step by step guide how to use influencers for major launches.

For you if: You are launching a product line and need influencers to promote it & generate PR.

Founder · September 14, 2026 · 21 min read

Major retail launches. Once a product is on the shelf it has to sell early, and it is hard to get shoppers into the store for it. Using influencers to build demand after entering retailers like Sephora, Costco or 7-Eleven, especially when early shelf velocity matters.
Seed creators before the shelf: Bloom sent Bloom Pop to creators and handed out cans at events, so people could taste it before they saw it in a store. Forbes, April 2026
- Glow Recipe seeded 1,800 lab samples labeled only MUCIN to creators, getting over $500,000 in earned media value before its mailers went out. Glossy, August 2025
Film inside the store: Bloom CEO Greg Lavecchia says it was one of the first brands to film TikToks inside retail stores, and that it is now standard practice. Forbes, April 2026
- 1UP Candy sends shoppers to the stores that carry it with videos FaZE Rug films in-store, some getting millions of views. Nosh, May 2025
Count the first weeks: Bloom Pop launched in over 4,000 Walmart stores and moved two million cans, worth $2.7 million, in its first few weeks. Forbes, April 2026
- Fenty Beauty, sold only through Sephora, had online sales 5 times Kylie Cosmetics in its first month, and 34% higher the next, per Slice Intelligence. WWD, January 2018

ring buyers the numbers: The PR firm 5W says buyers at Whole Foods, Target, Sprouts and Walmart now look up TikTok Shop sales, hashtag volume and Amazon reviews before a pitch meeting. 5W, press release, June 2026

For you if:

You are launching a product line and need influencers to promote it & generate PR

Before launch day

Problem: Retailers won't take a new flavour until they see people want it

Solution: Test a new flavour with creators before the retailers see it

Celsius tested a flavour with influencers and brand ambassadors, and used what they thought to get buy in from retailers.

“and then we tested it with some influence wiers and some brand ambassadors and uh uh got some buy in for some retailers what they thought and uh then we're off and running it's been uh it's it hasn't been one of our our best flavors on launches but you know it's uh it's done it's done well it's sold more product than we did back in 19 on some of our best flavor launches when we launched then and um I think you learned from that”
BevNET.com, The Two-Word Phrase That Helps Celsius Generate Over $1 Billion Annually

Problem: Creators don't know the product well enough to talk about it

Solution: Make creators pass a course and an exam before they can promote it

Seed launched Seed University, a 59-minute Instagram Stories curriculum covering six subjects that prospective ambassadors had to complete and pass a 10-question final exam on before joining its influencer network. glossy.co
Once vetted, Seed ambassadors received a 15% base commission for being part of the Seed network, plus 100% of the profits from product sales if they were not part of any other larger influencer network. glossy.co
Nearly 1,700 people had registered for Seed University against Seed's more than 36,000 brand Instagram followers, and the brand planned to accept 100 to 200 influencers on a rolling basis. glossy.co

Problem: The same launch offer works with one creator and not with the others

Solution: Vary offer on a creator basis

A US fragrance brand ran one intro offer through a lot of influencers. The drop with the one whose audience trusted her became one of the biggest moments in the brand's history and beat their model by 39%.

“Here's another influencer drop example where this US fragrance brand partnered with an influencer named Daryl Anne. And this specific influencer drop created one of the largest moments for their brand's history. And it's interesting because they've been running this same intro offer that they ran through this influencer through a bunch of other influencers, but the key was that those other influencers likely didn't connect enough with their target audience. So, it's also highlighting a very important point here that finding the correct influencer that has a big enough audience that's also has a really engaged audience that trusts that influencer enough to make a buying decision based on their recommendation. That's the most important point when you're partnering with an influencer. And they were able to outperform the model by 39% in this example, which was huge for them.”
Common Thread Collective, How to Balance What Brands Want vs. What’s Likely

Problem: One brief can't cover both the creator's post and the ad made from it

Solution: Send creators two briefs for a new product: one for their post, one for the ad

The organic collaborative post and the ads that run from their page and yours are different jobs.

