How did poppi Build a Culture-First Influencer Strategy That’s Reshaping FMCG Marketing?

How has poppi evolved?

poppi’s rise from start-up to supermarket staple is one of the most closely watched growth stories in the better-for-you beverage space. Originally launched as ‘Mother Beverage’, founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth gained national attention after appearing on Shark Tank, where they secured investment from Rohan Oza.

Following the show, the brand underwent a significant transformation, rebranding as poppi and refining its positioning around prebiotic soda. The new identity helped the company appeal to a younger, wellness-focused audience, while standing out in an increasingly competitive functional drinks market.

As awareness grew, so did their social media strategy. The founders regularly documented the brand’s journey across TikTok and Instagram, giving consumers a behind the scenes look at product launches, retail wins, marketing campaigns, and the realities of scaling a fast-growing FMCG business. 

The next major chapter came when poppi was acquired by PepsiCo for $2 Billion, cementing its status as one of the most influential brands in modern soft drink marketing. From a homemade apple cider vinegar drink to an internationally recognised brand backed by one of the world’s largest FMCG brands globally.

Who is poppi’s Target Audience?

poppi is a brand built for lifestyle and aspiration. The brand resonates most strongly with Millennial and Gen Z who are interested in health and wellness but don’t want their favourite drinks to taste like a science experiment. They’re the people following their favourite creators’ recommendations and looking for products that fit seamlessly into their lifestyles.

What’s clever about poppi is that it doesn’t sell itself as a ‘health’ drink first. It sells itself as a fun, colourful experience. The branding feels more at home in an Instagram fridge restock, your hand at a party, or sipping after a spin class with friends. By combining wellness credentials with culture-first marketing, and highly shareable packaging, poppi has attracted an audience that cares as much about aesthetics as they do an ingredients list. 

In other words, it’s a brand for people who want their fridge to look good, their drinks to taste good, and their social feeds to know about both.

The current FMCG Landscape

What are the Challenges in Marketing in the FMCG Space?

Fast-Moving Consumer Behaviour

Consumer preferences can change almost overnight, driven by trends, social media conversations, economic pressures, and shifts in priorities. FMCG brands need to react quickly to new demands, whether that’s healthier ingredients, sustainable packaging, or the latest viral flavour.

Intense Competition

From household names to disruptive challenger brands, FMCG categories are saturated with options. Supermarket shelves and online marketplaces are crowded, making it difficult for brands to differentiate themselves. This means marketers must work harder than ever to create memorable campaigns that cut through the noise and keep products front of mind.

Regulatory Changes

The FMCG industry must continually adapt to evolving regulations, particularly around food and drink marketing. In the UK, measures such as the HFSS Regulations (High Fat, Salt and Sugar) have changed how brands can advertise certain food and beverage products, forcing marketers to rethink promotional strategies and discover new ways to reach consumers while remaining compliant.

Declining Brand Loyalty

While brand loyalty is often seen as a positive, it creates a significant challenge for FMCG marketers trying to win new customers. Many consumers have trusted go-to brands that they’ve purchased for years, whether it’s their favourite soft drink, toothpaste, or supermarket snack. Convincing shoppers to break established habits and try something new requires brands to offer a compelling reason to switch, whether that’s through innovation, better value, stronger brand purpose, or standout marketing.

The Key Pillars of an Effective FMCG Strategy

As detailed in our latest Goat Intelligence Report, the key to effective FMCG strategy can be broken down into three segments: Stories. Connection. Prestige.

Download the full report for more FMCG and poppi insight now!

Stories:

Intention is key in FMCG marketing. To get people to make choices, FMCG brands need to lean into the stories they tell. For poppi, their storytelling began way before they became the iconic brand they are today. Founder Allison Ellsworth was poppi’s personal ambassador, documenting the brand’s entire journey, from behind the scenes of building the brand to sharing the products and their benefits (whilst still prioritising the flavours she knew their customers would love). Plus, this story has became the red thread as they’ve evolved. While packaging shifted, the feel good and taste good messaging remains paramount. 

Connection

You’ve got your story, but how do you make it resonate? Connection is what moves a strategy from brand awareness to brand loyalty. It recognises how it can intersect in their audiences lives – a pain point or a need – and thoughtfully addresses it. poppi recognised early on that a distinct challenge in the functional beverage market was choice paralysis. Customers felt like there was a compromise between a ‘healthy’ product and a delicious one. poppi highlights their aim to address that compromise in their strategy.

