What Don Julio and Popeyes Are Thankful For (HBBIP #111)

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For just about as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday. Firstly, because it provides an annual reminder that no matter how stressful or crazy the world might be, there’s always something out there to be thankful for. But also, and perhaps more importantly, it’s the best excuse I’ve yet discovered to eat a quite frankly disgusting amount of pie. Who wouldn’t be thankful for that?

As in 2023 and 2024, this year I’m thankful for my incredible readers, who have made writing this newsletter the highlight of my career. I’m thankful for everyone on the CreatorIQ side who helps with the newsletter, particularly Lauren Lippert, and everyone on the marketing team at large for powering such a mighty content engine. 

Plus I’m thankful for the creator economy, which puts (a quite frankly disgusting amount of) food on my Thanksgiving table, and whose continued growth enables me to write about the most interesting brands in the world each and every week.

Like this week, for example. It’s a tale of twists and turns, tequila and turkey, so grab some gravy, get comfortable, and settle in for our annual Pre-Thanksgiving HBBIP Food & Beverage Update Spectacular! 

(We’re still working on the name.)

The Top Brands of All Time (of the Week): Don Julio & Popeyes

I know, I know. It sounds like a weird pairing at first. But is it actually two great tastes that taste great together? According to our metrics, yes.

Before you start searching for recipes (tequila-glazed chicken, anyone?), let’s back up for a moment as I take you to the first of all those twists and turns.

Originally, this newsletter was just going to be about Don Julio. The iconic tequila brand was popping off in all our metrics, and I figured that pre-Thanksgiving might be an appropriately festive time to see what all the fuss was about.

Don Julio Creator Count, 2020 - 2025

Looking first at creator count, we do see a steady rise for our friend Julio (that’s Don Julio to you), highlighted by an impressive leap in 2024. While the brand didn’t quite match its whole-year total from 2024 in the first ten months of 2025, it appears to be well on its way to exceeding that total by New Year’s Eve.

Don Julio Post Count, 2020 - 2025

It’s a similar story for post count, which saw a 584% growth between 2020 and 2024. Creators were clearly spreading the word about Don Julio—we’ll get to what they were saying in a moment.

Don Julio EMV, 2020 - 2025

When it comes to looking at how Don Julio maintained its 2024 surge into 2025, EMV tells an interesting story, but not a complete one. After all, CreatorIQ’s various metrics exist in a complementary ecosystem, and it’s best to assess them in conjunction with one another, rather than isolating any single data point. So when it comes to EMV, the growth has continued for Don Julio, though not quite at the same rate as previous years.

Don Julio Engagements, 2020 - 2025

But engagements—the stat most closely correlated with EMV—tells a different story. Here, we see a 982% surge from 2020 to 2024, but a fairly sharp drop into 2025. Granted, engagements are often generated in clusters around specific events, so Don Julio could definitely make up some serious ground with dedicated activities in November and December, but this does indicate that whatever was going on through the entirety of 2024 kept creators and their audiences more actively engaged.

Don Julio Impressions, 2020 - 2025

This is further corroborated by impressions: a 919% spike from 2020 to 2024, followed by a 2025 decline that still handily defeats any previous year.

We’ve got some intriguing pieces of evidence at work here, all of which add up to two main questions:

• What did Don Julio do to surge so dramatically?
• Is the brand in a position to repeat this success?

When I looked into the source of this growth, I found that Don Julio’s engagements increased dramatically from July 2024 to January 2025.

Don Julio Monthly Engagements, January 2020 - October 2025

You know what else spiked dramatically during the same time period? Don Julio’s crossover campaign with Popeyes. 

In January 2025, the two brands launched a limited-edition collaboration menu, part of an ongoing series of collaborative menus that have sparked a great deal of success for Popeyes on social media, including a pickle-centric menu in April 2025 that took the internet by storm. People love tequila, and they love pickles, so honestly I’m not surprised both campaigns caught on so strongly.

How did our favorite tequila-chicken partnership fare, exactly? I’ll put it to you this way: the partnership led to all-time highs for Don Julio’s monthly engagements and impressions in January 2025. Plus, posts mentioning the collab drove $3.8M EMV in January alone, propelling Don Julio to a total of $5.8M EMV that month. Here are two more true facts:

• $5.8M EMV was an all-time monthly high for Don Julio
• $3.8M EMV—again, just the Popeyes-related posts from January—would have also been an all-time monthly high for Don Julio.

If you’re looking to understand our current era of unconventional cross-vertical brand collaborations, and the power that these team-ups hold when it comes to capturing the hearts and minds and wallets of creators and consumers, look no further than Don Julio x Popeyes.

Come to think of it, and with an eye toward the holiday, how did all this look from the Popeyes side?

Popeyes Creator Count, 2020 - 2025

Similar to Don Julio, clearly there’s consistent growth when it comes to creator count, with ever-increasing totals for six years in a row.

Popeyes Post Count, 2020 - 2025

Ditto post count, though there’s a bit of a plateau pattern, which is interesting and uncommon. If the pattern holds, will 2026 see a similar total as 2025?

Popeyes EMV, 2020 - 2025

Everything is on the up-and-up with EMV as well, but as we learned with Don Julio, EMV is part of an ecosystem, as seen from these next two charts…

Popeyes Engagements, 2020 - 2025

Popeyes Impressions, 2020 - 2025

Like Don Julio (once again), engagements and impressions proved a mixed bag for Popeyes. Then again, we saw how spiky these things can be: one big holiday activation could move a lot of turkeys, propelling 2025 ahead of 2024 and keeping the growth rolling.

Regardless of whether 2025 beats out 2024 in engagements and impressions, both Don Julio and Popeyes have seen growth in other metrics, and both brands can credibly claim to have found a winning formula. By offering unconventional pairings, and foregrounding creators in the promotion of these pairings, especially across FoodTok, food & beverage brands are fully embracing the era of efficacy. 

I can’t wait to see what’s next in line for the space’s tastiest crossover hit. Whatever it is, I hope it includes plenty of mashed potatoes.

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