Inside the Summer of poppi: How the Soda Brand Turned Culture Into a Growth Strategy
From “Love Island” and Rush Week to “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and Miami Swim Week, poppi’s VP of Culture Sophia Sesto explains how the soda brand is building partnerships around the communities and moments consumers already care about.
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For many brands, summer marketing is built around one major campaign. poppi spread its bets.
Rather than relying on a single tentpole, the soda brand built its summer strategy around partnerships spanning entertainment, college communities, retail, travel and social.
“poppi has always moved at the speed of culture—and that means staying close to where our audience is spending their time and attention,” said Sophia Sesto, poppi’s VP of Culture, in an exclusive interview with LA Times Studios.
“Consumers don’t experience summer through one campaign or channel; they move between entertainment, fashion, travel, retail, and social every day,” she said. “Our approach allows poppi to move with them and become part of multiple moments that matter.”
The strategy gave each partnership a distinct role. Love Island connected poppi to an established fandom, Spider-Man: Brand New Day brought blockbuster scale to a product launch, and BÉIS extended the brand into summer travel.
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From Organic Moment to Global Partnership
Poppi’s relationship with Love Island began organically last summer, when the viral “Amaya Papaya” moment inspired the brand to launch Amaya’s Island Colada in just 12 weeks.
“We listen to our audience, and when they create a cultural moment for us, we move quickly,” Sesto said.
The fan-driven moment became a proof point for the connection between poppi and the Love Island audience. According to Sesto, the Amaya meme became poppi’s most-liked Instagram post ever.
This season, poppi became an official global partner of the franchise, building a 360-degree campaign around limited-edition Punch Pop x Love Island USA. The campaign spanned retail, in-show integrations, creator content, watch parties, giveaways and live experiences across the U.S. and U.K.
“Following the success of Amaya’s Island Colada, we knew there was room to grow, especially as poppi expanded into the U.K.,” Sesto said. “It allowed us to turn an organic moment into a global platform while preserving the energy that made fans care in the first place.”
Poppi also brought the partnership to college campuses during Rush Week, building on its existing student ambassador, chapter partnership and campus creator programs.
The brand partnered with 20 sorority chapters and created more than 28,000 pieces of custom merchandise. The program generated more than $4.7 million in earned media value, while three Islander collaborations delivered more than 1.2 million engagements and 15.6 million views.
One Love Island recruitment post became poppi’s most-liked organic post of the year.
“Those results showed us how powerful an activation can become when digital fandom is translated into an experience people can participate in and share themselves,” Sesto said.
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Making the Campaign Part of the Experience
That emphasis on participation also shaped poppi’s Sour Apple launch.
The brand partnered with Lil Sweet Treat on an exclusive Sour Apple gummy and took over locations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In SoHo, a “Peel + Win” billboard invited consumers to remove one of 500 green apple stickers for a chance to win a product mailer. All 500 were claimed within hours.
“‘Peel + Win’ took that same behavior IRL, turning a traditional billboard into something fans could uncover—and experience—together,” Sesto said.
For Sesto, the activation demonstrates why poppi looks beyond traditional reach metrics.
“Impressions tell us how many people may have seen an idea. Participation tells us the idea was compelling enough to make someone stop, act, and share it with their own community,” she said.
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Keeping the Product in the Picture
Poppi’s partnerships crossed reality television, college campuses, film and travel, but the brand applies the same test to each opportunity.
“We begin every partnership with the same question: Does this make sense for poppi and our community?”
The answer also has to connect back to what poppi sells.
“At the end of the day, we sell soda, so there needs to be a product focus,” Sesto said.
With Love Island, poppi became part of watch parties and the nightly fan conversation. BÉIS translated the partnership into travel products and an experience at Miami Swim Week. Spider-Man: Brand New Day connected the launch of Lemonade to the film through original creative, on-screen integration and limited-edition packaging.
“The creative execution can change depending on the partner, but the experience should always feel distinctly poppi,” Sesto said.
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Measuring What Happens After the Campaign
The metrics also change depending on the partnership.
“For a product collaboration, we look at sales and retail performance. For an experiential idea, participation, social buzz, earned and consumer response may tell us more,” Sesto said.
Across the portfolio, poppi also evaluates whether it is bringing new consumers into the brand and strengthening its cultural relevance.
The Love Island campaign illustrates how those measures can work together. According to Sesto, poppi’s owned content generated more than 33 million impressions with a 16% engagement rate. Content from collaborators generated more than 212 million views and over 11 million engagements. Weekly giveaways brought in more than 8,000 new email subscribers and 3,000 new SMS subscribers, while the partnership generated more than 1.35 billion press impressions.
“Those results showed us that consumers were engaging in the moment and choosing to continue their relationship with poppi afterward,” she said.
What the Summer of poppi Shows About Culture Marketing
There is a practical lesson in poppi’s approach that goes beyond the individual campaigns.
The brand did not treat cultural partnerships as isolated sponsorships. Instead, it used them as entry points into places where its audience was already spending attention, then connected those moments to products, experiences, social conversation and, in some cases, ongoing relationships with the brand.
That also explains why the strategy requires selectivity. Sesto said her role covers talent, social, influencer, college, events and partnerships, with the team evaluating opportunities on more than potential reach.
“It may not seem like it, but we are extremely selective with what, who, and how we engage with culture,” she said.
“Every partnership must feel authentic, reinforce our brand identity, and give consumers a genuine reason to participate.”
For brands considering a similar approach, the takeaway from poppi’s summer is not simply to pursue more partnerships. It is to make each one serve a clear purpose: reach an existing community, create a reason to engage, connect the experience back to the product and understand what consumers do next.
That is what turned poppi’s summer from a collection of partnerships into a connected growth strategy, with culture serving not just as a backdrop for the brand, but as a way to build deeper and more lasting consumer relationships.
