A Korean hard seltzer launch, built IRL first from zero awareness to sold out events.
challenge
SWRL launched in NYC with no existing awareness, in a brutally crowded hard seltzer category, up against legacy brands with massive paid media budgets. Buying attention wasn't a realistic path to product-market fit — the only way in was getting the right communities to actually taste it, talk about it, and bring their friends back for round two.
solution
ciaooo! Media led the SWRL launch end to end: strategy, concept, production, and amplification. We concepted and produced 12+ events across Summer 2025, planted inside hyperlocal NYC communities — Latin, LGBTQ+, and neighborhood-specific — where word-of-mouth could actually compound.
Each event worked as three things at once: a tasting moment, an advocacy moment, and a content moment. We ran the social layer alongside the events to keep the flywheel turning between activations, partnered with NYC-native influencers and tastemakers, and secured SWRL's first NYC restaurant placements — including the country's largest vegan restaurant.
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Working in tandem with SWRL’s marketing team, developing the Go to Market Strategy to launch in New York
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Our team handled the community partnerships and events, developing relationships with a targeted Gen Z and millennial customer base.
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Conceptualized, developed and produced 12+ events
RESULTS
12+
sold out events
3
hyperlocal NYC communities activated (Latin,
10K+
attendees
1st
NYC restaurant placements secured, including the country's largest vegan restaurant
from online to irl
We took hyperlocal guerilla marketing to the next level, wheatpasting SWRL posters across the Lower East Side and neighborhoods just around our community partnerships.
the result
12+ sold-out events across a single summer, 10K+ attendees, and a launch strategy built on real community advocacy rather than paid reach — giving SWRL a foothold in one of the most competitive categories in NYC.