Vol 70. Poppi: From your kitchen to acquisition 🥤

Let’s take a moment to reflect on two major trends. 

The first is gut health. It’s hard to say why this subject exploded in popularity but social media certainly helped its cause. Videos tagged #GutTok racked up over one billion views on TikTok. Established brands have come out with gut-friendly versions of their product, like Häagen-Dazs’s range of Cultured Crème products. And the market is flooded with new probiotic and prebiotic brands, and other products.

The second trend is “better-for-you” beverages. This has taken many forms in the last 10-15 years. Some of its products are now commonplace, like coconut water and kombucha. But it also has lesser known attempts, like maple water and artichoke water. So while soda consumption has been declining since the late 90s, the beverage industry is expected to show an annual growth rate of 8.30% between 2025-29. 

These two trends bring us to the brand we’re talking about today—Poppi, the prebiotic soda company.

This week, Case Studied explores how Poppi grew from at-home remedy to a billion dollar soda brand

The Brief:

The brand now known as Poppi was originally called Mother Beverage, founded by couple Allison and Stephen Ellsworth. The idea came because Allison was facing health issues and did independent research on gut health. She found that apple cider vinegar supported detoxification, digestion, and overall gut health so she began taking it. She saw results after just two weeks. 

The only problem was the harsh taste of vinegar. “I said that if I want to drink this every day for the rest of my life, I have to make it taste better,” Allison said. She started experimenting to find the right flavor balance and as she started talking to people about her experience, they started placing orders with her. 

Allison took her ACV concoction to a local farmers market in Dallas and two weeks later, she and Stephen were approached by a Whole Foods buyer. That’s when the opportunity started to look real. The couple raised about $125k from family and friends and started producing Mother Beverage, marketing it as an “apple cider vinegar beverage.”

Soon after, the couple appeared on Shark Tank where they (memorably) had each shark try a plain shot of apple cider vinegar before sampling the much better tasting Mother Beverage. The Ellsworths asked for $400,000 for 10% equity in their company. Their sales at that point totalled $500,000 and the couple projected a $4 million valuation. However, they were manufacturing the product out of a facility they established themselves, which gave many sharks pause. 

Rohan Oza, the branding pro behind Vitamin Water, Vita Coco, and Bai, made an offer of $400,000 but with a 25% stake rather than 10%. The Ellsworths accepted and saw a massive spike in their online traffic after the episode aired. Soon afterwards, Oza (dubbed “the ‘Brandfather’”) headed up a major rebrand with agency, CAVU Consumer Partners. The focus was to create eye-catching packaging well-suited for social media. 

That meant swapping glass bottles with “Mother” written in slanted cursive with bright, bold colored cans donned with images of fruit. CAVU described it as a “happy, playful, and totally quirky personality.” The new name, Poppi, came about because they weren’t able to trademark the name “mother”, which refers to the beneficial bacteria and yeast found in ACV. 

As this rebrand was happening, the brand had to turn down retailers who were interested in stocking the product. But despite that, they still racked up over $1 million in sales.

The Execution:

To accelerate their growth after the rebrand, Poppi leveraged a few key marketing channels. Here are a few: 

TikTok: In 2021, Allison posted an organic video explaining Poppi’s origin story that saw over 26 million views. Within 24 hours of posting it, the brand saw an additional $100,000 in sales. 

At that point, TikTok wasn’t even part of Poppi’s marketing strategy. But after some testing, the brand doubled down on the platform. They hired a community manager, allocated about 20% of the marketing budget for TikTok, and started working with influencers like Noah Beck (over 32m followers) and Bryce Hall (over 21m followers). By 2022, Ellsworth told Digiday TikTok was Poppi’s main brand awareness channel. 

TV streaming: Poppi worked with their agency partner Tinuiti on streaming TV and online video ads. The agency conducted an audience insights analysis with Amazon Marketing Cloud, as well as an omnichannel analysis. 

The insights showed that Poppi saw its best results with a highly diversified media mix of streaming TV ads, online video ads, display ads, and sponsored products. They also indicated that the best way to achieve brand-building goals was to deploy a full-funnel approach, rather than launching separate campaigns with singular goals. Based on those insights, Tinuiti then helped Poppi refine their budget allocation and media mix strategy accordingly. 

OOH: Poppi partnered with Outfront to tap into good ol’ IRL advertising as well. They honed in on New York City to launch the Big Flavor Energy campaign during the summer of 2022, when many folks were just starting to ease off pandemic-related restrictions. 

Hoping to drum up excitement over the summer, the campaign leveraged billboards, urban panels, and buses in high impact areas. The ads showed Poppi’s bold brand colors, fruit-forward images, and social media posts from several influencers who had featured the brand on their socials. Once they were live, the influencers went to their corresponding ads in the city and shared photos of themselves with the ad on their social channels. 

