The full playbook for seeding, gifting and PR boxes

The manual, step by step

• 1. Get your own page going on the platform first

  • Do: post on the platform yourself before you send a single box there. Olipop spent about 6 months on its own TikTok before working with creators.
  • Who: content lead.
  • Done: the brand account posts on that platform every week. Source: Olipop (notes below)

• 2. Set the seeding budget once a year

  • Do: set the budget once a year, in product & postage, before the first box. One Marketing Operators host gets $30,000 a month for product seeding.
  • Also: Kulani Kinis' founders gave 25% of the stock in their first order, a $10,000 order, to influencers.
  • Some go bigger: One Marketing Operators host said they should spend a million this year on samples, against his instinct to track every dollar.
  • Who: finance lead.
  • Done: the year's seeding budget is written down before the first box ships. Source: Marketing Operators, watch at 53:20 · Kulani Kinis, watch at 23:20 · Marketing Operators, watch at 49:28

• 3. Pick one number to hold the program to

  • Do: pick one number each quarter. Connor at HexClad signed fewer flat fee deals, seeded more & got 1.5 billion impressions on tagged content that year, up 230% year over year.
  • If behind: One Marketing Operators host set 5 million impressions on aprons from seeding as the quarter's number. At 15% of the way there, 1/3 through, the fix was to seed double the aprons.
  • Know the limit: One Marketing Operators host says with gifting the CPM is fantastic, but that's all you have. No sales attributed, nobody getting codes.
  • Who: strategy lead.
  • Done: one number is written down for the quarter, with a plan if behind. Source: HexClad, watch at 10:05 · Marketing Operators, watch at 1:04:26 · Marketing Operators, watch at 19:36

• 4. Write down the bar for who gets a box

  • Do: set the bar before you send. Jones Road: creators level 3 & up, 500 samples per product, launch on 2 to 3 products.
  • Also pick on shared values, not size. Matt picks travel & hiking creators for "intrinsic value alignment".
  • Higher price: Liz Anthony, Chief of Staff at Halfdays, says because its products are a higher price point, smaller creators are willing to create in exchange for gifting.
  • Who: strategy lead.
  • Done: a written bar & a number of boxes per product. Source: Jones Road, watch at 44:28 · Matt on travel & hiking creators · Halfdays, watch at 48:48

• 5. Decide how many & how early

  • Do: seed 25, 50, 100 or 200 creators 3 to 6 months before launch. Tell them they're part of the R&D & ask for feedback.
  • Timing: Ashton Wall gifted maybe 5 weeks before launch, & let a batch of creators go live with their review 3 days before launch.
  • Early feedback: Kynship says Create Wellness got 350 unique assets from no-strings-attached gifting, & learned the gummies were too sticky in time to fix them before major launches.
  • Who: strategy lead.
  • Done: a cohort list & a send date well ahead of launch. Source: Marketing Operators (notes below) · Ashton Wall, watch at 25:59 · Ashton Wall, watch at 28:22 · Kynship on Create Wellness

• 6. Write down how many posts to expect

  • Do: before you send a wave, write down how many posts you expect back. One Marketing Operators host says unique post rates on seeding run like 25 to 30%.
  • Math: Taylor Lagace of Kynship asks around 500 influencers a month per brand. 100 say yes, around 30 post, 2.5 times on average, about 75 posts.
  • Bigger waves: One Marketing Operators host seeded thousands of creators, hundreds posted, & that made thousands of videos.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: the expected post count is written down before the wave ships. Source: Marketing Operators, watch at 42:35 · Kynship's funnel · Marketing Operators, watch at 19:15

• 7. Run the intake the same way every time

  • Do: HexClad's order: the creator applies, you screen them, you talk, you pick their product, you ship it, you track it.
  • Build your own: HexClad rebuilt its seeding program in Lovable after running it through ClickUp, a super manual process, & hired another person to support it.
  • Agency first: a Marketing Operators guest built the seeding program with an agency for like 2 to 3 years, then brought it in house.
  • What tools cost: Refunnel prints $599 a month for gifting, affiliate & payouts in one place. Stack Influence charges $30 on average per completed post. Monarch Social Media says a typical agency costs $3,000 to $15,000 a month.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: every creator on the list has a status for each of those 6 stages. Source: HexClad, watch at 39:56 · Brydge Club, watch at 36:45 · HexClad, watch at 39:36 · Marketing Operators, watch at 31:59 · Refunnel's prices · Stack Influence's prices · Monarch's prices

• 8. Find what each creator cares about

  • Do: watch one of their videos & name what you liked. Black Rifle Coffee read an athlete's feed, saw shooting & hunting, and invited him to its range.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: one line per creator on what they care about. Source: Watch at 0:46 · Black Rifle Coffee, watch at 51:10

• 9. Write the first message that offers the box

  • Do: use their name, say you love their content & offer product. Jones Road's DM: "No requirement to post, just for you to try them out and tell us what you think".
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: the first message is saved & it asks for no post. Source: Jones Road, watch at 45:04

• 10. Build a box worth filming

  • Do: put in 3 things: the product, good packaging & a founder's note.
  • Early creators with weak gear: Anastasia Beverly Hills sent ring lights & Sony cameras with Wi-Fi so their content came out better.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: a box someone would film opening. Source: Watch at 5:59 · Anastasia Beverly Hills, ring lights at 16:57 · cameras at 17:25

• 11. Send it with no ask attached

  • Do: say it comes at no cost & they don't have to post. No hats, no banners, no logos, no posting rules.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: the note says "no need to post" in plain words. Source: Watch at 0:46 · Liquid Death's Stix on Pabst, watch at 11:55

• 12. Tell creators to label a gifted post

  • Do: tell creators to say the product was a gift when they post. The FTC says to make a disclosure "even if you weren’t asked to mention that product".
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: every creator has been told to label a gifted post. Source: the FTC's guide for influencers

• 13. Say yes when athletes or celebrities ask for product

  • Do: send it, don't debate it. Liquid I.V.'s founder: "I just say yes, and then I send."
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: every inbound ask gets a box within the week. Source: Brandin Cohen (notes below)

• 14. Watch who posts every week & add them to a PR list

  • Do: check who posts about you & who talks to the brand. Anyone good who already shares you goes on the PR list & gets product.
  • Olipop: 2 people run the page, 2 do the comments, DMs & gifting.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: a PR list updated every week. Source: Olipop, watch at 28:44

• 15. Count each wave as its own group

  • Do: count each send as its own group. Ashton Wall: "we sent out 1,000, we got this many people to post in 6 months".
  • Next box: what Ashton Wall sends a creator next, or doesn't send, depends on what the creator did or didn't do.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: each wave has its own count of who posted. Source: Ashton Wall, watch at 42:29 · Ashton Wall, watch at 36:41

• 16. Put the "thanks for the gift" story posters in a funnel

  • Do: a creator who posts one story of the box & goes quiet gets sorted, not dropped. Decide what happens to them next.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: every poster has a next step on the list. Source: Jones Road, watch at 36:50

• 17. Read the comments, then offer a paid deal

  • Do: ask creators to put you in their normal content. With no code to track, read the comments. If fans respond, move to a longer paid deal.
  • Who: gifting lead, then partnerships lead.
  • Done: a paid-deal shortlist picked off comment response. Source: Olipop, watch at 25:28

