Pholicious Case Study

Growth Spotlight

Bridging Streaming Retargeting with Linear TV to Drive National Retail Velocity

How Pholicious Went from Shark Tank to Walmart with a Scalable TV Ad Strategy

Pholicious makes premium instant pho and ramen bowls inspired by co-founder Joseph Trudeau’s Vietnamese family recipes. Launched in 2021, the brand went all-in during the pandemic, bootstrapping growth and landing deals with online and offline retailers. After appearing on Shark Tank in 2025 and securing an on-air deal with Kevin O’Leary, the team needed a measured way to turn buzz into velocity, especially as it eyed major retail distribution with Walmart. O’Leary’s advice: “Talk to Tatari.” The result: a data-driven TV program that started with streaming retargeting and graduated to linear awareness to ignite sales.

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ROAS

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Conversions

Campaign Objectives

Educate & Build Authenticity

Use TV’s longer form and credibility to tell the authentic family-recipe story and counter social ad fatigue.

Drive Sales Growth

Start with performance-minded streaming retargeting; expand to linear to support national retail.

Support Retail Partners

Start small, measure, then scale was the name of the game. Ahead of the Shark Tank airing, Pholicious implemented the Tatari Pixel (one-click via Shopify) to build remarketing pools and track conversions. The team launched 30-second streaming retargeting at roughly $500/week, focusing on site visitors who hadn’t purchased and delivering TV ads where they streamed content.

Next, they moved to linear TV for national awareness. With Walmart planning a larger nationwide moment (including a 3,000-store feature with half-endcap), Pholicious worked closely with the Tatari team to manage spend within their budget alignment. Creative further emphasized the in-store messaging - “Find Pholicious at Walmart” - aligning TV flights with retail windows to drive in-store and website demand. Tatari and Pholicious tailored creatives by network and genre (e.g., family-oriented spots for select channels, a Kevin O’Leary version where appropriate) and measured performance by channel and creative, then iterated by testing dayparts, networks, and spend levels to stay on CPA and ROAS targets.

“We thought TV was out of reach. Starting with $500/week in streaming retargeting felt doable, and the results gave us confidence to jump into linear.”

- JOSEPH TRUDEAU, CO-FOUNDER, PHOLICIOUS

Results

Pholicious turned TV into an engine for retail velocity. Streaming retargeting delivered substantial ROAS, while their Walmart-specific creative ROAS climbed from 4.5 to 7.9 after running During the linear TV campaign, Walmart.com daily impressions surged from 150K to 600K, creating visible spikes on weekends the brand aired and a higher baseline between flights. Within three weeks of running the Walmart campaign, the brand moved from 500 to 1,900 stores as an everyday item, with more expansion planned. Confident in the results, Pholicious doubled down on linear TV spend to sustain the momentum.

“TV builds trust you don’t always get on social. People see you on TV and connect the dots—then they buy on Walmart.com or in store.”