Poppi, Skims, Olipop and Vuori are among the brands featured in today’s roundup.
Each week, we publish all the major news in the direct-to-consumer industry, focusing on the shift to retail shelves, tracking financials of major players in the space, as well as highlighting executive appointments and exits. This week we take a look at how DTCs are marketing around Super Bowl Sunday.
Have DTC tips or news to share? Email Phoebe Bain at [email protected].
Poppi: The upstart soda brand will make its Super Bowl debut with a 60-second ad sometime between the second and fourth quarters, marking a major moment for the alternative to more traditional sodas such as Coke and Pepsi. The ad, from Virtue Worldwide, is an extension of a 30-second spot that ran during the Grammy Awards and hypes a new era for soda drinking.
Liquid Death: The water brand with a strong e-commerce presence is relying on the strength of its retail partnerships for its “Biggest Ad Ever” Super Bowl marketing stunt. Liquid Death is auctioning off ad space on 500,000 of its boxes via eBay. It says the ads will reach the 200 million people who walk through the aisles of its retailers in a given week … which the brand is trumpeting as more people than those who watch the Super Bowl. The Big Game drew 115 million viewers last year. A video promoting the effort (below) was created in-house.
Primal Kitchen: The DTC condiment brand, which created a viral “seemingly ranch” sauce in response to a Taylor Swift meme, is taking its marketing efforts to Las Vegas to seize on the Super Bowl hype. The brand plans to be “shelling out free wings at Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate this weekend,” in addition to a wider influencer and out-of-home campaign, a brand spokesperson wrote in an email. Primal Kitchen’s in-house team and OOH agency Quan Media Group were behind the effort.
Vuori: While the DTC athleisure brand won’t be in Vegas for the game, it will show up in living rooms across the country with a 30-second ad during CBS’s pregame coverage. The national, in-house ad depicts people working out in Vuori clothing across various beautiful landscapes. Vuori will run additional spots in San Diego, the brand’s hometown.
Graza: Instead of celebrating the Super Bowl, DTC olive oil brand Graza is focusing its efforts on the “Souper Bowl,” parodying the Big Game to suggest a use case for its product. This week Graza has been running a contest on social media inviting customers to tag them in posts showing the soups they made with Graza products. The winner will receive free Graza olive oil, merch and more.
Also read: Behind Graza founder Andrew Benin’s unorthodox approach
True Classic: The DTC menswear company is collaborating with its social agency of record, nmbl, for its “Accidental Collabs” campaign that will run on social media platforms during the Super Bowl. When any food, beverage, or makeup brand runs an ad, True Classic will post a clip of that product accidentally spilling on one of its T-shirts. “The fashion industry is all about brand collabs—exclusive, expensive, hard-to-get limited editions,” the brand said in press materials. “True Classic is the exception.
Olipop: The prebiotic soda brand is debuting a branded “Tailgate Rug” in honor of the fans that will inevitably get stuck sitting on the floor at Super Bowl parties all over America. The mini-rug, naturally, provides a “spill-free” spot to hold a can of Olipop. It’s offering a chance to win the rug in time for game day on Instagram.
Skims partnered with Usher, who is playing the Super Bowl halftime show this year, to promote its new men’s underwear collection drop.
More from Ad Age: Watch Apple Music’s Usher Super Bowl ad
