Coachella 2026, held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, over two weekends in April, drew an estimated 125,000 attendees per day to its 25th-anniversary edition and generated significant brand marketing activity across social media platforms. The festival has become a prominent venue for influencer-driven brand activations, with creators producing sponsored content across TikTok and Instagram throughout the event window.
Influencer Marketing analytics platform Traackr tracked food, beverage, and spirits brand activity across nearly 240,000 creators during Weekend 1, finding that Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila and canned vodka soda brand Sprinter generated more influencer-driven performance than all other measured brands combined. The analysis, ranked by Traackr’s Brand Vitality Score (VIT), covered April 9 to 12, drawing from creators located in the United States, Europe, and Asia with audiences interested in beauty, fashion, and lifestyle categories.
VIT measures the ability of each piece of content to reach and connect with an audience across three components: Visibility (how many people saw the content), Impact (how many people engaged and how), and Trust (the amount of attention centered on the brand).
818 Tequila, Sprinter Combine for More Than Half of Total Tracked VIT
Among alcohol brands with Coachella-tagged content, 818 Tequila ranked first with a VIT of 7,110, generated by 290 creators across 536 posts, producing 2.2 million engagements and 32 million video views at a 4.0% engagement rate. The brand’s on-the-ground “Outpost” activation, now in its fourth year, drove the content volume.
Sprinter, the brand associated with Kendall Jenner’s sister, Kylie, ranked second among alcohol brands with a VIT of 2,169, produced by 39 creators and 54 posts. Sprinter recorded the highest engagement rate of any tracked brand at 6.0%, with top posts frequently tagging both 818 and Sprinter alongside other Kylie Jenner-associated brands. Together, 818 Tequila and Sprinter reached a combined VIT of 9,279, surpassing all other tracked brands across both alcohol and food and beverage categories.
Heineken ranked third among alcohol brands at 760 VIT, posting the highest post count of any brand in the dataset at 165.
Buldak Records Highest Video Views Per Post Among Non-Alcohol Brands
In the food and non-alcoholic beverage category, Buldak ranked third overall with 537 VIT but posted the highest video views per post of any brand in its segment, accumulating 4.0 million video views from 47 posts by 20 creators. Traackr attributed the performance to on-ground spicy noodle tasting activations that drove high video documentation, with 89% of Buldak’s VIT generated on TikTok.
Red Bull led the food and non-alcoholic beverage ranking at 876 VIT across 62 creators and 89 posts, with its Mirage activation cited as a driver of creator attendance. Coca-Cola ranked second at 763 VIT, generating the highest raw engagement count in the segment at 324,500.
poppi Outperforms Olipop by Approximately 10 to 1
Among prebiotic sodas, poppi recorded 361 VIT from 44 creators and 54 posts, while competitor Olipop registered 38 VIT from 10 creators and 11 posts. Traackr attributed the gap to a broader activation strategy by poppi that generated wider total visibility during the festival window.
Week-Over-Week Data Points to Event-Driven Activity
Traackr’s supplementary all-mentions data, which tracks brand activity regardless of Coachella-specific tagging, showed significant week-over-week VIT increases for several brands. Heineken recorded a 353% VIT increase, the largest percentage gain among major brands, with post volume rising from 103 to 383. 818 Tequila saw posts increase 11.6 times week-over-week, from 186 to 2,154, with creator volume growing 5.5 times. Raising Cane’s registered a 205% VIT increase with no confirmed on-site activation, indicating organic attendee-driven mentions.
Among individual creators, a nano-tier account identified as DANIELA, with 8,890 followers, generated 518 VIT across 3 posts covering 818 Tequila’s Outpost activation, recording 252,000 engagements at a 1,040% engagement rate. Kylie Jenner, with 564 million followers, produced 1,560 VIT from a single post reaching an estimated potential audience of 391 million.
The full dataset covered 846 creators and 1,408 posts across tracked brands during Coachella Weekend 1.
Image source: Traackr Follow this link for more information
Nii A. Ahene is the founder and managing director of Net Influencer, a website dedicated to offering insights into the influencer marketing industry. Together with its newsletter, Influencer Weekly, Net Influencer provides news, commentary, and analysis of the events shaping the creator and influencer marketing space. Through interviews with startups, influencers, brands, and platforms, Nii and his team explore how influencer marketing is being effectively used to benefit businesses and personal brands alike.
