Building a Network Effect to Drive a Wide Range of Awareness

Key Takeaways

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OLIPOP was able to build steady growth on their website into 2021 and maintain a large range of website visitors by focusing on strong marketing initiatives in different areas.

YouTube Sponsorships: 

• Diversifying Audiences: OLIPOP leveraged creators with pre-existing and trusting audiences to promote and support their products. 
• ‍Creating Organic Messaging: OLIPOP uses a traditional style of advertising where creators talk about their experience with the product.‍
• Building a Strong User Experience: OLIPOP works with their partners to direct traffic to the website through tailored landing pages that welcome fans of the creator with bold letters and clearly state a discount code they’re offering. 

‍Instagram Partnerships:

• Expanding Reach: OLIPOP works with brands in industries completely different from their initial offering but that act as a compliment to their product. ‍
• Engaging New Customer Personas: OLIPOP’s contest partners boast a wide range of different customer types who all have different lifestyles that can easily be applied to their sodas. ‍
• Making it Bite-Sized: OLIPOP breaks up their partnerships into several contests instead of lumping them into one so that entering is manageable for viewers. 

‍External & Internal Referrals:

• Creating Connections: OLIPOP has been able to build a unique and innovative product that acts as a disruptor to the pre-existing pop industry. This has built interest in the brand for their ability to produce new ways of marketing their products that people are writing about as inspiration.
• ‍Exploring Sponsorship: OLIPOP finds initiatives to sponsor where their logo will be presented on the landing page and direct back to their website. ‍
• Allowing the Message to Spread: OLIPOP is able to build a strong impact on a new visitors’ point of contact with their site. They provide a referral program that allows visitors to send 15% off to a friend who can then give the visitor 15% off post-purchase. 

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OLIPOP, a healthy soda alternative, has built a strong strategy across different networks to engage and foster a range of demographics. 

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Since January 2020, OLIPOP has seen steady growth in web visits to their site. In January - April 2021, they saw a +114% increase in traffic over the previous period. 

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OLIPOP has a varied demographic of visitors. Appealing almost equally to women and men while maintaining a broad range of age groups on the site. 

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Since the end of 2020 to April 2021, OLIPOP’s marketing channels have all seen significant growth in traffic generation.

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OLIPOP has leveraged their marketing channels through:

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1. YouTube Sponsorships

‍OLIPOP has built a strong influencer network on YouTube to promote and advocate for their sodas and how they fare against competitors.

By April 2021, 84.5% of social traffic came through YouTube. However OLIPOP only created their own channel in June 2021, so all original traffic stemmed from sponsored content. Out of OLIPOP’s top organic pages in 2021, 35% of traffic was generated through affiliate pages for two YouTube sponsors.

Diversify Your Audience. OLIPOP leveraged creators with pre-existing and trusting audiences to promote and support their products. No two creators they work with have the same demographic reach and they all specialize in different content.

Create Organic Messaging. OLIPOP employs a traditional style of advertising messages through “sponsored content” interruptions in the middle of videos. Usually creators introduce them at the beginning then talk in depth about the product halfway through their video.‍

Build a Thorough User Experience. OLIPOP uses their partners to direct traffic to the website through tailored landing pages that welcome fans of the creator with bold letters and clearly state a discount code they’re offering. 

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OLIPOP YouTube Sponsorship Audience. These creators have a majority of their audience in the 25-44 year old age group:

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Sponsored creators direct viewers to a customized landing page that dives into the overall benefits of OLIPOP and how their discount works. Most discounts only apply to a variety pack where buyers can taste each flavour.

2. Instagram Partnerships

Building a presence beyond their current network, OLIPOP curates a diverse stack of businesses to collaborate with through Instagram giveaways. OLIPOP also expands their network by partnering with other businesses on Instagram to run giveaway contests.

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On average, 70% of their contest partners have a female-based audience with the majority of their visitors over the age of 25 years old.

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Build a Successful Social Partnership by:

Expanding Reach. OLIPOP works with brands in industries completely different from their initial offering but that act as a compliment to their product. As seen on the left, each brand they work with carries a different image and representation of their product but all in a tasteful way that ties in with OLIPOP.

Diversifying Customer Personas. OLIPOP’s contest partners boast a wide range of different customer types who all have different lifestyles that can easily be applied to their sodas. From mothers to home cook psychographic audiences, OLIPOP can now reach their partners’ niche community.

Making it Bite-Sized. Focus on giveaways that foster engagement rather than scare contestants away. OLIPOP breaks up their partnerships into several contests instead of lumping them into one so that entries can be more manageable for their followers. 

3. External & Internal Referrals

OLIPOP fosters the public’s ability to build unique stories about them across a range of categories, leading to a well rounded internal referral program.

By being an innovative brand in their offering and digital strategy, OLIPOP has been featured by the press 60+ times in the past year. In their top 20 features, articles have received over 6K engagements. Features fall into the following categories:

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OLIPOP set up an internal referral system on their homepage that enables users to receive discounts if their friends make a purchase.New users coming from the external referrals can then expand OLIPOP’s demographic reach to their networks.

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Building a strong external and internal referral system that can work together requires focusing on:

Creating Multiple Touchpoints. OLIPOP has been able to build a unique and innovative product that acts as a disruptor to the pre-existing pop industry. This has built a lot of interest in the brand on top of their ability to produce new, unique and exciting ways of marketing their products that other people are writing about as inspiration.

Finding On-Page Sponsorship Opportunities. OLIPOP finds initiatives to sponsor where their logo will be presented clearly on the landing page and direct back to their website. This can help reach niche audiences - for example, they sponsor Audio Assemble a platform that amplifies womxn and non-binary artists in the music industry.

Enabling the Message to Spread. OLIPOP is able to build a strong impact on a new visitors’ point of contact with their site. They provide a referral program that allows visitors to send 15% off to a friend who can then give the visitor 15% off post-purchase. This builds on a sticky network effect that can maintain new users and their friends who found the brand through external referrals.