• 18. Ask for a paid version of a good post

  • Do: when a gifted creator's post is good, ask for a paid one like it. One Marketing Operators host tells them they like it, then asks: "Can you make something like this?"
  • Who: partnerships lead.
  • Done: every creator whose gifted post you liked got a paid ask. Source: Marketing Operators, watch at 19:50

• 19. At launch, go back to the cohort with an affiliate link

  • Do: "we just launched, I'd love your support", with an affiliate link if they want a kickback. The hit rate is much higher than cold asks.
  • Reviews: One Marketing Operators host shipped samples ahead of a launch & opened with about 70 reviews on each product, their first launch with reviews.
  • Who: partnerships lead.
  • Done: every seeded creator got the launch message. Source: Marketing Operators (notes below) · Marketing Operators, watch at 54:15

• 20. Buy rights to the best posts for ads

  • Do: when a gifted post is good, ask for rights. It's cheaper once they've posted, a few hundred bucks even for bigger creators.
  • Expect few: Ridge gets maybe 2 ad-worthy creators from 100 free wallets.
  • Start small: most of Jones Road's partnership ads are from very small creators it might have just gifted the product to.
  • How long: One Marketing Operators host usually buys 30 days of rights.
  • Seeding only: One Marketing Operators host says Brunt Workwear exclusively does seeding & has like a thousand creators it has seeded product to over time.
  • Who: paid media lead.
  • Done: rights signed on the best posts. Source: Ridge, watch at 20:18 · Ridge, 2 of 100 at 46:09 · Jones Road, watch at 18:05 · Marketing Operators, watch at 42:18 · Marketing Operators on Brunt, watch at 50:08

• 21. Test a creator for a year before a big partnership

  • Do: run a creator as a whitelisting creator first. The Marketing Operators hosts ran Emily DiDonato as their top whitelisting creator for about a year before the big partnership.
  • Who: partnerships lead.
  • Done: a partner picked off a year of results. Source: Emily DiDonato (notes below)

• 22. Send the next product to past posters first

  • Do: start the next product's list with creators who posted last time. Connor at HexClad picks people who posted from its seeding program before, because the hit rate will be higher.
  • Who: gifting lead.
  • Done: past posters are at the top of the next product's list. Source: HexClad, watch at 54:24

Where seeding breaks

A box is not a post, & a post is not a sale.

• People tell Kent Yoshimura, co-founder of NeuroGum, they sent 5,000 samples to creators & got five responses & five videos. Kent Yoshimura, watch at 9:15
• Our own Nami Matcha gifting campaign emailed at least 260 creators a free product offer. 68 people replied, 26 accepted the product & 32 wanted paying. our Nami Matcha campaign
• Jones Road says most gifted content is not great paid social creative: slow, no great hook. A usable one is like one in a million. Jones Road, watch at 18:35
• One Marketing Operators host says it's hard to know how much seeding is working. You just get an earned media number. Marketing Operators, watch at 1:01:49
• Stix at Liquid Death gives product to an event, they never tag him, & they send a photo of the can in a cooler with no context. Liquid Death's Stix, watch at 18:01
• Grüns says seeded content generally isn't working anymore for its main brand, but it keeps the process alive for early stage brands. Grüns, watch at 1:00:48

Checklist: one seeding wave

Before sending

• The brand posts on the platform every week
• The bar for who gets a box is written down (level, niche, values)
• Cohort size set: 25, 50, 100 or 200
• Send date set 3 to 6 months before launch
• Each creator has a status: applied, screened, talked, product picked, shipped, tracked
• One line per creator on what they care about
• Seeding budget set for the year, in product & postage
• One number picked for the quarter, with a fix if behind
• Expected post count written down before the wave ships

The box

• The product
• Packaging worth filming
• A founder's note with the founder's story
• A card saying no cost & no need to post
• One line about the creator
• Code or affiliate link, offered not required
• Gear for creators with weak light or camera, if needed

Sending

• Nothing asked for: no tags, hats, banners or posting rules
• Every inbound athlete or celebrity ask gets a yes
• Every box has tracking
• First message written: their name, the offer, no requirement to post
• Every creator told to label a gifted post

After

• Weekly check of who posts & who talks to the brand
• Good posters added to the PR list
• Story-only posters given a next step
• Comments read, fans who respond flagged for a paid deal
• Rights asked for on the best posts
• Launch message with the affiliate link sent to the whole cohort
• Stayers handed to Community
• Each wave counted as its own group
• Paid version asked of creators whose gifted post you liked
• Past posters put first on the next product's list

Source notes

Source: E006: David Herrmann: Paid Media, Creative Diversity and the Channels You Should Be Testing · Marketing Operators · 07 May 2024

His advice for brands hurt by the Meta slump is to increase product seeding, on the understanding it pays back slowly. 21:16

The other thing that I am telling people is find a channel that is working, if there is any. For example, product seeding: increase product seeding if we have to. Yes, it's a longer Le game, but it's an opportunity for us in this slow season to kind of build our own other pockets of channels.

Source: E031: One month countdown to BFCM: What We're Working On Right Now To Maximise Success · Marketing Operators · 29 Oct 2024

They credit David protein's launch to heavy gifting and seeding, which put a lot of people talking about it before it shipped. 10:44

Ghost seeded a podcaster's live events with shakers and samples for years with no measurable return, on the basis that upside cannot be predicted. 1:08

I mean, upside's an interesting thing. There's never upside till there's upside. So, for us it's been less about the upside and more about, you know, great dude. Always enjoy talking.

Cody committed roughly a million dollars a year to physical sampling as a seeding play, against his own instinct to measure everything. 49:28

We should spend a million this year on samples and getting samples in people's hands. And don't even, obviously we'll try to measure it, but I'm like, the opportunity of what we're missing out on is so big. But that wasn't my instinct. I'm normally like, hey, every dollar, I need to know where it's going.

Source: #1 Baby Skincare Brand on Amazon: Andrea Faulkner Williams, Co-Founder of Tubby Todd · Behind Her Empire with Yasmin Nouri · Andrea · 19 Jan 2026

They purchased 750 bottles of product and shipped it to their garage, then sent it to bloggers (referred to as 'mommy bloggers' at the time) who had started Instagram accounts, asking them to try the product. 17:05

So we purchased 750 bottles of product, shipped it out to our garage, and like I said, I had worked in social media, so I knew a lot of bloggers. They weren't really called influencers at the time. They were more like mommy bloggers is what you had called them, who had just started an Instagram account. And we shipped product to anyone we knew who had any sort of influence online and asked them to try the product.

They sent 700 bottles from their garage to mommy bloggers, now called influencers, to generate word-of-mouth organic growth. 28:33

The brand invested all of its marketing budget in influencer gifting for the first three years. 35:14

We didn't run a paid ad for like three plus years. So any paid ads, and then for years, three more years, I would say our ad budget was tight just because we invested all of our marketing in influencer gifting. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I don't like sitting in the ad dashboard.

