Barbet, a relatively new player in the sparkling water category, is looking to shatter a different kind of stigma – namely, the kind that teetotalers face when they pass on alcohol during social occasions.

To do this, the brand has been employing a multi-pronged marketing strategy. The first prong has entailed sampling in grocery and retail where the product is sold. But the bigger part of the puzzle, co-owner Andrea Grand says, has been “showing up at events where people would naturally reach for a drink like ours,” as well as “creating experiences with like-minded brands to introduce Barbet as a beverage you should reach for in such moments.”

To put more cans in hands, the Toronto-based brand has introduced its experiential “Drink Freely” campaign, which launched earlier this month and is running through February. The campaign consists of a series of events – ranging from pasta-making workshops to tarot readings to fundraisers with community organizations such as Save Our Scruff – that speak to the brand’s community-mindedness.

“Community has been at the centre of the brand from the beginning,” explains Grand. “We don’t have a brand home like some of the other service-based or physical brands do, so getting our brand together with like-minded ones is important for us, and so is getting people to try our beverages on occasions where they might naturally reach for them.”

The brand, launched by Grand and her sister, Katie Fielding, was initially concocted as an answer for one of Fielding’s own needs. After an epileptic seizure in March 2020, Fielding made the decision to cut out alcohol. Unfortunately for her, that made for some awkward questions at the few social gatherings she was able to attend during the COVID-19 pandemic, Grand tells strategy.

“Through her experience, she was always holding a pop or soda that you’d have at the kids table while at social events, and she was constantly bombarded by the question, ‘Why aren’t you drinking?'” Grand explains.

After being unsatisfied with the current players on the market, the pair set out to create Barbet, a non-alcoholic option that wasn’t overly sweet – and was elevated for the modern non-drinker. The zero-proof sparkling water even takes design cues from alcohol brands. Grand says. “For us, it’s about eradicating that question, ‘Why aren’t you drinking?’, by shifting the focus to what’s in a person’s can or cup, rather than what isn’t.”