Event activation · Red Songbird Foundation, with Red Bull athletes
Creative direction studies
Beverage, supplement, peptide, skincare and powder concepts art directed by PELORA. Concept work, not client products.
Social media, product photography, video, animation, paid ads, influencer and street activations for beverage, supplement and consumer product brands. One team. One shoot day. A whole quarter of content.
Everything below is either real work or clearly labeled concept work, with nothing in between. Real: the product animations, the client films, and The Epic Journal, a product our founder built and sold 33,000 copies of. Concept: the brand world we art-directed for ourselves. No fabricated case study, no invented testimonial, no logo we do not have.
Preston has produced live event and athlete activation days with Red Bull and their athletes. A charity golf tournament benefiting the Red Songbird Foundation brought out Red Bull athletes Sebastián Álvarez (wingsuit flying), Tyler Bereman (freestyle motocross), Robbie Maddison (freestyle motocross) and Ryan Sheckler (skateboarding), with a PELORA crew on-site handling talent, production, and the full event cut afterward. That was event and production work, not an agency-of-record relationship, and we would rather state it accurately than inflate it. What it means: this team has worked at the production scale a serious beverage brand operates at.
A still can, animated. Concept work by PELORA.
Supplement bottle turned into a moving ad
From one still photo to a moving product ad
Built for paid social, where stills get scrolled past
We turn a flat product photo into motion. Same product, same label, no reshoot. The fastest way to make a small catalogue look like a national brand.
Event activation · Red Songbird Foundation, with Red Bull athletes
Our own product · The Epic Journal
Long-form founder interview, filmed by PELORA. The same format and the same crew we would put on a beverage founder telling the origin story behind the can.
Guest appearance · Preston on the "State of Mind" podcast
Client interview · Filmed by PELORA
Client interview · Filmed by PELORA
Concept brands PELORA built for itself, across every category we shoot. Energy drinks, peptides, capsules, greens powders and skincare. None of these are clients, none are for sale, and no product ships under these names. We art-direct them end to end to show what we build for a brand before a single unit exists, and we label them as concept work on purpose so nobody concludes we have a client shipping product.
Same art direction across supplements, peptides, skincare and powders. Concept work created by PELORA to show range. Not client products.
The featured interview and the four-card grid above are real client work PELORA filmed for paying clients (with written permission) and real guest appearances by Preston Durnford on third-party podcasts, drawn from PELORA's broader portfolio, not from a beverage or product client, since this is a new vertical for PELORA. The EPIC JOURNEY block is concept work created by PELORA for PELORA and is not a client engagement, a case study, or a product for sale. PELORA Marketing is not affiliated with, partnered with, or endorsed by any of the named third-party persons or brands. See our press, permissions & affiliations page →
Real numbers, sourced, and named. Every figure below comes from a published market report we can point you at, not from an agency deck.
Preston Durnford: 12 years inside health, wellness, and behavioral health as marketer and operator. Agency profits funded the first detox in 2015 (Fresh Start, two locations sold 2025). Co-founded SoCal Mental Health. Authored The Epic Journal (33,000+ copies). Now operates Epic Journey Recovery (epicjourneyrecovery.com) alongside PELORA.
Preston has built brands, named them, packaged them, filmed them, and sold them. That operator lens is the difference on a product account. He knows what it costs to move a physical unit, why a distributor cares about velocity and not impressions, and what it feels like to fund a launch out of cash flow. So the plan you get is built around unit economics and trial, not around a follower count. Marketing that has to actually sell something is the only kind he has ever done.
Different shelves, different buyers, same discipline: creative volume, real production, and a channel plan that matches how the category actually sells. Social and short-form video create demand, guerrilla activations create trial, paid media scales what already works, and email keeps the second purchase from leaking away. Below is how that engine tunes for each category.
The most competitive cooler door in beverage and the most content-hungry. Trial gets won on the street and in short-form video, not on a display banner.
Sold on an ingredient story, which makes claim language the whole game. The brands that win explain the mechanism plainly and get the label right the first time.
A flavor-first, design-first category. The can does most of the selling, so the photography and the shelf presence have to beat everything sitting next to it.
