See Olipop’s first major campaign starring Camila Cabello

Olipop—dubbed “the TikTok soda” due to its popularity on the platform—debuted its first TV ad campaign today. The campaign, called “Real Love Makes Us,” includes a 30-second ad starring Grammy-nominated singer and Olipop investor Camila Cabello.

Also read: Inside Olipop's influencer marketing strategy

Cabello’s friends and family, including her mother and grandmother, make appearances in the spot. They are shown sharing laughs around the dinner table and partaking in living room karaoke. 

“For the first three years of our company, we were really focused on the concept—explaining what this thing is,” Olipop co-founder David Lester said. “It’s the delicious, refreshing, nostalgic, soda you love, without the sugar, and [with] better-for-you ingredients.” 

Olipop’s sodas have 2 to 5 grams of sugar, depending on the variety, as well as nine grams of fiber, according to its website.  That compares with 39 grams of sugar in 12-ounce cans of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

About a year ago, at the “inflection point” of the company’s growth, Lester said the team decided it was time to start advertising. Olipop's sales grew 223% in 2022, making it the fastest-growing refrigerated functional beverage in the U.S., according to the brand. 

Olipop tapped Squint Consulting to work on the campaign with Cabello. Mark Lester, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Squint Consulting, said his team spoke with Olipop drinkers and found that they most associate the soda with spending time with loved ones. 

“Coca-Cola and a lot of the traditional Big Soda players are known as symbols of friendship and family love; and we kind of feel they've lost their way a little in talking about that,” Lester said. “We wanted to come back and reclaim that space for soda in American life with a soda that's actually good for you.”

Cabello starred in the ad not only because of her status as an Olipop investor but also due to how important her family has been to her career, according to the brand. “She's very, very close to their family—they're on the Zoom calls with us,” Lester said before telling a story about how Cabello’s grandmother helped her “find her voice” to pursue singing. 

The ad will air on connected TV channels such as Hulu and Peacock. It will also run paid social media ads on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, and Cabello is expected to post about it on her owned social media channels, too. The campaign will last six months, Lester said. 

While Lester declined to disclose how much of its marketing budget the brand spent on the campaign, he said that it’s Olipop’s “biggest spend to date by an order of magnitude.”