Reverse Engineering Ads Changed How I Create

In partnership with

A tiny soda brand turned into a $1.85B powerhouse with just 5 repeatable ad formats. The secret? Let's break it down.

Here’s your Ad Decoder for the week:

• The Ad Decoder → how to break down any good ad into structure, emotion, and moves you can reuse.

• Playbook: Reverse Engineering Ads → the 5-part framework that reveals how great ads are built.

• Why This Works → the psychology behind familiarity, pattern recognition, and creative clarity.

• Brand Spotlight → how decoding competitors helped them rebuild a stronger brand system.

• Growth Memo → when inspiration becomes innovation.

• From Me to You → a free teardown session to decode your top-performing (or underperforming) ads.

• The Memo-ry → great marketing is architecture, not luck.

• Acronym Therapy → ROA: Return On Analysis.

Let’s decode the magic.

INTRO

The Ad Decoder

Great marketers don’t just save ads they like. They study them.
Not to copy the look, but to understand the structure underneath, so they can recreate the same impact in their own voice.

Every great ad, even the ones that feel effortless, follows a sequence. There’s a reason something shows up first, a reason the pacing works, and a reason the message lands when it does.

That’s what reverse engineering reveals.

This week, we’re breaking down how to take any ad you love, look past the surface, and decode what’s actually doing the work. Why this opening? Why this shift in tone? Why this moment sticks?

Great marketers aren’t copying ads. They’re spotting patterns. And once you see the structure clearly, you can rebuild the same kind of magic, original, on brand, and effective.

That’s the real value of the Ad Decoder.

PLAYBOOK

How to Reverse Engineer & Recreate Ads You Like

✨ 1. Spot the Structure
Every ad has a flow: how it starts, builds, and lands. That’s what you’re really studying.

✨ 2. Find the Feeling
What emotion is it pushing? Confidence, relief, excitement, calm? That’s the part you reuse.

✨ 3. Notice the Brand Codes
Look for the repeatable signals: pacing, lighting, tone, energy. That’s how the brand shows up.

✨ 4. Name the Move
What’s the one idea driving the ad? A demo, a reaction, a comparison, a POV.

✨ 5. Rebuild It Your Way
Same structure, same feeling but in your voice, for your audience.

THE WHY

Why Reverse Engineering Works

Reverse engineering removes a lot of the guesswork from creative work. Instead of staring at a blank page, you’re starting with proven patterns and clear direction. Inspiration stops being random and starts becoming a system you can actually use.

Over time, this sharpens your instinct. You spot patterns faster, generate ideas quicker, and understand more clearly what’s driving performance not just what looks good. That consistency compounds into stronger creative output.

Brands aren’t remembered for originality alone. They’re remembered for clarity. And clarity comes from knowing which patterns to repeat with intention. Reverse engineering is how you build that literacy.

BRAND SPOTLIGHT

Olipop: The “Fun-First, Benefit-Second” Creative Machine

Olipop didn’t win by out-explaining gut health. They won by making healthy soda feel fun again visually, emotionally, and socially.

The brand anchor: “A soda you actually feel good drinking.”
Not wellness-heavy. Not preachy. But fun, nostalgic, positive and drinkable. Across all ads, that tone stays consistent: playful edits, bright visuals, real people enjoying real moments, and subtle joy that first sip reaction, that relaxed satisfied exhale. It isn’t about strictly “you’ll be healthier.” It’s about permission to enjoy. That’s what sells.

📈 Why Olipop’s Growth & Ad System Make It Worth Studying

• Launched in 2018 with just 40 grocery stores and about US $852,000 in first-year gross revenue.

• By 2022, revenue rose to US $73.4 million.

• By early 2023, Olipop already hit US $100 million in gross revenue. CNBC+1

• As of its 2025 funding round, the brand is now valued at US $1.85 billion, after raising US $50 million a dramatic leap in ~7 years.

• Today their sodas are stocked in nearly 50,000 retailers across the U.S. (Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Kroger, etc.) massive distribution compared to their first-year 40 stores.

• According to their public disclosure, Olipop is the top non-alcoholic beverage brand in the U.S. by dollar sales and by unit growth (outpacing many legacy soda giants).

These numbers tell a powerful story: Olipop is not just a trendy indie soda it’s a high-growth, category-shaping brand. And that level of growth attracts attention especially from marketers looking to replicate what works.

That means their ad style, cadence, and creative system don’t just appeal to consumers. They also become a template a “reference ad system” other brands study, mimic, or adapt for their own offerings.

🔍 Why Olipop’s Ad System Works

1. One emotional hook, infinite versions
The core emotion joy, nostalgia, “this feels like a treat I deserve” stays the same. Different creators, flavors, or settings, but the hook works universally.

