Better Advertising with BTR Media
Oct 13, 2026 · 24 min · 8 segments
Mike Sommers has spent his career building brands that show up in culture in ways that actually stick. From spending eight years reaching endurance athletes at the point of sweat for Nuun, to…
Destaney WishonHost... a huge team that's involved in, uh, in, in both Nuun and then my experience now.
So, um, I joined Nuun, um, I was pretty young, but it was like, like 2011, as an independent contractor.
So, which is kind of funny, so, um, part of my experience with Nuun, I thought I was working for a running and outdoor industry brand.
Um, but I built most of my career, um, leading our field and experiential marketing teams at, at Nuun.
And, you know, at that time, digital, digital wasn't as sophisticated and as advanced as it is now, and so we had a really, really sharp point of view on who we were trying to reach.
Um, and there was a really, I w- I don't wanna say turnkey, 'cause it took a lot, a lot of work, um, but there was a really easy door in for us to reach those consumers through experiential and field marketing.
And so, um, because we were building a category, um, you know, hydration, obviously everybody knows electrolytes, and, you know, liquid IV did an incredible job taking it to the masses.
Um, but at the time it was educating on electrolytes, and then we had this unique form factor that was a tablet, um, that like most consumers that were consuming a sports drink at that time were not thinking effervescent tablet equals sports hydration.
And so there was a huge amount of education, and we used, um, field marketing experiential to, to hurdle that.
Um, and we were really, like, the awareness army, um, for the brand for, you know, really, like...
And I think it was like an eight-year run, um, where we were really, um, really reaching consumers at what we called at the time the point of sweat.
We were trying to reach them at the point of functional need, um, so that we were instantly relevant, um, and had a reason to, to interact with consumers.
... a huge team that's involved in, uh, in, in both Nuun and then my experience now.
So, um, I joined Nuun, um, I was pretty young, but it was like, like 2011, as an independent contractor.
So, which is kind of funny, so, um, part of my experience with Nuun, I thought I was working for a running and outdoor industry brand.
Um, but I built most of my career, um, leading our field and experiential marketing teams at, at Nuun.
And, you know, at that time, digital, digital wasn't as sophisticated and as advanced as it is now, and so we had a really, really sharp point of view on who we were trying to reach.
Um, and there was a really, I w- I don't wanna say turnkey, 'cause it took a lot, a lot of work, um, but there was a really easy door in for us to reach those consumers through experiential and field marketing.
And so, um, because we were building a category, um, you know, hydration, obviously everybody knows electrolytes, and, you know, liquid IV did an incredible job taking it to the masses.
Um, but at the time it was educating on electrolytes, and then we had this unique form factor that was a tablet, um, that like most consumers that were consuming a sports drink at that time were not thinking effervescent tablet equals sports hydration.
And so there was a huge amount of education, and we used, um, field marketing experiential to, to hurdle that.
Um, and we were really, like, the awareness army, um, for the brand for, you know, really, like...
And I think it was like an eight-year run, um, where we were really, um, really reaching consumers at what we called at the time the point of sweat.
We were trying to reach them at the point of functional need, um, so that we were instantly relevant, um, and had a reason to, to interact with consumers.
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