Vitaminwater Launches Campaign in Latino Neighborhoods Across the US Through Street Art

Coca-Cola launched the second season of Neighborhue through its Vitaminwater brand — a content platform featuring a series of materials about street artists and their work in Latino neighborhoods across the US. The campaign is executed by My Code agency, whose audience network reaches over 20 mln Spanish-speaking consumers. The choice to leverage influencer marketing through cultural content is backed by numbers: Latino households in the US control $2.7 trln in purchasing power — 15% of all consumer spending in the country, according to NIQ data.

How Vitaminwater's Influencer Campaign Is Built

The second season of Neighborhue, subtitled "Still in Color," focuses on two artists: Puerto Rican Doña Rimxe (real name David Sepulveda) from Orlando and Cuban Carlos Mateu from Brooklyn. The first season, which launched in August last year, showcased three graffiti masters and their work in Latin neighborhoods of New York. Expanding geography to Florida allows the brand to reach new audience segments through regional cultural opinion leaders.

Content is distributed through My Code's own channels — the Remezcla media group, publications HipLatina, La Opinión and El Diario — plus Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Formats include documentary videos about mural creation, behind-the-scenes content, long-form articles and vertical social media content. My Code CEO Amani Duncan emphasized that the agency leverages its entire owned media ecosystem to bring the story to the broadest possible audience.

Targeting Through First-Party Data and Cultural Context

My Code builds audience targeting on first-party data and a partnership with Experian. The agency calls multicultural segments "growth audiences" because their share in the consumption structure has long exceeded marginal levels, yet many brands don't factor this into media planning. Duncan explained the logic: people support brands that notice them, and marginalized groups rarely receive attention in mass campaigns. Consistent work with such segments directly impacts financial performance.

"We have a treasure trove of data and insights we've accumulated over the years. Our analytics hub feeds all campaigns and strategies — it's a baseline requirement for us," — Amani Duncan, CEO My Code.

Vitaminwater brand director Hillary Horton noted that the response to the first season of Neighborhue confirmed that people deeply resonate with stories rooted in community and culture. The second season shifts the focus from graffiti restoration to the theme of continuity — how street art becomes a foundation for self-identification and a sense of belonging to place.

Integrating Street Art Into Brand Strategy

Vitaminwater resumed active advertising in 2024 with the "Vitaminwater from New York" campaign — its first in two years. Spike Lee directed the creative, which showcased typical urban locations: bodegas, late-night food carts, the Brooklyn Bridge. Open X from WPP managed the campaign. The partnership with My Code on the Neighborhue project expands the brand's presence in the Spanish-speaking segment through cultural content rather than direct advertising.

My Code also works with other Coca-Cola brands — Fanta and Sprite. The agency focuses on building long-term relationships with multicultural audiences through its own media assets and carefully selected influencers who are organically embedded in local communities. This approach requires deep analytics of audience segments and KPI forecasting before launching integrations. Russian influencer agencies apply similar logic: the ETC team builds media buying and influencer integration strategies based on target audience data and reach forecasting.

What This Means for the Russian Market

The Vitaminwater case demonstrates a working model for reaching hard-to-access segments through cultural content and partnerships with niche media. Russian brands can apply similar logic to regional or ethnic audiences, using local cultural influencers and their own consumer behavior data. The key success factor is not a one-off activation, but creating a content platform with continuity, which requires budget for production and distribution across multiple formats simultaneously.

In Brief

• Coca-Cola launched the second season of Neighborhue — a Vitaminwater content platform about Latino street artists, reaching 20 mln users through My Code agency.
• The target audience controls $2.7 trln in purchasing power in the US (15% of all consumer spending).
• Content is distributed through My Code's owned media and vertical formats on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts.
• Targeting is built on first-party data and partnership with Experian for precise reach of growth segments.
• The model is applicable to reaching regional and ethnic niches through cultural influencers and long-term content projects.

* Instagram and Facebook are owned by Meta, an organization recognized as extremist with its activities prohibited in the Russian Federation.