The brand's marketing strategy for the first three years was influencer gifting. 35:05

Source: 5 Emerging Brands, 1 Playbook: Inside Grüns’ Marketing Pod System · Marketing Operators · 11 Aug 2026

The influencer seeding machine at Gruns was built by her as Chief of Staff out of Zapier and a stack of duct-taped tools, and it is still running. 30:25

I put that as one of the funny, a thing that I owned in the chief of staff days that I still get pinged about today, because every once in a while the Zap will fail, or something will. I don't even want to know how many Zaps we have running in the background right now.

That ugly-seeded-content effect has stopped working for the main Gruns brand but they deliberately keep the process alive for the early stage brands. 60:48

So it's just like that but that type of stuff like generally isn't working anymore for Groom's but we need to you know keep that process alive for these early stage brands.

Source: How Anastasia Soare Built a Beauty Empire (Founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills) · Nancy Twine · 12 Feb 2025

The brand sent ring lights to influencers to help them create better content. 16:57

And later on you would send the ring lights to the influencers so they could create better content. Yes, because the light was very important.

The brand bought and sent Sony cameras with Wi-Fi to influencers to improve their content quality. 17:25

Source: E024: Resident's EVP Jared Brody on Attribution Tooling, Analytics Teams & Data-Driven Marketing · Marketing Operators · Jared Brody · 10 Sep 2024

They send mattresses and bed frames to creators as part of that process. 65:04

So that's why there's also white-listing. It's part of the process as well, when we deliver mattresses, bed frames to creators.

and guide

Seed 25 to 200 creators months before launch, then come back with an affiliate link

“If you can do that [seed them the product] with 25, 50, 100, 200 people, and then, let's say, three months later, six months later, you launch, you go back to those people and say, hey, we just launched, I would love your support in any way possible. We'll even give you an affiliate link if you want to try to get some kickback on this. Your hit rate on that is going to be so much higher than if you went to that same cohort of people without having seeded them the product well ahead of time.”

Do this:

• Seed the product to a cohort of 25, 50, 100, or 200 creators well before launch.
• Tell creators they are part of the R&D on the product and ask for feedback on an MVP version.
• Go back to that same seeded cohort at launch and ask for their support, offering an affiliate link for kickback.

Send 500 samples per product to level three and up creators, and launch on two or three products

The agency we're working with works with other brands, and works with beauty brands. They're going to recommend creators L3 [level three] and above. We'll go 500 samples per product. We'll probably launch with two to three SKUs.

Do this:

• Have the agency recommend creators at level three and above for seeding.
• Launch with two to three SKUs, including one hero product, one tier two product, and one bundle.
• Launch the product on shop two weeks before it goes live on DTC to build hype ahead of the launch.

80 snowboards nobody could buy went only to the top shops with the cleanest distribution

I did 80 snowboards with Capita Snowboards a couple of years ago. You couldn't buy them, you just had to know someone. We gave them to the top shops that had the cleanest distribution.

Proof: The 80 Capita snowboards could not be bought, only obtained by knowing someone, and shops that demoed the board got a case of Liquid Death and had to post about it. (Stix, head of brand at Liquid Death and one of the first US sports marketing managers at Red Bull)

Do this:

• Restrict access to the product so it cannot simply be bought, requiring people to go through a specific channel to get it.
• Select the top shops with the cleanest distribution as the only places to receive the product.
• Require the shop to demo the product and post about it in exchange for receiving a case of Liquid Death.
• Tell recipients they can keep or auction off the item and give it to their best employee rather than sell it to customers.

The big partnership came after a year of running her as their top whitelisting creator

She [Emily DiDonato] was our top whitelisting creator for most of last year. We started working with her about a year ago. It wasn't like we just dove into this partnership, it started more naturally.

Who says so: Marketing Operators, hosts who run marketing at Ridge, Jones Road Beauty and HexClad

Do this:

• Give the creator a real role in product development, not just a face for a campaign.
• Create a signature product tie in, like a named shade, to anchor the partnership in something concrete.
• Use the creator as the main model across the website, print, retail, and out of home placements.
• Let the creator seed the partnership into her own community to reach a new audience.

One beauty founder bought influencers Sony cameras with Wi-Fi so their photos came out better

Then my daughter found Sony camera that had a Wi-Fi so the quality of the picture were amazing and they [the influencers] could download on iPhone. So we used to buy them and send them the camera.

Who says so: Anastasia Soare, founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills

Do this:

• Send products to people making content in their closets without requiring them to do anything specific in return.
• Buy ring lights and send them to creators so they can get better light on themselves.
• Tell creators to film in front of a window with the light facing them if they do not have proper lighting equipment.
• Buy Sony cameras with Wi-Fi and send them to creators so the photo quality improves and they can download images straight to their iPhone.

His policy is to say yes every time an athlete asks for product

They hit me up all the time. I just say yes, and then I send. It's smarter, it's more sampling, it's more simple.

Who says so: Brandin Cohen, founder of Liquid I.V., which he sold to Unilever

Do this:

• Send free product whenever an athlete or celebrity asks for it instead of pushing back.
• Treat sending free samples to athletes as simple sampling rather than a costly favor.

At Pabst, he gave product to skaters and walked away, no hats, no banners

Pabst, I gave out product to the skaters and we walked away. That was it. Never told anyone what to do, never gave them a hat, never gave them a banner, or nothing. And then they're just like, "Wow, nothing's being shoved down my throat." Funny how that works, right?

Who says so: Stix, head of brand at Liquid Death and one of the first US sports marketing managers at Red Bull

Do this:

• Hand out product to skaters or creators and then walk away without follow up requirements.
• Remove any requirement to use a hat, banner, or logo from the deal.
• Drop demands for social media tags or decks showing banners and logo usage before working with someone.

5,000 units of snake serum for an Oscar goodie bag was a year's production

They wanted a very big quantity. They wanted 5,000 pieces, which for me, back in the day, it was a massive number. It was my year's production, so it was a big risk. For all I know, you can send 5,000 pieces to LA and then nothing happens, and all you've done, you've just wasted a whole lot of money.

Who says so: Maria Hatzistefanis, founder of Rodial

Do this:

• Send products to an event organizer's goodie bag request even when the quantity feels overwhelming relative to current production.
• Fulfill large international bulk orders that come in after a viral moment, such as the 10,000 unit request from Germany.
• Give products memorable names like snake instead of generic descriptions like anti-aging serum, since the name helped it get mentioned and remembered.

Watch who is already posting about you, then add them to a PR list

So we're constantly watching who's posting us and seeing who's interacting with the brand. If I find somebody that I think is interesting and is already sharing us, we'll put them on our PR list and send them product and bring them into the family.

Do this:

• Watch who is posting about the brand and interacting with it on social.
• Add interesting people who are already sharing the brand to a PR list and send them product.
• Start commenting on the posts of creators or celebrities you are trying to reach and watch how their fans respond.

Send product, ask creators to put it in their normal content, then offer a paid deal if people respond

And so we started doing a completely opposite strategy where we were just sending product to creators and saying, can you just include us in your normal content? We'll see if people respond or not, and if they do, then we'll look at a longer term paid deal.

Proof: OLIPOP got close to a billion views on TikTok from this product placement approach in just over a year on the one hashtag they could track. (Steven Vigilante of OLIPOP, who has worked on its influencer and celebrity partnerships)

Do this:

• Send product to creators and ask them to include it in their normal content rather than a scripted ad.
• Check the comments section to gauge audience response since there is no link or discount code to track.
• Move a creator to a longer term paid deal once their fans show clear interest in the comments.