2. Product enters through pleasure, not performance
They don’t lead with fiber grams or health claims. They lead with taste, fizz, pour, sip, reaction. Once the desire is there then the benefits follow.

3. Creator-first, brand-second
Most ads feel like a friend discovered Olipop not a brand pushing a soda. That authenticity builds trust fast.

4. Bright repetition builds recall
Vibrant can colors, familiar fridge visuals, the pour + drink ritual: over time, these repeated cues make Olipop instantly recognizable.

5. Education as a soft layer
Health benefits are there but they come after the vibe. This lowers resistance and sells feeling before facts.

Taken together: Olipop built a scalable creative engine, not just a “cool commercial.”

🎬 5 OLIPOP Ads That Perfectly Show Their “Fun-First” Ad Engine

1. The First-Sip Reaction

A creator tries OLIPOP on camera for the first time. A pause. A small smile. Sometimes a surprised “wait… that’s actually good.”

Human Insight:
People trust real, unscripted reactions more than polished claims.

Strategic Insight:
This format scales endlessly across creators, flavors, and settings. Any product with a sensory payoff (taste, texture, comfort, sound) can use this as a repeatable demo engine.

2. The Fridge Grab → Pour → Reveal

Fridge opens. Bright cans lined up. Ice drops into a glass. The drink pours. Bubbles rise.

Human Insight:
This mirrors a real daily ritual, not a commercial setup which makes it instantly relatable.

Strategic Insight:
This is a universal routine-based template that works for beauty shelves, coffee makers, supplement drawers, and fashion closets. The system is routine → product → satisfaction.

3. The “Health, But Make It Casual” Overlay

A creator lives their normal life while subtle text overlays appear: “Low sugar.” “Good for gut.” “Clean ingredients.”

Human Insight:
People want to learn without feeling lectured.

Strategic Insight:
Education becomes a soft layer instead of the headline. This lowers resistance and works especially well for functional products that risk feeling too clinical.

4. The Friend-to-Friend Recommendation

One person hands an OLIPOP to a friend and says, “Just try it.”

Human Insight:
We trust friends more than ads always.

Strategic Insight:
This format creates moving social proof. It’s easy to recreate across any category that benefits from sharing: beauty, food, fashion, wellness, even software.

5. The Flavor Personality Edit

Quick cuts. Each flavor gets its own personality, cherry is bold, cream soda is cozy, lemon is sharp.

Human Insight:
People don’t just buy flavors. They buy identities.

Strategic Insight:
This works for any brand with variants: shades, scents, styles, sizes. Giving each SKU a “vibe” boosts self-selection and emotional attachment without changing the core format.

📝 The Bigger Lesson

Olipop shows that you don’t need to over-explain or over-promise to sell.
You need to make people feel something, first joy, nostalgia, indulgence. Then the benefits become secondary rationalization.

They built their success on a foundation of repeatable delight, a creative engine built around pleasure, rhythm, and trust.

They didn’t aim for “cleverness.”
They aimed for consistency, believability, and emotion.

That’s why their ads are studied and copied because the system works, not just the aesthetics.

✅ What To Do If You Want to Use This for Your Brand

• Use their ad formats as template logic, not copy.

• Identify your product’s “sensory moment” or “identity trigger.”

• Build around emotion first benefit second.

• Reuse simple, scalable formats (first-impression, day-in-the-life, user POV, peer recommendation).

• Keep visuals and tone consistent so you build “creative recognizability.

🪞Growth Memo

From Me to You 🎧

If you’re looking for an easier way to run TV campaigns, Roku’s Ads Manager is a solid place to start. It cuts out a lot of the usual headaches and brings the focus back to clear planning and real audience understanding.

And it fits perfectly with this week’s theme: empathy.

In a space crowded with complicated tools and endless targeting options, it’s a good reminder that straightforward, human-centered advertising still gets the job done.

Shoppers are adding to cart for the holidays

Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.

Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.

Learn more.

MEMORABLE THINGS

The Memo-ry 

Great ads aren’t magic.
They’re patterns you can study, systems you can repeat, and results you can rebuild.

Acronym Therapy 🧩

ROA
Return on Ad Spend

But also: Return on Attention.
Because money gets you reach but attention is what turns into results.

NEXT WEEK

The Soft Reset: How Smart Brands Ease Customers Into the New Year

A look at how the best brands shift from holiday urgency to calm momentum. Less pressure, more reassurance, and simple cues that help people reset, re-engage, and move forward without feeling sold to.

More Ad-ventures coming your way next week, stay tuned!
 
Creative Strategist
The Marketer’s Memo