Beer Marketer's Insights
Another sign that Athletic Brewing (and by extension NA beer) has arrived on a bigger stage. This morning, Athletic and Jet Blue announced Jet Blue will be "first ever major airline to sell non-alcoholic beer at 35,000 feet." Jet Blue has 775 flights per day, 270,000 annually serving 30 mil domestic passengers. Starting today, Athletic's Upside Dawn golden ale is available on all domestic flights. (Whether aerophobic fliers will feel comfortable drinking beer called Upside Dawn remains to be seen.)
MARKETING: Essentia Activates Latest Endorser, Millie Bobby Brown, in 'Stop for Nothing' Campaign
Nestle-owned Essentia Water has cast one of its early high-profile endorsers, Patrick Mahomes, and its latest, Millie Bobby Brown, in latest iterations of "Stop for nothing" campaign it launched in 2021. Alumni of prior versions of campaigns have included likes of hoops star Jimmy Butler, Chicago QB Justin Fields, fashion designer Yoon Ahn and singer-songwriter Tate McRae. Just-live Brown video opens with her name on Strand marquee against voiceover, "Stop here . . . or seek something more," highlighting her choices as she resists temptation to "take the roles offered" and opts to "chase the one you want." Still just 19, the Brit actress has pursued diverse array of interests from launching personal care line to penning a novel, while recruiting legion of social media followers. "Pause for hydration. Stop for nothing," voiceover concludes. Video via agency Droga5 will run in 6-, 15- and 30-second versions across digital and social channels and online video platforms like Hulu, NBC Universal ESPN and Sightly.
Closely watched list of "insurgent" consumer brands tallied by Bain & Co has added some familiar names from bev space this year: Prime Hydration, Ghost and Zoa Energy, Olipop and Poppi gut pops, Athletic Beer and So Good So You nutritional shots. Returning to list are likes of Celsius, C4, Alani Nu and G Fuel energy, Liquid Death Water, Black Rifle and Super Coffee coffee brands, Oatly, Chobani, Biolyte, Koia and Vive. To qualify, brands must be generating $25 mil of revenues in tracked channels, have grown more than 10X their category's avg growth rate over past 5 years and either have remained independent or been acquired by CPG giant only within past 2 years. All told, Bain listed 99 insurgent brands across more than 40 FMCG categories spanning food, bev, personal care and pet care.
We recently ran update on activities at the gut pop Olipop (BBI, Feb 6). But CNBC profile offers some provocative additional info from cofounder/ceo Ben Goodwin: brand should break $200 million in annual sales this year, just 5 years in, and it's received overtures from PepsiCo and Coca-Cola that he says it's declined to pursue in interest of further independent brand-building. His cofounder David Lester confirms to us that that $200M is indeed gross revenues, not sales at retail. And remember, as refrigerated brand, Olipop is accomplishing this with barely any recourse to DSD distribution.
A sizable sample of American adults again endorsed current alcohol regulations, according to results of survey conducted for the Center for Alcohol Policy by New Bridge Strategy. (Recall CAP is NBWA-linked non-profit that has worked with New Bridge to conduct this survey about every other year since 2008.) Support for broad-brush descriptions of alcohol policy status quo ranges from 80% to 90%, survey of just over 1,000 adults showed: 89% agree it's "very important" to regulate the industry; 84% are satisfied with current purchasing system; 82% agree "alcohol is different" and so too should be its regulation; and 80% support that regulation remaining state based.
R Street Analysis Disputes Impact of Delivery Laws on Drinking as More States Extend Cocktails-To-Go
In the first 4 months of 2023, 3 more state legislatures made permanent or extended temporary pandemic-era laws allowing on-premise licensees to sell drinks to-go. Washington is poised to join Maine as the latest state to make such provisions permanent. If the governor signs the bill, WA will become the 20th state to permanently allow cocktails to-go, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. A handful of other states continue to consider similar legislation and the provisions remain quite popular with consumers and select bars and restaurants.
Join us for the 2023 Beer Insights Spring Conference coming up May 17-18 at the Four Seasons Chicago. This yr's program will feature plenty of topical and timely content for beer distributors. Get the most up-to-date and in-depth review of trends and topics plus fresh insights from BMI prexy Benj Steinman. Take a deep dive with top attys into the legal dilemmas facing distribs as a consequence of convergence, on hot button issues like supplier contract demands, potential state regulatory obstacles, increasing govt scrutiny, and much more.
Kevin Bartholomew became president of one of largest AB distribs, Ben E. Keith, back in 2000 and has led the co thru many changes and much growth. But he will retire at yr-end after 39 yrs with the co. "Under Kevin's charge, Ben E. Keith grew significantly in sales, profits, geographic coverage, breadth of portfolio and number of facilities in operation," said Robert Hallam Jr, BEK chief operating officer. Ben E. Keith is approx. 38 mil cases, including NAs and almost a $1-bil co. Taking Kevin's place will be Flint Prewitt, who joined BEK in 1990, which "demonstrates the deep bench of talent under" Kevin's leadership, said BEK ceo John Hallam, citing Flint's "vast knowledge and experience." One of biggest changes for BEK was becoming non-exclusive in 2007, a move specifically praised just this morn in piece by Ippolito Christon pointing out the "risk of hitching your wagon to one horse." BEK subsequently built quite a substantial biz handling craft, White Claw and other Beyond Beer brands totaling around 8 mil cases.
Another sign that Athletic Brewing (and by extension NA beer) has already arrived on a bigger stage. This morning, Athletic and Jet Blue announced Jet Blue will be "first ever major airline to sell non-alcoholic beer at 35,000 feet." Jet Blue has 775 flights per day, 270,000 annually serving 30 mil domestic passengers. Starting today, Athletic's Upside Dawn will be available on all domestic flights.
Forty percent of US consumers plan to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, led by Gen Z and Millennials, per Numerator survey of 2,650 consumers. Going out for food/drinks is most preferred way to celebrate (43%) ahead of cooking/baking (23%) and grilling out (22%). Good news that over half (52%) of consumers who plan on buying alcohol plan on drinking beer, ahead of 41% who plan on buying traditional cocktails, 33% opting for spirits and 24% drinking wine, per survey. "Many beer brands" can expect to see a unit increase including Corona (+18%), Natural Light (+16%), Dos Equis (+13%) and Modelo (+12%) on the holiday.