Guayaki Yerba Mate Goes All In on Social Media

LOS ANGELES, March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Guayaki Yerba Mate has committed to engaging their consumers solely through social media marketing channels, becoming the first consumer product company to allocate their entire public relations budget to the discipline. The bold shift in strategy has been put in place to enlist support from the global digital community around Guayaki's unique mission driven product.  Guayaki's goal is that this social media focused strategy will translate into simultaneously selling product and preventing Rainforest deforestation, one Facebook fan at a time.

"The decision to go solely with social media rests in our belief that a pure, unfiltered consumer platform is the best way to share the passion we have for our product," said Guayaki co-founder David Karr. "When our fired up consumers purchase Guayaki, they're supporting a paradigm changing solution, one that funnels dollars directly to the growers, providing a sustainable income stream replacing deforestation," explained Karr.  "Our experience tells us that through social media channels we gain access to these avid consumers that truly connect to our brand and willingly share their enthusiasm."

To accomplish this objective Guayaki has appointed social media marketing agency Rocket XL as their Agency of Record.  The move is perfectly suited for Guayaki's unique positioning in the marketplace.

According to Rocket XL CEO Craig Howe, "We've had strong success working with brands and initiatives that operate at the intersections of product and purpose.  In Guayaki's case, the product and purpose are one in the same and genuinely represent the core focus of the company."  

Additionally, as one of just of a few consumer products included in the Clinton Global Initiative, Guayaki's mission remains clear:  to steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020 by leveraging our Market Driven Restoration business model.

Guayaki's Social media efforts will orbit around building and activating a deeply engaged community across diverse social media platforms.  The function of traditional PR will be replaced with an influencer amplification strategy driven entirely through digital platforms with advertising support constructed solely within the walled gardens of social communities in the digital and mobile space.

"We built our brand by travelling the country connecting with people one-on-one to experience our product," states an enthusiastic Karr. "We must continue that deeply personal connection with our consumers to stay true to who we are."

About Guayaki

Founded in 1996, Guayaki is the #1 selling yerba mate brand in North America.  Guayaki is leading the mate category with an complete and innovative portfolio of loose/bagged yerba mate, bottled mate, canned mate, and organic mate energy shots.  Yerba Mate has the strength of coffee, health benefits of tea, and euphoria of chocolate.  Guayaki Yerba Mate is certified fair trade, certified organic and grown sustainably in the rainforest.  With a passion for mate, Guayaki partners with small farmers and indigenous communities to source mate from the sub-tropical forests of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. From the simple love of a beverage, Guayaki drinkers have become a driving force for restoration and community development by paying a fair trade price for rainforest-grown mate.

About Rocket XL

Rocket XL, LLC is digital agency focused on delivering strategic and creatively-driven social marketing efforts for its diverse client roster. Founded in 2002, the agency has created award-winning work for the likes of Unilever, Ikea, Samsung, Cadbury, The NHL, Electronic Arts, and the United Nations.  Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Toronto, and London, Rocket XL provides a global social media offering. For more information on Rocket XL, please visit www.rocketxl.com.

SOURCE Rocket XL, LLC