PepsiCo Beverages North America is running an in-venue sampling program through all of September, placing complimentary Pepsi Prebiotic Cola — in Original Cola and Cherry Vanilla — inside more than 200 Drybar franchise locations nationwide. The activation pairs a sitting-captive audience with a functional soft drink that PepsiCo launched earlier in 2026, positioning the blowout chair as a beverage trial moment rather than a traditional retail or foodservice sampling environment.
For operators and brand managers watching functional beverage rollouts, the mechanics here are instructive. Rather than anchor trial to a grocery demo or a quick-service beverage menu test, PepsiCo is embedding the product in a 45-to-60-minute appointment where guests are stationary, unhurried, and already in a treat-oriented mindset. That dwell time advantage is difficult to replicate in c-store, QSR, or traditional foodservice channels.
The Channel Play
The program bundles three conversion layers in one activation. Guests receive a complimentary pour at the point of service. They leave with a 30% discount code (PEPSIPREGAME) redeemable on Amazon through October 31 — routing trial directly into e-commerce repurchase rather than back to retail shelf. New Drybar clients who book using the same code receive a $30 blowout, converting the beverage promotion into a franchise customer-acquisition driver for WellBiz Brands, the Colorado-based franchisor that operates Drybar alongside Radiant Waxing, Elements Massage, and Amazing Lash Studio across more than 750 locations system-wide.
Michelle Devore, Chief Marketing Officer at WellBiz Brands, framed the timing as calendar-driven: fall restores structure to clients' schedules and compresses personal time, making the in-chair experience feel like a genuine occasion. That framing is useful intelligence for any beverage brand evaluating wellness and beauty franchise networks as an ambient trial channel — the visit frequency and appointment-based format offer reliable traffic without the foot-traffic volatility of retail endcaps.
What This Signals
For emerging functional beverage brands without PepsiCo's distribution muscle, the model still holds lessons. Franchise wellness networks — blowout bars, med spas, boutique fitness studios, and massage franchises — represent an underpenetrated sampling surface with documented dwell time and a consumer already self-selected into a wellness or self-care mindset. The Amazon discount bridge is also worth noting: it converts an offline impression into a trackable online purchase, giving the brand a repurchase signal that a traditional in-store demo rarely captures cleanly.
PepsiCo reported nearly $94 billion in net revenue for 2025, and Pepsi Prebiotic Cola sits inside a broader portfolio strategy targeting consumers who are rethinking their beverage choices around functional ingredients and reduced sugar. The Drybar partnership is less about volume at 200 locations and more about seeding trial with a demographic that indexes heavily on health-forward lifestyle decisions — and documenting whether venue-based sampling accelerates the Amazon-to-household repurchase cycle faster than conventional retail sampling.
Operators considering co-branded sampling programs — whether for a house beverage, a new RTD launch, or a supplier partnership — should note that the program's measurability depends entirely on code redemption tracking. Without that conversion layer, the activation is brand awareness only. The PEPSIPREGAME mechanic gives both brands a quantifiable outcome beyond impressions, which is increasingly the bar brand and procurement teams are setting for experiential spend. See related coverage on functional beverage positioning for foodservice menus and co-brand sampling as a growth channel.
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.
