From Shark Tank to Super Bowl - the story of Americas fastest growing beverage (Poppi) with Allison Ellsworth

Summary

Podcast Summary: "From Shark Tank to Super Bowl - the Story of America's Fastest Growing Beverage (Poppi) with Allison Ellsworth"

Released on January 22, 2025, “Uncensored CMO” hosted by Jon Evans delves deep into the remarkable journey of Alison Ellsworth, the founder of Poppi. This episode uncovers the trials, triumphs, and strategic maneuvers that catapulted Poppi from a humble startup to a Super Bowl advertiser in just four years.

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1. Introduction to Alison Ellsworth and Poppi

Jon Evans opens the episode by painting a vivid picture of Alison Ellsworth’s audacious decision to pitch her soda brand on Shark Tank while nine months pregnant, risking her life savings to compete against industry giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Notable Quote:

“If that sounds crazy, that's exactly what my next guest did.” [00:00]

2. Origin Story: From Oil and Health Obsessed to Soda Creation

Alison shares her transition from a seven-year career in oil and gas to founding Poppi. Her personal struggle with "travel belly" led her to obsessively seek healthier beverage options, culminating in the discovery of apple cider vinegar as a key ingredient.

Notable Quote:

“I created the first version of Poppi and I fell in love with it. My husband fell in love with it.” [01:46]

3. Shark Tank Experience: The Pitch and the Deal

Despite initial skepticism from the sharks regarding Poppi’s revenue and brand presence, Alison's thorough preparation and willingness to negotiate led to a pivotal deal with Rohan Oza. The intense Shark Tank environment, accentuated by Alison’s pregnancy, added unique challenges to her pitch.

Notable Quotes:

“When we first started the process to get onto the show, I was like, three months pregnant.” [03:02] “We did get a deal. And it looked like... we’ll give you $400,000 for 25%.” [04:04]

4. Rebranding and Strategic Shifts: From Mother Beverage to Poppi

Post-Shark Tank, Rohan Oza’s critical feedback on branding prompted a comprehensive rebranding effort. Transitioning from “Mother Beverage” to “Poppi,” Alison and her team focused on creating a modern, culture-first soda brand that emphasized fun over just functionality.

Notable Quote:

“Your story's amazing. You guys are great as founders, but your branding is shit. We got to do something about this.” [05:14]

5. Navigating COVID-19: Embracing Amazon and Digital First

Launching in March 2020, Poppi faced the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. With traditional retail rollouts stalled due to supply chain disruptions, Alison pivoted to a digital-first strategy, leveraging Amazon to become the number one soda on the platform.

Notable Quote:

“From day one, we decided we will not be a D2C company. We were going to go all in on Amazon.” [10:52]

6. Leveraging Social Media: Authenticity and TikTok Success

Alison emphasizes the power of authenticity in social media marketing. By personally engaging with TikTok, sharing genuine stories, and showcasing her personality, Poppi achieved viral success, evidenced by over 2 billion views and top rankings on Amazon.

Notable Quotes:

“I just started dancing. I did taco recipes, I did transitions...” [15:35] “If you're just real and authentic, you can such a lesson.” [16:17]

7. Pop-up Experiences and Community Engagement

Poppi’s strategic pop-up events, including high-profile appearances at Los Angeles and New York Fashion Week, fostered community engagement and brand loyalty. These events featured celebrities like Paris Hilton and 50 Cent, enhancing Poppi’s cultural relevance.

Notable Quote:

“We do a beautiful build out video first, content corners everywhere, then get some key anchor people there.” [20:01]

8. Merchandising and Apparel Line with Target

Expanding beyond beverages, Poppi ventured into branded merchandise, offering unique and trendy apparel. This initiative caught the attention of major retailers like Target, leading to an exclusive apparel line launch, further solidifying Poppi’s brand presence.

Notable Quote:

“We're dropping our own apparel line with Target... nobody does that. Once again, these things.” [23:13]

9. Flavor Innovation and Creating a New Category

Alison discusses the evolution of Poppi’s flavor development, moving from traditional soda flavors to innovative, functional pops. By prioritizing taste and refreshing qualities over mere health benefits, Poppi created a new category of “modern soda,” distinguishing itself in the market.

Notable Quotes:

“We are defining a new category for the next generation of soda drinkers.” [25:50] “Modern soda can be a strawberry, lemon, Poppi.” [26:24]

10. Retail Expansion and Strategic Partnerships

Poppi’s retail footprint expanded to over 50,000 stores across the U.S., including partnerships with Costco and Chipotle. Alison highlights the importance of aligning with culturally relevant partners, such as becoming the official soda of the Los Angeles Lakers, to enhance brand visibility.

Notable Quote:

“We're the official soda of the Los Angeles Lakers... it's the most premium bits... we're the most viewed Super Bowl ad of all time.” [29:43]

11. Super Bowl Advertising Breakthrough

One of the pinnacle moments for Poppi was securing a Super Bowl ad just three days before the event. The ad, titled “Soda Now,” aired during the most-watched Super Bowl, achieving unprecedented viewership and significantly boosting brand penetration.

Notable Quotes:

“We were the most viewed Super Bowl ad at that Super Bowl.” [34:07] “It was such a breakthrough moment for the brand.” [34:40]

12. Scaling Leadership and Maintaining Company Culture

Transitioning from a two-person operation to a company with over 200 employees, Alison faced the challenges of leadership and maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit within a rapidly growing organization. Introducing a seasoned CEO and a dedicated CMO helped streamline operations while preserving Poppi’s unique culture.

Notable Quote:

“I had to learn my ego, my way isn't always the best way... we brought in a CEO that had been doing it for years.” [37:15]

13. Challenges and Lessons Learned

Alison candidly discusses the difficulties of letting go, ensuring brand consistency, and scaling operations without diluting the brand’s essence. Maintaining rigorous standards and brand alignment remains a constant priority amidst rapid growth.

Notable Quote:

“My constant, like North Star is like everything through every lens. Is that on brand for Poppy?” [42:18]

14. Alison's Advice for Entrepreneurs

Alison offers invaluable advice for budding entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of embracing social media platforms like TikTok for authentic engagement and persistence in the face of rejection.