So, we've started actually like briefing creators separately where like let's say we're going to activate with a few creators for a new product drop, and we want to do organic like um you know, collaborative posts with them, and we also want to run ads with that make ads and run them from their pages and our pages, we'll go and actually send them two different briefs.
Marketing Operators, Ecommerce Content Flywheel: Meta to TikTok, Paid to Organic

Problem: Creators get your new product at the same time as everyone else

Solution: Seeding creators 3 weeks before launch

Send them early verison of new product - makes them feel like they are an exclusive cohort

Problem: Nobody has seen the product before it is on the shelf

Solution: Put it in creators' hands before it reaches the shelf

Bloom's launch playbook for its beverage lines was a full 360 launch combining influencer partnerships, social, brand communications, and PR mailers, plus sampling at events, gifting, and seeding products with creators to get cans in hands before people saw the product on shelf. uk.finance.yahoo.com
Bloom treats its own customers like influencers, and when a superfan spots a new flavor on a Target shelf before it is officially announced, the Bloom team often DMs them and ships product as a thank-you. uk.finance.yahoo.com
Bloom Sparkling Energy went from zero to an eight-figure business in six months, sold 35 million cans in under a year, and helped push total beverage volume to 155 million units sold in 2025. uk.finance.yahoo.com
Bloom Nutrition has scaled into a $1 billion multi-category platform that now works with 6,000-plus creators. uk.finance.yahoo.com

Problem: Nobody is waiting to buy on launch day

Solution: Build a waitlist and send product to hundreds of small creators first

Before selling a single bar, David built a waitlist that gave the first 5,000 signups exclusive access and giveaways. theselloutnewsletter.com
Rather than paying for a few big endorsements, David sent product to hundreds of micro-influencers across fitness, nutrition, and aesthetics niches. theselloutnewsletter.com
David launched exclusively online in September 2024, controlling the narrative and collecting customer data before pushing into physical stores. theselloutnewsletter.com
David engaged directly on social media, live-streaming its founder for over 10 hours on launch day. theselloutnewsletter.com
Over 25% of David's customers report they were not previously protein bar consumers, showing the brand expanded the category rather than just taking market share. theselloutnewsletter.com
David says it is on pace to pass $100 million in revenue in its first year of operation. athletechnews.com

Launch week

Problem: Your launch gets one burst of attention and then goes quiet

Solution: Have them post a few minutes apart to get attention

And then also let some of them let some of them drop the exclusive. So, we would say, "Okay, we're we're announcing at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. You can go at 10:05. You can go at 10:10, etc." Um so, that that would conjure up a lot of buzz. Um
Marketing Operators, E009: Ashton Wall: Putting Influencer Marketing At The Core of your Marketing Stack

Problem: Creators have nothing to post about but the product

Solution: Give creators the first night of a pop-up, then open it to everyone

poppi had Paris Hilton DJ a night for celebrities and influencers, then opened it up, and over 5,000 people came over two days to try the new flavour.

we had Paris Hilton DJ we had celebrities and influencers come for one night and then we opened up the community we had people fly in from Hawaii to come to our popup to buy a hoodie and to try our new flavor and to meet me and just to be part of it we're like wow this is special we had the line people waking up at 6 a.m. over 5,000 people came over a period of two days
Uncensored CMO, Poppi: from Shark Tank to $2 billion exit - the story of America's fastest growing beverage

Solution: Launch a collaboration with a creator trip around it

Halfdays ran an influencer trip in Whistler around the launch of its collaboration products with Ilia.

a good example of it was like the Ilia activation and like product collaboration earlier this year um where we did like a an influencer trip in Whistler surrounding the launch of the collaboration products.
Marketing Operators, How Halfdays Turned Community into a Growth Engine - with CEO Ariana Ferwerda

Problem: The people you want to reach don't follow you yet

Solution: Launch with a chef and a local food creator where the fans already are

Chef Merito tested new items at the Dodgers with the team's executive chef and an LA food influencer, and got 15 million impressions from that one activation.

