BRANDING

For Buyout

Don’t just build your brand to scale – build your brand to sell.

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FRESH Communications and The Grist first partnered on PopCorners, helping build a brand that was ultimately acquired by PepsiCo – and redefining what better-for-you brands can be worth. That experience shaped a clear belief: while marketing and PR drive customer demand, true value is created when the brand itself is intentionally built to attract buyers.

Now formalized as a partnership, we combine The Grist’s Branding for Buyout methodology with FRESH’s data-driven PR and growth engine to create brand equity and market momentum from day one with the exit in mind. The result? Brands that build demand today while increasing buyer appeal for tomorrow.

PRESS

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CASE STUDY

PopCorners

Partnership in Action

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Challenge
Strategy
Results
Challenge
As PopCorners scaled in an increasingly crowded snack category, the brand needed to strengthen awareness, sharpen differentiation, and reinforce consumer trust during a critical growth phase. The opportunity extended beyond visibility. It was about positioning PopCorners as a culturally relevant, better-for-you brand with sustained momentum and broad consumer appeal.
Strategy

FRESH partnered with PopCorners to drive sustained earned media visibility, reinforce its better-for-you positioning, and strengthen market relevance through trusted third-party validation. In partnership with The Grist’s broader brand strategy efforts, FRESH amplified PopCorners across key consumer and business media to build awareness, credibility, and momentum during a pivotal growth phase.

The strategy focused on authority-building placements, differentiated positioning, sustained visibility, retail-supporting awareness, and strengthening PopCorners’ perception as an innovative, high-growth brand.

Rather than short-term spikes in attention, the approach prioritized sustained momentum and credibility to deepen consumer trust and reinforce market relevance.

Results

During a pivotal growth period, FRESH generated a sustained drumbeat of earned visibility for the brand.

155 earned media placements
1.2 billion earned impressions
$0.08 CPM demonstrating highly efficient awareness-building at scale.

FRESH secured top-tier coverage across outlets including POPSUGAR, Forbes, Insider, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, Food Dive, and broadcast media, reinforcing PopCorners’ position as a trusted, innovative better-for-you snack brand. Coverage helped strengthen consumer relevance and category authority during a period of rapid growth. Notably, Food Dive identified PopCorners as an acquisition target prior to the PepsiCo deal, underscoring the momentum surrounding the brand.

Why It Mattered

Strategic communications do more than generate awareness. They shape perception.

Leading up to PopCorners’ acquisition by PepsiCo, sustained earned media visibility helped reinforce trust, cultural relevance, and differentiated positioning, all factors that can strengthen enterprise value and buyer appeal.

PR for Growth Gets You Seen. PR for Exit Gets You Valued.

It’s good to be a little FRESH.
It builds character (and brands).