Notable Quotes:

“If you get no, you're talking to the wrong person.” [44:20] “Get on social, never take no, say yes and figure it out later and be kind along the way.” [44:20]

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Conclusion

Alison Ellsworth’s journey with Poppi exemplifies resilience, strategic adaptability, and the power of authentic branding. From navigating the pressures of Shark Tank to leveraging digital platforms during a pandemic, Alison’s leadership has transformed Poppi into a cultural phenomenon. Her insights provide a masterclass in modern marketing, brand building, and entrepreneurial success.

Final Notable Quote:

“We're not a brand, we're a product. And Poppi, we always want to be like a brand first.” [25:50]

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For listeners seeking inspiration from a groundbreaking beverage startup, this episode of "Uncensored CMO" offers a comprehensive look into the strategies and mindset that propelled Poppi to national acclaim.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the uncensored cmo. Now picture this for a moment. You are nine months pregnant and you decide together with your husband to go on Shark Tank and pitch for a new business idea, risking all of your life savings to create a brand new soda brand in the US and go up against the giants like Coke and Pepsi. If that sounds crazy, that's exactly what my next guest did. Alison Ellsworth, founder of the Poppy brand, who has turned it around in just four years to one of the most successful, perhaps the most successful soft drink startups that America has ever seen. It's a really fascinating story and I know you're going to love it. Here it is. So, Alison, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

[B]

Thank you for having me.

[A]

Now I'm dying to get into how Poppy became such a big success, but take me back right to the beginning. Where did it start and how did it turn into a business?

[B]

Yeah, so I started the company a few years ago and really it stemmed from previous to this. I started in oil and gas, so I was on the road for about seven years traveling. And when you travel, you just get what I call is like travel belly, where you're just like your stomach hurts and you don't feel good. And I was just so obsessed with trying to feel better. So I would go to places and I'd actually never looked at the back of a can or a label or read a nutritional and I didn't understand what gradients and what they were doing to your body. And it just kind of became an obsession of mine. And that's when I discovered apple cider vinegar. And I know for you, I don't think. Have you ever taken a shot of apple cider vinegar before?

[A]

I haven't. However, I have watched Shark Tank where you get the sharks to try and I've seen their reactions. It does not look, it doesn't look good.

[B]

No, it's so true. It's like most people don't want to drink it. They know it's like better for you. So I went to my kitchen and I created the first version of Poppy and I fell in love with it. My husband fell in love with it. So I just became obsessed with wanting to share it with everybody. And after that we took to our local farmer's market in Dallas. And then the next step in the American dream is obviously to go on to Shark Tank.

[A]

And you did. But. But for anyone who hasn't seen the episode, it's not. You didn't just Go on Shark Tank, as the rest of us would go. You were actually nine months pregnant.

[B]

I was. So I. You know, it's a theme when I'm pregnant, good things happen. So I started the company three months pregnant. I remember back being life savings, putting in, maxing out the credit cards of my husband wanting to pull his hair out because he's like, we just bought a house. You're pregnant. And then I was like, well, I'm not gonna let this stop me from, you know, getting my goals and being successful. So when I became pregnant with her second and Shark Tank came about, it was just a natural progression of, hey, getting stuff done. And this is not going to stop me. So, to be honest, when we first started the process to get onto the show, I was like, three months pregnant. And it takes a really long time. People don't know how long from, like, you actually trying to get on the show to being on the show is. It can take a year, I think, for some people. Yeah.

[A]

And it's only sort of three or four minutes, the actual bit, isn't it.

[B]

Where you actually do the five minutes that they air, but you're in there for an hour.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

Yeah. And so, let's be real, it's a TV show.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So they want to make sure and get good shots and reactions. And they encourage, you know, all of the sharks to say and do funny things. I remember being nine months pregnant. Mr. Wonderful. He's like one of the sharks that's a little bit more of a character. And his thing is he calls. Calls everyone roaches or whatever. And he called me an apple cider vinegar roach. And then he sat back and he smiled and he was like. He was like, obviously, I didn't mean that. Right. But you also have them yelling at you like, hey, what's your revenue? How many cans do you sell? Where's your office? And you're just like, what answer do I. Who. Who do I answer right now? And it's very overwhelming that you almost, like, black out a little bit. And. And yes, spoiler alert. We did get a deal. And it looked like.

[A]

It didn't look like it at the time, did it? Because they were going, you know, it's. It's a cottage. It's a small industry. You need much big. You're not spending enough money. You haven't got a brand. I mean, you got some pretty heavy criticism.

[B]

Yeah. And it's so funny. We've done about 500,000 in revenue and about two years of business, which is really great for two employees, and we were manufacturing it ourselves. We had kind of taken most of our own money and built out a little facility. We were in local stores in Dallas, Texas. And it was one of those things where, yeah, we did not have, quote unquote, like a proven business. But I mean, for startup, it wasn't so bad. But they all started dropping like flies. They were like, I'm out, I'm out. I was like, oh, this is not going to happen. Happen. So then finally, when we did get an offer, you know, we were talking previous to this, me and my husband had talked about what we would do if we got an offer. And I don't think we think we thought about it. He was like, we'll give you 400,000 for 25. We're like, deal. Like, it was just like, this is life changing. This will change our lives. We have to do it.

[A]

Had you talked about it with him before? Had you decided the point? Because anyone watching Shark Tank, you always go in, the same thing happens. They always get negotiated for more equity or, or for lower investment. So had you. Because you didn't even confer, did you? They were put under so much pressure.

[B]

To make I look. I had watched every episode up until then to study it and how it worked. And we always saw that if you talked during and were like, hey, I need a second. They're like, I'm off the table. Or like they, they almost saw that as like a, a way of weakness. And so we're like, oh, we can't be seen as weak. So we ran like 30,000 scenarios before we went in there. And we're like, okay, if they give this, what would we respond with? And this is our max. But honestly, I don't even, like, that was such a long time ago. I don't even think like what our max or what we would have done. I mean, I think if they would have said 50 or 100 or something crazy, we wouldn't have done it. But it absolutely changed my life. And that was kind of honestly where the journey of Poppy started. You know, we don't even talk about the stuff before that, but with it after that, we got the deal and we went through a major rebrand.

[A]

Well, just on that, because, you know, most the sharks declared themselves out except for one very important one who actually has got a bit of experience in your category, isn't he?

