Friends vs. YouTubers: power of Brand Marketing & Influence | by Anthony Trimpe

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My son, Luca, 6-years-old, has officially been INFLUENCED.

For an “energy drink”, called PRIME.
And it’s not Jordan, LeBron, Serena Williams, Alex Morgan, Harper or Messi that hooked him.

It’s not even the guys that started the brand, the super-popular YouTubers that every tween has heard of, but most parents don’t know: Logan Paul and KSI. Paul has become more ingrained in pop culture lately with he being a boxer and burgeoning wrestler, but for the most part these are not traditional household names like the aforementioned sports celebrities.

No.
It was Jax.
The 10-year-old next door that influenced Luca.

If Jax says, Luca agrees with it.

Jax was carrying a brightly-colored neon blue bottle of PRIME over to our backyard to play a pickup game of soccer.
Luca, the younger and impressionable friend, now must have it.
24 hours later, Mom got him a couple bottles.

It’s offline Word-of-Mouth at its best, starting with Brand Marketing and the TikTok, YouTube, PR, video, influencer, social media and experiential tactics that completed the launch of the brand. None of which Luca has ever seen.

He just trusts and looks up to Jax. And the other 9–12 year olds in the neighborhood all carrying around these brightly-colored bottles.

This is the thing — you cannot track these results.

There’s no click attribution, no CAC, no CTAs to measure.

It’s pure Brand Marketing and continues to prove that you cannot just spend all your budget on Performance Marketing and expect to create a beloved and long-lasting brand. Won’t work. Especially with the younger gens.

In fact, kids are now collecting and reselling them. You just can’t buy this kind of loyalty.

A few things that made this launch so effective:
✅ Relevant Influencers and Celebrities — going where your customers are
✅ YouTube algorithm brilliance
✅ TikTok and short-form content explosion easy to share
✅ Scarcity — they purposefully held stock back in the beginning creating hysteria and FOMO
✅ Packaging — bright bold colors, not extra frills. Turns them into collectables. Also I hear kids asking “what colors do you have?” rather than “flavors”
✅ Social Engagement — both owners are very involved in comments and responses to their fans
✅ Ingredients — they tout “coconut water” and “electrolytes” and have made parents feel not so bad about them being too sugary for their kids
✅ Extreme target audience focus

✅ Taste — what’s interesting though is I can tell my son doesn’t love it. It’s TOO sweet. But he won’t dare say that in front of his friend haha.

An article below if you want to read more:
https://lnkd.in/gkAtC6nH
#brand #prime #brandmarketing #youtube #tiktok #influencermarketing