For me it was a couple years ago at the bass and salt water fishing expo in Raleigh. Buster Seabolt did a presentation and made some very valid points. I went home and experimented a bit with my soft bait collection and realized that the few floating plastics I had always did more than just sink to the bottom and sit there. They flutter with action no matter what. We noticed you can always tell when there is a Deep Creek tied on because of the scent. We've been using them a lot since, and I even made the trip to the factory once.
I actually think it was the Instagram bass fishing community.