[B]

Yeah. So it's funny because you don't know who the sharks are until the night before. Everyone thinks, like, you might know the sharks don't know who you are until you walk out in front of them. So there's. It's a very, like, you have no idea what's going on. And so the night before, we had learned our sharks and there was two on there that were like, oh, they have beverage experience. And one is Bethany Frankel. She has like skinny margarita type line. And we're like, oh, great female founder. She'll get it right. And the other was Rohan Oza. And he had been part of, I think he worked at Coke for years and had, you know, worked on buy and Vitamin Water and just had just so much experience in beverage. We're like, oh my gosh, we have two sharks that we could potentially do something with. And then we get in there and. And Bethany was just not having it. She was yelling at us. We made her take a shot of apple cider vinegar. She was not happy.

[A]

And I thought that was genius, by the way, because if anyone's not seen it, you make them all try apple cider vinegar, don't you? And they're disgusted. And of course you then turn it.

[B]

Around by showing our product and how good it can be. And she, she kind of. I don't think she was too impressed by that. So she was a little salty.

[A]

She was still happy with us reacting to shock.

[B]

Really funny story in that because later on with Rohan, he said that she looked at him and was like, hey, do you want to do a deal together? And he told her no. So I think that maybe had. And then he went in on it and said, I'll do a deal. And he's like, I wanted it for myself. Because he just believed in the brand that much.

[A]

And he went straight in, didn't he? He wasn't second guessing. He was straight in with an offer.

[B]

Straight in with the offer. And then we said yes, immediately we leave. And then it's so funny because right afterwards they go back to your trailer and you're like, wait, now what? I just got a deal on Shark Tank. Like, what's happening?

[A]

Is it like a case of cash they sort of hand over after three years?

[B]

No, it's interesting because look, we had no idea if our episode was even going to air. Once again, it had to make good tv. And then the due diligence starts after that, right? Like, actually, Rohan had to look into the business. Did we really do what we said? We did. You know, all of that. And that almost took about six months. So we didn't close the deal until almost two days before our episode aired. We loved it because he invested and Then his vc, Kavu also invested and really believed in us from the beginning.

[A]

That's amazing. And what advice did he give you? Because if I look at what you presented on the show as it was, it wasn't even called Poppy, was it? At the time, what you presented and what we have today, only four years later, quite different, aren't they?

[B]

They're so different. It was called Mother Beverage. It was a play off of the Mother of Vinegar. Everyone's like, was it because you were a mother? I'm like, no, but that's cute. But we looked at it and I remember him saying, look, you have a fantastic liquid. Your story's amazing. You guys are great as founders, but for lack of a better word, your branding is shit. And he goes, we got to do something about this. This is so. I've been looking for something like this my entire career. It's here, let's do branding. And it was funny at that moment. The first person, even before I met Rohan in the trailer on Shark Tank set was his right hand woman, Stevie. And she comes in and she's just like talking to us and she's like, we're going to do this rebrand. And we worked so close with her, me, my husband and Rohan. And we took nine months off and we went through a ton of branding exercises. So we're okay, we know we have this liquid, we know it's soda. But like, what are we saying? What do we look like? We want it to be a modern soda. So for us, do we do colored cans? Do we do white cans? Which for me, white was screaming it healthy. But color screams taste. Do we want to have real fruit on it or do we want it to be modern fruit? Right? We went through so many exercises and branding and you know, we were thinking through, like, if you think of the word soda has this emotional connection people have and they want to be drinking soda at the movies or with their friends or at a sporting event. But now soda, quote unquote, is a dirty word. And so with Poppy, we give you the freedom to love soda again at its best, without all the sugar and no BS ingredients, right? And so once we kind of went through that process, we're like, oh, this is simple. But what was really important is we didn't want to be like this functional, better for you tell all thing. We wanted to be a culture first soda. So with launching it, we wanted to go, we leaned in fun over function. So we're like, let's go color. Let's go crazy marketing with influencers. And go social and digital first. And it was just from the DNA from the beginning. And then we decided to launch March of 2020, right when Covid hit, so.

[A]

Oh, no, I didn't realize that. Oh, wow. So what did that mean for your distribution then? Because. Yeah, I mean, how do you get it onto shelves and.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Into people's hands?

[B]

Well, more people were concerned with getting toilet paper on the shelf, if you remember.

[A]

Yes, I did.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

And it was worldwide shortage of toilet paper overnight.

[B]

And we were supposed to have like national rollouts and like Whole Foods and Sprouts and all these places. And they had agreed to it. And we were supposed to roll out, I think in April, second month of lockdown. They were not putting new products on the shelf. And so what we did from day one, thank goodness we had onboarded Amazon. And from day one, we decided we will not be a D2C company. We were going to go all in on Amazon and make that the new age. Right. Like, I think in America, 90 of households or something, anywhere from 80 to 90 have prime in their house. Why not meet the consumer where they are and really lean in and double. Our customer service team and our just, you know. And it paid off for us. Poppy is the number one soda on Amazon. We've been that way.

[A]

You drop that in very casually. I know, like I'm the number one soda on Amazon. But you outsell Coke and Pepsi.

[B]

We do.

[A]

That is insane.

[B]

And we have for a really long time. I mean, we've, you know, and then even on the entire platform, because energy is really big on the platform. I think we're around 6 just beverage on the entire platform. And it's because we've leaned in on Amazon and partnered with them. And it's been really amazing for consumers to be able to get us there, Especially in the early days when you couldn't get us at Whole Foods and everyone was ordering on Amazon. And it opened our eyes to be digital first. Something else that really opened our eyes to be digital first was we had filmed an update on Shark Tank the December right before COVID hit it aired April 2020. So we had a national commercial where everyone's stuck at home watching tv. Second month of business. And it just blew up our sales. And once that went out, the distribution came to like, oh, the brand is here. And we got the rollouts and things really got roaring.

[A]

Because I've always wondered about the connection between Shark Tank and sales because, you know, in the UK we have Dragon's Den, which is the same format And I've always thought if I do Dragon Center, I'm going to go on there and turn them down just for publicity. Because just being on the show, it's millions and millions of people watch. Has being on Shark Tank being a real advantage in terms of getting distribution and getting people behind the brand.

