Allison Ellsworth created Poppi out of a personal need with a passion so strong – she wanted to share it with others. Poppi has become a viral prebiotic soda brand revolutionizing soda for the next generation, with five grams of sugar and 25 calories per can. Ellsworth created the brand with the colors, design, marketing, and apparel to align with the consumer’s aspirations and interests. The intention in creating culture-forward marketing is rooted in continuously connecting with the consumer beyond the can of soda. From collaborating with Post Malone, activating at NYFW, exclusive merch to over-the-top interactive pop-ups, Ellsworth and her team have created a community and lifestyle for their customers.
“We’re more than a soda brand – we are a lifestyle brand. We create flavors and merch that make our community feel like they’re a part of something, because we’re always listening and learning from their feedback. A lot of our merch is inspired by how we’ve repeatedly seen people style their daily wardrobe based on which poppi they’re drinking. We genuinely have the most loyal, creative community and they influence us every day,” shared Ellsworth. “We listen to our community and consider how we can push boundaries as a brand. Revolutionizing soda is something no one has ever done before. We’re still only four years old! We tested our first limited-time offering last year, Cran Fizz, and learned LTO’s are something that our community goes crazy for! It garnered massive popularity and sold out across many retailers, including Amazon in just three days. The flavor is back in stores, and the response has been insane.”
In just four years, Ellsworth has become one of the most successful women in beverage, with Poppi achieving triple-digit YoY growth in addition to being the number one selling soda soft drink on Amazon. “What’s so special is being able to pave the way for future female leaders, particularly in the heavily male-dominated beverage industry. I have often been the only woman in the room, and that makes me even more proud of where we are today. I’ve always been a hustler and a self-starter, but most people don’t know that I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My dad was an entrepreneur, but he always built businesses to build businesses – not for financial gain. I think he engrained the entrepreneurial mindset in my core,”she shared on her entrepreneurial growth. “Over the years, I discovered people tend to make excuses or talk themselves out of trying to start a business. I believe successful entrepreneurs are willing to take the necessary risks. Some people get stuck in the ‘What if I fail?’ mindset, but I’ve always looked at it as ‘What if you tried?’ You’ll never know unless you try it! For example, we launched poppi at the beginning of the pandemic. Because we were all at home, I decided to share my founder story on TikTok, as it was one of the few ways I could engage with customers during lockdown. The video went viral overnight because it was real, honest, and authentic.”
Ellsworth mentions the forgotten emotional connection to soda and the core memories that are created with a soda in hand. That emotional connection is what Poppi wants to evoke. “We move at the speed of culture and execute experiential events that can go viral themselves. For example, we recently hosted our first New York City pop-up during NYFW, called Poppi World. No one expected a soda brand to win fashion week but we did! We knew it was the right time to show up, in the right place, with the right people – we had 50 Cent do a live performance at our VIP night, where the hottest celebs of fashion week, from the cast of Love Island to supermodels, were in attendance. The consumer leg of the event further solidified poppi World as the place to be in NYC over NYFW; the line was wrapped around New York City blocks!” exclaimed Ellsworth. “Being culture-obsessed, it was a no-brainer to launch our latest flavor, Cherry Cola, during Fashion Week, the buzziest time of year in New York. At our first pop-up in LA in January, we dropped limited-edition merch to celebrate the debut of our Wild Berry flavor, and the pieces quickly sold out. We went even bigger in the Big Apple for Poppi World. We designed a brand new, 30-piece collection of merch in-house inspired by Cherry Cola and the vibes of New York City. Poppi World was intentionally designed with our culture-forward community in mind to bring the flavor to life in a way only Poppi could – cherry red walls, infinity fridges, and an immersive TV wall that provided the perfect backdrop for an unforgettable experience. Poppi World garnered over 1,200 posts from 360 creators, resulting in 63 million impressions from influencers. The creators had a total reach of more than 218 million followers.”
In addition to big cultural moments, Poppi has emphasized collegiate marketing since the very beginning. This past fall, the brand rolled out a robust campus sampling program that included over 2,000 product requests across 600 campuses from Greek organizations, clubs, and sports teams of which 99% of requests were inbound. The results surpassed expectations with 14 million influencer impressions, and over four thousand posts. “We also launched our ambassador program; all registered university students across the US were welcome to apply. We received more than 4,000 applications and welcomed over 100 ambassadors this fall. Finally, we took Poppi World on Tour and popped up at the hottest off-campus spots at the University of Texas at Austin, and The University of Alabama in October. From the decor to the drinks to the talent who joined us, we recreated every element of poppi World,” added Ellsworth.
Ellsworth attributes this past year’s Super Bowl commercial as a huge tipping point for the brand with as the most-viewed commercial with over 29 million views, “Our brand awareness, search, web traffic, and sales went through the roof. Again, our consumers and followers are one of the main reasons our brand is so strong and successful. We want to show that we care about their feedback and support, and that we listen. If we receive hundreds of Instagram comments telling us to release the latest sweatsuits to the website, we will listen. In that respect, for our latest pop-up, we created a fully shoppable site where people can still get the exclusive Cherry Cola merch, even if they weren’t in NYC! It’s important to our team that our community is included in the forefront of that strategy.”
Optimism is how Ellsworth operates as she scales the brand, “I’m very optimistic – some may say annoyingly optimistic. I always want to take risks! I think the key to poppi is that we never stop disrupting. We always strive to do more and go bigger; we never repeat, we always innovate. The only thing that’s changed as we scaled is that we do it with guardrails. We wouldn’t have achieved the growth we’ve had to date without betting on ourselves and taking risks,” she explained.
Her advice for upcoming female entrepreneurs: to be authentic and be yourself, “People gravitate towards authenticity. I also encourage people to just get online! Don’t shy away from the power of social media. On a platform like TikTok you can try new things, lean into trends, and have fun.”
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