PepsiCo Beverages North America is placing Pepsi Prebiotic Cola inside more than 200 Drybar shops nationwide throughout September, giving all appointment guests a complimentary taste of the brand's functional cola in Original Cola and Cherry Vanilla varieties. The activation marks one of the more visible on-premise sampling efforts for the product since it launched earlier this year.
The Promotion Mechanics
Beyond the in-chair sampling, every Drybar guest receives a take-home offer for 30% off Pepsi Prebiotic Cola on Amazon — redeemable with code PEPSIPREGAME through October 31 — essentially extending a single salon visit into a month-long retail trial driver. New Drybar clients who book online with the same code unlock a $30 blowout, threading the beverage promotion directly into new-client acquisition for the salon brand.
For operators and brand marketers tracking beverage placement strategy, the mechanics are worth noting: complimentary in-venue sampling paired with a timed e-commerce discount and a service incentive creates a multi-touchpoint funnel from a single in-person moment. It's a model that extends well beyond the salon context and into any hospitality environment where dwell time is predictable and guests are in a receptive mindset.
Functional Beverages Find New Venues
Pepsi Prebiotic Cola, which carries functional ingredients and reduced sugar compared with standard Pepsi, fits into the broader functional beverage trends reshaping foodservice menus. Operators across casual dining, hotel lounges, and spa environments have increasingly added prebiotic and better-for-you beverages to their offerings as consumer interest in gut-health positioning has grown.
Sara Garner, Senior Director of Marketing at Pepsi, framed the Drybar tie-in as a natural fit: "Drybar is the perfect partner because the blowout is already part of how so many guests get ready for what's next. Together, we're pairing a reimagined take on Pepsi Cola with a getting-ready ritual people already love." Michelle Devore, Chief Marketing Officer of WellBiz Brands — the franchise parent behind Drybar's more than 750 multi-brand locations — noted that fall's packed social calendar is precisely when clients need that moment of personal time, adding that "enjoying a Pepsi Prebiotic Cola in the chair makes it feel like a treat instead of an errand."
For foodservice and hospitality professionals, the Drybar activation illustrates how CPG beverage brands are increasingly bypassing traditional restaurant and convenience channels for first-trial placements, opting instead for appointment-based venues where the guest is seated, engaged, and not yet committed to a purchase. That logic translates directly to hotel spas, fitness studios, and wellness-adjacent hospitality settings — categories that restaurant and hospitality operators have been expanding into as the boundaries between dining, wellness, and personal care continue to blur.
Food & Beverage Magazine has tracked PepsiCo's broader push into functional beverages as part of the company's pep+ sustainability and portfolio transformation strategy, which underpins its product development across its beverage lineup. With nearly $94 billion in net revenue reported for 2025, PepsiCo has the scale to sustain multi-channel sampling campaigns, but the Drybar partnership is notable for its specificity: targeting a predominantly female, lifestyle-oriented consumer at a moment of leisure rather than at shelf.
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.