[B]

Yeah. Especially out the gate. Look, I think when our episode aired, because it was a Friday night, second month of lockdown, we did the Google search. We were trending higher than Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian. We hit number one on Amazon's hot new product list. The shelf was like, finally, like, grocery stores were like, hey, okay, we get this. Let's get this going. So it was. It was really impactful for us. And then on top of it, there's this part of a Shark Tank brand badge of as a consumer, you walk in, like, as seen on Shark Tank, people are like, oh, well, if they could get on Shark Tank, I'll give it a try. Right. So for the early days, it was really important. Now we've definitely surpassed it. We don't talk about it that much. We don't put on our, our POS or packaging anymore. But I think at the early days, it absolutely changed our life and like the growth in the beginning, but I think it was the digital first mindset that really set us apart. But it didn't hurt.

[A]

Yeah. Now, one of the things that's quite distinctive about you is that you've also grown in social media, haven't you? And you yourself, as well as a founder, you've been the front of the brand very much as well. Was that a conscious idea because of Shark Tank to almost embody the story that you've been on and kind of embody the brand, or did it sort of happen back?

[B]

You know, my background isn't traditional marketing. Right. I have no idea what a funnel was or an OTT or OLV or what even. L near met. Right. When I first started, I was like, I have no clue about anything. All I knew is I wanted as many people to try and see Poppy as possible. And I love that because kind of all of the traditional ways went out the door because we were having to find a way to scale during COVID So even the team that was traditional marketers were like, well, my playbook isn't going to work. We were way more open to trying disruptive, like, throw stuff at the wall test, I think more than ever. Like, a lot of brands were just trying to survive. And with that, TikTok was a really big piece. So I remember Instagram was all the fad, high static imagery we were spending a ton of money on. Steals. No video, right? There was absolutely no video. Just four years ago. If you kind of think about this, it's not that long ago. And TikTok was going on and I was starting to consume it just like as a human. Right. I was bored at home during COVID and I was like, it kind of hit me one night. I was like, I think that we can as a brand somehow break through, but we have. It can't just be high gloss, it can't be models. And I was like, I'm not going to take resources from the company. I'm just going to play around with it on the weekends. So I started dancing. I did taco recipes, I did transitions when changing outfits to match my cans. I mean anything I could do to just kind of see what worked and you know, what worked the best was me sitting down and telling my story and just being real and authentic.

[A]

Really. As simple as that.

[B]

As simple as saying, hey guys, I'm Alison. I'm a founder of Poppy. I was on Shark Tank. This is my product. And telling the ingredients. And I did that one night, posted the video. My. I Woke up at 6am My phone was blowing up and we had gone absolutely viral. We sold over $100,000 on Amazon. We were sleeping. We cleared the grocery store shelves sold out and all the grocery are, are then you know, Whole Foods is what is going on. Absolutely no one's like. And no one knew what was happening. That video now is over 150 million views today. It's still like absolutely still going viral. I have over 2 billion views on TikTok today. Like we, we were like, oh, once again this really eye opening moment of if you're just real and authentic and.

[A]

You can such a lesson, isn't it? Because you assume you have to do something really crazy to go viral. But simple as telling your story. That's incredible.

[B]

I know. I think people think too much into it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the consumer doesn't want that nowadays. Right. That's not what that platform is about. You can still, you still need to have like high class ads on TV and do all that. But I think the platform, we adjusted the platform and I think that was the success. And so I stumbled into accidentally becoming the face.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And being the one where 80% of our ads are still my face. On TikTok we work with creators of course and influencers. But it was just easy.

[A]

It's really interesting. Most companies struggle with this because they're too corporate. They kind of use social as a sort of an ad advertising platform, don't they, rather than being real and authentic. What I mean, after that video, what else would. Would. Would be top of the charts in terms of what, you know, what's done well?

[B]

Yeah. So I think with that it was always this lens of digital first. So for us, for two years, we could not do a sample, we could not do an in real life event. Right. Things were just so different. So we leaned in there. Something that we did really well was influencer and creator marketing. So we did a ton of seating. People were desperate to post stuff that was better for you during the pandemic. So we had like a 90% open rate. If we sent someone Poppy, they were putting it on their Instagram. We had a ton of celebrities that were just organically posting Poppy by themselves. And that was another big thing that I think we always like tried to our Northstar. Poppy, for me, is the three Cs, is it creative, is it community first and is it part of culture? So we always say we move at the speed of culture. We move extremely quick. We can pull off anything in about two days, sometimes shorter. And so we were just part of culture within. On TikTok, you have to jump on trends really quick. You have to know who the hottest, newest creator is. You want celebrities talking about it. You want your community to feel like they're part of your community. And I feel like that's always kind of been the secret sauce at Poppy is like we're not just working with a big celebrity to work with them and giving them a paycheck. Like, we want real people that love us to be part of this journey with us. It's. It sounds simple, but, you know, I.

[A]

Bet it's not actually, because, I mean, because I can imagine that you, you know, you being on the platform yourself every day, you know what's going on, but presumably it's outgrown you now, isn't it? So you need a team to sort of manage all this. You've now need to bring a team around you to help, you know, do what you're doing. Now that. That presents its own challenge, doesn't it?

[B]

Well, we, we have two little, two girlies that post on Tick Tock out of the office constantly. And our community has fallen in love with them and adored them. And we love doing little Easter eggs. So we just filmed a series of commercials and we like put them in there as Easter eggs so that our Tick Tock community can Go wild. Like we're always thinking through that lens with it. Like even I make like a cameo in one of them. And so we have fun with it and people take it serious because we do great on the organic side. But it is a huge piece of our paid side.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Driving people to our website to purchase, to grow our email and SMS list. We've grown to over 1.2 million in just a few years through this strategy. It's just part of this like360 ecosystem that we kind of think, like, what are we going to do there first? Then that will help dictate like what, what we're gonna do on a flavor launch or a big campaign or an out of home. It's like it all kind of comes back to this like social ecosystem that we've built. That's just really, it's really important. It's the core of who Poppy is.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, something you've done really well as well get it into people's hands as well, haven't you? And I know when you launch new flavor, you often put a pop up, don't you? Create a pop up experience for people to go to and explain how that works. Because that doesn't just get it into people's hands, it also gets people talking about it on social media as well, isn't it?