And so that's when we first launched as kind of more of like a test these alasto eskees with executive Dodgers executive chef Ryan Evans and then LA foodie and influencer uh Eddie Sanchez Hungary in LA and we did it like right at the tail end of the season and we were able to get 15 million impressions from that activation alone.
Starting Small, The story of Chef Merito: Lauren Corugedo

Problem: People can't taste a new flavour through a screen

Solution: Open a shop where people can try it in person

Following its June 1 online launch, David Frozen Dessert sold out in 28 minutes. prnewswire.com
David opened a limited-time summer ice cream shop at a gym in New York's West Village so customers could try the new pints in person. prnewswire.com

Problem: A deep launch discount loses money on your own site

Solution: Launch a new flavour on TikTok only, for a month

Ryan Chen's brand launched its wintergreen and spearmint flavours exclusively on TikTok, discounting harder than its own site could, because TikTok helped cover the cost.

“say there would be certain brand campaigns that we did with like, you know, uh the spring campaign or um like the new flavors we launched exclusively on TikTok like December 2024, like the wintergreen spearmint flavors that we had. That we launched exclusive on TikTok for like a month and we were promoting it and we're discounting it way more than we can even discount on a website cuz like TikTok would then have subsidies, right? They'll be like, "Hey, like you put in this much ad dollars, like we'll help subsidize and cover some of that cost." Or else like we would be losing money if we were to do that same pricing on D2C.”
Sweat Equity, The Genius Who Gets Celebrities to Promote His Brand For $0 w/ Ryan Chen

Problem: You can't tell which part of the launch brought in which orders

Solution: Stagger each part of the launch so you can see what each one did

HexClad launched its Cooking with HexClad group, the Nancy Silverton promotion and its own media at different times, so it could match returning orders to each.

“we staggered the cooking with hex Cloud launch with the Nancy Silverman promotion or Silverton promotion with our own media promotion so then like I can try to map out backend data to the different channels like we do use UTM too but it's like all right I know we launched cooking with hex Cloud at this time on this day Nancy was at this time on this day our our organic social was at this point and then own media so it's kind of fun to like try to map out like well this many returning orders came from the organic push this much from this influencer this much from cooking with hexclad so we're definitely bringing a growth like measurement Performance Marketing lens to it”
Marketing Operators, E003: Holistic Retention Strategies and Driving LTV

Problem: You don't know when to turn on ads

Solution: Line up creators and press for week one, and switch on ads after

Magic Spoon's first week online beat its forecast for the whole first year, helped by press, the creators who got behind it, and ads turned on a little later.

Our first week online, we probably did more in sales than we'd forecast for our entire first year. It's a massive first week. And a lot of that was due to the excitement at launch, some of the press, some of the creators that got behind it and just incredible efficiency once we turned on ads a little bit later as well.
BevNET.com, Why Magic Spoon’s Product-First Strategy Drove Its Success

Turning launch posts into ads

Problem: Paying creators per post leaves you with too few ads

Solution: Gift product to a lot of creators, then turn their posts into ads

These results come from Kynship, the agency that ran it.

Kynship identified 1000 influencers relevant to the creatine gummy product and sent them free product with no-strings-attached messaging. kynship.co
A large share of the gifted influencers posted organically, netting 350 unique content assets the brand would not have gotten from a traditional pay-per-post model, and Kynship then secured usage rights on as many of those assets as possible for Meta ads. kynship.co
About 85 to 90 percent of the shared content came from women even though the product was gifted equally to men and women, which unintentionally shaped the brand's direction. kynship.co
Create Wellness set out with a target CPA of $45, and by February, Kynship had beaten that goal with a CPA of $38. kynship.co
By August 2023, Create Wellness had passed $2 million in all-time revenue. kynship.co

FIY - u can give comission from ads as a away to commemorate usage rights

Problem: You need a creator ad that can take a lot of spend

Solution: Spend real time on one creator ad, then launch it in many versions

True Sea Moss spent a month scripting and a month editing one influencer ad, launched 10 versions, and has spent a million and a half dollars on it.

