Zevia PBC (NYSE: ZVIA), the zero-sugar, naturally sweetened beverage maker distributed across more than 39,000 retail locations in the U.S. and Canada, has launched its largest marketing campaign to date — a national initiative called "Real Talk Interpreter" starring Grammy Award-winning artist Cardi B.
The campaign spans national streaming TV, digital video, social media and retail point-of-sale, and represents the first creative collaboration between the two parties. Zevia features its Orange Creamsicle and Creamy Root Beer varieties in the hero spots.
The Activation
Two video spots anchor the effort, placing Cardi B in everyday social settings — a neighborhood potluck and a parent-teacher conference — where she "interprets" polished, filtered conversation into unvarnished plain speech. The creative framework maps Cardi B's public persona directly onto the brand's positioning around real ingredients and the absence of artificial sweeteners, a message Zevia has been building since its founding.
The campaign extends beyond broadcast. Later this week, Cardi B will solicit fan submissions via her Instagram and TikTok channels, asking followers to share filtered everyday moments they want decoded. Select entries will be featured across both Zevia's and Cardi B's social platforms. Separately, the Zevia x Cardi B Real Summer Sweepstakes offers weekly prizes and a grand-prize package that includes autographed merchandise and free product; consumers can enter at zevia.com/real or via in-store QR codes at participating retailers.
Why It Matters
The campaign arrives at a meaningful moment for the better-for-you beverage segment. Zero-sugar soda has been gaining volume share against full-sugar carbonated soft drinks as consumers trade away excess sugar without abandoning the carbonated soft drink category altogether. For Zevia, which differentiates on the absence of both sugar and synthetic sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose, the strategic challenge is converting category-switchers who may default to diet lines from larger incumbents.
Celebrity partnership spending in the non-alcoholic beverage space has intensified considerably as brands compete for shelf and mindshare. Zevia's move aligns with a broader pattern in the sector: emerging challenger brands deploying high-profile talent to drive trial and accelerate household penetration. Kirsten Suarez, Chief Marketing Officer of Zevia, described the pairing as a vehicle to reach consumers who may not yet be familiar with the brand. "Her authenticity, humor and confidence help us introduce Zevia to new audiences and show that great-tasting, zero sugar soda made with real ingredients can still have plenty of personality and flavor," Suarez said.
From a distribution standpoint, Zevia's footprint across grocery, drug, warehouse club, mass, natural, convenience and e-commerce channels means the retail component of the campaign — custom Cardi B displays in the soda aisle — can achieve meaningful physical reach without requiring incremental distribution gains. The in-store creative is designed to close the loop between the digital campaign and the point of purchase, a mechanic that has become standard practice in better-for-you beverage marketing but which gains amplification when anchored to a celebrity with Cardi B's social scale.
For investors watching Zevia's brand investment cadence, the scope of this activation — simultaneous streaming, social, sweepstakes, and retail execution — signals a step up in above-the-line spending relative to prior campaigns, though the company did not disclose campaign budget figures. Trade observers tracking celebrity partnerships in food and beverage will note that deals of this profile typically carry media commitments well into the eight-figure range when streaming TV buys are included, though Zevia has not confirmed terms. Coverage of the broader category context has also been featured by Food & Beverage Magazine.
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.
