Bubl Cocktail ShotsBringing a New Burst of Energy to the RTD Alcohol Market
Project Overview
Building an Audience for a Product Nobody Had Seen Before
Bubl Cocktail Shots didn’t enter a category; it created one. A ready-to-pop cocktail shot wrapped inside an edible sphere is cool, but with no shelf precedent and no customers asking for it, creating demand was easier said than done. And while a new product with no direct competitor sounds like a dream marketing scenario, it brought a whole new set of challenges — one The Brand Leader® team was up to.
Since 2024, we’ve served as Bubl’s brand, creative, and media partner. We’ve built the brand platform, run organic and paid social, managed creator partnerships, produced product photography and video, developed the website, and launched lifecycle email.
The work has always been two jobs at once: introducing new audiences to Bubl Shots and building a system that’s primed to launch each new flavor faster and more affordably.
(Field Notes)
- Website
- bublshots.com
- @bublshots
- Partnership
- Agency of Record
- Category
- Wine & Spirits
- Social Results
- Follows increased by +450%
- Social Engagement
- 15.5%
01Challenge
Bubl had to explain a product before it could sell one — in a category nobody was looking for.
Spirits marketing runs on familiarity. Most shoppers know what a ready-to-drink beverage is and what to expect from a shot. Bubl was an unknown, a wild card. And even though it promised more fun than the other drinks, it needed a demonstration before it needed a pitch, and no amount of media spend could tell potential customers what to expect.
The distribution math made it harder. Bubl’s retail footprint was concentrated in a handful of East Coast and Gulf states, while paid media was directed toward national direct-to-consumer conversion spending targeting audiences who couldn’t find the product on shelves and weren’t ready to buy an unfamiliar one online.
If that wasn’t enough, there was another challenge. Bubl was expanding its flavor line faster than it could support each release. Every new SKU meant new photography, new packaging, new campaign assets, and a new launch with no template to build from and no consistent brand system to follow.
02Solution
The Brand Leader built the system first, then focused on the markets where Bubl could actually be bought.
Rather than treat every flavor and every campaign as a one-off, we built durable infrastructure, a brand system, a creator bench, a media model matched to real distribution, and a lifecycle email program.
We created:
- Brand guidelines that hold everything together. We established a complete set of guidelines covering color, typography, logo use, and templates across both digital and print. With this in place, every label, package, POS piece, and social post reinforces the same brand, no matter who is building the asset.
- Creator partnerships built to repeat, not to spike. Instead of rotating through one-off influencers, we built a bench of hyperlocal New Jersey creators and re-partnered with them across multiple campaigns to compound audience familiarity with every round.
- Media repositioned to follow the product. We moved paid social off national DTC conversion and onto in-market awareness and storefront engagement, geo-targeted within 50 miles of active retail and on-premise accounts.
- Organic social on a real cadence. Twelve to fifteen posts a month at a three-times-weekly minimum, mixing product education, trend participation, user-generated content, and cocktail inspiration.
- Lifecycle email, built from nothing. A three-flow Klaviyo email program featuring a Welcome, Post-Purchase Retention, and Winback series designed and launched to convert the audience social was building.
- Photography and video content that gives every flavor its own library. Studio and lifestyle production feeding web, social, retail sell sheets, and POS materials.
- A repeatable flavor launch playbook. Shot architecture, channel asset matrix, product page template, paid campaign structure, and creator seeding kits.
03Results
From Industry Unknown to 20,000 Followers (and Counting)
We’re encouraged by what we’ve accomplished so far, and we’re even more excited to see this partnership goes from here. With early results building momentum, it’s clear that Bubl is a brand that’s getting ready to pop!
- Bubl’s third partnership with the same New Jersey creator outperformed the previous two on every metric: views up 37% to 177K, comments up 394%, shares up 218%, and follows drove up more than 450%. Engagement rate reached 15.34% well above the creator’s own baseline on other brand content, and evidence that repeat partnership builds credibility a one-off buy cannot.
- Bubl crossed 20K followers on Instagram with comment sections actively requesting new flavors, new markets, and repeat activations. Organic demand now feeds straight back into product and content planning.
- Repositioning paid social from national DTC to hyperlocal awareness put spend in front of consumers within reach of shelves that actually stock Bubl, trading digital traffic for foot traffic and generating user content as a byproduct.
- With a documented brand system, a standing creator bench, and a launch playbook in place, new Bubl flavors can now reach the market faster and more consistently than the ones before.
Client Testimonial
Let's work together“In a crowded spirits category, BUBL needed to create a moment. Through social-first storytelling and memorable events, we made a new drinking experience people wanted to discover and share.”
