• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer, 5 hours ago

The creator economy is noisy, oversaturated, and nearly impossible to measure — and Allison Ellsworth, co-founder and chief brand officer of Poppi, thinks that's exactly the point. Ellsworth, whose prebiotic soda brand was acquired by PepsiCo last year, is one of the contributors to SolComms' State of Brand 2026 report, being presented this week at SXSW. The report's central argument — that anything that can influence a consumer will influence a consumer — plays out vividly in how Poppi built its creator strategy: not with spreadsheets, but with a vibe. She shares some of her insights with CPG Insider.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

CPG Insider: You've become a champion of the two-page creator brief. Where did that discipline come from?

Allison Ellsworth: We once did a "Soda's Back" campaign [with influencers] and sent out 10-page briefs. The content flopped — no engagement, no sales. The insight was obvious in hindsight: People follow [comedian] Jake Shane because of Jake Shane's content. They're not following him to hear him talk about how soda's back.

So we flipped it. Tell us three things — tastes great, five grams of sugar, prebiotics — pick one, and go have fun. We had one creator just absolutely lose it about how much she usually hated orange cream flavors, but ours was “the only fucking orange cream she loved.” Most brands would have killed that. We let it fly. She talked the way she talks to her audience. It didn't feel like an ad. 

CPG Insider: When you're working with thousands of creators a year, how do you measure what's working?

Ellsworth: You can't. There's absolutely no way. At the scale we operate — three to five thousand creators a year — it is a gut feeling. What you can do is make sure you're hitting your verticals: moms, creators of color, men, different lifestyle niches. You want diversity across the board. But tying it back to a sales KPI? We genuinely didn't care to do that. It was a vibe. And I think that's actually what we did right.

CPG Insider: Most brands aren't founder-led. What's the transferable lesson for a brand manager at a large company who didn't start the brand?

Ellsworth: Some founders are terrified to be on camera, and honestly, that's okay. What's not okay is not being on digital platforms. You have to have a TikTok, an Instagram, you have to play in YouTube Shorts.

It does not have to be your face. Right now, I'm maybe in one out of every forty Poppi videos. We have three women on our team making content that is wildly engaging. And if you hire someone and they leave? The internet forgets in about three days. Just play in the platform. Be digital first. And don't try to copy what worked for us — figure out what works for your brand. 

CPG Insider: How do you catch a cultural moment before every other brand does?

Ellsworth: We don't follow trends — we set them. The difference is being in the room when it happens. Take something like the Met Gala – you just know something will happen there. So we have a designer, a copywriter, and our social team on a Zoom, texting in real time, brainstorming live. Most brands wake up the next morning, see what others did, and jump on it.

Last summer, during “Love Island,” we were watching in real time as America fell in love with Amaya. We posted a meme about an Amaya Papaya Poppi flavor. It went viral. People picked it up. Afterwards, every brand was doing Amaya Papaya something. We were first.

CPG Insider: You bet on Alix Earle and Jake Shane before they were famous. But I bet that means you also picked many that turned out to be duds.

Ellsworth: Don't think of any creator as a dud, because micro-influencers — someone with ten thousand followers — actually convert really well. Their audience trusts them. Someone with two million followers? Half of them are there because a friend said they were cool.

The smaller creators are authentic. The goal isn't to find the next Alix Earle. It's to find someone you can grow with. We worked with Alix when she was still in college and with Jake when he had 90,000 followers. Long-term partnerships are everything. Too many brands don’t know that. 

CPG Insider: Poppi was acquired by PepsiCo. Does the creator community treat you differently now?

Ellsworth: The agents think we have $50 million more dollars to spend. We don't. But the brand is still loved, and Pepsi has been serious about letting Poppi be Poppi. They didn't acquire a product — they acquired a brand. That's the distinction big companies have finally started to understand. T

he ones that fumble acquisitions treat what they bought like a SKU. We kept our whole team. They stay out of the marketing. Time will tell, but so far, they let us do a “Vibes Thing” Super Bowl ad with Charli XCX. That's a good sign.

CPG Insider: Advice to your 25-year-old self?

Ellsworth: Have more fun along the way. I worked eighty-hour weeks, spreadsheets every night. But here's the thing — if you don't love what you're doing, it's stress. If you love it, it's passion. I was passionate every step of the way. So I wouldn't change much. I'm just now getting motivated to start the next thing. My golf game is terrible. I can't just be retired at 39.