FRIDAY RECAP: 6 Brand Launches & Activations Worth Knowing This Week

By Studio UNA | August 28, 2026

Giving people a product isn't enough anymore. You have to give them a reason to join in. The smartest brand moves this week didn't spend millions shouting louder or running basic social ads. Instead, they took a real habit, an online fixation, or a simple product promise, and turned it into something people wanted to be part of.

At Studio UNA, we keep an eye on activations that turn basic attention into real community momentum. Here is our strategic breakdown of 6 moves worth knowing this week—and why they worked.

01. Dezi Skin Turned “Picking Your Skin” Into a Skincare Category

Dezi Skin launched Pore Choices, a $24 barrier-repair mist made with mucin, Totarol, and hyaluronic acid. But instead of marketing it as another general face spray, they designed it for one specific moment: right after you've picked, squeezed, or messed with your skin.

1. The Objective & Did It Work?

• The Goal: Create a product built around a real human behavior that most skincare brands ignore or scold people for doing.

• Did It Work? Absolutely. Skincare brands usually preach prevention ("don't touch your face!") or treatment ("fix your pimples!"). Dezi Skin focused on the post-mistake moment. They took a guilty habit and turned it into a clear, helpful step in a daily routine.

2. Why This Type of Marketing?

This is Occasion Marketing at its simplest. Most beauty brands organise products by skin type — oily, dry, or sensitive. That gets boring fast, and it is hard to stand out. By organising around a specific event ("I just picked my face, what do I do now?"), Dezi Skin removes all guessing. You instantly know when to grab the bottle off your shelf.

3. Why It Went Viral

It tapped into real, messy honesty. Skin picking carries a little bit of shame, but almost everyone does it. When a brand builds a product that says, "Hey, we know you do this, and it's fine — here's how to fix it," people feel relieved. TikTok creators immediately started posting videos showing their real, red, post-picking skin while using the spray.

That kind of raw honesty gets views because it feels real.

THE UNA TAKE

The best product ideas aren't always completely new problems. Sometimes they are habits your customers are already doing in secret. Stop telling them what they should be doing, and give them a simple ritual for what they are actually doing.

Unspoken Consumer Behavior → Dedicated Product Occasion → Ritual Adoption

02. Pepsi Entered Beauty With a Flavourful Twist

Pepsi teamed up with indie beauty brand GlamLite to drop a limited-edition makeup collection. The line includes an 8-color eyeshadow palette shaped like a Pepsi can, soda-scented lip glosses, and retro accessories.

1. The Objective & Did It Work?

• The Goal: Take Pepsi’s iconic colors and nostalgia and pop up in a completely different aisle without building a beauty brand from scratch.

• Did It Work? Yes. The collection sold out quickly and popped up all over beauty feeds because it felt fun, collectible, and unexpected.

2. Why This Type of Marketing?

Pepsi used a Brand Collaboration to cross into new territory. If Pepsi tried to launch its own standalone makeup line, nobody would take it seriously. But by partnering with GlamLite — a brand already trusted for crazy, vibrant makeup collaborations — Pepsi brought the iconic colors and flavor nostalgia, while GlamLite brought the actual makeup quality.

3. Why It Went Viral

Contrast stops the scroll. You don't expect to see a giant soda brand on an eyeshadow palette. That weirdness makes people pause, look, and tag their friends. The packaging was designed to look just like vintage Pepsi cans, which made unboxing videos fun to watch and share.

THE UNA TAKE

When you take your brand into a new space, don't leave your most famous assets behind. Figure out which signature pieces — your colors, your scents, your logos, or your nostalgia — can travel with you and still make sense. 

03. Poppi Took Love Island to Sorority Rush

Pre-biotic soda brand Poppi took over collegiate sorority recruitment week (specifically Bama Rush) by dropping recent Love Island stars directly into sorority houses loaded up with cold cases of Poppi soda.

1. The Objective & Did It Work?

• The Goal: Own the attention of college-aged women during one of the biggest organic content weeks of the year on TikTok.

• Did It Work? Completely. Millions of students and fans watched videos of reality stars hanging out in dorm rooms holding cans of Poppi, making the brand feel like a core part of the week's festivities.

2. Why This Type of Marketing?

Poppi practiced Cultural Interception. Building your own big summer campaign from scratch takes a ton of money and effort, and people still might not care. Instead of trying to create a new moment, Poppi looked at what its audience was already obsessively watching on their phones — sorority rush videos — and stepped right into the middle of it.

3. Why It Went Viral

They combined two massive internet fixations: Love Island drama and sorority recruitment chaos. Dropping reality TV stars into college dorms felt unpredictable and fun. Everyone in those rooms already had their phones out recording videos for TikTok.

So, Poppi got thousands of hours of organic product placement without having to film a single traditional ad.

THE UNA TAKE

You don't always need to build a hype train from scratch. Stop overthinking your next big launch event. Just find out where your audience is already looking, find a natural way to show up, and join the party.

Existing Cultural Peak (Bama Rush) + High-Tension Talent (Love Island) = Maximum UGC Yield

04. Rimmel London Partnered With Chelsea FC Women

Rimmel London officially partnered with Chelsea FC Women, placing its Match Perfection foundation front and center. Instead of standard photoshoots, they highlighted how the makeup held up on real players during high-stakes football matches.