David protein's gifting before launch got people talking on the timeline

[David protein] gifted to a lot of people, so a lot of people were talking about it on the timeline. I'm even seeing them all over TikTok Shop already. They hit it pretty hard at the gate, it seems. I think it was a really good launch.

Proof: David bar was gifted to a lot of people, which led to a lot of people talking about it on the timeline and appearing all over TikTok shop. (Marketing Operators, hosts who run marketing at Jones Road Beauty, Ridge and Hexclad)

Do this:

• Gift the product to a large number of people before the launch date.
• Check for the product showing up on TikTok shop as a sign the seeding is spreading.

They shipped 750 bottles of product from their garage to new Instagram bloggers

So, we purchased 750 bottles of product, shipped it out to our garage, and like I said, I had worked in social media, so I knew a lot of bloggers. They weren't really called influencers at the time. They're more like mommy bloggers is what you had called them, who had just started an Instagram account. And we shipped product to anyone we knew who had any sort of influence online and asked them to try the product.

Proof: Almost all of the people who received the product loved using it enough that they wanted to talk about it on their blog or in a social post. (Andrea Faulkner Williams, co-founder of Tubby Todd)

Do this:

• Ship product to anyone you know who has any sort of influence online and ask them to try it.
• Send the product without offering payment and see whether recipients choose to talk about it anyway.

Seeding product to creators on TikTok

His rule is that you need your own presence on the platform before you start working with creators and influencers on it.

““consumer based and so 2022 for us was a year of tick tock so we created a tick tock account like Q4 21 took me about six months of like intense trial and error and a lot of terrible videos and content to figure out a Content strategy on Tick Tock because that's sort of Step One is you got to have your own presence on there before you start working with creators and influencers and then um February 22 um kind of finalized finally found the two creators that are still kind of the face of our page um and then I started doing some creative Partnerships and influencer marketing and quickly realized that the swipe up discount code thing does not work at all on Tick Tock you can't even put discount codes and captions it the algorithm hates it and so I was like you gotta there's got to be another way and so we started doing a completely opposite strategy where we””

The completely opposite strategy they landed on is sending product to creators and asking them to include it in their normal content, with a longer term paid deal only if people respond.

““code thing does not work at all on Tick Tock you can't even put discount codes and captions it the algorithm hates it and so I was like you gotta there's got to be another way and so we started doing a completely opposite strategy where we were just sending product to creators and saying can you just include us in your normal content and we'll see if people respond or not and if they do then we'll look at you know a longer term paid paid deal and now we're close to a billion views doing that in um just over a year and that's just what we can track on our one hashtag numbers probably significantly higher than that but um it's all product placement for us on on Tick Tock it's basically finding creators whose content we want to align with and having them include us in that content without””

Two people run the OLIPOP TikTok page and make the content, while Vigilante and one other person do all the commenting, DM responses and gifting.

“Tock Channel and her Tick Tock channel is called The Campaign girl I don't expect that you would know it off the top of your head I know exactly who she is oh all right and so I'm actually in our Tick Tock most we have uh two gals who kind of run the page and make all the content and then um myself and one of the other guys Sarah we do all the commenting and all the responding in the DMS and all the gifting so we're constantly watching who's posting us and seeing who's interacting with the brand and like if I find somebody that I think is interesting and is already sharing us we'll put them on our PR list and send them product and bring them into the family and then I do all of our commenting so I'm in there commenting back on videos that we're in I find trending videos or trending sounds that I want to kind of insert ourselves”

“gals who kind of run the page and make all the content and then um myself and one of the other guys Sarah we do all the commenting and all the responding in the DMS and all the gifting so we're constantly watching who's posting us and seeing who's interacting with the brand and like if I find somebody that I think is interesting and is already sharing us we'll put them on our PR list and send them product and bring them into the family and then I do all of our commenting so I'm in there commenting back on videos that we're in I find trending videos or trending sounds that I want to kind of insert ourselves into and I'll comment on those videos and then any creators that I'm trying to get a hold of or celebrities even we'll just start commenting on their stuff and it's the easiest way to get a hold”

Being hands on in the comments is how he knows what to set the TikTok creator budget at, because he can see from the inside how well it is working.

““I do that but I love it and I I think it's like this connective tissue within our whole business that I'm able to like speak so succinctly to what we're doing on Tick Tock and like I'm also like you know helping set our budgets and what we're spending on you know paid advertising on Tick Tock and creators on Tick Tock and I would never have known how much we should spend on that if I didn't see how well it was working from the inside out and so it's also just like another way for me to like stay in touch with culture and Trends and what what you know I'm 31 now I don't always know what's going on in like the Gen Z side of the world but I can have a finger on the pulse of that by being in you know I don't actually look at Tick Tock ever during the day it's a Time suck and I don't have time but””

Great seeding points https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBp9v5wbmFc

Right now Matt is obsessed with travel content creators and hiking people, chosen for shared values rather than audience size.

““into these like very deliberate pockets of creators um and this year we're just going to do more and more of it it's like where else can we go explore audiences but like looking at it from the influencer Creator first you know like right now I'm like obsessed with travel content creators and then like hiking people you know like just like people that have like intrinsic value alignment totally we're also yeah yeah product seing is another one of the the large focuses for us this quarter we're doing women wallet users we'd love to acquire more of those and then UK uh customers so going International it's kind of funny because we're we're almost like approaching at different ends where like you guys are kind of getting to TV a little bit more now you're getting you're getting to seeding more we're getting to YouTube sponsor content we're getting””

PR boxes, the deep dive

Why it is worth doing

HexClad, 1.3 billion impressions of tagged posts in a year

Click to enlarge

• Another Marketing Operators host calls product seeding the highlight of their influencer program in the last 3 years, with great CPMs and a really good hit rate. Episode 100! The Big Rocks We're Focusing on for 2026 Growth, Marketing Operators, 2026-02-24.
• Their own year-over-year recap counted 1.3 billion impressions in tagged social content, which they put down to seeding a ton, with Gordon Ramsay's own posts inside that count. The Influencer Marketing Playbook, Marketing Operators, 2025-12-30.

Proof: SugarBearHair made creators jealous of each other's boxes

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• SugarBearHair had influencers getting jealous over each other's PR boxes.
• Here is what was inside them.

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• "He made the influencers almost jealous of each other because he would send the nicest box to them. And if you were part of the Sugar Bear Hair group, you felt really really special, but you had to earn your way in there, right?" Kent Yoshimura, co-founder of NeuroGum, on Open Residency, 9:53.

Who this is for

• To be clear about who this is for, it is built for health and wellness brands doing over $100 million a year and spending $1 million or more a month on marketing, who already run an influencer program and want to scale it.
• If that isn't you yet, stay anyway, because about 90% of what follows will still apply to your brand.

Who we are

• So we went looking for how the best brands actually do it, and we got deep in the weeds with the CMO of AG1, the CEO of Onnit and the CMO of Feastables.

