Ninja entered the frozen treat category in 2021 with CREAMi. While it took two years of steady brand building for CREAMi to gain strong marketplace recognition, with boost from the unexpected angle of “making ice cream healthy with protein,” SLUSHi was an immediate hit from the launch..
With SLUSHi, Ninja seized a new opportunity: creating the easiest way to make frozen drinks at home—no ice needed, no blending, no hassles—with as few as one ingredient. However, a significant challenge remained: social media historically lived in a silo, disconnected from broader marketing efforts, limiting its potential impact on product launches.
Blue Hour Studios’ objective was to completely reimagine this approach, placing social at the center of the launch strategy to drive awareness, consideration, and ultimately, sales. We aimed to create engaging organic and influencer content while pushing boundaries with fun, creative recipes that would showcase how SLUSHi elevates experiences.
Our mission was to establish SLUSHi as the must-have drink of Summer 2024. Recognizing that Slurpee still had a strong hold on consumer mindsets, we sought to leverage this cultural awareness rather than avoid it. We needed to demonstrate SLUSHi’s unique value proposition while creating genuine excitement and purchase intent.
Most importantly, we aimed to maximize Ninja’s organic channels before launching paid media, proving that a strategically orchestrated social-first campaign could generate substantial sales without traditional advertising support. Our goal was to create a product launch that would transcend traditional appliance marketing and become a cultural phenomenon, setting a new benchmark for how kitchen brands could leverage social media to drive business results.
Our strategy was built on four key pillars designed to transform SLUSHi from a kitchen appliance into a cultural moment:
1. Launch with a Cultural Moment Rather than avoiding the Slurpee comparison, we embraced it by strategically launching on National Slurpee Day. This immediately positioned SLUSHi within an established cultural context while offering a disruptive alternative: make your frozen drinks at home instead of visiting 7-Eleven. We partnered with 90's skateboard culture icon Tony Hawk and leveraged his Pro Skater game from the era that still maintains a cult following. This unexpected collaboration resonated with both millennials who grew up with the game and Gen Z audiences who appreciate his enduring cultural significance.
2. Pop in Social SEO with Real-time Brand Content We established a comprehensive monitoring system to identify and capitalize on trending conversations. This allowed us to create timely, relevant content that positioned SLUSHi within broader cultural moments, significantly boosting our social SEO and organic discoverability. By creating brand-forward content that responded to trends in real-time, we ensured SLUSHi remained at the center of relevant social conversations throughout the summer.
3. Attract New Audiences with Relevant Creators We curated a diverse array of 26 creators to showcase the versatility of SLUSHi through the “Will It SLUSHi?” challenge. This included mocktail and cocktail aficionados, pet content creators making dog-friendly frozen treats, and lifestyle influencers demonstrating various applications. This flexible creative platform generated a wide spectrum of content demonstrating SLUSHi's versatility while maintaining brand consistency. The unexpected and often delightful responses expanded our reach beyond traditional appliance audiences.
4. Close the Sale with Social Affiliates We activated top-performing creator affiliates from the previous CREAMi launch, arming them with affiliate links driving directly to the TikTok Shop. This created a seamless path to purchase, allowing consumers to move from discovery to transaction without leaving their social media environment. By strategically deploying CRM and sending SLUSHis to Ninja's biggest fans, we generated authentic user-generated content that further amplified purchase intent.
Our execution plan featured several innovative approaches:
Multi-phase Media Strategy
We strategically delayed paid media until organic channels were maximized in 2025. When we did activate paid support, we focused on extending our best-performing organic social and influencer content from phase one to digital video. We layered on custom Swell Audience Network targeting of passionate influencer fandoms outside the walls of social, unlocking new audiences while leveraging the momentum of the first phase of the campaign to drive incremental sales.
Throughout execution, we maintained a nimble, responsive approach, continuously optimizing our content and partnerships based on real-time performance data. The result was a campaign that felt authentic, culturally relevant, and genuinely exciting—qualities that are often missing from traditional appliance marketing.
The Ninja SLUSHi campaign delivered extraordinary business results that far exceeded expectations. SLUSHi sold out within 12 hours of going live, generating $1MM in sales and achieving a remarkable 6x ROI. The product’s popularity created unprecedented demand, with over 112,000 people joining the waitlist. Every restock in 2024 sold out within four hours. This also functioned to drive waitlists in other countries that subsequently sold out. The secondary market resale value reached $1,000 per unit—more than three times the original price—further demonstrating the intense consumer desire created by the campaign.
The social media impact was equally impressive. The campaign generated tens of millions of organic views across platforms, with engagement rates 6.5x above benchmarks for Instagram and TikTok. Overall, the campaign received over 500MM impressions with only 15MM coming from paid media—a testament to the power of our social-first approach. Additionally, the launch generated significant earned media coverage with 34 PR headlines to date, extending the campaign’s reach beyond owned and paid channels.
Most remarkably, SLUSHi transcended being merely a product and became a cultural moment. Consumer interest was so intense that an entire subreddit developed solely for restock alerts. Brand conversations extended far beyond traditional appliance discussions, and creators and consumers alike continued generating content long after the initial launch. SLUSHi was successfully positioned as “the drink of the summer” in authentic social conversations.
The campaign transformed Ninja’s marketing approach by demonstrating the power of social-first thinking. By integrating social strategy with broader marketing efforts and leading with authentic creator content, we created a blueprint for future product launches that generate true cultural impact while driving significant business results. This conclusively demonstrated that when executed with strategic precision and creative excellence, social-first product launches can create the kind of marketing heat that simply cannot be purchased.