Nestle Waters North America has teamed with Crayola crayon brand on Share-a-Smile campaign this spring that brings to market another set of 8-oz bottles featuring labels designed by kids in contest last year. Parents had been asked last summer to have their kids draw what makes them smile, with winning entries from nearly 2K submitted getting $25K scholarship and other prizes. Kid-Designed Edition 24-pack featuring winners hit store shelves on Feb 15. Support for campaign includes national FSIs, digital and influencer campaigns and national tour of the Share-a-Smile studios, stopping at 15 community fests and retail stores with full suite of Crayola items and green screen that allows kids to be inserted into the art they create there.

Tho it's moved to eliminate ingredients like HFCS and artificial flavors from its bottled drink offerings, Panera Bread hasn't yet made much headway on making comparable changes to its fountain offerings, as co acknowledged to BBI a few weeks ago (BBI, Feb 6). But fast-casual chain seems to be turning more attention to that format now, by posting calorie counts on its fountain units that highlight difference vs Panera's own moderately sweetened teas, lemonades and frescas that it's introducing. "By prominently posting added sugar content and calorie information on the self-serve spouts of all beverages for comparison purposes, and publicizing that move, Panera aims to underscore its clean brand promise, transparency and championing of consumer 'options,' while also promoting its new beverages' healthier profiles versus high-sugar-content sodas," noted MediaPost in report on initiative. Panera heralded development in part with full-page ad in Washington Post headlined, "You deserve to know what's in your cup."

Vita Coco may be going bigger on media spend this year but it seems to be sticking with effort to remind consumers of how simple its coconut waters really are. New TV spot features supermodel Chrissy Teigen snoozing in beach chair under coconut tree while serving as "plant manager" for brand. "When one of the coconuts falls from the tree, Teigen pats the trunk approvingly and praises it as 'employee of the month,'" Adweek reported. Nice work if you can get it! Word of ad comes a few weeks after Bloomberg had reported that co had mustered $25 mil for ad campaign for this year, its biggest spend ever. Teigen ad shot on beach south of Miami by creative shop Madwell is set to debut on Apr 4 on major broadcast networks and cable channels like AMC and Bravo. It concludes with title and voiceover assuring viewers that with Vita Coco, "Hydration comes naturally." As Adweek notes, Teigen had worked with brand last summer in more improvised Snapchat campaign.

NY's Elmhurst Dairy, which cited longstanding declines in announcing shutdown last fall after 80+ years of operation in Jamaica neighborhood, has reinvented itself as purveyor of nutmilks cold-milled from almonds, hazelnuts, cashews and walnuts, under shorter brand name Elmhurst. "All of the nuts, none of the nonsense!" herald marketing materials for brands that make much of high nut content in products (8 walnuts in every glass, 11 cashews, 18 almonds, 11 hazelnuts). Thus, almond entry is able to boast of offering 5 g of protein per 8-oz serving. New line that debuted at Expo West is packed in 32-oz gabletop cartons that eschew use of the descriptor "milk" in favor of "milked almonds," "milked cashews," etc, given dairy lobby's recent assault on word's use in plant-based bevs. Like others among latest crop of nutmilk players, Elmhurst assures consumers it avoids use of thickeners, emulsifiers or stabilizers, another perceived vulnerability in some of leading brands, along with their low nut content. It's operating as Elmhurst Milked LLC with website at Elmhurst1925.com that flags founding date of dairy. Elmhurst, operated by Schwartz family, is affiliated with Dora's Naturals DSD house in NY as well as Steuben Foods copacker in upstate NY.

Argo Tea used Expo West to launch cold-brewed version of the Garden Direct single-estate line it had debuted last summer. Bottled line, packed in same 13.5-oz glass bottle as core RTD line but sporting medallion image of Garden Direct loose teas, will debut in limited pilot launch in early fall in trio of "subtly sweetened" entries: Darjeeling Black Tea (from Indian grower Ambootia), Gyokuro Green Tea (from Japan's Yamaguchi Tea Estate) and Armenian Mint Herbal Tea (using mint grown in Armenia's Ararat Valley). All 3 come in at 30 calories per bottle. They're line-priced with Argo's core Signature RTD line, said marketing vp Mike Ginal. Recall that superpremium Garden Direct line had debuted late last summer in sachet format, priced at $10.99 per 15-unit pack vs $7.99 for Argo's premium line (BBI, Aug 16), and added loose teas by end of 2016. Those loose teas are listed on Argo's website at prices from $10.95 per canister to as high as $40 (for likes of Gyokuro and Jasmine Pearls). With takeup of Garden Direct brisk both online and in Argo's cafes, it's time to think about RTD entries, Mike indicated. While we're seeing quite a few cold-brewed teas entering market, Ginal noted that caliber of Argo's single-estate ingredients justifies elaborate process.

Asian cooking authority Bruce Cost's strong aversion to stevia as a sweetener seems to be landing ginger ale entrepreneur in court with his former partner Terry Tang: Cost has filed suit saying that launch by Bruce Cost Ginger Ale of stevia-sweetened entry called Sugar Free this year is explicit breach of agreement forged when co bought out Cost's share of co last year.

Celsius Holdings reported 47% gain in net revenues in Q4 to $6.3 mil, as its int'l biz got back on track (+48%) even as all key domestic channels scored double-digit gains (+46% overall). Tho int'l biz was boosted by pipeline fill by new distributor YHS in Singapore, it also benefited from stabilization in Europe after stumbles by Swedish/Finnish distributor earlier in year. Domestic revenue growth was balanced among 53% gain at retail, 47% growth in health & fitness channel and 12% growth in internet sales. Operating loss narrowed to $368K from $1 mil a year earlier.

Innovation engine at Monster Beverage seems to be sputtering a bit lately: Wells Fargo's Bonnie Herzog reported yesterday afternoon that much-touted clear-can Hydro noncarb launch has been beset by production issues and will suffer delay from anticipated intro this week that may cause it to miss some summer shelf resets. Separately, Bonnie's also noticed via securities filings that longtime MNST exec Mark Hall, co's creative spark on innovation side, has registered to liquidate most of his shareholdings, listing 580,500 of his total 822K total shares, amount that would gross nearly $27 mil at current trading range.

as Brown's Successor Running NWNA Nestle Waters North America has reached inside its corporate orbit for successor to Tim Brown as ceo, tapping Fernando Mercé as prexy/ceo effective May 1. Fernando comes from stint as ceo of Nestlé Purina Latin America & Caribbean, where he's being succeeded by Carlos Romano, transferring from Nestle's Argentina biz. Besides running NWNA's US and Canada businesses, Mercé will also serve as member of global Nestlé Waters board. He began his career with Nestlé in 1992 as industrial engineer with Operations Improvement Team, before heading onto marketing track that included e-business development, marketing dir for Friskies brand and global marketing dir in PetCare Global Strategic Business Unit. Mercé also served as vp/deputy of Nestlé's Americas Zone before heading to Nestlé Purina. Nestle Waters chmn/ceo Maurizio Patarnello cited his "proven leadership, passion for innovation and deep commitment to creating a learning culture" for elevation to top NWNA role. Recall, Brown exited last month for job running Chobani yogurt co, to shock of many in bev industry, where he'd been fixture at Nestle for nearly 3 decades.