Hulu’s “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” series blends Kardashian-style reality TV drama with the intrigue of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Premiering last fall, the show spotlights eight Mormon mom influencers behind the viral #MomTok hashtag. Known for their TikToks featuring dance routines and beauty hacks, the cast members flaunt their signature “Utah curls” and candidly chat about life in LDS garments. But their go-to accessory is a styrofoam cup from Swig emblazoned with the beverage chain’s bright red logo.
In one episode, the Mormon Wives arrive at Swig and joke about their obsession with the brand. “Six out of seven days of the week, I’m having at least one 44-ounce soda,” one of them says. Another playfully refers to her go-to drink as “Mormon crack.”
Dirty sodas—soft drinks mixed with cream and flavored syrups—have deep roots in the Mormon communities of the Mountain West, where coffee and alcohol are off-limits. Now, they’ve made their way into the mainstream spotlight, thanks to social media buzz, mommy influencers, and the hit Hulu show. And the brand that started it all has big ambitions to scale that success nationwide.
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“When you take a look at the percent of the population that’s drinking a soft drink every day, it’s something like 60 percent or more,” says Alex Dunn, CEO of Swig, QSR magazine’s 2024 Breakout Brand of the Year. “The base of what we’re offering is something that hundreds of millions of people drink every day. What we’re doing is bringing premiumization to that experience.”
Swig’s growing notoriety has sparked a fresh way of thinking about an everyday classic like soda, with many comparing the brand to Starbucks for the soft drink world. In recent months, headlines have dubbed Swig “the Mormon Starbucks” or “the Starbucks of soda,” a comparison Dunn welcomes.
“They didn’t create demand to drink coffee, but they took that demand and turned it into this very customized, elevated experience,” he says. “I’d say the opportunity for Swig is easily as big as coffee has been for Starbucks and all of the other coffee concepts. It’s just that nobody’s done it for soft drinks yet. We’re still in the early innings of introducing the consumer to that kind of experience and that kind of customization.”
Creating a Category
Inspired by childhood memories of grabbing cold Cokes from her grandparents’ fridge, Nicole Tanner founded Swig in 2010 as a drive-thru specialty soda chain. Her first location, a small 700-square-foot space across from Utah Tech University, initially charged just $1 to entice customers to try the unique twist on soda.
Swig quickly caught on with the local community and became a go-to spot, serving as a tempting substitute for potential vices. As other soda shops began popping up around Utah with similar offerings, Swig trademarked the term “dirty soda” in 2013, solidifying its status as the pioneer of the burgeoning specialty beverage segment.
A turning point came four years later when Savory Fund took a majority stake in the business. The partnership fueled a period of disciplined growth, with Swig expanding its footprint to 40 locations within five years.
Savory Fund remains an equity and operational partner, but in 2022, the Larry H. Miller Company (lhm) became the majority owner after a significant investment. Dunn, who is a managing partner at LHM, stepped in as CEO last year.
Upon joining, Dunn took the time to immerse himself in the business by working in the stores. The first thing that stood out was the high level of engagement and loyalty he saw from the brand’s growing customer base. Swig’s cult-like following reminded him of the personal and habitual relationship people have with their favorite coffee shop.
Much like coffee, dirty soda fosters a daily ritual among its customers, who get creative with their go-to soft drink and mixer combinations. Case in point? Nearly 80 percent of transactions at Swig are tied to a loyalty number.
Most of these transactions happen at the drive-thru, where Swig walks the fine line between speed and customer service. While efficiency is critical, Dunn says the brand also prioritizes hospitality and face-to-face interactions with its customers.
“No. 1 is about meeting them with happiness,” he says. “We do line-busting, so customers always give their order to one of our team members. That’s important to us. Number two is about getting them through the line quickly.”
Dunn fondly recalls his initial day working in a store. When a customer reached the window, he mentioned it was his first day on the job. They responded with a smile and told him, “Welcome to Swig.” This friendly exchange repeated itself many times throughout the shift, with people welcoming him to the store from their cars as if they were part of the crew. It gave him a clear sense of just how deeply customers connected with the brand.
“It speaks to how this brand is a part of their life and how they really feel like they’re a part of it,” Dunn says. “Our culture, the experience we give to customers, the drinks themselves—we have all of that nailed. What we’re focusing on now is, how do we maintain that culture and experience as we grow?”
When brands get bigger, there’s often a risk of losing the magic that made them special. The drive for efficiency and profitability can sometimes compromise quality and the guest experience. Dunn recognizes these challenges but sees technology as a way for Swig to keep delivering what made it a success from the start, fostering those deep customer connections as it scales. To that end, the company is leaning into tech investments like AI, automation, voice recognition, and video analytics that he says will assist managers in running their stores, automate the drink-making process, and speed up order-taking.
“A lot of it is about accountability and visibility,” Dunn says. “If everyone knows what the standards are and how we treat our customers, you can measure those things and ensure you’re delivering on them. When you’re small, you don’t need technology to do that. But as you grow, you need tools to measure customer experience. That’s where we’re investing heavily—to ensure transparency and fix mistakes quickly.”
Fizzy Frontiers
In February 2023, Swig officially opened for franchising. With its small store footprints, strong unit economics, and focused menu, the brand always had an appetite for franchising, but it waited for the right time to turn the channel on and hand-pick the best partners. In two short months it sold 400 franchise units to around 20 groups across 15 states. The first franchised locations came online later that year.
