When Steven Spielberg needed to sell Jaws to audiences in 1975, he didn't rely on complex character development or emotional backstories. 

He showed a shark. He showed teeth.
He showed danger. 

The simplicity worked because audiences immediately understood what they were getting.

That same principle applies to launching CPG brands in competitive retail stores. OLIPOP proved this during their most recent breakthrough—a nationwide Costco rollout.  The results hit every business goal: an increased brand lift, over a massive audience of Costco shoppers , and search activity spiked as people actively looked for OLIPOP on shelves.

The prebiotic soda brand went from being sold in 40 natural grocery stores in 2019 to over 65,000 stores by 2025, including major chains like Costco, Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods. The brand was built on a clear purpose: make a soda that impacts human health at scale while still giving them the emotional comfort and nostalgia they’ve always loved about soda.  

After seven years of building their $1.8 billion brand, Steven Vigilante, Director of Media and Partnerships at OLIPOP, tried something they'd never done before during their spring 2025 Costco launch.

"We had never done something like that before," Vigilante says. "We'd never run a pure product campaign."

When nobody knows what you're selling

OLIPOP faces a challenge that haunts every emerging CPG brand: building sufficient consumer awareness to compete against legacy brands on retail shelves. 

The challenge got harder during major retail launches, where brands are building long-term recognition.

As one of the first employees at OLIPOP since 2018, Vigilante watched the brand create a whole new category.

First came the product confusion by consumers. "We used to call [OLIPOP sodas] a sparkling tonic, because we didn't think people at Erewhon or Whole Foods would buy something that said soda on it," he recalls. "No one knew what a sparkling tonic was, and it didn't sound appetizing."

Even their cola flavor originally launched as "Cinnamon Cola" back then. 

"We learned that one in three people don't like cinnamon, and wouldn't even try it. People would ask, does it taste like fireball?" 

They changed it to Vintage Cola, and it went from their worst-performing product to one of their best.

Oftentimes campaigns focused on emotional narratives rather than product clarity, creating expensive content that led viewers to follow complex stories before understanding what the product actually was.

"If you have to sit through a whole 30-second script to understand what's going on, you've already lost,” he adds. “At the time (2020/2021), we just didn’t have enough brand awareness to justify that type of campaign yet."

This worked for premium brands but failed when competing for attention in mass-market stores, where people decide what to buy in seconds, not minutes.

Never late for basics

Vigilante believed that direct product campaigns with clear calls to action would work better for OLIPOP at this stage of the business, especially for launches that need quick sales in competitive retail stores. Mainly because it combined product clarity with smart media planning.

OLIPOP would test whether clear product communication could drive both quick sales and long-term brand building at the same time—borrowing a page from the e-commerce playbook where brands show exactly what they're selling and where to buy it.

How to launch at major retailers like OLIPOP

The product-first process featured below came from OLIPOP's breakthrough campaigns that drove real retail success across major chains. The better-for-you soda brand built this system through the Costco nationwide launch, and the SpongeBob Movie collaboration, which he notes as “one of my favorite campaigns we’ve ever run” for its integrated media execution and direct call-to-action results. 

Whether pushing consumers to visit a specific store (Costco) or driving them to see a movie while trying a limited-edition flavor (SpongeBob Pineapple Paradise), the same principles applied: clear product communication with direct calls to action that tell people exactly what to get and where to get it.

This has since become a part of OLIPOP's winning playbook for competing against legacy beverage brands in mass market stores:

Make Clear Product-Focused Creative

OLIPOP created ads that quickly showed what the product was and where to buy it without needing complex stories. "Our Costco campaign was a pure product campaign where we were pushing this new Costco variety pack with a CTA that it is available at Costco," he adds.

By ditching a complex story, OLIPOP cut through the noise and told consumers what they need to know: what to get and where to get it.

The impetus behind their Spongebob Movie partnership came from their desire to solve their ongoing brand awareness challenge. They managed to do that by leveraging the Paramount IP’s massive recognition in their SpongeBob Movie partnership. The campaign leveraged animated TV and social assets (created in Partnership with Paramount) with SpongeBob and OLIPOP's pineapple flavor, making people instantly recognize the product through the famous character while clearly showing the flavor.

Build a Complete Multi-Channel Media Plan

Product-focused ads made it easy to keep the same message consistent across all the places customers shop. "We could run the media on Instacart, and we could run it on Costco.com, and it was simple and direct," Vigilante says about putting ads where people are thinking about buying.

The plan included local radio ads for nearby markets, plus YouTube and social media platforms (Meta, TikTok) to reach more people.

The SpongeBob collaboration leveraged coordinated TV ads through the Paramount partnership with digital influencer content, experiential pop-ups, NASCAR wrapping, and Roblox gaming integration—all while maintaining the same clear product messaging across every touchpoint.

Add Organic and Influencer Content

The paid ads created chances for organic content that gets people to visit specific stores instead of just knowing about the brand. "We had influencers go to stores, buy some OLIPOP and Costco gift cards, and then give them away on their social pages. This is how campaigns should work for an emerging brand in 2025," he recalls about the wholesale retailer launch.

OLIPOP used creator-led content that introduced the product to new audiences while getting people to visit specific store locations.

Breaking rules to build a billion-dollar brand

OLIPOP's willingness to experiment and go against legacy playbooks has contributed to their meteoric growth from 40 stores in SF and LA to 65,000+ retail locations nationwide and now over 5 billion views on TikTok. When legacy brands are trapped by their own complexity, speed and clarity become your competitive advantage.

Most brands wouldn't achieve this success in 80 years, let alone 7. 

But OLIPOP did.