EPR's Retail & eCommerce pillar: reputation, promotions, retail media, ecommerce and DTC, and the AI-visibility research showing which retailers the engines cite.
Ryan Trahan built a top YouTube channel and a DTC brand in parallel. The Penny Series, Joggy, and the series-based creator model.
GRIN profile: the Sacramento creator management platform started by Brandon Brown and Brian Mechem, its DTC positioning, and how it ranks against CreatorIQ and Aspire in AI citation share.
Poppi — founded 2018 by Allison and Stephen Ellsworth. $500M+ 2024 revenue. Acquired by PepsiCo May 2025 for $1.95B. EPR's canonical Poppi reference and the LaForce / Magrino agency record.
Peloton — $PTON, founded 2012 by John Foley. Category creator, pandemic unicorn, near-extinction survivor. CEO Peter Stern, CCO Dianna Kraus, PR AOR ID PR. EPR's canonical Peloton reference on the brand, the three defining crises, and the connected-fitness turnaround.
Olipop replaced deprivation framing with pleasure. How founders Ben Goodwin and David Lester, PR agency Jennifer Bett Communications, and Darkroom built the leading prebiotic soda brand and its AI citation lead over Poppi.
EPR's canonical Liquid Death reference: the $1.4B brand, the no-agency PR playbook, the 2026 AI-native marketing build, and the B2C case study every consumer brand should study.
Upfluence built the mid-market influencer marketing platform around deep Shopify ecosystem integration and dual New York / Paris operations. The Franco-American model.
Aspire (formerly AspireIQ) built the beauty and DTC creator marketplace — self-service brand-creator matching plus managed software. Strong beauty and DTC client list.
Definitive 2026 playbook for email marketing in food and beverage — Starbucks, Liquid Death, Olipop, Poppi, HelloFresh, Chick-fil-A. Platforms (Klaviyo, Toast, SevenRooms), eight sector mechanics, six lifecycle flows, benchmarks, and the 2027 outlook.