Like it's this new influencer ad that we spent a month scripting and another month producing and editing and then we finally launched it with like 10 versions and now we've spent a million and a half dollars on it and we paid this creator $200,000 or something.
Marketing Operators, The Meta Playbook That Took True Sea Moss Beyond Nine Figures

Problem: A creator's ads look weak on the first day's numbers

Solution: Keep spending, and judge them on what those customers are worth over time

HexClad kept going, and by year end her ads showed the biggest lift from one day click to lifetime value in the account.

“And sure enough we got to the end of the year and if you go and look at all the data from the moment we launched through the end of the year and you add that rorowaz lift metric to our northbeam table these ads her ads had the highest rorowaz lift. I think it was like 100% growth and return on ad spend going from like the one day click to the LTV compared to the rest of our account.”
Marketing Operators, How HexClad Spent $700K on One Creator and Won Big

Launching into a retailer

Problem: Nobody walks into the store looking for you

Solution: Build demand on TikTok Shop before the retail launch

Claudia Sulewski's fragrance brand sold on TikTok Shop first, so people went into Sephora to smell the scents they had heard about there.

We were on TikTok Shop before we launched in Sephora and I think TikTok Shop did such a great job and it was such a great vehicle to create that brand awareness that helped, you know, build that momentum and that excitement for people to go into Sephora locations and smell the fragrances that they're hearing about TikTok Shop.
Hot Smart Rich, How I Built A Sephora Beauty Empire (& Why I Might Reject Finneas’ Last Name) Claudia Sulewski

Problem: The retailer wants to see you send shoppers to its stores

Solution: Make the retailer the call to action in every creator box

W put Walmart's logo in its influencer box and made Walmart its main call to action, and Walmart's senior leaders now talk about it as a launch to copy.

“we've driven a ton of awareness to Walmart like in all this content we do we are driving people to Walmart Walmart's logo is in in the influencer box they're on WE sponsored a NASCAR they're on the NASCAR like their primary CTA for us as a brand which they love and they're not they like their Walmart VPS svps SE Suite is now talking about W is like a best-in-class Walmart launch to follow and to emulate which is really really cool”
Startup to Storefront, How Jake Paul Launched W Using The Same Strategy As SKIMS! | Business Tips

Solution: Build the PR box around the retailer's name

Oat Haus sent influencers boxes with a custom label for the brand and Sprouts, with jars of soil and seeds, sprouting into retail.

“we did a big influencer push with Sprouts so we sent out you know these PR boxes that had um we actually did like a custom label that was like oat house and sprouts and then we sent these jars with soil in them and like little like gardening little seeds and we said like sprouting into retail whatever it was like kind of cheesy but um and we sent it to a bunch of influencers and so I think doing that digital um push you know to to in person actually has been really beneficial for us”
Starting Small, The story of Oat Haus: Ali Bonar

Problem: Ambassadors don't know what to post for a retail launch

Solution: Give ambassadors one exact job for a retail launch

Post a TikTok, tag the brand and Walmart, use the Walmart hashtag, and be in the aisle holding the product. The brand says those 7,000 ambassadors helped make a massive Walmart launch.

“we can say post a Tik Tok tag matter rabbit use the hashtag Walmart tag Walmart and make sure that you're in the aisle holding our product wow and they have now implemented AI that actually checks that so it's actually less and less time on our side validating that the challenge was completed embedded into social ladder or just in general yes embedded into social ladder shout out social ladder it's amazing I love it they need to cut the check highly recommend that was a very very customized granular ask um in conjunction with supporting the sell through at Walmart which by the way that's genius that's just one example of how we can mobilize these 7,000 people which contributed to a massive Walmart launch for us”
Open Residency, College Dorm to Shark Tank to Millions

Problem: Shoppers can't find you on the shelf

Solution: Send creators into the store to find it on the shelf

When HOP WTR launched at Target, it sent a Target focused creator and several micro influencers in store to shop it, show where it sits and talk about why.