The fastest-moving occasion in beverage and the one with the most platform restrictions. Alcohol and alcohol-adjacent advertising carries targeting rules most teams learn the hard way.
A habit purchase with real subscription economics behind it. The job is trial first, then retention, and retention is where most brands quietly lose the margin.
High lifetime value, heavy claim scrutiny, and a buyer who reads the panel before they read the ad. Amazon and your own store compete with each other unless one team manages both.
Same three-channel problem as beverage. Velocity at retail is what earns the next purchase order, and velocity is downstream of trial and awareness in the trade area.
Not a beverage, same engine. If it is a physical product that has to look good on camera and sell online, this page applies to you.
People no longer only type a category into Google. They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini who makes the best version of a thing, and who they should hire to market it. One technical foundation feeds every one of those surfaces.
Rank in the ten blue links on Google and Bing for the category, flavor, ingredient, and comparison searches your buyer actually runs.
Get named when a buyer or a founder asks an AI assistant a direct question. Schema, plainly-worded question headings, entity disambiguation, and citation density.
Pulled into AI-generated summaries above the search results, including Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Written to be quoted directly by a person in a hurry or an AI assistant answering a question. Last updated August 10, 2026.
PELORA Marketing is a full-service social media and content agency for beverage and consumer product brands, based in Newport Beach, California, and working nationwide. PELORA runs social media management on every channel, creative campaign development, product photography, video production, AI-generated images and video, guerrilla street activations and pop-ups, influencer marketing, email marketing, brand and creative design, and Meta and Google ads, all with one in-house team. It is founded and run by Preston Durnford.
PELORA Marketing does all three in-house for drink companies, including energy drinks, functional beverages, sparkling water and seltzer, ready-to-drink cocktails, non-alcoholic spirits, cold brew, and kombucha. The same team shoots the can, cuts the vertical video, designs the ad, and runs the Meta and Google campaigns, so nothing gets lost in a handoff between a photographer, an editor, and a media buyer. Newport Beach, California, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, and clients nationwide.
PELORA retainers start at $2,500 a month for the Launch tier and run to $18,000+ a month for Full-Service, with Growth at $4,500, Scale at $7,500, and Enterprise at $12,000. Pricing is a flat fee. Ad spend is billed to you directly with no markup, and every account, pixel, and asset stays yours. Most beverage brands making their first serious push land in the $4,500 to $12,000 range. See all six tiers.
This is the part a generic social agency misses. Your online store, your retail accounts, and the person handing out cold cans at a race are three different jobs that all run on the same footage. We build one creative engine and point it at all three.
Where paid media and email compound, and where you actually own the customer relationship. This is the channel most agencies mean when they say "we do CPG."
A buyer does not care about your engagement rate. They care whether the case moves off the shelf. Marketing's job here is to make the trade story easy to tell and easy to believe.
Nobody buys a drink they have never tasted. Trial is a physical problem, and it needs people, coolers, and events, not impressions.
Food, beverage, and supplement advertising sits under real FDA and FTC rules. We write to mechanism and experience, and we route every claim to your own counsel or regulatory consultant before it runs.
New / Product & Beverage
Product & Beverage
Product brands do not lose because the product is bad. They lose because they run out of creative. We block one production window, shoot the product, the founder, the team, and the activation in the same pass, and turn it into the social calendar, the ad library, the emails, and the retail assets. Then we buy media against whatever the data says is working.
Key benefitsVerified and public on Google. Not edited. Not paraphrased. Click any name to read it in full.
“Pelora Marketing does absolutely incredible work. Preston has a unique talent for capturing stories that feel authentic and powerful.”
“Whether he’s filming breathtaking drone footage, underwater ocean shots, or conducting interviews and client testimonials, the quality is always outstanding. Professional, creative, and passionate. Consistently exceed expectations.”
“It genuinely feels like working with someone who cares about where your business is going.”
“We hired Pelora Marketing to help us build our business from the ground up and it has been one of the best decisions we've made. Preston and his team designed our website, set up our automations, and built an organic growth strategy tailored specifically to us. We always feel heard. Every question gets a real answer and nothing gets glossed over. It genuinely feels like working with someone who cares about where your business is going. If you're an Orange County business owner looking for a team that actually shows up and delivers, look up Pelora Marketing. We can't recommend them enough!”