[B]

Yeah. So yeah, for the first years we couldn't do it. But yeah, recently we, you know, for the first time did one and we saw this outpouring cry of how many people wanted to be with Poppy in real life. So we did our first one in LA in January, January of this year. And what was the most surprising, we had Paris Hilton, dj and we had celebrities and influencers come for one night. And then we opened up this community. We had people fly in from Hawaii to come to our pop up to buy a hoodie and to try our new flavor and to meet me and just to be part of it, we're like, wow, this is special. We had the line, people were waking up at 6am Over 5, 000 people came over a period of two days. They were like, okay, this is cool. Which led into why we're like, there's something we gotta do. What's the next breakthrough thing, which is super bowl, which I know we'll get to, and then the next one we just did in New York Fashion Week. And what I love about it is we get better each time. So we like learn this works. You know, we always through that social ecosystem. Why do people get canceled online for four Pop ups. And it's like not programming the line. So we like really took that serious and we programmed our line and we had 50 Cent perform at this one. And we launched our new flavor, cherry cola. And it's through like this cultural first lens. So we pick tent poles. So for example, New York Fashion Week, everyone's already there for it. So I think that's a really big piece with pop ups. I always try to give advice to other brands is don't pick a random weekend and you think you're gonna have to fly. Like meet the hottest, coolest people where they're already at, right? They're gonna come create a space that they want to come to, create content. So we do a beautiful build out video first, content corners everywhere, then get some key anchor people there. So we had 50 Cent perform, we had Enrada, we had the Love island crew from Leah to Cordell, like all of this amazing people. Then all of a sudden we had people reaching out that we were not paying. They were like, can I come to your party? So much so that we were the hottest, coolest party at New York Fashion Week. And we are a soda.

[A]

That's insane, isn't it?

[B]

So it's an experience that we're always just trying to create. Going back to does it, is it creative, is it culture first and is it community first?

[A]

The other thing that slightly blew my mind when we met in Austin a few weeks ago was the merch that you create. Not only is it really cool and very on trend, but you're going to turn it into an actual line as well, aren't you? That's for sale.

[B]

So during the whole virality of TikTok, it was like another really big passion of mine is I hate it when brands put a logo on a T shirt that everyone has and nobody wants to wear that. It's very salesy, it's corporate. And so I was like, I had this obsession to find a manufacturer to cut, sew, dye, customize merch for us. So we started going down this road. Everyone told me I was absolutely crazy. But you know, we support crazy at Poppy. We love it. And we created our own line. Even at our pop up that we just did, we had 22 pieces of merch that we sold out over a period of 24. We sold out two hours online and then like 24 hours at the pop up, we were like, we got to get more. But it's become this, this brand affinity for our community and for our creators. So it just kept going viral. So much so that you're the first person I'm telling this to, which is really breaking news, ladies and gentlemen.

[A]

It's breaking.

[B]

Target reached out to us and said, hey, you guys are one of our best selling beverages at Target. Will you do a line and Target and do a hype drop with us? So we're so excited. We are dropping our own apparel line with Target and every single Target in January and February of this year. And like, nobody does that. Once again, these things.

[A]

That's not a soda kind of thing to do.

[B]

It's not normal. It's so cool.

[A]

And how did you decide on the line that you're gonna. If you can say, how do you pick the merch that's gonna, that's gonna appear in Target?

[B]

So Poppy, we, we kind of have this like creative, creative agency within that I run. So like, I run like our creative brand. I have an incredible creative directors and designers and we even have on staff, like ahead of product development for apparel. Right. It's just become a pillar of Poppy as what people want. And so for us, when we're creating it, we wanted to give our community pieces from our archives that they weren't able to get because they were really viral and sold out really quick. We want to make it more affordable and just kind of really on brand Evergreen. So we usually do it around like a hype launch of cherry and everything's red. This is going to be more of an evergreen line of just like our OG stuff that people can get, which I think that they're really going to love. And it's going to be great quality at a great affordable price for the target consumer. And very excited. And we're going to be launching like a new flavor with it that's exclusive, that you can only get with the lion cell.

[A]

Oh, that's nice. Yeah, that's nice. I wanted to ask you about flavors, actually, because you've got an amazing array of flavors. How do you choose, like what to launch or what goes into the process of picking a new flavor?

[B]

Back in the day, it was all about taste. The first original, like nine flavors were me, my husband in the kitchen playing around. Right now we have a very small, sophisticated innovation team. We have like PhD scientists that work full time. We have a lab in Austin that we're always innovating, but still, honestly, it comes down to flavor. So they might say, hey, this is a huge category. It's whatever within soda and we need it. If it doesn't taste good, we're not going to launch it.

[A]

Funnily enough, I Know this because I spent most of my career actually working at Britvic in the uk which is part of Pepsi or Pepsi bottle of the uk. Every single bit of research we did, whether it's a healthy beverage or whatever, taste was number one every single time. And literally, if you did the taste test and you ranked the flavors, that's exactly how that ended up selling. You can't out. You can't beat flavor. That's what was interesting about what you did, because when it was mother, it was very much apple cider vinegar lead, wasn't it? Lead on the benefits, flavor second. Whereas now you're all flavor first. You almost discover the prebiotic benefit second, don't you?

[B]

That's exactly the consumer journey that I want. I want some to, like, go to the shelf, get Poppy and go, this is so cute packaging. It matches my outfit. I want to be seen drinking it. I want to be part of this brand. I wanted to drink it and go, wow, that tastes so good and just refreshing. Oh, I want that with my burger. I wanted the pizza. And then I wanted to look at the ingredients, go, whoa, this is good for me too. Like, that is an intentional thing that we get across in all the stuff that we do. Right. I feel like if you lead with, like, ingredients, it just becomes very boring. It. You're not a brand, you're a product. And, of course, Poppy, we always want to be, like, brand first.

[A]

It makes so much sense. I mean, I've worked for two of the world's biggest soft drink companies, and both of them had exactly the same mission, which is basically because if you look at reasons why people buy, it's taste, refreshment, health, and then beyond there, you've got energy and a few other things. Right. Everybody is trying to combine. It tastes great, it refreshes me, and it's healthy. And that's the thing that no one's been able to do that. And that's where I think you got exactly. Yeah. That, I think, is where you've landed the sweet spot, which is, I want it to taste great. I want to honestly be refreshing, but I want it to be good as well.