Coachella 2026, held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, over two weekends in April, drew an estimated 125,000 attendees per day to its 25th-anniversary edition and generated significant brand marketing activity across social media platforms. The festival has become a prominent venue for influencer-driven brand activations, with creators producing sponsored content across TikTok and Instagram throughout the event window.
Influencer Marketing analytics platform Traackr tracked food, beverage, and spirits brand activity across nearly 240,000 creators during Weekend 1, finding that Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila and canned vodka soda brand Sprinter generated more influencer-driven performance than all other measured brands combined. The analysis, ranked by Traackr’s Brand Vitality Score (VIT), covered April 9 to 12, drawing from creators located in the United States, Europe, and Asia with audiences interested in beauty, fashion, and lifestyle categories.
VIT measures the ability of each piece of content to reach and connect with an audience across three components: Visibility (how many people saw the content), Impact (how many people engaged and how), and Trust (the amount of attention centered on the brand).
818 Tequila, Sprinter Combine for More Than Half of Total Tracked VIT
Among alcohol brands with Coachella-tagged content, 818 Tequila ranked first with a VIT of 7,110, generated by 290 creators across 536 posts, producing 2.2 million engagements and 32 million video views at a 4.0% engagement rate. The brand’s on-the-ground “Outpost” activation, now in its fourth year, drove the content volume.
Sprinter, the brand associated with Kendall Jenner’s sister, Kylie, ranked second among alcohol brands with a VIT of 2,169, produced by 39 creators and 54 posts. Sprinter recorded the highest engagement rate of any tracked brand at 6.0%, with top posts frequently tagging both 818 and Sprinter alongside other Kylie Jenner-associated brands. Together, 818 Tequila and Sprinter reached a combined VIT of 9,279, surpassing all other tracked brands across both alcohol and food and beverage categories.
Heineken ranked third among alcohol brands at 760 VIT, posting the highest post count of any brand in the dataset at 165.
Buldak Records Highest Video Views Per Post Among Non-Alcohol Brands
In the food and non-alcoholic beverage category, Buldak ranked third overall with 537 VIT but posted the highest video views per post of any brand in its segment, accumulating 4.0 million video views from 47 posts by 20 creators. Traackr attributed the performance to on-ground spicy noodle tasting activations that drove high video documentation, with 89% of Buldak’s VIT generated on TikTok.
Red Bull led the food and non-alcoholic beverage ranking at 876 VIT across 62 creators and 89 posts, with its Mirage activation cited as a driver of creator attendance. Coca-Cola ranked second at 763 VIT, generating the highest raw engagement count in the segment at 324,500.
poppi Outperforms Olipop by Approximately 10 to 1
Among prebiotic sodas, poppi recorded 361 VIT from 44 creators and 54 posts, while competitor Olipop registered 38 VIT from 10 creators and 11 posts. Traackr attributed the gap to a broader activation strategy by poppi that generated wider total visibility during the festival window.
Week-Over-Week Data Points to Event-Driven Activity
Traackr’s supplementary all-mentions data, which tracks brand activity regardless of Coachella-specific tagging, showed significant week-over-week VIT increases for several brands. Heineken recorded a 353% VIT increase, the largest percentage gain among major brands, with post volume rising from 103 to 383. 818 Tequila saw posts increase 11.6 times week-over-week, from 186 to 2,154, with creator volume growing 5.5 times. Raising Cane’s registered a 205% VIT increase with no confirmed on-site activation, indicating organic attendee-driven mentions.
Among individual creators, a nano-tier account identified as DANIELA, with 8,890 followers, generated 518 VIT across 3 posts covering 818 Tequila’s Outpost activation, recording 252,000 engagements at a 1,040% engagement rate. Kylie Jenner, with 564 million followers, produced 1,560 VIT from a single post reaching an estimated potential audience of 391 million.
The full dataset covered 846 creators and 1,408 posts across tracked brands during Coachella Weekend 1.
Image source: Traackr
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