PepsiCo-owned Poppi soda is back on college campuses for the third year in hopes of winning the back-to-school marketing season — and the brand has new tricks up its sleeve.
“We just hit a milestone on our application for our [paid student] ambassador program,” Sophia Sesto, Poppi’s vp of culture, told Glossy. “There are over 11,000 applicants [so far this year], so our team jokes it’s easier to get into an Ivy League [university], which is less than a 2% acceptance rate, than it is to get into the Poppi ambassador program.”
After two successful back-to-school seasons, the better-for-you soda leader is expanding its reach on campus by hiring 250 paid student ambassadors for semester-long partnerships, official partnerships with 20 sorority chapters, and a merchandise collection available at Target including mini fridges, robes, pillows and more dorm essentials.
The company is also beta-testing a new ‘ambassador crew” program that taps best-friend groups of up to four people for paid on-campus group content creation.
“Not everybody wants to be creating content on their own,” Sesto said. “This was an exciting idea from the team; we’re always trying to figure out what’s new, what’s next and how we continue rewriting this on-campus playbook.”
Sesto told Glossy that the majority of partnership deals start with inbound interest, with sorority charters often reaching out to partner in exchange for free soda, merch and more to support rush week, the pivotal week in on-campus Greek life when charters select their new recruits.
There is no follower benchmark to be one of the hundreds hired by Poppi. It’s more based on who can create great content that features Poppi in an organic way. The ambassador crew program launched this year and is being rolled out to the U.K. in 2027.
Each month, ambassadors receive a brief from Poppi that includes messaging highlights, such as when a new product launches, as well as its flavor and sugar content. The actual content is not prescriptive, but all videos are approved before the creator or group posts them.
“They’re based across over 150 different campuses nationwide, and they have a digital reach of over 19 million with their followings combined,” Sesto said. “Being able to share the Poppi lens through their voices and their experiences is so valuable to us.”
Beyond content, ambassadors share insider knowledge with the Poppi team around where students hang out, what they like and how to best reach them.
“A part of our ambassador program is students actually identify [on- and off-campus] hotspots,” Sesto said. “So, what is the cool coffee shop that everybody studies at and hangs out at? And then we’re able to bring those amazing accounts to our sales team to go and try and get Poppi there.”
This access also provides location scouting for OOH activations, Sesto said. “We’ve been able to have some incredible away-from-home launches [through this intel].”
Finally, ambassadors are also expected to distribute a specified number of free sodas per month in an organic way. That is, it’s less about handing them out to strangers on the quad, and more about bringing them to a party or event to share.
“[We ask them to] bring Poppi to different places on campus [that they identify] as a new thing going on campus so they can get Poppi there,” Sesto said.
The Poppi team will also distribute more than 28,000 pieces of free merch on campuses and plan various activations, including air-brush merch personalization stations, large-scale displays for #RushTok backgrounds and sorority fridges packed with free Poppi year-round.
But Poppi is targeting more than just #RushTok, the TikTok trend-turned-marketing channel tapped by makeup brand Tarte, mall apparel brand American Eagle and many more brands over the past few years. Poppi has dedicated just 25% of its million-plus samples to rush week, with Sesto telling Glossy that the brand’s 250 ambassadors are diversified between Greek life, student athletes, social media standouts, friend groups and other student archetypes.
Outside of free soda, free merch and side-hustle compensation, the program is also appealing for aspiring influencers, Sesto said.
Standouts from past seasons include Genevieve Augustin (@genny on TikTok), a business administration student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, who grew from 900 to 6,000 followers through her Poppi role. She recently shared her story on TikTok. Then there is Marissa Tapiz, or @marissatapiz on TikTok, a Middle Georgia State University student who grew her follower base from 10,000 to 20,000 in one year.
As word grows, ambassador applications have skyrocketed from under 300 in Poppi’s inaugural push in spring 2025 to 6,100 in spring 2026 and 11,000 this fall.
“We are the modern soda for the next generation,” Sesto said. “We want to be the soda along for the journey.”
Week in Review
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- For years, the now-defunct Standard Hotel on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles made headlines and TV cameos, including on “Sex and the City,” for its lobby art installation, “The Box,” which featured a napping individual on 24/7 display. Now, Netflix is leveraging the concept just a few miles down Sunset. As reported by People Magazine, Netflix has hired a man to live in a windowed billboard to promote a new dystopian drama called “The Last House.”
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