Prestige

One of the most powerful signals of an effective strategy is the level of prestige a brand is able to garner. But here’s the trick, prestige doesn’t necessarily mean luxury. Prestige focuses on how the audience feels. poppi’s prestige comes from how deeply it ties into the ‘it-factor’. It’s culturally fluent, heavily tunes into aesthetics, a personal favourite for Gen Z, and it feels ‘cool’. By drinking poppi, you’re part of a club of people who just get it.

What is poppi’s Influencer Marketing Strategy?

UGC Creators and Community-Led Content

User-generated content (UGC) sits at the heart of their strategy. The brand regularly benefits from their audience sharing organic unboxings, first impressions, and taste tests that introduce new flavours to audiences in a genuine way. As we know, authentic reactions often carry more weight than polished ads because viewers feel they’re getting an honest opinion rather than a sales pitch. However, where poppi regularly makes its mark is by not just benefiting from UGC content but actively encouraging it. poppi leverages Try Your Best, a community rewards program that offers community participants discounts and exclusive rewards by engaging with poppi using UGC content. This allows poppi to “mobilise” their community during big moments and empower existing brand fans as ambassadors.

Ambassadorships

poppi is a brand that truly recognises the power of curated influencer-brand partnerships, but this one has a specific back-to-campus twist. As highlighted, poppi’s core consumers are Gen Z, who are heavily tuned into social, culture, and aesthetics. So where better to find a pool of consumers to share content than college students?

Taking the form of ‘poppi college ambassadors’ through their poppi University program, university students become the creators, and are activated to host events, create their own poppi-focused content, and distribute poppi products and prizes and giveaways.

poppi doesn’t stop there. They understand the college environment intimately, tapping into Greek life by supplying custom cans stamped with the name of specific sororities by request. poppi are experts at setting themselves up for real connection with college communities, as well as encouraging organic content creation among entire networks of TikTok users, not just ambassadors.

Exclusive Brand Collaborations

Instead of sticking to traditional sponsorships, poppi partners with names that already live in the same cultural universe as its audience, helping it show up in places that feel exciting, unexpected and highly shareable.

Whether it’s teaming up with Love Island, collaborating with travel favourite BÉIS, or joining forces with skincare brand Bubble, poppi consistently finds ways to place itself at the centre of conversations its audience already cares about. These partnerships aren’t just about putting logos side by side; they’re about creating moments that feel naturally aligned with the lifestyles, interests and online habits of poppi fans.

The result is a brand that feels bigger than the drinks category. One day it’s part of your beauty routine, the next it’s popping up in your holiday packing checklist, and somehow it’s also found its way into your Love Island group chat. By partnering with culturally relevant brands and entertainment moments, poppi keeps itself fresh, fun and firmly embedded in the worlds its consumers want to be part of.

Top poppi Influencer Marketing Campaigns 

Superbowl x Soda Thoughts

As highlighted, poppi positions itself as a healthier, more functional soda, offering a guilt free yet delicious alternative to others on the market. For Super Bowl LIX, poppi showed up with their ‘Soda Thoughts’ campaign, which focused on giving consumers the freedom to love soda again. 

Featuring Alix Earle, Jake Shane, Rob Rausch, and even founder Allison, the campaign consisted of six ads highlighting moments of indecision: a diner, drive through, convenience store, girls night, pool party, and movie theatre. Each creator represented choice paralysis: what to pick in the diner, what to select at the drive in or which to pull from the fridge. The campaign completely embodied poppi’s storytelling, aligning with their compromise attitude to their product, while using Alex, Jake, and Rob as the decision makers, recommending poppi to the confused person.

As they put it… for drinking, not overthinking!

poppi x Love Island 

Following their launch in the UK, poppi became the official soft drink partner for Love Island Series 13, supplying drinks in the villa for both in-show moments and behind the scenes exclusive content. Marketing Director at poppi UK Stephanie Herbert shared that poppi is “woven into the heart of villa life, fuelling firepitchats, sun-soaked afternoons, and every iconic “I’ve got a text” moment” and that this campaign is “designed to connect with a new generation of culturally plugged-in consumers” which blends poppi’s expressive personality with poppi’s similar social currency.

