Ello, the Chicago-based drinkware and food storage brand owned by Leapfrog Brands, is launching "Keep It Fresh" — its first-ever brand campaign — across connected TV, digital, and social channels beginning late September 2026. The effort marks the first time Ello has brought its food storage, hydration, and kids product categories together under a unified brand message.
The Strategic Shift
The campaign signals a deliberate move by Ello to expand brand equity beyond individual SKUs — leakproof water bottles and lunch boxes among its best-known items — and build broader household recognition. For Leapfrog Brands, the parent company, the initiative represents a platform bet: one creative idea that can scale across multiple product categories without fragmenting the brand's identity. "'Keep It Fresh' is about building a brand people want to bring into more parts of their lives," said Jill Pearson, EVP at Leapfrog Brands. "It gives us one idea that can grow across categories while still staying true to what made people choose Ello in the first place: kitchen products that make everyday life easier."
Creative Execution
Ello partnered with independent creative agency Ceiling Train to develop the campaign around the pressures and spontaneity of family mealtime — a deliberately broad territory that lets the brand speak to food storage, on-the-go hydration, and kids' mealtime products simultaneously. The creative team, described as largely made up of parents, leaned into unscripted family moments rather than aspirational lifestyle imagery. "There's a ridiculous amount of pressure wrapped up in a question as simple as 'what's for dinner?'" said Christina Cooksey, founder of Ceiling Train. "We wanted to give families permission to break some rules: eat the leftovers, take dinner outside, let Tuesday feel like Friday."
The production approach — real families, candid moments — is consistent with a broader shift in consumer packaged goods marketing toward less polished, more relatable content, particularly on social platforms where Ello competes for household attention alongside larger housewares players.
Market Context
The reusable drinkware and food storage segment has grown increasingly competitive, with mass-market and specialty brands alike vying for a share of household spend driven in part by sustainability trends and the ongoing growth of at-home food preparation. Ello's decision to consolidate its product lines under a single campaign platform is a cost-efficient way to build brand salience across multiple retail categories — grocery, mass, and specialty housewares — without proportionally increasing media spend. CTV placement in particular signals a push for household-level reach at a moment when streaming audiences skew toward the family demographic Ello is explicitly targeting.
The campaign is live now. Creative assets and the full "Keep It Fresh" video are available at ElloProducts.com/Keep-It-Fresh.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