Project Overview
Building an Audience for a Product Nobody Had Seen Before
Bubl Cocktail Shots didn’t enter a category; it created one. A ready-to-pop cocktail shot wrapped inside an edible sphere is cool, but with no shelf precedent and no customers asking for it, creating demand was easier said than done. And while a new product with no direct competitor sounds like a dream marketing scenario, it brought a whole new set of challenges — one The Brand Leader® team was up to.
Since 2024, we’ve served as Bubl’s brand, creative, and media partner. We’ve built the brand platform, run organic and paid social, managed creator partnerships, produced product photography and video, developed the website, and launched lifecycle email.
The work has always been two jobs at once: introducing new audiences to Bubl Shots and building a system that’s primed to launch each new flavor faster and more affordably.
(Field Notes)
- Website
- bublshots.com
- @bublshots
- Partnership
- Agency of Record
- Category
- Wine & Spirits
- Social Results
- Follows increased by +450%
- Social Engagement
- 15.5%
01Challenge
Bubl had to explain a product before it could sell one — in a category nobody was looking for.
Spirits marketing runs on familiarity. Most shoppers know what a ready-to-drink beverage is and what to expect from a shot. Bubl was an unknown, a wild card. And even though it promised more fun than the other drinks, it needed a demonstration before it needed a pitch, and no amount of media spend could tell potential customers what to expect.
The distribution math made it harder. Bubl’s retail footprint was concentrated in a handful of East Coast and Gulf states, while paid media was directed toward national direct-to-consumer conversion spending targeting audiences who couldn’t find the product on shelves and weren’t ready to buy an unfamiliar one online.
If that wasn’t enough, there was another challenge. Bubl was expanding its flavor line faster than it could support each release. Every new SKU meant new photography, new packaging, new campaign assets, and a new launch with no template to build from and no consistent brand system to follow.
02Solution
The Brand Leader built the system first, then focused on the markets where Bubl could actually be bought.
Rather than treat every flavor and every campaign as a one-off, we built durable infrastructure, a brand system, a creator bench, a media model matched to real distribution, and a lifecycle email program.
We created:
- Brand guidelines that hold everything together. We established a complete set of guidelines covering color, typography, logo use, and templates across both digital and print. With this in place, every label, package, POS piece, and social post reinforces the same brand, no matter who is building the asset.
- Creator partnerships built to repeat, not to spike. Instead of rotating through one-off influencers, we built a bench of hyperlocal New Jersey creators and re-partnered with them across multiple campaigns to compound audience familiarity with every round.
- Media repositioned to follow the product. We moved paid social off national DTC conversion and onto in-market awareness and storefront engagement, geo-targeted within 50 miles of active retail and on-premise accounts.
- Organic social on a real cadence. Twelve to fifteen posts a month at a three-times-weekly minimum, mixing product education, trend participation, user-generated content, and cocktail inspiration.
- Lifecycle email, built from nothing. A three-flow Klaviyo email program featuring a Welcome, Post-Purchase Retention, and Winback series designed and launched to convert the audience social was building.
- Photography and video content that gives every flavor its own library. Studio and lifestyle production feeding web, social, retail sell sheets, and POS materials.
- A repeatable flavor launch playbook. Shot architecture, channel asset matrix, product page template, paid campaign structure, and creator seeding kits.
03Results
From Industry Unknown to 20,000 Followers (and Counting)
We’re encouraged by what we’ve accomplished so far, and we’re even more excited to see this partnership goes from here. With early results building momentum, it’s clear that Bubl is a brand that’s getting ready to pop!
- Bubl’s third partnership with the same New Jersey creator outperformed the previous two on every metric: views up 37% to 177K, comments up 394%, shares up 218%, and follows drove up more than 450%. Engagement rate reached 15.34% well above the creator’s own baseline on other brand content, and evidence that repeat partnership builds credibility a one-off buy cannot.
- Bubl crossed 20K followers on Instagram with comment sections actively requesting new flavors, new markets, and repeat activations. Organic demand now feeds straight back into product and content planning.
- Repositioning paid social from national DTC to hyperlocal awareness put spend in front of consumers within reach of shelves that actually stock Bubl, trading digital traffic for foot traffic and generating user content as a byproduct.
- With a documented brand system, a standing creator bench, and a launch playbook in place, new Bubl flavors can now reach the market faster and more consistently than the ones before.
Client Testimonial
Let's work together“In a crowded spirits category, BUBL needed to create a moment. Through social-first storytelling and memorable events, we made a new drinking experience people wanted to discover and share.”