“our question we also leverage influencers to drive our retail business so every time we launch a a meaningful retailer will use either several influencers or a specific influencer that is and uh and send them in store and so they'll go into store so Target for example when we launch Target we we did a both Target focused retailer and several other sort of more micro um uh influencers uh and they would go in store they'll they'll shop the product they'll show where it is on shelf they'll talk about the benefits of it”
The Bottom Line, Jordan Bass from HOP WTR: Methodology and Approach to Influencer Marketing in a Retail Business

Watch costco finds ads format video

Relaunching under a new name

Problem: Your name only fits the first product you sold

Solution: Pick a name that can hold products you haven't made yet

AG1's CEO Kat Cole said the brand needed a naming convention that could hold future innovation instead of Athletic Greens. athletechnews.com
AG1 took greens out of its name while it still sold only one product. athletechnews.com
Dropping the Athletic Greens name also set AG1 apart from the copycat greens powders that entered the market after 2010. athletechnews.com
AG1 became a hit on social media and leaned into partnerships with Joe Rogan and Dr. Andrew Huberman, who both praised it on their podcasts. athletechnews.com

Solution: Launch new products under the new name at the same time

Theragun announced on May 4, 2020 that it was rebranding to Therabody. prnewswire.com
Therabody launched a CBD product line called TheraOne and new 4th generation Theragun massage devices at the same time as its rebrand. prnewswire.com

Solution: Drop the word that ties you to one product

Dunkin' Donuts announced in September 2018 that it would officially rename itself Dunkin'. news.dunkindonuts.com
Dunkin' said the new name was one more step toward becoming a beverage-led, on-the-go brand, on packaging, ads and restaurants from January 2019. news.dunkindonuts.com
After the Dunkin' name change, Dunkin's Buzz score among the public climbed from 12 to 21. qsrmagazine.com
YouGov found that 23 percent of consumers recalled discussing Dunkin' with friends or family after the name change, up from 15 percent before it. qsrmagazine.com

Problem: You can't keep the name you have

Solution: Rename, and change what you call the product too

Mother Beverage took a $400,000 deal on Shark Tank, then renamed itself Poppi because it could not trademark the name Mother. bevnet.com
Poppi changed its product from being called an apple cider vinegar beverage to being called a prebiotic soda. bevnet.com
Stephen Ellsworth said he saw the rebrand widening the brand's buyers, possibly to a younger audience. bevnet.com
Poppi's team started making new content for its social media channels, which Allison Ellsworth said had been less of a focus under the Mother name. bevnet.com
The relaunch was set to put Poppi in nearly 1,000 stores by the end of the first quarter, including Sprouts, Life Time and 50 Wegmans. bevnet.com

Solution: Change the name before launch, and let fans inspire the new one

Kim Kardashian faced social media backlash over the Kimono name after the mayor of Kyoto asked her to drop the trademark. wwd.com
Kim Kardashian renamed her shapewear brand from Kimono to Skims and set a launch date of Sept. 10. wwd.com
Kim Kardashian said on Instagram that fans inspired the new brand name Skims by sharing their ideas with her. wwd.com
SKIMS launched with bras, underwear, bodysuits and a one-leg bike short available in nine shades and sizes ranging from XXS to 4XL. wwd.com

Warning: KKW Beauty relaunched as SKKN by Kim, was sued over the name, and closed in 2025

Kim Kardashian launched KKW Beauty in 2017, then shut it down in 2022 to relaunch with a new brand and new formulas. beautymatter.com
Coty helped Kim Kardashian launch SKKN by Kim in 2022 as a nine-step skincare system. beautymatter.com
Kim Kardashian faced a lawsuit claiming her new SKKN skincare line confused customers with a small Brooklyn beauty business. monstersandcritics.com
SKKN by Kim closed down in June 2025 as part of a plan to fold into the SKIMS brand. beautymatter.com