1. The Objective & Did It Work?

• The Goal: Break away from boring beauty ads and connect with the rapidly growing world of women's sports.

• Did It Work? Yes. It made Rimmel feel modern, grounded, and relevant to a massive crowd of sports fans who don't usually care about traditional beauty ads.

2. Why This Type of Marketing?

Rimmel chose Real-World Proof. Traditional beauty ads show models sitting under bright studio lights with tons of Photoshop. Nobody really trusts that anymore. Showing foundation staying on a professional athlete running around a wet football pitch for 90 minutes gives people actual proof that the product works.

3. Why It Went Viral

Women’s football is having a huge moment globally. Seeing a major beauty brand celebrate these athletes as powerful, talented, and stylish flipped standard beauty tropes upside down. It gave fans a reason to share the campaign because it felt like a win for women's sports, not just a pitch for foundation.

THE UNA TAKE

A great partnership isn't about slapping your logo on a stadium wall. It's about finding a real community that shares your energy and using them to show your product doing what it actually promises.

05. Kiehl’s Built a Whole World Around “Plump”

To launch its new hydration serum, Kiehl’s opened Plump Apothecary — a two-day pop-up in Venice, California featuring skin tests, a "Bouncy Bar," and a "Plump Mart." To get people talking, they also put up fake, trashy street billboards for a fictional "Collagen Law Firm" urging people suffering from "flat skin" to call a hotline.

1. The Objective & Did It Work?

• The Goal: Completely own the word "plump" in a crowded skincare market full of boring scientific jargon.

• Did It Work? Yes. The fake law firm billboards brought in thousands of funny phone calls, and the physical pop-up saw long lines down the block.

2. Why This Type of Marketing?

Kiehl’s used Story-Driven World Building. Every skincare brand claims their serum makes skin "hydrated" or "plump." If Kiehl’s had just run normal social ads saying "100% more plump," everyone would have scrolled past. By turning that single word into a funny, fake law firm and a colorful physical playground, they turned a basic product benefit into an actual experience.

3. Why It Went Viral

The billboards looked like real legal ads you would see on a highway, which made people pause, laugh, and snap pictures. When they called the hotline or scanned the QR code, they got let in on the joke and guided to the pop-up. Inside, everything was designed to be bright, squishy, and fun to record for Instagram and TikTok.

THE UNA TAKE

If your product has one simple benefit, don't just write it in small text on the back of the bottle. Build a funny, visual world around it. The more fun you have making the point, the easier it is for people to remember your brand.

Satirical Street OOH → Curiosity Call/QR Code → Physical Pop-up World → Conversion

06. Dunkin’ Turned Alix Earle’s Order Into a Netflix Tie-In

Dunkin’ added creator Alix Earle’s exact daily drink order — the "Earle-y Riser Meal" — to menus across the country right as her new Netflix reality show, Earle Meets World, premiered.

1. The Objective & Did It Work?

• The Goal: Drive immediate drive-thru sales with Gen Z buyers by connecting a menu item to a major pop-culture premiere.

• Did It Work? Extremely well. Dunkin' saw spikes in app orders and drive-thru visits as fans grabbed the drink to watch the show.

2. Why This Type of Marketing?

Dunkin’ used Authentic Habit Marketing. They didn't hire a creator to sit in a studio and pretend to love a random drink. They took the drink Alix Earle already ordered and posted about every single morning and put her name on it. It didn't feel like an ad; it felt like her actual routine.

3. Why It Went Viral

It gave fans an easy way to participate. When the show dropped on Netflix, fans didn't just sit on the couch; they filmed videos grabbing her exact Dunkin' order at the drive-thru before tuning in. It turned watching a TV show into a fun morning event you could share online.

THE UNA TAKE

Creator marketing works best when you sell their real habits, not just their face. Stop scripting fake ads for influencers. Find out what they are already buying or using every day, and turn that habit into something their fans can easily buy.

Traditional Playbook: Broadcast Message → Paid Media Push → Hope for Consumer Impression 

Modern Playbook: Identify Habit/Culture → Design Physical/Digital World → Consumer Participation

The Big Shift: Stop Pushing Products, Start Giving People a Way In

Look at all 6 of these examples, and you will see the exact same pattern. The best brands aren't asking: "How do we get millions of people to look at our product image?"

They are asking: "What real habit, joke, or moment does our audience already care about — and how can we let them join in?"

None of these campaigns succeeded by shouting louder. They won because they gave people something clear to touch, try, laugh at, or share. And that is where modern brand building is going: away from pushing ads at people, and toward building ideas that people actually want to bring into their lives.

• Dezi Skin took a secret habit and turned it into a clear skincare step.

• Pepsi took a famous visual identity and popped up in a brand new aisle.

• Poppi found a party that was already happening and brought the drinks.

• Rimmel London proved their product works on a real football pitch instead of under studio lights.

• Kiehl’s built a funny, interactive world out of one simple word.

• Dunkin’ put a real morning habit on their menu so fans could join the fun.

Relevance has become significantly more valuable than broad reach.

Modern brand building is no longer about forcing consumers to look at a product — it is about creating environments where consumers naturally bring your brand into their lives.

Ready to build a brand launch people don't just scroll past? Partner with Studio UNA.