Kahala Brands' Pinkberry is activating a co-branded LTO push tied to Warner Bros. Pictures' Practical Magic 2, adding two Midnight Margarita offerings to its menu at participating locations nationwide beginning August 24 through October 22, 2026.
The LTO Menu
The Midnight Margarita Frozen Yogurt pairs Pinkberry's signature tart swirl with fresh blackberries, black salt, shimmering purple sugar, and a lime slice — a build that leans into the chain's fresh-topping customization model. A non-alcoholic companion, the Midnight Margarita Refresher, features a margarita-inspired iced base with muddled blackberries and lime slices, giving operators a beverage attachment point to boost per-ticket averages during the promotional window. Both items directly reference the original Practical Magic film's iconic midnight margarita scene, anchoring the product storytelling in existing fan nostalgia ahead of the September 10 theatrical debut.
The Brand Play
Sammy Robbins, Director of Marketing for Kahala Brands, framed the partnership as an opportunity to translate a cultural moment into a differentiated daypart driver. "This collaboration has been an exciting experience for Pinkberry to bring a beloved movie to life with two innovative Midnight Margarita menu offerings," Robbins said. The chain is layering a sweepstakes promotion on top of the menu push, offering entrants a private screening of Practical Magic 2, branded merchandise, and a Pinkberry gift card through September 20 — a traffic-generation mechanic common in entertainment co-marketing deals designed to extend reach beyond existing loyalty audiences.
For Kahala Brands — a Scottsdale-based franchisor operating roughly 3,000 locations across 30 quick-service concepts in 35 countries — studio partnerships represent a relatively low-cost mechanism to generate earned media and drive trial at the unit level. Frozen-yogurt and specialty-dessert chains have increasingly leaned on IP tie-ins as the segment faces sustained pressure from better-for-you ice cream alternatives and the continued expansion of premium soft-serve entrants. LTO velocity, daypart broadening, and digital sweepstakes integration have become standard tools in the category's promotional toolkit as operators work to maintain comp-sales momentum without broad price increases.
The Midnight Margarita build also reflects a wider trend in frozen-dessert QSR: non-alcoholic, cocktail-inspired flavor profiles — driven by the growth of the sober-curious consumer segment — are showing up across beverage and dessert menus from specialty chains to fast-casual operators. The blackberry-lime-margarita flavor combination gives Pinkberry a culturally relevant hook without requiring any permitting or operational complexity associated with alcohol service.
For franchisees, the promotional window runs through peak fall transition, a historically softer daypart for frozen-yogurt units as temperatures drop in northern markets. The sweepstakes and theatrical tie-in provide incremental marketing support that individual franchise operators typically cannot generate independently, which is a recurring value proposition Kahala Brands uses to justify the franchisee development pipeline across its multi-brand portfolio.
For more context on LTO strategy in the frozen-dessert segment, see our coverage of seasonal menu trends in QSR and franchise co-marketing mechanics.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