[B]

Yeah. And it's so funny because we talk about modern soda, so we have the traditional soda flavors. Like, we have the root beer and the cola. We have Doc Pop. You know, you could. You could argue orange and grape are traditional soda flavors, but our number one selling skew is our strawberry lemon. This one that you're drinking is our raspberry rose. It's one of our top skus. So in my head, we are defining a new category for the next generation of soda drinkers. And modern soda can be a strawberry, lemon, poppy. We've created a category of functional pop that did not exist four or five years ago. Right. If you look and look, you pull us on the data. It's a new category that's hit over a billion in five years Right between us and some others. And it feels like there was nowhere to put us on the grocery store shelf when we first started, Poppy. Now we have what are called modern soda sets. The, the retailers have leaned in, but we created a category that did not exist. And I always say that with to other entrepreneurs that are wanting to start something or do something. We created something that did not exist four years ago. And look at the movement and what the grocery store is kind of like leaned on us. Like, what do we do? Where do you guys want to be on the shelf? And we've worked together for four years to define what this new category is. And it's exciting to see that is.

[A]

So key actually, isn't it? Because you've got to give the retailer a reason, reason to put something different on the shelf. And if you can say we're building a category that people will be coming in looking for it and it's incremental to all the other sodas and energy drinks and health drinks out there, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Very, very exciting. So how many retailers are you in now?

[B]

Oh, you know, we're in all the major retailers in the U.S. you know, from the targets, the Walmarts, the Costco's, Kroger's, Albertsons. I would say probably over 50,000, you know, with our 711 and convenience stores. And then we are in Canada, we're just launching, launching there. We're in a lot of the major retailers out there. Costco really is our anchor out there. And then now we're looking definitely at international at some point. But there's just, I mean, four years in the US there's still a lot of work to do. And you know, a big piece that I love that we're just now getting into is we just launched with Chipotle, right. When you drink, Poppy, like you really like, if you think of soda, like you usually want it with a meal, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so how can we find more partnerships where we are adjacent to food? So we just launched in all the Chipotle. So that's where like a lot of opportunity for growth for us that we're excited about.

[A]

And that makes sense because when you don't really want a high sugar drink when you're eating food, because it takes away from the pleasure of eating food, doesn't it? So I can see that much. And also, it's really hard to get into those kind of places because they'll often have only two or three options for a drink.

[B]

Some ironclad contracts as well.

[A]

They do.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's true, actually, because I think more in the U.S. probably more than any other market I've ever worked in there are, you know, it's really owned by like the Coke and the pepsi system and Dr. Pepper as well. They really own the fixtures. And the contract says, you know, how do you break in amongst all that?

[B]

You know, big challenge. We get creative. So we just launched. We're the official soda of the Los Angeles Lakers.

[A]

And this is new news, isn't it as well?

[B]

Brand new. Just literally breaking as well as well. And we just get creative with it. We find ways that we can be the next soda. And, and we're seeing these. These people, like the Lakers, that are culturally relevant, are wanting to lean into this new age, modern soda for the next generation. So I think poppy has grown. I think we're, you know, we're in 1 in 10 households in America. We're making waves. You're building this new category. This stuff will just come with time. And it's, you know, there's really, if you think of soda, it hasn't been disrupted since the Diet Coke craze. Right. So we'll just continue to push and, you know, I think, think if we can get into more music venues and sporting, you know, all those things, I think could be really exciting.

[A]

So it's an incredible job of making it available. But you've also taken the massive step as well as going on to the super bowl just four years after launch. I can't imagine there are many brands that have gone four years in. We're going Super Bowl. I mean, that's, that's. And you didn't just go 30 seconds, by the way, did you? No, you did 60, which is a lot of money.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

How do you come to make that decision to go, you know what, we're gonna go Super Bowl.

[B]

You know, we just felt last year was our year to go super bowl, and sometimes the best things that poppy kind of come last minute. So to add to that, we had been talking about super bowl for a while, but it is scary. It is a lot of money. It's a, you know, it's a sustaining after. Right. Everyone thinks like you do super bowl and then you get. No, you have to be able to sustain that media afterwards. There's a lot that goes into it and the planning and retail and inventory. Right. But we created this piece of content, and we did not create it as a Super bowl ad. And that's why I think the piece of content is so good, because we wanted to find a way to introduce Poppy on the big screen to the next level of what. What are we. If we're not on social media? And we created this anthemic piece of the future, Soda now, and it's called Poppy. And we tested it on the Grammys and a couple big, you know, reality show premieres. And it was testing through the roof. Like, absolutely. People were connecting with it. I was getting texts. I just saw you on this. And so then we're like, let's go buy a Super bowl ad. We could not find one, right? We could not. They were sold out. If you keep in mind, it was the writer strike. No new tv. Like, it was like one of the only live new TVs you could buy advertising on. So it was like one of the hottest Super Bowls. It was the Taylor Kelsey effect as well, didn't it?

[A]

The last one. It was just insane.

[B]

It was so hard. Yeah. It was the most viewed super. Of all time.

[A]

All time, wasn't it? And it. I think it was the most viewed event since the moon landing or something crazy like that.

[B]

In that wild.

[A]

120 million people all watching.

[B]

I mean, and. And a lot of people also don't know, which. I mean, I'm sure you know, but if you buy through the network, you have to do a match. So you might buy the ad, but then you have to match that same and run it. And then we're just like, well, we can't do that. So we had to find it on the Remnant market. And I do a lot with TikTok. I'm on this, like, TikTok collective. And I was at. At, you know, dinner, and I look at someone next to me and joking around and go, do you guys super bowl out? And he's like, actually, I think I do. And he, like, sent a few texts. We got him on with our cmo, Andy, the next day. And we bought a Super bowl the Thursday before Super Bowl.

[A]

So three, as in three days.

[B]

As in three days before the super bowl, whatever.

[A]

You had to pay three days before?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Wow. But did you know when it. Because one of the. One of the mysteries is when. Because super bowl happens over quite a few hours. Right. So did you get to pick when it's so.

