Company Overview
Founded in 2017 and based in Brooklyn, Waku is a fast-growing beverage company known for its prebiotic iced tea made with all-natural ingredients and sweetened with monk fruit.
Today, Waku operates across a wide Northeast footprint from New York and New Jersey to Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire serving both large retail chains and independent stores.
Their largest retail partner is Whole Foods, where Waku launched in January 2022 and quickly became one of the best-selling tea brands in the category within just three months. Since then, the brand has expanded to hundreds of locations and continues to grow with new retail launches.
The Challenge: Scaling Field Marketing Across a Large Territory
As Waku’s retail presence expanded, so did the complexity of managing field execution.
The company operates with:
- 20-30 part-time brand ambassadors handling in-store activations
- 4 full-time sales representatives covering multiple states
- 500+ retail locations across major chains and independent stores
Before SimplyDepo, field activity was managed using Excel sheets and Google Forms.
- Limited visibility into whether brand ambassadors were actually in stores
- Manual follow-ups to ensure reports were submitted after activations
- Difficulty verifying time spent in-store, leading to potential overpayments
- Slower access to store-level data and historical visit notes
- Extra administrative workload for reporting and payments
As the team scaled, these inefficiencies became increasingly costly and time-consuming.
The Solution: One Platform for Field & Sales Execution
Waku adopted SimplyDepo as its first dedicated field execution platform and has now been using it for over two years, with 30 active users across field marketing and sales teams.
SimplyDepo brought all store, visit, and team data into a single system, replacing fragmented spreadsheets with real-time visibility.
Key Features Used by Waku
For Field Marketing & Brand Ambassadors
- GPS-based check-in and check-out at stores
- Location radius validation to confirm ambassadors are on-site
- Mandatory in-app reporting forms tied to each visit
- Automatic tracking of time spent in-store
- Easy export of visit data for payroll and accounting
For Sales Teams
- Store visit tracking with shared visit notes
- Account history visible to the entire sales team
- Route planning and daily visit mapping
- Clear visibility across territories and accounts
The Impact: Better Control, Faster Operations, Real Results
1. Verified Store Presence & Accurate Payments
With location-based check-ins, Waku can now confidently confirm that brand ambassadors are:
- At the correct store
- Staying for the full scheduled activation time
This eliminated past issues where reported hours didn’t match actual time in-store—helping Waku avoid overpayments and pay fairly for real work completed.
2. No More Chasing Reports
Previously, missing post-activation reports required manual follow-ups.
Now, reporting is built directly into the check-in workflow: If a visit isn’t checked in and reported, it simply didn’t happen.
This change alone removed hours of weekly admin work for the field marketing team.
3. Faster Payroll & Accounting
All activation data can be exported in one click, making it easy to:
- Review hours worked
- Validate visit completion
- Process payments quickly and accurately
4. Improved Sales Performance
Ensuring ambassadors stay the full activation time (typically three hours) led to:
- Better in-store engagement
- Stronger sampling performance
- More consistent sales lift during activations
5. Full Visibility Across Teams
Sales reps benefit from shared account notes and visit histories, allowing:
- Better handoffs between territories
- Clear context before each store visit
- Alignment across sales and field marketing teams
Support That Scales with a Startup
As a fast-moving startup, Waku values partners who can adapt quickly.
Throughout their time using SimplyDepo, the team highlighted:
- Fast response times from the SimplyDepo team
- New features implemented based on real customer feedback
- Hands-on onboarding and continuous product walkthroughs
“SimplyDepo has been growing with us as we grow. That’s incredibly important for a startup.”
The Result
Today, Waku runs its field marketing and sales execution with confidence, clarity, and control across hundreds of stores and multiple states.
- 30%
Reduction in overpaid field hours
- 100%
Verified brand rep check-ins
- 2x
Faster reporting & payroll processing
SimplyDepo helps Waku:
- Ensure accountability in the field
- Reduce operational overhead
- Improve activation performance
- Keep all retail execution data in one place
In Their Own Words
SimplyDepo is the platform that allows us to have all of our customers in one place for both the sales team and the field marketing team.
Sofia Estrella
Field Marketing Manager, Waku