“When I met Preston, I instantly knew he was exactly what my brand had been missing.”
“I have struggled with my website and marketing since starting my business, and I often felt like people were more focused on financial gain than truly understanding the heart behind my brand. My business and its mission mean so much to me, my clients, and the families we serve, so finding the right person to bring that vision to life was incredibly important. When I met Preston, I instantly knew he was exactly what my brand had been missing. He understood the mission, believed in the vision, and brought back my confidence in marketing. He and his team have gone above and beyond in helping create a website and systems that truly reflect what my business stands for. My new site is now up, and my SEO, AEO, CRM, and overall marketing systems are being handled seamlessly. I could not be more grateful. They captured exactly what I wanted my business to portray while helping it operate more efficiently and professionally.”
“Amazing company run by an amazing human. I trust Pelora completely.”
“Amazing company run by an amazing human. I trust Pelora completely and appreciate all the work they've done for me! Could not recommend more highly!”
“One of my all-time favorite marketing agencies to work with. The videos they make are top notch.”
“One of my all time favorite marketing agency to work with. The videos they make are top notch, turning vision into real results. Great people.”
“An excellent experience working with PELORA. From the very beginning, their team demonstrated a strong commitment.”
“I had an excellent experience working with this Pelora. From the very beginning, their team demonstrated a strong understanding of what we needed and delivered work that exceeded expectations.”
“Their video content really stands out, high quality, authentic, and they know how to turn it into real results.”
“Pelora Marketing can help your business grow! Preston really pays attention to your needs and wants you to be successful! Definitely recommend them to anyone looking to grow their brand online.”
“It’s rare to find a partner that balances high-end creativity with a data-driven growth mindset.”
“Team PELORA builds marketing systems that actually deliver measurable results, high-quality video, paid ads, web design, and SEO at the highest level. They know exactly how to build immediate trust with potential customers from the very first touchpoint.”
“Marketing that feels intentional, professional, and results-driven.”
“Pelora brings a thoughtful approach to branding, digital marketing, and business visibility. What stands out most is the genuine effort to understand each client’s goals and create marketing that feels intentional, professional, and results-driven.”
“They delivered exactly what was promised, and the results exceeded my expectations.”
“Communication was clear, they delivered exactly what was promised, and the results exceeded my expectations. Highly recommend them to anyone looking for reliable and professional marketing services.”
“Hands-on, efficient, and a pleasure to work with.”
“Pelora is hands-on, efficient, and a pleasure to work with. They stay engaged throughout the process and consistently deliver. Highly recommend!”
From the first scroll-stopping frame to a case sold through, here is the work we handle. Run all of it for you, or build it with your team and train them to own it. Your call.
Carousel and image ads designed in-house, built to stop the scroll and convert, not just look pretty.
Real shoots with real cinema gear. Founder stories, client testimonials, and short-form built to sell.
Meta and Instagram build demand and brand recall. Google captures people already searching for you. Most businesses need both, so we run both.
We plan, shoot, edit, post, and engage. Your feed stays consistent and on-brand without you lifting a finger.
The algorithm is a level playing field now. Strong organic content can reach millions with almost no followers. We highly recommend it, and we make it for you.
Want it fully handled? We run the entire engine. Want to own it? We build the systems and train your team to operate them.
We handle everything. Strategy, creative, shooting, ads, posting, follow-up, and reporting. You focus on your clients, we run the engine.
Prefer to own your marketing? We set up the systems and train your team to run the exact same playbook we use every day.
No four-vendor handoff, no "our photographer will get back to you." The same team runs the social accounts, shoots the product, films the video, generates the AI creative, buys the Meta and Google media, briefs the influencers, writes the email, designs the brand, and stands on the street handing out cans.
Strategy, calendar, production, posting, community, and DMs across every platform your brand actually needs. Not a scheduling tool with a login, an actual team running the accounts.
The idea that ties the quarter together. A launch, a flavor drop, a rebrand, a seasonal push, or a challenge, built as one concept that runs across every channel instead of five disconnected posts.
