Do you really know your audience? Beyond demographics and psychographics, they have inside jokes, obsessions, and slang you're not part of.

The brands winning right now aren't inventing culture. They're finding the conversation already happening and showing up in it before it's stale.

"Highly culturally authentic" brands see a 27% higher trust score and a 19% lift in purchase intent than ones seen as performative, and that gap hits hardest in food and beverage.

So showing up in culture isn't a nice-to-have. It's a measurable trust and sales advantage, and consumers can tell the difference between a brand that belongs and one that's cosplaying.

Sheetz's Big Glizzy Went Beyond the Hot Dog

Sheetz turned internet slang for a hot dog into an actual 10-inch menu item. No basic press release, no quiet menu drop. They debuted it with Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes at a black-tie "Glizzy Gala" held in a Sheetz parking lot.

Ice sculpture. A "Glizzy Sommelier." A mirrorball parking cone. Mascot working the room. This wasn't a PR event dressed up. It was a brand finally putting a name and a spotlight on something its customers had been doing for years: late-night gas station food runs.

Why it worked: "Glizzy" content had already appeared in more than 2.6 million Instagram posts and 41,600 TikTok posts since March, so Sheetz wasn't betting on a joke, it was joining one with proof of demand already built in. Layer on Skenes, a Pittsburgh athlete at the top of his game partnering with a Pittsburgh-founded chain, and the whole thing reads as earned instead of bought.

The lesson: Don't manufacture relevance. Find where your audience already lives online, and get there before the joke's played out.

Popeyes Started then Chicken Sandwich Wars

In 2019, Popeyes quietly launched a fried chicken sandwich. A week later, Chick-fil-A took a subtweet at it. Popeyes clapped back with two words: "Y'all good?" What followed was a full-blown Twitter feud that turned a menu item into a cultural event.

Why it worked: Popeyes didn't buy its way into the conversation, it responded fast and in character while the internet was already watching. Same-store sales jumped 38% in Q4 2019 off the back of it, and the resulting earned media was valued at $65 million, all from a two-word reply. 

Popeyes chicken sandwiches sold out nationwide within two weeks because it showed up in a fight the internet was already having and played its role in the bit perfectly. 

The lesson: you don't need a big budget to win a cultural moment. You need speed, a clear voice, and the guts to jump in instead of waiting for the perfect plan. Simple play. But it only works if it's actually you, and actually your audience.

Heinz Leaned into the Joke

Heinz had a struggling product on its hands: Kranch, a 2019 ketchup-ranch mashup that had become one of its worst-performing sauces. Then a fan tweeted a photo of Taylor Swift eating chicken tenders at a Chiefs game "with ketchup and seemingly ranch," and the internet ran with it. 

Heinz leaned in, and "Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch," became synonymous with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, the biggest cultural relevance engines of that year.

Nobody asked Heinz to do this. The brand noticed a moment already spreading, moved before it cooled off, and gave a forgotten product a second life inside a joke its audience was already telling. 

The relaunch pulled an engagement rate 690% above benchmark, with fans making TikTok duets and sewing the new name onto sweaters.

The lesson: you don't need a new product or a big idea. Sometimes culture hands you the campaign. You just have to be fast enough to take it.