Why most brands can't do this

The problem: most gifting produces nothing worth running

• "And if we give out a 100 free wallets, maybe two people make good content or like content worthy of spending ad dollars on. So, that's like how we source new people." Ridge's founder, on Open Residency, 46:09.

Click to enlarge

• Most brands are doing seeding, so content creators on average are receiving 50-plus packages per week.

What brands tell us

• "The CPM's fantastic, but that's all you have. Like you You really have no idea. Like you know, you're not attributing any sales, nobody's getting codes." HexClad, on Marketing Operators, 19:36.

Why hoping doesn't work

• "People come to me and say, dude, I sent 5,000 samples out to all these creators and I got five responses and five videos. It didn't work. I made $20,000 on TikTok and I don't know how to scale this. It's not just sending them product and hoping." Kent Yoshimura, co-founder of NeuroGum, at 9:15, on Open Residency.
• So we need a system to send better PR boxes.
• One of the best things to do is not personalize it just with exclusive products, but with actual gifts that relate to what the influencer said in a video five years ago.

What brands get wrong about PR boxes

any box works if there's free product inside

• Now, most people get this wrong.
• They just send a cardboard box.
• And the problem is an influencer has a lot of PR boxes that they are receiving.
• And what happens is you're just like every other brand.
• From Influencer marketing has changed, the framework, my channel, 2026-09-20.

Click to enlarge

• But instead, if you go above and beyond, and if you think about it, if most influencers charge 10,000, but a really nice box costs $500, $1,000, you are still saving a ton for the same deliverables for them to post either way.
• From Influencer marketing has changed, the framework, my channel, 2026-09-20.

you have to ask them to post in exchange

• In 2018, Huel paid no influencers, and anyone who showed interest got free product instead. Huel founder on the path from affiliate exit to food, Startup Microdose, 2018-09-25.
• "For brands like when you are seeding product or, you know, for me if I'm doing a private session, the expectation is zero. My expectation is I want them to experience my class, I'm not expecting them to post for me." The Sculpt Society's founder, on Startup to Storefront, 13:33.

The framework

Two jobs: get it to the right hands, then make it worth filming

• Second, we send standout, personalized gifts to the right creators, so they notice you and want to be part of what you're building.

Five moves, in order

1. Move 1: pick who gets a box.
2. Move 2: find what each creator cares about.
3. Move 3: build a box worth filming.
4. Move 4: send it so it gets noticed, with no ask attached.
5. Move 5: follow up and turn unboxings into relationships.

The moves, step by step

Move 1 · Pick who gets a box

Move 1 · The problem: sending to everyone wastes the budget

Click to enlarge

• "We've like seeded hundreds of products, but like hasn't gained traction in the way that you'd want." Ridge's CEO, on Marketing Operators, 1:09:19.

Move 1 · Example: Liquid Death

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• "I did 80 snowboards with Capita snowboards a couple years ago. You couldn't buy them. You just had to know someone. We gave them to the top shops that had the cleanest distribution." Liquid Death's head of brand, on JUST Creative, 35:06.

Click to enlarge

• "They If they demoed the board, they got a case of Liquid Death. And they had to post about it. It's a win-win-win all around." Liquid Death's head of brand, on JUST Creative, 35:18.

Move 1 · Example: Jones Road

Click to enlarge

• "The you know the agency we're working with works with other brands and works with beauty brands like they're going to recommend, you know, creators L3 and above. Um, we'll go 500 samples per product." Marketing Operators, 44:28.

Move 1 · Example: Magic Mind

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• "We found that she was a customer and had been subscribed for uh over 2 years and just under a different name. We didn't we didn't realize that." Magic Mind's CEO, on Ecomm Cowboy, 4:51.

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• "Carhartt jacket that's Magic Mind branded. Uh I wish I was wearing that one today. Um and uh some other products and she was kind enough to post it." Magic Mind's CEO, on Ecomm Cowboy, 5:03.

Move 1 · Why it works: a box only a few get makes creators want in

• Take Dan Morris who is the founder of Sugar Bear Hair.
• From How to Scale your Influencer Program, my channel, 2026-09-11.
• He started by making influencers jealous of each other by sending them hyperexclusive PR boxes.
• From How to Scale your Influencer Program, my channel, 2026-09-11.
• This creates the desire for influencers to get into the group.
• From How to Scale your Influencer Program, my channel, 2026-09-11.

Move 1 · How to do it

1. Set a bar before you send anything, the way Jones Road sends only to creators its agency ranks level 3 and up. Episode 100! The Big Rocks We're Focusing on for 2026 Growth, Marketing Operators, 2026-02-24.
2. Have an AI tool check which creators have a link in their bio before you gift, the way Poka's founder set it up in 1 hour on Claude. Hims co-founder and first hire on UGC, celebrities and Poka, Brydge Club, 2026-07-26.
3. Check your own customer list for creators before you send: Magic Mind only found out after a creator posted that she'd been a subscriber for 2 years under a different name. Magic Mind CEO on 500 creator deals a month at $300 each, Ecomm Cowboy, 2026-06-13.
4. Make the gift something a creator cannot buy, the way Liquid Death made 80 snowboards and gave them only to the top shops. Liquid Death's Stix on cans in hands and never paying an athlete, JUST Creative, 2023-04-17.

Move 1 · Why it fails for most brands

• "They're sponsored by Gatorade or Body Armor, you know, whatever what whatever big Coke or Pepsi brand." Cizzle Brands' founder, on the Nano Cap Podcast, 19:35.

Move 2 · Find what each creator cares about

Move 2 · The problem: the same box for everyone gets ignored

• Even a limited edition box gets ignored: the good creators you want posting don't really pay attention.

Move 2 · Example: HexClad

• "We decided to pass on the brand partnership deal, but we ended up like just gifting her a bunch of product. And like, I know for a fact she loves Gordon because if she posts about it all the time." A HexClad seeding partner, on Marketing Operators, 1:05:52.

Move 2 · Example: Nutrafol

Click to enlarge

• "Every single time we walk into a hair salon with our products, I wanted to give it out to men and then all the women would come to us and it's like, you know, I need this, right?" Nutrafol's founder, on Scott D. Clary, 36:06.

Click to enlarge

• Salons were Nutrafol's seeding channel, and the women taking the samples showed it the bigger market. Nutrafol founder on scaling hair growth to Unilever, Scott D. Clary, 2025-12-24.

Move 2 · Example: BON CHARGE

• "So, I got an optics lab in Australia to make me a pair of glasses that did sent them to a few influencers that I knew that were using blue light glasses and explained why I was sending them to them and why they shouldn't use the ones that they were using and they should use ours." BON CHARGE's founder, on Georgia Symonds, 11:38.

Move 2 · Why it works: a fan posts without being asked

• "And then with Bella, she Bella's a is a fan um and we sent her some product and yeah, we're going to amazing outcome there." David Protein's founder, on TheBestOneYetClips, 4:13.

