Australian hydration brand Posca Hydrate is putting its weight on advocacy over traditional advertising, with Australian cricket star Alana King becoming a face for the brand as both an ambassador and investor.
The partnership sees King, who has admitted she “drinks it like water”, become the face of the Australian-founded drinks brand, which is looking to tap into the growing appetite for better-for-you beverages among athletes and everyday consumers alike.
Launched in October 2024 by comedian and media personality Merrick Watts and Ed Stening, Posca Hydrate is a sparkling, zero-sugar hypertonic hydration drink inspired by the ancient Roman beverage posca.
King, who recently helped the Perth Scorchers defeat the Sydney Thunder by 17 runs in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), said her involvement came about after meeting the founders in September.
The Australian international said she was drawn to the founders’ passion for the product, as well as its potential to reach beyond professional athletes and into community sport.
“I just had a great spiel from them, and it just showed how passionate they were about this drink that they’ve created,” King told B&T. “For me, it was more so to try to get into the market of not just elite athletes, but everyday people as well. I really like the whole ‘social athlete’ target, and I’m really passionate about keeping people living a healthy and active lifestyle.”
King said looking after her body as a professional athlete made the drink’s ingredients and hydration benefits particularly appealing, but she also sees an opportunity to introduce it to younger consumers.
She pointed to the growing popularity of energy drinks among junior athletes, arguing that Posca could offer an alternative for young people looking for something to drink after training or during community sport.
“I see that a lot at junior level. They don’t drink coffee, so what’s the next big thing? It’s Red Bulls and it’s just so bad for you in terms of what it can do,” King said.
“I think this is a great way of getting this into community cricket, community sports, club sports, and actually putting something into your system that’s not only going to be beneficial to you, but also going to help you be a bit more social.”
And King may have a point. A September 2025 survey by youth mental health service ReachOut, which polled 1,000 students, found 28 per cent were turning to energy drinks to get through long study sessions. Of those, 22 per cent were consuming two a day, while almost 14 per cent reported drinking three or more daily.
For Watts, King’s involvement is part of a broader strategy to build genuine advocacy around the brand, rather than relying solely on conventional paid advertising.
“There is a distinction between advertising and advocacy, and advocacy is very powerful. Advertising is telling. Advocacy is sharing, and I think that’s what we’re trying to foster,” Watts said.
“Obviously, with Alana and myself, but also with people who are using and consuming Posca, they become advocates.”
Watts said that philosophy also extends to the brand’s approach to bringing in investors, with Posca recently opening itself up to shareholders.
“When you open yourself up to a raise in the way that we have, you’re getting investors, but they’re advocates as well,” he said.
“That’s a really powerful, possibly underestimated string to the bow, is that advocacy.”
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Stening said finding the right people to represent the brand had been “a priority from the beginning”, with the partnership needing to go “beyond simply putting a recognisable face on a can.”
“For us, choosing the right face is really important. We’ve focused on that from the beginning,” he said. “We need to find, firstly, good humans that we want to work with, and also what audience they connect with.”
He said the product itself also needed to align with the people representing it, particularly as Posca looks to carve out a position in the competitive better-for-you drinks category.
“We want to be the best better-for-you soda out there, and we want to deliver the good functionality that can come with that, whether that be hydration, gut health, zero sugar or all natural,” Stening said.
Stening also revealed King was coming on board as an investor, as well as a brand ambassador, making her involvement more than a traditional sponsorship arrangement.
“I think that’s a huge difference between someone just being a face and someone actually financially backing into this,” he said.
The pair recently spoke with B&T as part of our In Tandem series, presented by Adobe Acrobat, which spotlights senior executive duos and explores how partnerships built on trust, alignment and complementary strengths drive business success.
