the first 100,000 fans to use hashtag #DrinkUpAshantivia Twitter or Instagram will have their handles featured in the “fully hydrated” video. The flowers in the video come to life and handles will start to appear on the flowers.

“This collaboration with Ashanti is a whole new way for a brand and an artist to work together,” said Drew Nannis, PHA’s chief marketing officer.

Although Ashanti didn't develop the song specifically for this campaign, she was "very gracious to allow us to create a dehydrated version of her song, as a unique and new way to release it publicly," the agency stated. Ashanti benefits from the heightened exposure by having her music expand beyond traditional channels.

PHA's Drink Up initiative is backed by PHA Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama. In addition to campaigns such as Ashanti's Drink Up, the initiative reaches people through on-pack support. Through the end of 2013, the Drink Up logo appeared on thousands of outdoor public water taps, 300 million packs of bottled water, half a billion individual bottles of water, 200,000 packages of reusable bottles and 10,000 individual reusable bottles.

PHA spent $1.11 million on advertising and promotions during 2013, according to its most recent Form 990.

PHA has been a client of Y&R and VML’s for three years, with its last experiential campaign being the “Drink Up” fountain, launched in New York in 2014.