Move 2 · How to do it

1. Send to people who already use your kind of product, the way BON CHARGE sent its glasses to influencers it knew were wearing blue light glasses. Boncharge CEO on biohacking and wellness, Georgia Symonds, 2026-01-27.
2. Keep sending product to a creator who already loves a name tied to your brand, the way HexClad kept gifting a Gordon Ramsay fan after passing on a paid deal. E009: Ashton Wall: Putting Influencer Marketing At The Core of your Marketing Stack, Marketing Operators, 2024-05-29.
3. Track who picks up the product, the way Nutrafol saw women taking the salon samples it meant for men. Nutrafol founder on scaling hair growth to Unilever, Scott D. Clary, 2025-12-24.
4. Scroll the creator's own feed for a shared interest, the way Black Rifle Coffee's founder saw an athlete was into shooting and hunting and invited him to the range. Evan Hafer on Black Rifle Coffee, in-house content focus, Coach HP, 2021-01-08.

Move 2 · Why it fails for most brands

• "So, we actually sent out, including, you know, press and influencers, 600 emails between the two of us. And we split We split 300 and 300. And we personalized each and every message and sent customized skin care routines for them." Glow Recipe's co-founder, on CreatorIQ, 54:24.

Move 3 · Build a box worth filming

Move 3 · The problem: most boxes are a product and a note

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• Most of the 50-plus packages a creator gets each week look similar: corporate packaging, a product and a standard note.

Move 3 · Example: Louis Vuitton

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• One of the best ways to get influencers to continually post is to have a very striking PR box.
• Louis Vuitton had an unboxing with multiple elements to it.
• And this is what creates that viral effect.
• From How to Scale Existing Influencer Marketing Programs, my channel, 2026-09-11.

Move 3 · Example: HexClad

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• "They put together this insane influencer kit that's like has a screen in it like you open it it's a video of Gordon." HexClad's marketing lead, on Marketing Operators, 40:52.

Move 3 · Example: MUD\WTR

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• "I brought some mud and I wrote a little note that said I heard you don't like coffee, you'll love this. I didn't sign it or anything." MUD\WTR's founder, on MUDWTR, 1:10:20.
• MUD\WTR's founder left it at a World Surf League event, 4 months after launch, with no pitch and no ask. MUD\WTR founder on kitchen launch, first year, seed round, MUDWTR, 2022-06-29.

Move 3 · Why it works: the box carries three things, and the opening is the video

Click to enlarge

• Effectively, this consists of three things.
• From How to negotiate 40-70% discounts with influencers for brand deals, my channel, 2026-01-31.
• We've noticed this can really increase your reply rates by 100 200 500% just because people feel so deeply connected with it.
• From How to negotiate 40-70% discounts with influencers for brand deals, my channel, 2026-01-31.

Move 3 · How to do it

1. Pack every box with the product, really good packaging and a founder's note, typed or handwritten. How to negotiate 40-70% discounts with influencers for brand deals, my channel, 2026-01-31.
2. Order custom printed mailers in bulk, from Packlane or your 3PL, instead of a plain kraft box. Take your affiliate program from 2x ROAS to over 15x, my channel, 2026-02-06.
3. Use a service where a robot handwrites the note, at about 3 dollars a note, so it reads as a letter from the CEO. Take your affiliate program from 2x ROAS to over 15x, my channel, 2026-02-06.
4. Write the note to one person, the way the MUD\WTR founder's note to Kelly Slater said "I heard you don't like coffee". MUD\WTR founder on kitchen launch, first year, seed round, MUDWTR, 2022-06-29.
5. Put something in the box that makes their content better, the way Anastasia Beverly Hills sent influencers ring lights. Anastasia Beverly Hills founder's journey, Nancy Twine, 2025-02-12.
6. Put $500 to $1,000 into a really nice box instead of paying a $10,000 fee for the same post. Influencer marketing has changed, the framework, my channel, 2026-09-20.

Move 3 · Why it fails for most brands

Click to enlarge

• "But if somebody's just starting out, where are they going to get the money to put give the cans out? I mean, you've got to produce 50,000 cases at a minimum." Bucked Up's CEO, on Finally Ready To Grow, 20:18.
• "They wanted a very big quantity. They wanted 5,000 pieces, which for me, back in the day, it was a massive number. It was my year's production, so it was a big risk." Rodial's founder, 21:17.

Click to enlarge

• At the top end, the Oscars gift bag the stars take home runs about $350,000.

Move 4 · Send it so it gets noticed, with no ask attached

Move 4 · The problem: asking for a post makes it feel like selling out

• If you put pressure and you say, can you post this for this amount, they might feel like they're selling out.
• From Take your affiliate program from 2x ROAS to over 15x, my channel, 2026-02-06.

Move 4 · Example: True Classic

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• "So what I would do with these Uber Eats drivers that come every day, I would give them a chip. Within a week, they would come back and they'd be wearing all True Classic." True Classic's founder, on Open Residency, 20:15.

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• "I wanted to be able to just be somewhere at a restaurant or interact with people where I could give something small and have it be unique and have a custom code on it that was specific to True Classic" True Classic's founder, on Open Residency, 19:45.

Move 4 · Example: Huel

Click to enlarge

• "We don't pay influencers." Huel's founder, on Startup Microdose, 1:13:43.
• That was 2018. Huel pays creators now: our deal tracking holds 986 sponsored YouTube videos for Huel since May 2024.

Move 4 · Example: Liquid Death

Click to enlarge

• "I gave out product to the skaters and we walked away. That was it. Never told anyone what to do, never gave them a hat, never gave them a banner, or nothing. And then they're just like, wow, nothing's being shoved down my throat." Liquid Death's head of brand, on JUST Creative, 11:55.

Move 4 · Why it works: a free post with no strings can take off on its own

• "I describe it as we gift with no strings attached. So it's cuz so many people get hung up on writing like an agreement. I'll send you this product and you have to do this Yeah." Kulani Kinis' founder, on Starting Small, 25:39.
• "So we had sent her some suits and she had posted a picture and tagged us and it really catapulted everything from there." Frankie's Bikinis' founder, on REVOLVE, 1:54.

Move 4 · How to do it

1. Send free product to anyone who shows interest and pay no one to post, the way Huel did in 2018. Huel founder on the path from affiliate exit to food, Startup Microdose, 2018-09-25.
2. Put it in the outreach message itself: "No requirement to post, just for you to try them out and tell us what you think." Marketing Operators on April Fool's campaigns, Marketing Operators, 2025-04-15.
3. Make one small, cheap token with a custom code on it, the way True Classic's founder hands out a poker chip. This Is How a T-Shirt Brand Outsmarted the Entire Industry, Open Residency, 2025-05-15.
4. If you ask for anything, ask creators to include the product in what they already post, the way Olipop does. OLIPOP's Steven Vigilante on TikTok placement and a billion views, partnrUP, 2023-03-29.

Move 4 · Why it fails for most brands

Click to enlarge

• "Most of the content is like it's just like not great paid social creative. It's like slow or no great hook and it's like oh, I was gifted this. And like maybe a really good editor but I don't I I find it's like one in a million." Jones Road's own team, on Marketing Operators, 18:35.

Move 5 · Follow up and turn unboxings into relationships

Move 5 · The problem: most brands send once and move on

• "If I see a creator um that opted into our seeding program and we just get a story of the box. It's like, 'Thanks so much, Jones Road, for the gift.' And then we never hear from them again. Okay, we need to put them in a funnel and decide how we want to how we want to treat that." Ashton Wall, on Marketing Operators, 36:50.

