How Did Olipop Make a PR Box Worth Talking About?

Beverage companies sell sweet drinks that customers can enjoy on the go. Traditionally, soda brands have relied on expensive television commercials to promote their products. Olipop takes a different approach by sending its drinks directly to online creators, a strategy known as product seeding.

By getting its cans into creators’ hands, Olipop can introduce the brand to audiences through personal, everyday content. This approach offers useful lessons for businesses looking to promote their products in a more direct and relatable way.

How Brands Gift Physical Products Freely with Olipop

Small businesses often launch without the budget for expensive television advertising. Olipop took a different approach by sending its soda directly to online creators.

The company packs its cans into boxes and mails them as product samples. This product-seeding strategy costs far less than traditional advertising. Creators can choose to feature the soda in unboxing videos or other content, giving Olipop a chance to reach new audiences without paying for a major ad campaign.

Large brands often pay celebrities millions for a single promotion, but Olipop takes a different approach. Its marketing team works with micro-influencers, who have smaller audiences but often build strong, personal connections with their followers.

When creators receive a box of Olipop and choose to share an honest review, their recommendations can feel more relatable to everyday shoppers. The company has partnered with nearly 2,000 small creators, helping it reach audiences through a broad network of personal voices.

Traditional advertisements often rely on rigid scripts, which can sound unnatural to viewers. Olipop takes a more flexible approach by giving creators room to feature its soda in their usual content.

For example, a creator might include a colorful can while filming a morning cooking video. Because the product appears naturally in the creator’s routine, the content can feel more authentic than a scripted advertisement. This approach helps Olipop gain visibility across social media without relying on artificial-sounding scripts.

Olipop tracks how audiences respond to creators’ content. If an unboxing video attracts strong engagement, the company may reach out to that creator about a longer-term partnership.

In some arrangements, creators can earn a 10% commission on sales made through their content. This gives them an incentive to keep featuring the brand and can help Olipop reach more potential customers. Digital videos can influence how people shop. After watching a viral unboxing video, someone may become curious about the soda and search for Olipop online.

The company tracks this interest through website traffic and store-locator searches. If shoppers use the locator to find a nearby retailer, online attention can lead to in-store purchases. In this way, digital content can help drive physical retail sales. Unboxing videos can help drive interest in products sold in physical stores. After seeing a soda featured online, shoppers may want to try it for themselves.

Bloomberg reported that Olipop generated more than $200 million in sales in 2023. The brand’s products are now available at major retailers such as Target and Walmart, where colorful cans are displayed on store shelves. This shows how online creator content can help introduce a product to shoppers and support in-store sales.

Also read: Why Is Beyond Meat Repositioning Itself Around Protein?

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–Written by Rajnish Kumar, a copywriter and strategist with a background in fast-paced journalism, who explores the gap between what brands promise and how consumers actually behave.