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The Results:

Pre-Shark Tank and pre-rebrand, Mother Beverage could be found in about 200 shops. Since its relaunch, which happened in 2020, it’s now available in 120 major retailers over 36,000 stores, ranging from Whole Foods to Costco. The brand also won best packaging awards at BevNet and Dieline.

In 2021, it led a series A funding round totaling about $13 million and was led by celebrities like Ellie Goulding, Halsey, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Love. Then in 2022, it secured $25 million in series B venture capital funding. 

In terms of TikTok, Ellsworth said Poppi sees about 1,000 email and SMS signups per day for marketing alerts and discounts, with the majority coming from the video platform. 

Within six months of the Tinuiti analyses, new-to-brand customers increased by 16x and 34% of ad-attributed sales in Q1 2022 came from those new-to-brand buyers. Poppi also saw a 54% increase in its Amazon Subscribe & Save count and a 12x increase in conversions at Whole Foods month-over-month. 

According to Outfront, Poppi ranked #9 on the bestseller list within all of grocery during Amazon Prime Day and in the top #25 on all of Amazon, thanks in part to the contribution of OOH. The brand also generated over $1 million in sales and over 25 million impressions within a week. Plus, the potential reach across social was over 95 million. The campaign was so successful that Poppi came back for another OOH activation with Outfront a year later. 

But the result of all results came earlier this month when Pepsi agreed to buy Poppi for over $1.6 billion. PepsiCo’s Chairman and CEO Raon Laguarta said the brand will allow Pepsi to give its customers more choices. 

“More than ever, consumers are looking for convenient and great-tasting options that fit their lifestyles and respond to their growing interest in health and wellness. Poppi is a great complement to our portfolio transformation efforts to meet these needs,” Laguarta said. 

It’s worth noting that this acquisition came despite recent controversies around Poppi. In June 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed in California for over $5 million accusing Poppi of falsely advertising the health benefits of its sodas. The lawsuit alleges that in order to gain the benefits of the prebiotic fiber in the soda, customers would have to consume four cans a day to see any significant health benefit. And at that point, the sugar content of the beverage would negate the positive health benefit. At the time of this writing, the lawsuit has not been resolved. 

Key Takeaways:

Notion’s successful global expansion campaign, “For your life’s work,” offers valuable insights for marketers looking to elevate their brand’s international presence. Here are three key takeaways from their strategy:

1) Strategic Rebranding Can Transform a Business

Poppi’s transformation from Mother Beverage to Poppi demonstrates the power of strategic rebranding. The company shifted from a niche, health-focused product to a vibrant, lifestyle-oriented brand that resonates with a broader audience, particularly younger consumers.

By adopting bold, colorful packaging and a fun, approachable identity, Poppi successfully repositioned itself in the competitive beverage market. This rebranding effort not only increased brand visibility but also aligned the product with current consumer trends, leading to explosive growth and wider market appeal. As a marketer, consider how rebranding can breathe new life into your product or service. Focus on aligning your brand identity with your target audience’s values and preferences, and don’t be afraid to make bold changes if they serve your long-term strategy.

2) Embrace and Test New Marketing Channels

Poppi’s success on TikTok highlights the importance of exploring and leveraging new marketing channels. Initially, TikTok wasn’t part of Poppi’s marketing strategy, but after an organic video went viral, the company quickly adapted and made it a central part of their digital marketing efforts.

By allocating budget to TikTok, working with influencers, and creating engaging content, Poppi was able to reach a younger demographic and drive significant growth. The platform became a key source for email and SMS sign-ups, demonstrating its effectiveness in both brand awareness and lead generation.

For marketers, this underscores the importance of staying open to new channels and being ready to pivot quickly when opportunities arise. Regularly test and evaluate emerging platforms to find those that resonate with your target audience and can drive measurable results.

3) Leverage Data-Driven Decision Making

Poppi’s partnership with Tinuiti and use of Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) showcases the power of data-driven marketing strategies. By conducting in-depth analyses of audience insights and media mix, Poppi was able to optimize its marketing efforts and drive significant growth. This data-centric approach allowed Poppi to understand the impact of different media combinations, leading to a 16x increase in new-to-brand customers and a 54% increase in Subscribe & Save count.

The ability to measure the impact of digital media investments across both online and offline channels provided valuable insights for refining their strategy. As a marketer, invest in tools and partnerships that allow you to gather and analyze comprehensive data about your marketing efforts. Use these insights to continually refine your strategies, allocate budgets more effectively, and drive better results across all channels.

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