A PELORA team physically on the ground creating trial where your buyer already is. Sampling, pop-ups, cooler drops, and event activations, with a camera crew capturing all of it.
Product work can come into our Newport Beach studio when it needs a controlled set. Everything else we shoot where your brand lives. Retail-ready, ad-ready, and marketplace-ready out of the same session.
Real cinema gear, real crew, on location or in studio. Product drop ads, founder story, team story, testimonial, interview, and organic-style UGC, all captured in one production so nothing feels stitched together later.
Generated and composited imagery when a full shoot is not worth the budget, and motion layered on top of real stills. We label what is AI-generated and what is camera-shot, every time.
Instagram and Facebook run against a real cost-per-acquisition target, not a reach report. We kill what does not work inside 72 hours and put the budget behind what does.
Search, Shopping, YouTube, Performance Max, and remarketing. Meta creates the demand, Google catches the people who already went looking for you.
Creators whose audience actually buys your category, briefed properly and measured honestly. The best-performing organic post then gets run as paid creative.
Flows first, campaigns second. The revenue that runs without you gets built before anybody writes a newsletter.
Logo, type, color, voice, packaging and can direction, and the guideline set that keeps twelve freelancers from drifting. Done once, used everywhere.
The place all of the above sends people. Conversion-focused, fast, mobile-first, and schema-rich so AI search can actually read it.
Priced for real production, a team on the ground, and operator-led strategy. All six tiers from Launch ($2,500) to Full-Service ($18K+) →
On production shoot days: one included every month starting at Scale. On Growth, book them a la carte at $2,500 for up to a 6 hour day, edited into 8 to 10 finished assets. Larger crews and multi-day builds quote separately.
Retail shelf outreach and street activation days price separately. See full add-on pricing →
Want to automate the brand itself? Beyond your plan, we build and deploy custom AI agents: a customer support agent trained on your SKUs, ingredients, shipping, and returns, plus agents for wholesale and distributor inquiries, sales follow-up, operations, and marketing. We scope it to exactly what you need. This is a separate build on top of your retainer.
Ask what we can automate →Eleven service lines under one in-house team. Full social media management on every channel your brand needs, creative campaign development, guerrilla marketing with street-level activations and pop-ups and a team physically on the ground, product photography and product shoots, video production and video shoots, AI-generated images and AI-generated video, Meta ads management, Google Ads and Google campaign management, influencer marketing, email marketing, and brand and creative design. The same team shoots the can, cuts the ad, buys the media, and writes the email. Your accounts, your assets, and ad spend is billed to you directly with no markup.
We shoot it. Product work can come into our Newport Beach studio when the product needs a controlled set, and everything else gets filmed where your brand actually lives: the warehouse, the event, the retail aisle, the gym, the beach. One shoot day is built to feed weeks of ads. Most brands get 10 to 30 fresh creatives a month out of a single production block, and you own every frame we capture.
Yes, we do. Guerrilla marketing is street-level demand creation: sampling outside gyms and events, branded pop-ups, cooler drops at the accounts that matter, and activations at races, festivals, and campuses, with a PELORA team physically running it and a camera crew capturing it. The footage becomes the next month of paid and organic creative, so the activation pays twice, once in trial and once in content.
Yes to both. We use real product photography when the physical product has to look perfect, and AI-generated images and AI-generated video when a full shoot is not worth the budget: concept boards, background environments, motion on top of stills, and high-volume creative testing. We label which assets are AI-generated and which are camera-shot every single time, and we never present an AI-generated image as a real photograph of a product that does not exist yet.
They run off one content plan. Social media management covers strategy, calendar, posting, community management, and DMs across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. Influencer marketing sits on top of it: sourcing, briefing, contracting, and whitelisting creators whose audience actually buys your category, then running their best-performing organic post as paid creative. FTC disclosure is written into every brief up front, not bolted on after a post goes live.
A beverage brand sells through three channels at once, and most agencies only understand one of them. Direct-to-consumer online is where paid ads and email compound. Retail and distributor accounts are won with velocity, shelf presence, and can design, not with a Meta campaign. On-premise and sampling is where trial actually happens, and that needs bodies, coolers, and events, not impressions. We build one creative engine that feeds all three, then use paid media to make the retail story easier to tell.
