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Poppin Bottles
Cam Walker
January 20, 2026
This week: The Champagne Campaign
Can you really get 169 customers with champagne bottles?
Brex was competing with the financial giants of corporate cards. All of which had massive budgets for marketing.
Because of this they needed a way to stand out.
So here’s what they decided on:
Identify 300 recently-funded Bay Area startups (seed to Series B)
Sent each a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne ($50/bottle)
Included handwritten congratulatory notes from the CEO
Used TaskRabbit for hand-delivery to offices
CEO personally followed up via email requesting demos
How much did it cost:
$15,000 on champagne
$2,000 on handwritten notes
$2,000 on delivery
Totaling out to $19,000.
The results:
75% agreed to take a demo (225 companies)
75% of demos converted to customers (169 companies)
This ended up being a 56% conversion rate from outreach to closing a deal.
The reason this worked so well is because it was a mix of a personal message (handwritten note + champagne + CEO email) and perfect timing (right after a funding round).
Sometimes in the early days the most creatives strategies can bring the best results.
Not only did Brex create a unique revenue stream, they also cultivated a large amount of goodwill with their ICP whether they decided to buy or not.
Talk soon,
Cam