Katz's added its first new soda in decades. The brand that won it left the function out.

Listen to this episode of The Daily Trend Report, then use the piece below.

A Lower East Side deli that has not put a new soda on its menu in decades just put one on. The brand that got the slot won it by taking things out.

BevNET reported the deal Tuesday. Stiller's Soda, roughly a year old and launched in New York City, is going into Katz's Delicatessen. It is the first time in decades Katz's has added a new soda, and it brings the deli its first ever Shirley Temple.

What happened

Stiller's launched in 2025 with three flavors: Root Beer, Lemon Lime, and Shirley Temple. Thirty calories and seven grams of sugar per twelve ounce can, with vitamins D, B12 and C. Co-founded by the actor Ben Stiller and the entrepreneur Alex Doman.

Here is the part that matters. The modern soda set is built on function. Prebiotics, gut health, fiber, the whole benefit stack. Stiller's skipped it. No prebiotics, no functional ingredient story. The pitch is lower sugar, flavor, and nostalgia. It is supposed to taste like soda.

And the campaign supporting the Katz's launch is not a product ad. It is a video with Stiller and the digital creator New York Niro built on Stiller turning up at the deli under the impression he has been booked to film "Cats" the musical. The joke is the address. The can is in frame and the can is not the subject.

Three decisions, and two of them are yours

The famous founder is not the transferable part. Most brands reading this do not have one and are not getting one. The other two decisions are available to a brand of four people.

They subtracted before they pitched. Put yourself in the room. A deli operator who has not changed the soda lineup in decades is not looking for a gut health lecture next to the pastrami. A benefit stack is one more thing that can go wrong on a menu that already works. "It tastes like soda, with less sugar" is a sentence a buyer can repeat to a server. The shorter the claim, the easier the yes. Most independent brands walk into foodservice with five reasons and lose on all five, because the reasons are for a shopper standing in a cold aisle, not for an operator protecting a room.

They got a first, not a listing. Anybody can be added to a menu. Stiller's got the deli's first ever Shirley Temple. That is not distribution news, that is a fact a reporter can write a headline around, which is exactly what happened. When you are negotiating your next account, ask what would be a first for them. A first flavor. A first local supplier. A first non alcoholic option at the bar. The account gives you the same case volume either way, and one version comes with a story attached.

They made the venue the content. This is where almost every brand leaves money on the table. You land a great account and you post a photo of the can on the shelf with the caption "now available at." That post tells a customer where to buy and nothing else. Stiller's used the account's own identity as the premise and let the product sit in the background. The venue has decades of meaning that the brand has not earned yet, and the brand borrowed it by being a guest in the room instead of the host.

You can do that this month with the oldest business in your county that carries you, or could. The diner. The feed store. The bar that has had the same sign since 1974. Go ask to shoot a video where you are barely in it.

Do this today

Pasteable copy. Use your real account name and your real detail.

The oldest restaurant in this county has had the same drink list since before I was born. As of this week we are on it.
I did not get there with a benefit stack. I got there because the owner could taste it and repeat what it was in one sentence.
If you are pitching a place that has done things the same way for forty years, cut your pitch down to the shortest true sentence about your product. Then ask what would be a first for them.

Still direction. One frame, shot on your phone at eye level, no flash. The product sitting on the counter of the account, in that room, with the room's own clutter visible. The register, the handwritten sign, the worn spot on the wood. Do not style it and do not clear the frame. If somebody who eats there recognizes the counter before they recognize your can, the photo is working.

Video, 15 to 30 seconds, shoot it the same day.

1. 0:00 to 0:04. Hands only, pushing open the account's front door. Ambient sound, no music, no voiceover yet.
2. 0:04 to 0:11. The owner or the longest tenured employee, framed waist up behind the counter, saying one sentence about how long they have been there and the last time the drink list changed. Real answer, one take, do not coach it.
3. 0:11 to 0:20. Cut to them pouring or handing your product to an actual customer. Keep the customer's reaction, including if it is nothing.
4. 0:20 to 0:27. You, off center, in the doorway, one line: the name of the place, the town, and that you are on the list now.
5. 0:27 to 0:30. Static shot of the exterior sign. Hold it. No end card, no logo animation.

Caption carries the account's name and the town in the first line, above the cutoff. No location tag on your own warehouse. Tag the account.

The part nobody wants to hear

Large companies can match your ingredient panel in a quarter and your can design in two. What they cannot do is walk into a room where somebody has been running the same business for fifty years and get a yes based on who they are. That yes is the asset. It is slow, it does not scale, and it is the only thing on your P&L that a competitor cannot buy.

So pick the account. Not the one that moves the most cases. The one with the most history, the one whose name means something inside twenty miles. Find out what would be a first for them, and go ask this week.

The show

This piece is an extension of today's episode. The show is the briefing, the article is the extension, and the post is what you do with it. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

I write this desk every morning for people who actually have to post. Connect with me on LinkedIn.