Move 5 · Example: Olipop

Click to enlarge

• "We're constantly watching who's posting us and seeing who's interacting with the brand and like if I find somebody that I think is interesting and is already sharing us we'll put them on our PR list and send them product and bring them into the family." Olipop's own team, on partnrUP, 28:44.

Move 5 · Example: Ridge

Click to enlarge

• "The good thing is it is cheaper when they've posted and it is good piece of content. Like you're just asking for rights. And so it is you can offer a few hundred bucks for that even if they're like larger." A Ridge seeding partner, on Marketing Operators, 20:18.

Move 5 · Example: Bobbie

• "We got in touch with her through a mutual connection and had found out that she was interested in getting some Bobbie because she wanted to start combo feeding. And so, we sent her some formula. A couple weeks later, we hear back from her manager. She's using it. She loves it. Let's do something together." Bobbie's own team, on Marketing Operators, 13:48.

Move 5 · Why it works: the paid deal comes after the free post works

Click to enlarge

• "And so we started doing a completely opposite strategy where we were just sending product to creators and saying can you just include us in your normal content and we'll see if people respond or not and if they do then we'll look at you know a longer term paid paid deal." Olipop's own team, on partnrUP, 25:28.

Move 5 · How to do it

1. Watch who is already posting about you, and add anyone interesting to a PR list that gets product, the way Olipop does. OLIPOP's Steven Vigilante on TikTok placement and a billion views, partnrUP, 2023-03-29.
2. Put a creator who only posted a thank-you story in a different follow-up flow from one who engaged, the way Jones Road does. E009: Ashton Wall: Putting Influencer Marketing At The Core of your Marketing Stack, Marketing Operators, 2024-05-29.
3. Buy the ad rights to a gifted post that is already good, for a few hundred dollars, the way Ridge does. How We're Reaching New Audiences on Meta with Partnership Ads, Marketing Operators, 2025-09-16.
4. When a gifted post works, write back: "Hey, like we like what you made. Can you make something like this?" the way HexClad does. How We're Reaching New Audiences on Meta with Partnership Ads, Marketing Operators, 2025-09-16.

Move 5 · Why it fails for most brands

Click to enlarge

• "We do a lot of seeding. It's one of those things that's hard to know if it's how much it's working... You just get like an earned media number." Jones Road's CEO Cody Plofker, on Marketing Operators, 1:01:49.

What success looks like, the approximation

• Jones Road, Nutrafol, Louis Vuitton, Huel and Olipop each do one piece.
• None does all five.

Component 1 · Chosen on purpose

Click to enlarge

• Jones Road sends only to creators ranked level 3 and up, and Liquid Death made 80 snowboards nobody could buy.

Component 2 · Built on what they love

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• HexClad kept gifting a Gordon Ramsay fan even after passing on paying her, and Nutrafol found its bigger market by watching who took the samples.

Component 3 · Worth the camera

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• SugarBearHair sent the nicest box in the pile, and Louis Vuitton built an unboxing with multiple elements.

Component 4 · Sent with no strings

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• Huel gifted instead of paying in 2018, and True Classic's chip asked for nothing before Uber Eats drivers came back wearing the brand.

Component 5 · Followed up on

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• Olipop puts anyone already posting on a PR list, and Ridge buys the rights to what a creator already made instead of paying for a script.

Where it breaks, and what's next

Where it breaks

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• poppi sent full-size vending machines to 32 creators before its Super Bowl ad, and Olipop said each one cost $25,000, a number poppi called inflated by 60 percent.
• Adweek later reported the real cost was less than half of $25,000. Yahoo, citing Adweek
• The size of the gift became the story, and viewers asked why rich influencers got a $25,000 machine instead of a school or a hospital.

Click to enlarge

• The Hermes bracelet was gifted throughout 2024.
• The issue was creators brought up the fact that some were getting expensive bracelets and some were getting much cheaper gifts.
• From Top 5 PR boxes to connect with Influencers & celebrities, my channel, 2026-09-15.
• "I mean, nothing is more disappointing than when I when I give product to an event and they panic and realize they never tagged me or never put anything on and they'll send me a photo of the can like in a cooler. Like about there's no no context and that's laziness, you know?" Liquid Death's head of brand, on JUST Creative, 18:01.

Bridge to the next step: community

• And this, when you have a system that scales, will greatly increase the chance of creators getting back to you, will build the stronger relationships between creators, and then it's all going to lead into building our influencer community.
• You now have a shortlist of creators who like you for free, and nowhere to put them yet.
• Creator community: we invite those creators into a private community with real perks, so they keep posting all year without charging a flat fee every time.

Top 10 PR boxes

The ones that worked

1. KKW Fragrance, the chocolate heart, February 2018

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Click to enlarge

What is in the frame

• A hollow chocolate heart the size of a cake, filled with candy hearts, with the perfume carton buried inside.
• The candy colour matches the scent, lilac candy for Ride or Die and pale blue candy for BAE.
• A plain white carton with the scent name in big red letters, which you can read from across a room.
• A wooden mallet, because the only way in is to smash the heart.

Why it works

The opening is the video. You cannot get to the perfume without breaking something, and people want to watch that finish.

The carton is plain on purpose, so the one thing the camera picks up is the name of the scent. The collection sold out within days of its February 1 launch.

Worth copying, make the opening a physical act the viewer wants to see through to the end.

Source, Malay Mail, KKW video with the chef

2. Gisou, the mini fridge, spring 2024

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What is in the frame

• A cream retro mini fridge, door open, with the freezer flap wrapped in a printed Gisou Lippies panel.
• Every product lined up in clear organisers, rows of the same pink-capped lip oils and honey-coloured hair oils.
• The bottom drawer packed with cut watermelon, grapefruit, papaya, mango and dragon fruit.
• The door holds Mogu Mogu juice and a panel that reads "Glossy! Juicy! & Delicious! New fruity scents".

Why it works

The whole frame is one palette, pink, red and honey gold, so every inch of it is the brand. Rows of the same product read as plenty, which is the shot creators want.

The fruit is not decoration, the launch was fruity scents, so the fridge makes you think of taste before you smell anything. The tag passed 53 million TikTok views, and Dazed reports Anna Astrup's unboxing reached 2.5 million views with over 3,000 comments.

The catch, fresh fruit rots and a fridge is a lot of plastic and power. A sustainability manager quoted by Dazed said Gisou would have to plant 97 trees to offset each fridge.

Worth copying, build the box around the one word the launch is about, and make every object in the frame say it.

Source, Dazed

3. Chipotle, National Fork Day, April 2025

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What is in the frame

• A handwritten card that says "Brigette, for all the forks you've borrowed, Happy National Fork Day", signed Chipotle.
• A long white display case holding a row of black plastic forks, each in its own slot, the way a jeweller shows rings.
• A card in the middle for free entrees, and a black label that reads "A fork so good you'll want extra".

Why it works

The joke is her own habit. People take extra forks from Chipotle, and the note calls her out by name, so it reads as personal and funny at once. The product costs almost nothing, the laugh comes from treating a free plastic fork like jewellery.

The free entree card gives her a reason to come back and film again. Her video passed one million views.

Worth copying, find the thing customers already take for free and present it like a luxury.

