Move over, Coca-Cola and Pepsi—the next soft drink duo duking it out to win market share are prebiotic soda makers Poppi and Olipop.
The two brands recently ended up in a social media scuffle when Poppi sent 32 full-sized vending machines to big influencers to promote its $8 million Super Bowl ad. Backlash was swift, as TikTok creators posted videos calling Poppi’s influencer gifting strategy tone-deaf and wanting to know why the brand hadn’t sent the vending machines to places where more people could use them.
Competitor Olipop was quick to pile on, claiming on X that the vending machines cost $25,000 each. Poppi, for its part, claims the $25,000 price tag is inflated by 60%. The brand also told ADWEEK that the vending machines were loaners, not gifts, and will be reused in the future.
“This marks the first of many phases in this campaign,” according to a spokeswoman for Poppi. “As our beloved community has always been at the forefront of the Poppi brand, these machines will be rolling out to them via events, social giveaways and nominations in the weeks to come.”
All told, Poppi racked up 26.9 million TikTok views between Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 9 and Feb. 14, according to data from Tubular Labs. Olipop had 10 million views in the same time period.
Super Bowl aside, the two brands have far different marketing strategies and are the biggest players in the functional soda space made up of healthier soda products. In September, Circana reported that sales of functional soda brands hit $1 billion over a 52-week period. This week, Coca-Cola announced that it’s launching a prebiotic soda called Simply Pop.
ADWEEK spoke to two influencer marketing experts to break down Poppi and Olipop’s brand strategies.
Poppi loves influencers
Poppi has long leaned into influencers to grow a following on social media with its own marketing world of merch, IRL events, and bright packaging.
“Influencers have always really been a cornerstone of Poppi’s marketing strategy, and I think they’ve done a lot of things very well,” said Cait Marron, svp of creative strategy at Billion Dollar Boy.