“We actually opened it up and shut it down within a couple of months, mainly because we sold so many franchises so quickly,” Dunn says. “The demand was very high, but we looked around and said, ‘OK, what matters more is that we go and make these franchise partners that we have really successful.’”
Since then, Swig has focused on building its franchise muscle, establishing systems and processes to maintain consistency across locations and to make the right impression as it plants flags in new territories.
“What we’re not doing is figuring out how to find, open, and run a store successfully because we kick butt at that already,” Dunn says. “We’re still learning franchising, but I think knowing how to develop and run a store is much harder, and we’ve always been really good at that.”
Swig kicked off 2024 with 61 stores spread across six states: Utah, Arizona, Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. It added eight states last year, including Kansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Florida, Missouri, Kentucky, Nevada, and Georgia. Now, the brand is entering 2025 with just over 100 locations, roughly half of which are corporate-owned and half of which are franchised. Unit growth in 2025 is expected to follow a similar trajectory to 2024.
Longer term, the company wants to open 1,000 new stores over the next six to seven years. It sees a clear path to get there via franchising, due in large part to name recognition and brand visibility that far outpaces the current unit count.
“We’re punching way above our weight in terms of brand awareness,” Dunn says. “It’s much, much bigger than the number of stores we have, so we’re growing into it. That’s a pretty enviable position to be in. Most of the time, you’re trying to create that awareness so your brand can grow.”
Going Viral
Swig CMO Dylan Roeder credits the outsized brand awareness to a strong presence on social media and the dirty soda trend’s popularity on TikTok. Both were gaining momentum well before the Hulu series entered the zeitgeist.
In 2021, pop star Olivia Rodrigo posted a photo of herself holding a Swig cup on Instagram. The hashtag #dirtysodas quickly went viral, sparking thousands of taste-test videos and homemade dirty soda creations. From there, the buzz continued to build, with videos of customers ordering their favorite drinks and sharing their experiences lighting up the internet.
“It’s the connection that makes it so special, all of the creations and customizations,” Roeder says. “The secret sauce is the business itself. Our strategy on social media has always been showcasing what makes us unique, so the videos that do exceptionally well are just bringing to life what we do every day for our customers. We’re not trying to fabricate or manufacture all of this interest.”
When “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” premiered in September 2024, it just poured gasoline on a fire that was already raging.
“We knew we were going to be on the show, but how it came to life and what happened afterward—I’ll be the first to say it was totally unexpected,” Roeder recalls. “What made it so special is that we had customers who love Swig, who come to Swig, and they just so happened to make a highly engaging, very entertaining reality TV show.”
The authenticity is what made it resonate, he adds. The show’s references to Swig didn’t feel like an advertisement or a forced brand placement. It was simply a group of people expressing a genuine love for a product on a platform that struck a chord with audiences. The brand came out of the show going from millions of views between user-generated content and Swig-branded content to around 50 million views between the two.
“With the number of eyeballs, the curiosity, the interest in the brand—the show just shined a massive spotlight on us,” Roeder says. “It set the stage for this whole new level of visibility where we’re punching above our weight class.”
As the show gained traction and developed a national following, Swig saw same-store sales growth go “parabolic” across the footprint, he notes. This growth wasn’t isolated to the brand’s core markets but spanned everywhere from Texas to Arkansas and beyond.
“We were in a position to take advantage of it,” Roeder says. “If we only had 10 stores in a smaller number of markets, we wouldn’t have been able to embrace it the same way. But as we’re growing and scaling rapidly across the country, we’re able to have stores in places like Florida, Indiana, and Kansas receive that curiosity and interest.”
Looking ahead, the team is eyeing a multi-pronged strategy to build on the wave of attention. First, Roeder says Swig will double down on the approach that’s already working: showcasing the product and spotlighting the creativity and customizability that dirty soda fans love. Beyond that, it’s exploring a heightened focus on brand affinity by working more actively with ambassadors and partnering with influencers whose genuine enthusiasm for Swig can reach new audiences.
“We don’t want to spam it, and we don’t want it to feel forced,” Roeder says. “Partnering with people who already love the brand is super important to us. Some of those people might be famous, but most of them are regular people who love our brand and love posting content. The way you increase that brand affinity and awareness is through leaning into all of that. That’s what you’re going to see more of from us. It’s about giving the people who love Swig a voice to tell the world about it.”
With the dirty soda market heating up, Swig’s team knows it’s time to seize the spotlight. Newcomers like FiiZ Drinks and Sodalicious have entered the fray and are steadily expanding their footprints. Established brands across segments are also jumping on the trend, adding creatively doctored versions of classic fountain drinks to their menus.
Against that backdrop, Swig is carving out its niche by prioritizing menu innovation. The brand is rolling out seasonal limited-time offerings, introducing imaginative bases, and elevating its drinks with unique mix-ins like fruit purees and cinnamon sticks.
“If someone wants to experience dirty soda from the people who invented it, they can only do that at Swig,” Dunn says. “We take seriously the fact that we created the category, but also that we will not benefit from that creation unless we stay ahead of everybody and continue to deliver on that customer promise of innovation and customization. We’re excited about that because we like to be pushed. We like competition. It’s good for the consumer, it’s good for us, and we’re definitely not resting on our laurels.”