[B]

No. It was a floater ad. Oh, my God. You're going to love the story. So it was a floater. I would no idea when it was going to do it. So we. So we get it. We're excited about the creative. We're activating on the social side. So we're pulling together influencers to be going to the. So you're right. We're activating on social. I'm going to shoot content. We're pulling all this together in like three days. Right. We had previous to that found a spot that would play if it went into overtime. There had been no overtime Super Bowls in the last 50 years. So we're like, well, that's not going to happen. Right, Whatever. So we traded that off and we got this one. It was a floater ad. It could also air when it says like the fireworks. Thank you for watching the NFL. It just had to play before that. It happened to play one minute before Usher went on. And so how you said it was the most viewed Super Bowl. We were the most viewed super bowl ad at that Super Bowl. So in our head, we totally made this up. It makes so much sense. But we're the most viewed super bowl ad of all time.

[A]

That's a pretty good. Pretty good math. So you just before the halftime show.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

When Usher came on.

[B]

Right.

[A]

The most premium bits. That's the best body is watching, isn't it?

[B]

And it comes down to how many timeouts or injuries. Like, there's no. Like, there's no way to predict it. Yeah. And it aired. It was so successful. It broke through. We got on like, like adage, like top lists and like all of the stuff that you could ever dream of. Our household penetration tripled overnight. It was just such a breakthrough moment for the brand. And the funny part to the story is it ended up going into overtime.

[A]

So you might have got anyway.

[B]

Yeah, we would have got it now, but it wouldn't have been the same time. Nobody would have watched it.

[A]

We couldn't have beaten the halftime. Halftime show, which is incredible. Where were you when it played out? Were you at the Super Bowl?

[B]

I went to the super bowl, yeah. Because in poppy fashion, we had to figure out a way to bring it a lot alive on, you know, being there. So I was there. I was waiting for my team to FaceTime me. I was gonna be like, at the super bowl. And we were filming it. And that absolutely went viral as well. And that must be quite a moment.

[A]

For, as a founder to Be at a Super bowl, which is amazing. Anyway, it was pretty to see your brand on. On tv.

[B]

You know, it's funny because everyone's like, are you just stopping to smell the roses? These pinch me moments. And when you're moving and going this quick, you don't really do that. But I will say that moment at that we're screaming and then ushers coming on. It was just. That was like probably top three moments at Poppy. 100% amazing.

[A]

I wanted to. Because you've achieved so much in a short space of time, what's the journey been like in terms of like, you know, you've gone from, as you describe it, you and your husband kind of designing it and sounds like in the kitchen and making it yourselves. You're now in charge of a pretty big operation that, you know hundreds of people and distributed 50,000 stores. So what's it been like to go from kind of you basically being in charge to then suddenly you're leading a whole. A whole team?

[B]

Well, it's so funny because yeah, it was two employees when we started and now we're over 200. We're going to grow to over 300, I'm sure through the year. And I think it is pretty special that we were able to create all these jobs and. And all that. But with that that comes like I'd never been a leader before, right. I was an entrepreneur. And as an entrepreneur, most of the time we're kind of hard to work with. And I didn't know what team meant. I didn't understand. You can't tell people that's a really bad idea because it could hurt their feelings, you know, stuff like that. So for me, as a leader, that's been a really big journey for me that I've really become like in love with that learning experience because I had to learn, you know, my ego, my way isn't always the best way. And that's like to admit that and have that self awareness sometimes it's still hard. No, but I did. I had to get like coaching and figure out how, you know, three 60s and really understand that. And so much so that with the kind of growth that we've had, it's not normal. And it's not even normal for people that have probably been in the industry for a while. So both my husband and I, we realized that kind of early on. And as a team, collectively we were like, hey, we have to bring in people that have done this before. So my husband was the CEO. He stepped down, we brought in a CEO that had Been doing it for years. It was really hard.

[A]

It must be so hard because they're not gonna do it like you do it, right?

[B]

No. And it was hard for him at first as well, because he wasn't used to doing things so differently. And so that took some time for us to adjust. And now we vacation together. We're best, you know, it's like, like, yeah, but we worked on it, right? Same thing happened, you know, a year ago I was running all of our marketing, and then we brought in a cmo. Same. Same situation where we kind of had to work through it. Now, once again, it's the best of both worlds, but I don't think, you know, entrepreneurs talk about that enough. And that hardship of it's way better to be part of that decision than that decision to be put on you. And know that it's not easy at all, but if you work through it and, you know, it's what's best for the business and the employees at the end of the day for growth, you know, and still sometimes I'm like, ugh, I just wish it could be old school. Not like my way. But I'm just like, just do it. Like, let's move quick. Like the corporate and the process and like, you know, all of that. But I guess process is good. So.

[A]

And what's the trick to making that work? Then when you're bringing a new team in, you're delegating responsibility, whereas you've been like, make decision. Now that's where we go. What's the lesson in terms of what can people learn from making that work?

[B]

I think for us, we're just super hyper aware of keeping our entrepreneurial spirit. So from leadership with our new CEO and all of our senior leadership. And as we're growing, they don't want to lose what's made Poppy special. But we love to say it's like the 8020 rule. It's like that's 80%, like, get our together, have a calendar, have process and all that, but then leave that 20% for that disruptive. We love black ops budgets. We love going crazy and testing. Like, we kind of can't lose that secret special sauce. And as a team, we've just all held hands and that's what keeps me going. If we were like, full process, everything, it would be a lot harder. But we believe in that and that that's part of our DNA makes easy kind of.

[A]

Well, it's hard though, isn't it? Because, like, you know, you've got the benefit of being agile. And just jumping on trends and deciding on what you're going to do. But now you've got scale and you've got retailers to keep in stock and you've got service levels to worry about and you got lots, you know, you've got more activity than you can, you know, do yourself, haven't you? So it's a, it's a very, very different challenge. I think that's what a lot of founders really struggle with. This bit, isn't it, is getting to that scale and transitioning from the, you know, startup doing itself to the big business.

[B]

It's absolutely not normal. And I think that even the veteran leaders at our company, they've never experienced what's happened either. And so for them it's exciting and new learning opportunity. Right. This is like a career. Anyone that can work at Poppy, it is a career making job. I mean when we post like a job like if we will need like a new designer because like on, on my team I'm always like trying to find creatives and I will say we're like best in class when it comes to creative and social force and all this. We'll put it out. We get like 10 to 20,000 resumes within like 24. I mean it is so difficult to like weed through and do all of that. And it's very overwhelming with it. And its culture is a huge piece. You know at Poppy we do a ton of culture surveys, internal surveys, you know, a lot of brand building, team building, like all that stuff.