No, and this is where new brands get in trouble fastest. FDA rules govern what goes on a label and which structure/function statements are allowed. FTC requires competent and reliable evidence behind a health or performance claim before the ad runs, and that standard applies to an influencer saying it exactly as it applies to your own copy. Caffeine content statements and words like "natural" and "clean" carry real exposure. We write to mechanism and experience, we route claim language to your own counsel or regulatory consultant, and we do not invent a benefit to make an ad convert.
Yes, and it is one of the best times to start. Pre-launch work is brand and creative design, can and packaging direction, a concept shoot, a landing page with email capture, and a founder-story content engine so there is an audience waiting on launch day. We built a concept brand of our own, EPIC JOURNEY, purely as a creative direction study to demonstrate what that looks like before a single unit ships. EPIC JOURNEY is concept work created by PELORA, not a client and not a product for sale.
Flows first, campaigns second. Welcome series, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, replenishment, and win-back get built before anyone writes a newsletter, because flows are the revenue that runs without you. Then a campaign calendar tied to drops, restocks, seasonal moments, and activations. The same creative team that shot the product writes and designs the emails, so the inbox looks like the feed, and the feed looks like the can.
Early-stage brands almost always spend a larger share of revenue than established ones, because you are buying first trial before you have repeat purchase to lean on. PELORA retainers for this vertical start at $2,500 per month (Launch tier for early-stage), $4,500 (Growth), $7,500 (Scale), $9,000 (Full Program), $12,000 (Enterprise), and $18,000+ (Full-Service). Pricing is flat fee. Ad spend is billed to you directly with no markup, we do not take a commission on media or a percentage of revenue, and every account, pixel, and asset stays yours.
PELORA Marketing is a Newport Beach-based marketing agency working across energy drinks, functional and wellness beverages, sparkling water and seltzer, ready-to-drink cocktails and non-alcoholic spirits, coffee and cold brew, kombucha, supplements and powders, better-for-you snacks, and skincare and personal care products. Coverage spans Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, and San Diego, with remote work nationwide. Social media management, product photography, video production, AI creative, guerrilla activations, influencer, email, and Meta and Google ads are all run in-house by the same team rather than subcontracted out.
Yes. Concentrated client work across Orange County, LA, San Diego, the Bay Area, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, Utah, plus remote nationwide. Product and video shoots are travel-based, so we block a single production trip and capture a full quarter of creative in one visit instead of flying out every month. Social, ads, influencer, and email are run remotely year-round.
Yes, the direction of travel is clear even though nothing is banned yet. A Texas AG investigation into Celsius and Alani Nu over youth-adjacent marketing, pending caffeine-disclosure bills in several states, and international bans in the EU, Norway, and Hungary all point the same way. Brands that voluntarily add clear caffeine labeling and drop youth-coded branding now are managing that risk ahead of the law. We break down the current rules, the real Meta vs Google split, and what's working for Celsius, Alani Nu, and Liquid Death in our full 2026 energy drink marketing guide.
Your product, your channels, your current creative, your retail situation, and where the money is actually leaking. I run the call personally. Yes-fit or no-fit on the call. Scope follows in 72 hours.
Sources: 1 Grand View Research, Energy Drinks Market Report. 2 Grand View Research, Non-alcoholic Drinks Market Report. 3 Wyzowl 2026 Video Marketing Statistics. U.S. energy drinks market: Grand View Research, U.S. Energy Drinks Market Report. Global functional drinks market: Grand View Research, Functional Drinks Market Report. EPIC JOURNEY is a concept brand created by PELORA Marketing as a creative direction study. It is not a client, not a case study, and not a product offered for sale. PELORA Marketing is not a law firm and does not provide legal or regulatory advice. Food, beverage, supplement, and consumer product labeling, health and structure/function claims, caffeine content statements, endorsement and influencer disclosure, and advertising are governed by FDA and FTC rules, by state law, and by ad-platform policy that changes without notice. We work alongside your own counsel and regulatory consultant on every engagement, and nothing on this page or in any campaign we build should be read as legal advice.
Guides & Resources
Straight answers from the team that would run your marketing.