Source, AOL, her TikTok

4. Olipop, the 5 cent PR box, June 2025

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What is in the frame

• A navy puffer tote with a sunny palm tree patch.
• Three cans, Strawberry Vanilla, Cream Soda and Cherry Cola.
• An orange silicone mold with a pink "Olipopsicle" ice pop.
• A small speaker shaped like a cassette tape, with palm tree art on it.

This is the styled product shot, not an unboxing, so it shows exactly what was in the box.

Why it works

Everything in the box is for one day at the beach, so the box has one clear use. The cassette and the old soda look match the brand's retro style. But the box itself is ordinary, and that is the point.

The story was who could get it. Olipop sold 5,000 of them on Amazon for 5 cents each, a few months after poppi was attacked for sending vending machines to creators, so every fan who bought one became the influencer.

Worth copying, when your category is being mocked for waste, give the PR box to fans for pennies.

Source, Marketing Dive

5. Rhode, the lip case

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What is in the frame

• A soft pink silicone phone case with "rhode" pressed into the back, not printed.
• A slot moulded into the back that holds a lip tint tube in the exact same pink.
• A plain white box behind it.

This creator's video says unboxing, it does not say gift, so read it as the product the PR push was about.

Why it works

The case and the tube are the same colour, so the product and the accessory read as one object. The logo sits on the back of the phone, the side that faces the mirror in every mirror selfie. Nothing gets thrown away, the gift is something she uses all day, so the product keeps showing up in photos long after the unboxing.

Worth copying, make the gift something that keeps your product in their hand and in their photos.

Source, PromotionalProducts.com

6. Laneige, the cooler and the watermelon, 2024

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What is in the frame

• A pink Igloo cooler with a Laneige sticker and playful stickers, a gummy bear, a lollipop, a strawberry and a bubble that says "I'm just a girl".
• A string beach bag holding a round green box painted like a watermelon, with a limited edition tag.

According to IDP Direct, the watermelon box splits into slices and held the watermelon Lip Sleeping Mask, and the cooler held the Lip Glowy Balm.

Why it works

The flavour is the shape, a watermelon mask comes inside a watermelon. Both the cooler and the bag get used again all summer, so the box outlives the unboxing. The stickers borrow the way people already talk on TikTok.

The famous Laneige box, a huge ribbon box holding a full size exercise ball for the Bouncy and Firm Sleeping Mask, follows the same idea, a bouncy ball for bouncy skin, and Dazed says the product was under 5 percent of the box. We could not find a clear photo of that one.

Worth copying, turn the one word the product promises into the object.

Source, IDP Direct, Dazed

7. Gentle Monster x Jennie, 2024

Click to enlarge

What is in the frame

• A white box close to waist height, a pink band printed Jennie and Gentle Monster, and a big pink bow on top.
• Inside, a giant plush unicorn with a lilac braided mane, silver bow and heart clips, and a pink comb.
• Six pairs of glasses laid on pink fur, from pink ovals to a black wraparound with a pearl and teddy bear charm.

Why it works

The size is the hook in the very first frame, you see the box before anything is open. One colour story, white, baby pink and silver, runs through the box, the toy and the glasses, so every frame matches Jennie's collection. The unicorn is a keepsake that stays in the room and turns up in later videos.

The catch, the product is the smallest thing in the picture. The glasses are tiny next to the unicorn, so a viewer can remember the toy and not the brand. A vendor blog says only 300 boxes were made, and we could not confirm that anywhere else.

Worth copying, a huge box sells the moment before it opens.

Source, Stack Influence, her TikTok

The ones that went wrong

8. Tarte, the Hermès bracelet, September 2024

Click to enlarge

What is in the frame

• A Tarte box printed with a disco ball and "Open for your trophy", themed to Dancing With the Stars, with small product boxes.
• In some boxes, an orange Hermès box with its brown ribbon.
• Inside it, a Hermès Kelly bracelet, which retails for $700.

Why it looked great

The orange Hermès box needs no caption. Viewers know what it is and roughly what it costs the second they see it, so the shock lands in one frame.

What went wrong

Not every box had one. The gift turned into a ranking of creators, and the ones who got snacks posted about it, which made a second wave of videos about Tarte playing favourites. And the thing everyone remembers is Hermès, another brand's box, not a Tarte product.

Worth avoiding, if the gifts are unequal, the people who got less will make the next video.

Source, Stack Influence, Yahoo, her TikTok

9. poppi, the vending machines, February 2025

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

What is in the frame

• A full size magenta vending machine with a pink light strip, a touch screen and "poppi" on the glass.
• Six rows of cans sorted by flavour, so the front of the machine reads as a rainbow.
• In the second half of the first picture, the backlash, a viewer drinking poppi with the caption "Awkwardly drinking the remainder of my Poppi's after finding out they spent 25k on each vending machine".

Why it looked great

On camera it is stunning, a lit, colour sorted wall of product in someone's house.

What went wrong

The size of the gift became the subject. Poppi sent machines to 32 creators before its Super Bowl ad, and viewers asked why rich influencers got them and not schools or hospitals.

The first picture shows the exact shape of the backlash, a viewer using the brand's own can as the prop to criticise it. Olipop said each machine cost $25,000, and poppi said that number was inflated by 60 percent.

Worth avoiding, the bigger and pricier the gift looks, the louder people ask why those people got it.

Source, Today, Vice

What the pictures have in common

Four things the pictures teach

• The best openings are an action. Smash it, open the fridge door, read your own name.
• The best boxes leave something in the room. A case, a cooler or a fridge keeps the brand in the next ten videos.
• One joke tied to the product beats a pile of stuff. Forks for fork thieves, a watermelon for a watermelon mask.
• When the price becomes the story, it goes wrong. Tarte and poppi got the views and then got the criticism, while Chipotle and Olipop spent almost nothing and got the love.

How do you turn seeding into a creator machine that compounds?

STEP 1: Flood the market with product

Seed hundreds/thousands of relevant creators.

STEP 2: Capture everything

Automatically collect posts, views, EMV, comments and creator data.

STEP 3: Identify organic winners

• Which creators voluntarily posted?
• Which videos performed?
• Who created something genuinely persuasive?
• Who appeared in post-purchase surveys?

STEP 4: Graduate creators

Move winners into:

• paid content
• affiliate
• whitelisting
• recurring partnerships
• ambassador contracts.

STEP 5: Add big social-proof anchors

Bring in celebrities / A-list creators / respected category figures.

STEP 6: Let the anchor make the rest of the ecosystem more attractive

Smaller creators now WANT association with the brand.

STEP 7: Turn creator content into advertising

License winning content.

Run it through paid.

STEP 8: Build creator-specific funnels

Creator ad → creator landing page → product.

STEP 9: Activate everything around launches

Existing ambassadors + previous seeding winners + 100 new creators + major faces + paid + PR.

STEP 10: Measure multiple signals

Not just coupon-code revenue.

Track:

• EMV
• impressions
• CPM
• content output
• paid ROAS
• post-purchase survey
• codes
• UTMs
• incrementality
• customer demographics
• category growth
• retail/Amazon halo.

STEP 11: Keep the winners forever

The whole machine compounds because creators recruited last year can continue talking about you this year.

Part of the TikTok Shop affiliate playbook.