Pure Spout® Filters
Pure Success:
How we helped Pure Spout protect students, one sip at a time
Teachers have a lot of things to worry about, but lead in the school’s drinking water shouldn’t be one of them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 1991 that builders were required to use lead-free materials in public water systems. And since the average age of a public school building is 44 years, that means that more than 35 million students are at risk.
Lead exposure, even in small amounts, can lead to serious health problems, especially in children. Common solutions to the problem—such as replacing entire drinking fountains—are not only expensive, but they can be disruptive to student learning, too. That’s why Blue Focus LLC, a science and technology innovation studio, developed Pure Spout filters. They install quickly and easily on existing fountains, providing fresh, filtered water right at the drinking spout and offering a maintenance-friendly and affordable filtration solution.
There was just one hiccup: Blue Focus’s team of scientists were great at developing innovative solutions, but they didn’t have any experience in branding and marketing. If they wanted to ensure that every child has access to safe drinking water, they needed to get the attention of K-12 principals and administrators—an audience that already had many demands on their time and attention—and be ready with a professionally branded product and succinct, persuasive messaging. And that’s where Leap Group stepped in.
Doing our homework on an education and institutional audience
At Leap Group, we believe research is the foundation of any good work, and Pure Spout was no exception. We began with an in-depth market research project that included interviews with key stakeholders, including K-12 administrators and facilities. Through these conversations and other methodologies, we uncovered crucial insights that would direct our branding development and guide our campaign to success.
First, there was low awareness among stakeholders, with many being unaware of the extent of lead issues in their water supply or the existence of effective, low-cost filtration solutions. We also confirmed that almost everyone in our audience faced significant resource constraints, with schools lacking the budgets and personnel needed for large-scale infrastructure projects. Finally, we discovered that there was a high demand for simplicity in the field. Educational decision-makers wanted solutions that could be easily installed and maintained without requiring special expertise—creating a great entryway for Pure Spout.
Building a case for Pure Spout with a new brand platform and assets
Armed with these insights, we built a brand platform emphasizing Pure Spout’s expertise, innovation, and mission (“Ensuring access to safe drinking water so every child can thrive.”), with positive, benefit-driven messaging. We created an inspiring tagline—Protect our future—that served as a rallying cry and a call to action, reminding administrators of the ultimate benefit Pure Spout provides. In body copy, we focused on highlighting how Pure Spout filters provide quick and easy access to lead-free drinking water, emphasizing their affordability, adaptability, and effectiveness.
Then, we developed visual assets, including a robust photo and video library that we could draw on for all the elements of the campaign and beyond, coordinating three distinct photoshoots to capture product, lifestyle, and on-site images. We then created compelling digital and print ads designed to connect emotionally with our audience and incorporated them into a strategic omnichannel campaign that included both traditional direct mail pieces and targeted digital ads.
Next, we designed a new and engaging website for Pure Spout, with clear calls to action and intuitive navigation paths based on the consumer personas and journeys we built out using the findings from our audience research. We also designed a dedicated landing page (https://purespoutfilter.com) that provided educational resources and product details, helping to convert visitors into buyers. Finally, we assisted Blue Focus with its participation in key industry events, such as the EPA Watervent and SOAR Conferences, and coordinated press coverage in major publications, including Delaware State News and McMorrow Reports.
Earning high marks on our first report card after launch
Within the first seven weeks of our Pure Spout launch, our campaign had already garnered 1.7M impressions and 47K social media engagements, 88% social engagement rate across paid channels, and 40K video views. Plus, an impressive 84% of website traffic was driven by paid media, indicating the effectiveness of our campaign strategy. The Pure Spout website engagement metrics also exceeded expectations, with a 2,043% increase in visitors, 528% increase in page views, and 89.5% session engagement. Clearly, our educational audience was coming to class and taking notes on Pure Spout!
With its launch, Pure Spout quickly garnered positive recognition, including significant coverage on “America by Design” a television series reaching 55M viewers. We also received orders from state governments, starting with Delaware, which adopted the filters as part of their lead remediation efforts, and Pure Spout even earned Social Impact Awards from Core77 and IDEA, who recognized the innovation and public benefit of our filter solution.
While we did face some of the typical challenges of a new product rollout, such as long sales cycles (since many schools’ purchases are tied to annual budgets) and resource constraints, we helped overcome that by emphasizing the ease and affordability of Pure Spout filters. We also leaned into messaging that focused on the simplicity of installation, enabling on-site staff to install the filters within minutes. Plus, we developed additional downloadable educational content that could help lower-level staff advocate for the Pure Spout solution to higher-level decision-makers with limited time.
Looking forward to the future
While the Pure Spout campaign is still in its early stages, we’re encouraged by the strong results and tailoring our strategy to maintain and amplify the momentum. This includes increasing ad frequency, developing additional educational resources empowering teachers and administrators to advocate for Pure Spout within their organizations, and implementing retargeting efforts to build on the success of the paid media campaign and continue to convert site visitors into customers. With positive feedback, growing sales, and award recognition, the Pure Spout launch is off to a promising start—which just proves what can happen when brands begin to market less and matter more.
