The Grand Slam Design and PR Approach Behind the Naked x Coco Gauff Partnership

At the end of 2023, Naked launched a search for a brand ambassador who not only embodied itscore values and had an authentic passion for fruit, but was someone who could bring the brand into the future by connecting with gen z. The brand tapped long-time PR partner, MullenLowe, to identify the perfect talent.

After extensive and strategic celebrity vetting, the team went all in on tennis star Coco Gauff. In 2023 she became a Grand Slam champ when she won the US Open, but it was her changeover snack of choice, a homemade fruit salad, that really went viral. As a fruit-lover and tennis prodigy, she was the perfect match to help Naked break through the saturated beverage landscape and reach younger audiences.

They launched Coco’s first beverage partnership with the creation of a new role for Naked — chief smoothie officer — in a first-of-its-kind multiyear business venture. To help bring this dynamic collaboration to life, Naked tapped the award-winning MullenLowe Design Studio who developed a carefully curated co-branded world including custom logos in various colorways, a custom typeface, a new colour palette, iconography, patterns, and illustrations that the brand could leverage throughout the partnership, from custom merchandise to paid out of home billboards to social content. The team was inspired by the dynamic energy that both Coco and Naked embody and carried the intersection of sport and food and beverage through the design in a myriad of ways, transforming a tennis ball into a piece of fruit with the Naked brand leaf on top and infusing that iconography throughout the design.

The collaboration launched around National Smoothie Day, grabbing headlines at the height of tennis season, and leveraging creative assets across brand and talent social channels as well as paid OOH which featured imagery inspired by the new design world.

The partnership announcement smashed expectations and exceeded goals across every metric.