[A]

So what do you look for in the people you hire? So what would, what would, what would you see in somebody to make you think they are a Poppy employee?

[B]

I think self leadership ability to move quickly and not be dependent on your leader telling you. Right. I think that's a hard trait defining people because I think in corporate jobs or bigger companies you kind of just want people doing what, what you're. They're told. Well we might tell you do something in three hours. Later it's changed because we're moving so quick. So you have to be able to adapt, change and then not get stressed through that but also be organized and get stuff done. Yes. It's almost what we call is this like unicorn of, of a person. It's almost like little entrepreneurs within Poppy that are highly specialized. You know, we're at the, the point where we do want like more specialized. It's not like I do everything like that's not sustainable. So we look for our little unicorn entrepreneurs that kind of can think and be disruptive and I always love my favorite ideas or my favorite campaigns. I'm not the one that came up with them. We've had people and brainstorms that have come up with really fun ideas that were just like a new intern on the team or the new sales hire. Right. I think that that's a big part of what we look for.

[A]

That does make a lot of sense. And it's quite rare to find that creativity combined with the ability to execute. Execute. And it's those two things, isn't it, that that is quite rare to find in people. Some, some people are great at following orders and getting stuff done. Some people are great coming up with ideas and you need to kind of blend the two together.

[B]

We're also like 70 female at poppy, including our sales team. So in beverage, it's not super normal to have like a heavy female base. But since our brand just like screams that it's easy, our chief of sales is like a female. Right. So I think that piece as well as, you know, women get shit done.

[A]

Yeah, that is true. That's very, very true. So looking back, what's been the hardest thing about this journey for you? Because it can't have been smooth sailing given the, you know, scale at which you've expanded. What's been the toughest bit?

[B]

No, I think the toughest bit has been letting go. Kind of what I spoke to, but also seeing it grow and making sure it stays on brand. Like, I am so hardcore with is that on brand or is that not on brand? And we're getting to the point where I, I can't control it anymore. And everybody, I want everyone to be as intense as me when it comes to the brand because for long term growth and success, that is key. So that's like what keeps me up at night. That's my constant, like North Star is like everything through every lens. Is that on brand for Poppy? And if it's not, we're not doing it. Even if it's the most insane, amazing opportunity to be at XYZ Party, this, whatever, but if it's like super off brand, we're not going to do it. And it's really hard, I think, to scale that and that thinking after a while people are like, oh, it's just this, it's fine. And then you're like showing up at really random places and you know, like for me it's, it's keeping the brand true.

[A]

That's, that's hard as well because you, you know, you ooze it because obviously it's your creation you know, inside out, you know, exactly. Instinctively. But for someone new starting, they're not going to have that kind of awareness, are they? So it becomes much, much more difficult.

[B]

Yeah. So watching things change or not getting stressed out or freak out when I see stuff and retail of like some distributor will design something and they'll put like cans on it that we discontinued four years ago and I'm just like, like, what is going. It's like seeing that stuff, it's like, okay, calm down, it's okay. We'll talk to them, they'll get it. You know, whereas before I'd be like driving to that store to rip it down. So. So no, it's been hard with that. But it's just to me, it comes down to all that means to me is I'm still very passionate about the business and there's still a lot to do. And yeah, I'm excited to see it still grow.

[A]

Now you're in a really, really unique position here. As you said, probably the most fastest growing successful startup for independent startup in soft drinks. If you were starting something today, right here, right now, what would you do? Now, I don't mean in terms of like, what would you create, but what would be your advice to. Yeah, making something work.

[B]

Yeah. So there's two things I would 100% recommend getting on TikTok today. I think a lot of brands think it has to be perfect or you have to have someone help you or an intern or someone else run it for you. I say like, hey, they're like, well, I don't know what the logo is going to look like. Get on and ask. Show the two logos, have people vote. What color should I do? Like back in the day, if we were on white cans or colored cans, just ask it on. And all that does is you might get two views. You could get 200 views. But look, I'm at 2 billion views. Right. Like, you kind of have to start somewhere. So that's always a really big piece of advice. And it's okay if you don't want to be the face of the company. There's so many ways you can get creative within it and just showing the product or having your employees do it or asking, you know, someone else that wants to do. You can hire people now that will be like a face your brand. I'm not even kidding you. So like, don't think that there's not a way. And then I think for me a really big one is like, my favorite quote is like, if you get no, you're talking to the wrong person. So something that I've always learned is no is not always a bad thing. And I know everyone's like, oh, sales, you know, yeah, we've heard this before. But you have to figure out a way to get the yes without bulldozing. So I think if you can find a way to get your way, kindly persuasive as a good leader is way more effective than trying to do it by bulldozing and just like telling people what to do. So with business it's like get on social, never take no, say yes and figure it out later and be kind along the way.

[A]

That's good tactic actually, because everyone hates that stereotypical salesman type approach, which is just like badgering you constantly about why you should buy rather than kind of thinking about what the customer needs and how to get around their objections and think creatively.

[B]

Find a way.

[A]

Yeah, that's a good idea. Good advice. Well, listen, it's been absolutely brilliant talking to you. I've thoroughly enjoyed this and it's really inspiring. As I said, spent a lot of years in this category and it's just amazing to see what you've done in a short space of time.

[B]

Oh well, thanks for having me.

[A]

So here's the future and here's hopefully to a few more uncensored CMO TikToks because I've been getting a masterclass from the we're on it one herself.

[B]

So excited.

[A]

So it's coming to a TikTok near you.

[B]

Cheers.

[A]

Thank you. Cheers. Thank you very much for listening or watching Uncensored cmo. I hope you enjoyed that. If you did, please do hit the subscribe button wherever you get your podcast. If you're watching, hit subscribe there as well. I'd also love to get a review. Reviews make a big difference on other people discovering the show, so please do leave a review wherever you get your podcast. If you want to contact me, you can do I'm over on X ncensoredcmo or on LinkedIn where I'm under my own name, John Evans. Thanks for listening and watching. I'll see you next.