Similarly, poppi partnered with Ex-Love Islander Olandria ahead of Love Island US to announce that they were bringing back their popular “Punch Pop” flavour in a limited edition Love Island can so their audiences can sip on a can of “Poppilandria with the newest Love Island season playing in the background.”

Coachella 2026

If there’s one thing poppi understands, it’s that great marketing doesn’t stop at the shelf. The brand’s iconic poppi houses at Coachella showcased their experience-led strategy in action. Rather than centring the brand itself, Poppi created fully customised spaces for creators Micky Gordon and Jake Shane, transforming them into the ‘Mickmansion’ and ‘Jake Estate.’ By designing the experience around the creators, their personalities and their friendship groups, Poppi generated content that felt authentic, social and highly engaging. 

The activation blurred the lines between brand trip, creator content and cultural moment, giving audiences the feeling of exclusive access rather than a traditional advertisement. It’s a strong example of how Poppi invests deeply in a select group of creators, embedding itself naturally into their experiences and turning those moments into content that audiences genuinely want to follow.

The activation also highlights the value of Poppi’s long-term partnerships with creators like Jake Shane. As a recurring #poppipartner, Jake’s involvement feels like a natural extension of his existing relationship with the brand rather than a one-off sponsored appearance. That familiarity builds credibility with his audience, making the content feel more like a genuine glimpse into a partnership that has developed over time. It’s a reminder that the most effective influencer marketing often comes from sustained creator relationships, where trust and brand affinity reign supreme.

How Poppi are winning with Gen Z

Health-Conscious Consumers

Poppi arrived at the perfect time for a generation that is increasingly mindful of what they consume. As Gen Z continues to prioritise wellness and better-for-you alternatives, Poppi has positioned itself as a fun, accessible option that feels healthier than traditional soft drinks without sacrificing taste. Rather than leading with functional benefits alone, the brand packages wellness in a way that feels aspirational, making gut health feel less like a health trend and more like part of an everyday lifestyle.

An Aesthetic-Driven Generation

Poppi understands that for Gen Z, great branding is almost as important as great products. Its bright colour palette, playful packaging and highly shareable visual identity make the brand instantly recognisable across social feeds. The brand’s aesthetic-first approach mirrors the strategies of creator-founded brands and influencers, where products double as lifestyle accessories. Similar to creators like Addison Rae, who successfully built audiences around a distinct visual identity, Poppi has created a brand world that consumers actively want to be part of.

A Culture-First Approach

Poppi actively participates in culture. Whether it’s tapping into trending social conversations, partnering with relevant creators or showing up at major cultural moments like Coachella, the brand consistently feels present where its audience is spending time. Combined with strong community engagement and creator-led storytelling, this approach helps Poppi stay relevant without feeling like it’s trying too hard. Instead of marketing at Gen Z, Poppi becomes part of the conversations they are already having.

Leveraging Humour and Relatability

One of Poppi’s biggest strengths is its ability to avoid taking itself too seriously. While many wellness brands lean into expertise and education, Poppi balances its product messaging with humour, memes and relatable social content that feels native to platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This lighter tone makes the brand feel approachable and human, helping it build stronger relationships with consumers while standing out in an increasingly crowded health and wellness market.

Why is poppi a Good Case Study?

Few brands have disrupted the FMCG landscape quite like poppi. In just a few years, the brand has evolved from a challenger start-up into one of the most talked-about names in beverages, proving that creator marketing and community building can be just as powerful as traditional advertising.

What makes poppi such an interesting case study isn’t simply its rapid growth, but the way it has achieved it. Rather than relying on product-led messaging alone, poppi has built an entire lifestyle around its brand. Every creator partnership, collaboration, campaign and cultural moment reinforces the same identity, making the brand feel consistent wherever consumers encounter it.

For FMCG marketers, poppi shows that people don’t just buy products; they buy into brands they feel connected to. poppi demonstrates how investing in brand-aligned creators, encouraging community participation and showing up in culture can transform an everyday consumer product into something people actively want to talk about and share.

As the FMCG industry becomes increasingly competitive, brands that can combine compelling storytelling with genuine cultural relevance will be best placed to cut through. poppi shows that when creators, community and brand identity work together, even the most established categories can be disrupted.

…

If you’re ready to build an FMCG marketing strategy that’s culturally in tune, community-first, and works long term, get in contact with our team.

For more of the latest culture and creator trend analysis, check out our Substack, ‘Raised on Social’, YouTube, and Insights Hub.