Problem: Nobody hears that you sell something new

Solution: Tease a name change to launch it

IHOP teased that it was changing its name to IHOb and the move created a lot of buzz on social media. cnbc.com
IHOP used the IHOb name change to promote its new line of burgers designed to lure in customers at lunchtime. cnbc.com
IHOP's name change campaign produced 1.2 million tweets in the first 10 days. cnbc.com
IHOP's chief marketing officer said the company sold four times more burgers after the IHOb campaign. cnbc.com
At its peak, IHOP was selling 500,000 burgers a week after the IHOb campaign. cnbc.com

Problem: Customers only know you by the old name

Solution: Have creators introduce the new name

In October 2024, Hotel Engine renamed itself Engine and added flights and car rentals to its hotel booking. finance.yahoo.com
Engine worked with 10 creators across corporate, travel and lifestyle content to promote its rebrand. theshelf.com
Engine's rebrand campaign with creators earned 510,742 total impressions, 2.3 times the projected reach. theshelf.com
Meta ads made from the creators' content got Engine 11.7M impressions and 773 signups at $51.75 each. theshelf.com

Evidence: In our own records, AG1's creators moved to the new link between April and September 2023

In January to March 2023, 89 of the 90 AG1 YouTube placements we hold still linked to athleticgreens.com.
In April to June 2023, 114 placements used the old link and 51 used drinkag1.com.
By July to September 2023, 153 of 161 linked to drinkag1.com.

Problem: A new name confuses the customers you already have

Solution: Make the bridge from the old name to the new one obvious

Weight Watchers renamed itself WW in 2018 and said it wanted people to focus on being well instead of dieting. cnbc.com
WW added influencers such as DJ Khaled after Oprah Winfrey joined the company, which helped give WW a resurgence. cnbc.com
CNBC wrote that the rebranding campaign left people confused and Weight Watchers' member numbers falling. cnbc.com
Weight Watchers forecast a 10 percent drop in members in the first quarter, the most important season for diets. cnbc.com
Weight Watchers shares fell by roughly 35 percent in one day. cnbc.com
CEO Mindy Grossman said the campaign needed to be more about weight loss in January, with a more obvious bridge from Weight Watchers to WW. cnbc.com

Warning: Gatorade became G in 2009 without telling anyone outside the company why

Gatorade ran a What is G campaign with famous athletes before the company revealed it was renaming itself G. cspdailynews.com
Gatorade's executives had not shared the plan behind the new G naming with anyone outside the company, so the reasons for the change were a mystery. cspdailynews.com
The report said shoppers choosing cheaper drinks hurt Gatorade, and the start of its rebrand under the G name at least at first came off as poorly executed. cspdailynews.com
Gatorade was still around a $5 billion brand but suffered a 15.5% drop in sales. cspdailynews.com

Miscelenanois tips

A testing budget inside of each campaign can be used for trying new demographics or influencers outside of your niche.

“ One other note about Monach 2, I was actually speaking with their team recently and they flagged that a lot of times they see that the [music] best creator coming out of their brand's campaigns is actually the creator that wasn't following all of the best practices. So sometimes what they advise brands is, hey, have you know five to 15% of your budget for every single big influencer campaign to go against your best practices, right? This could be trying a completely new demographic, going older, going younger, maybe try someone out of your niche. I love this idea, having a little bit of a testing budget inside of each campaign. Now, let's talk about all the options you have on how to find creators and influencers platform by platform. ”
The goal is to find mid-range creators who are getting into influencer territory and produce hyperviral content, even if they don't have millions of followers.

“ And the place that you're most likely going to start, and oftent times where my team starts initially anyways is the organic social media feed. So going to Tik Tok, going to reals and really exploring your niche or the type of persona that you really want to target and seeing what type of content and creators really floats to the top. And because we are trying to find more of that mid-range creator getting into influencer territory, we're trying to find pieces of content that hyperviral, but maybe came from someone that didn't already have millions of followers. But again, sourcing just on Instagram and Tik Tok, that's going to be a tough go. ”