Simone Biles brings signature moves to SodaStream's $199.99 Fountain
SodaStream ties Simone Biles's individual style to a customizable drink maker, with a campaign spanning video, social, retail and TV.
A gymnast known for putting her own stamp on difficult skills is an unusual face for a kitchen appliance. But SodaStream is tapping precisely that side of Simone Biles's career, turning personal expression into the pitch for its customizable Fountain drinks system. The brand's October 22 announcement names Biles as its newest ambassador and introduces a campaign built around making drinks the way you like them. Rather than selling carbonation alone, SodaStream is using a champion associated with individuality to make choices about flavor, fizz and serving size feel personal.
Table of contents
Jump to each section:
- The athlete becomes the customization story
- How Fountain makes personal choice tangible
- A campaign built to travel beyond one video
- What this means for marketers
The athlete becomes the customization story
Biles's appeal in this creative is more specific than her medal record. Her gymnastics career includes original skills associated with her name, giving SodaStream an established story about refusing to follow a standard template. The brand maps that identity onto the small, everyday decision of what to put in a glass. "I like to do things that are outside of the ordinary; why should my drinks be any different?" Biles said in the announcement. It is a compact line that makes the product's selling point understandable without starting with a list of functions. SodaStream's campaign video carries the idea into action. Biles contrasts creating her own moves with creating her own drinks, then demonstrates the machine. The product is present, but the athlete's familiar idea of a signature move is the introduction.
How Fountain makes personal choice tangible
The Fountain gives the creative something concrete to explain. The countertop system lets people choose flavor intensity, carbonation and how much to dispense. It supports 8-ounce, 16-ounce and 24-ounce servings and goes beyond SodaStream's traditional plain sparkling-water machines to mix flavored drinks.
Approximately 1,000 possible drink combinations. SodaStream bases that estimate on more than 40 available flavors and the machine's settings. The figure is an internal product calculation, not a measure of campaign reach or sales, according to SodaStream.
At a listed US$199.99, the device is being presented as a way to bring a customizable fountain-drink experience into the home. Flavors cited by the brand include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Starry, bubly and Mug. That assortment makes the personalization argument more tangible than a general promise to let consumers be themselves. The product also gives Biles's role some substance. A celebrity campaign can feel interchangeable when the famous face has nothing meaningful to do with what the product does. Here, the creative connects the idea of an individual routine to a product built around selecting settings, even if the parallels remain an advertising metaphor.
A campaign built to travel beyond one video
SodaStream says the Biles partnership will appear on television, digital channels, social media, in stores and on its own website. Instagram and TikTok content is part of the plan, with the company positioning this launch as the start of a broader ambassador relationship rather than a single promotional spot. That distribution matters because the message works at different levels. In a short video, viewers can recognize the link between Biles's own moves and making a drink their way. At a retailer or product page, the same idea can be unpacked through settings, flavors and serving options. A recognizable athlete brings continuity between the attention-getting creative and the shopping decision. SodaStream has not disclosed campaign reach, conversion results or sales attributable to Biles. The product was offered through SodaStream's site and major online retailers, including Walmart and Target, at launch. Those are distribution details, not evidence yet that the celebrity-led creative has improved performance.
What this means for marketers
This partnership points to a useful distinction in athlete marketing: recognition gets a viewer to look, but a credible connection between talent and product gives the attention somewhere to go.
- Borrow an idea, not just a face. Biles's record as a gymnast establishes her stature, but her association with creating original skills supplies the campaign's actual narrative. That makes the ambassador choice easier to connect to Fountain's purpose.
- Make the creative promise testable in the product. Adjustable carbonation, flavor and serving size show what personalization means after the video ends. A clear product demonstration helps the celebrity message carry through to shopping.
- Design for more than the hero film. Video, retail and social placements can express the same concept with different levels of detail. The brand can introduce the idea quickly and then explain the purchase decision where a customer is considering the machine.
The campaign does not prove that a gymnast can sell more soda makers, and the published materials do not establish how consumers are responding. Its stronger lesson is about the fit between a public figure's known identity and a product's actual mechanics. SodaStream is selling control over a drink, not the fantasy of becoming an Olympic champion. By keeping the celebrity's contribution close to that practical benefit, the brand gives an everyday appliance a human story while leaving room for the product itself to carry the argument.
