The challenge: Make a brand-new soda part of Gen Z culture in a category Sprite has led for decades.
- 5.3% market share in year one for a challenger brand facing a leader with an estimated 65% to 70% of the market.
- 187.5M+ impressions from 250 pieces of creator content.
- 5% lift in Gen Z brand preference and a 6% lift in awareness, compared with the U.S. general population.
- 205 creators, always on. A steady stream of creator content replaced the usual hero campaign.
- Revenue ahead of plan in both retail and foodservice.
Breaking into a category Sprite has owned for decades
Lemon-lime soda is one of the hardest categories in beverage to break into. Sprite has led it for decades, with an estimated 65% to 70% of the U.S. market. PepsiCo's previous entry, Sierra Mist, never gained real traction against that kind of familiarity.
STARRY was PepsiCo's second try, and it took a different approach. Instead of another mass-market soda launch, STARRY was built as a challenger brand for Gen Z, one that would win through creators, humor, and internet culture rather than polished celebrity advertising.
PMG's job was to make a young brand feel like it already belonged in Gen Z's corner of the internet, while competing against brands with decades of built-in recognition.
An always-on creator ecosystem
Gen Z doesn't find beverage brands through ads. They find them through creators, memes, niche communities, and the loose, entertaining content that lands on the TikTok For You Page. A polished brand spot gets scrolled past. Content that sounds like the platform gets shared.
So PMG skipped the single hero campaign and built an always-on creator ecosystem instead, designed to keep STARRY in Gen Z culture continuously and in real time. Relevance also isn't one-size-fits-all. Different communities respond to different humor, looks, and creators, so the plan was to show up in many corners of the internet at once.
The idea behind all of it was simple: make creator-led moments so common that STARRY felt less like advertising and more like part of internet culture.
Flooding the For You Page
STARRY Hits Different ran as a continuous stream of creator content, not a handful of tentpoles. PMG partnered with 205 micro, mid-tier, and macro creators across comedy, food, lifestyle, gaming, family, nostalgia, and multicultural communities. That deliberately broad mix kept STARRY visible across TikTok at the same time.
Creators were chosen for cultural relevance, audience fit, humor style, and authenticity. Then they were given room to fold STARRY into their own formats instead of reading a script, which is what kept the content feeling organic rather than interruptive. Seasonal moments plugged into the same system. The Cranberry Blizz holiday campaign leaned into family nostalgia and Gen Z holiday humor to make the limited-edition flavor part of modern holiday culture.
Throughout the year, Alli brought together audience sentiment, social listening, creator performance data, and Reddit and TikTok trend monitoring. The team could see cultural shifts as they happened and keep adjusting which creators and storytelling styles got more investment.
Cultural relevance that showed up in sales
In the first year, STARRY Hits Different generated more than 187.5 million blended impressions from 250 pieces of creator content. TikTok engagement reached 7.79%, and creator-led content consistently beat traditional branded social.
The work changed how Gen Z saw the brand, not just how many people saw it. Among Gen Z, STARRY's awareness rose 6% and brand preference rose 5% compared with the U.S. general population.
Those gains showed up commercially. STARRY beat its revenue expectations in both retail and foodservice and captured 5.3% market share in its first year. The Cranberry Blizz holiday moment proved the model on a smaller scale, with 55.2 million total impressions (6.3 million organic) and 92% positive sentiment.
