Dear Client:
“The Fixx.” It sounds like a Beachbody workout, or maybe a supplement. And that’s half appropriate, because it’s actually the imminent hard seltzer from Bang we first told you about last week.
According to a sell sheet BBD has procured from our never-failing, nefarious backchannels, Bang’s “Fixx” hard seltzer will hit the regular segment benchmarks: 5% ABV, 100 calories, zero sugar. Its claim to fame, however, is “electrolytes,” as BBD broke news last week [see BBD 11-18-2020]. And they say on the sell sheet: “Electrolytes, for hydration.” Hydration from an alcohol beverage?
AND NOW WE HAVE FLAVORS. And while the product has apparently very recently been under formulation — the recent retailer note we reported on last week said the company was “still working” on the “graphics & flavor profiles” — this newest sheet to which we are privy calls out four flavors: Strawberry Blast, Purple Kiddles, Pina Colada, and Frose Rose. The products are caffeine free, and say as much in large font on the cans. (That’s important, because, remember the original Four Loko? More on that …)
BANG NAME ON THE CAN. The other interesting thing to note is that Bang, a famous non-alc energy drink, is putting their flagship name on the bev-alc seltzer. Recall that as Monster Energy reportedly pondered a hard seltzer, they never considered putting the Monster name on it, to avoid confusion among underage consumers.
A-B DISTRIBUTORS SIGNING UP. We’ve gotten word from several former Bang distributors that they will sell the brand again — and the new hard seltzer — but they are not keen on the contract they’ve been handed. So everything is in flux at the moment, but I can sense that these A-B distributors are eager to get back in the Bang gang, (unless they’ve signed exclusivity with C4 or others). As one put it to me, “Companies may lie, but margins don’t.”
CAN THEY CALL OUT ELECTROLYTES? MAYBE, BUT….. We wondered: Can Bang call out electrolytes on such products? We don’t yet know if they are malt or sugar based, but if they are the latter, then, as with Molson Coors’ Vizzy product that advertises its “Vitamin C,” they will fall under the less-stringent FDA rather than TTB jurisdiction. So far as we know, the FDA does allow truthful statements about electrolytes in foods and beverages.
But as one industry legal eagle suggested to BBD, they’ll likely get higher scrutiny regardless, being an energy drink-based brand. They “still need label approval and I imagine FDA/TTB will give them an extra eye given the Four Loko/caffeine fight of a decade ago.” Yes, recall, Four Loko used to have caffeine before the Feds banned caffeine in beer/FMBs almost a decade ago.
MILLER LITE ENDING 2020 WITH A BANG
Premium Lights have seen a bit of a resurgence this year, thanks to pandemic purchasing behavior. But one premium light in particular has really stood out over the year – Miller Lite.
The brand has boasted the best trends in the premium light realm for some time now, and that hasn’t changed over the pandemic.
While Bud Light and Coors Light have put up moderate growth in scans over the year, Miller Lite is knocking on double-digit growth. Check it out: Bud Light is up 2.7% in dollars YTD through November 14 in Nielsen All Outlet scans, Coors Light is up 6.7%, and Miller Lite is up 9.2%.
There’s a decent chance that Miller Lite does end the year up double digits too, as its posting even better trends in the more recent time frame, up 11.1% in the latest four weeks. That would be one way to end the year with a bang, but that’s not the one we’re referring to in the title, read on…
SO, WHAT’S WORKING FOR MILLER LITE? We gave Molson Coors’ Sofia Colucci a ring to find out.
As some of you may know, Sofia headed up innovation for the company over the past couple years, but moved to become the Miller family VP in mid-July.
As Sofia puts it, Miller Lite’s success this year all sort of boils down to their focus on being “culturally relevant” and “finding the role for a trusted brand like Miller Lite.”
We saw this type of strategy take shape at the beginning of the pandemic with Miller Lite’s Virtual Tip Jar promotion, followed by the “Cantenna,” which turned a can of Miller Lite into “a digital antenna to help fans watch their favorite football teams play all season long.”
And now we’re seeing the brand take an interesting approach to capitalize on the holidays.
The new holiday campaign, which we briefly covered earlier this week [see BBD 11-23-2020] is “taking this insight around cancelled holiday work parties and bringing a fresh perspective for Miller Lite that’s really resonating with consumers,” said Sofia.
For Sofia and co., they saw a silver lining amidst all this chaos – people are getting extra time back this holiday with many of the obligatory events, like office holiday parties, cancelled. “Essentially, cancelled holiday work parties means more time for Miller Time,” she said to sum it all up.
MILLER LITE SPEND UP 12X THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. Yep, here’s the bang we were referring to in the title. While ad spend has fallen below normal levels for most companies this year, Molson Coors is delivering the big bucks behind Miller Lite this holiday season.
Indeed, “media spend this holiday season on Miller Lite is up 12x from last year,” Sofia told us. So you can expect this new holiday campaign to pop up in some primetime events this week, like Saturday Night Live’s Thanksgiving Special and “key Thanksgiving football games.”
Sofia shared too that this campaign will last till the end of the year, presumably capitalizing on all the upcoming holiday events.
What’s in store for next year? Sofia wouldn’t share too much, but did say to expect Miller Lite to deliver more “culturally relevant campaigns” in the New Year. “Trust that we are still going to make [Miller Lite] a top priority for Molson Coors and we’re going to continue to come out with really creative advertising that resonates with consumers,” Sofia said.
NEW INNOVATION FOR MILLER “NOT OFF THE TABLE” BUT… Finally, we couldn’t let Sofia off the phone without asking about possible Miller line extensions. Seriously, who better to ask than the person who headed up innovation for the past couple of years and now heads up the Miller brand family?
We’ve seen Molson Coors add to the Coors family with Coors Seltzer. Could we see the company add to the Miller family in the future? “It’s not off the table,” Sofia said, but any new innovation must follow a certain criterion.
“When we think about innovation anything that we bring to the market needs to have a clear role and a point of difference for consumers, retailers, and distributors,” Sofia said. And if you’re talking about innovating around their core brands, then anything coming to life must also “help to elevate your core credentials,” she added.
“So, as we think about core innovation, I want to be very thoughtful about making sure that whatever we bring in helps to strengthen our core. So, it’s not off the table but you can kind of guess with the strategies and philosophies we have that we’re not just going to take innovation on Miller anywhere.”
HAMMOND BEVERAGE GROUP SWAPS 20K CASES OF DOGFISH TO CONSOLIDATE MOLSON COORS FOR BUCK IN ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD
Yesterday, Hammond Beverage Group announced it has swapped 20,000 cases of Dogfish Head to consolidate the Molson Coors portfolio for Buck Distributing, which previously only had Miller brands. Buck will get 500,000 cases of Coors legacy brands in this exchange with DM Distributing in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, ensuring Buck as the area’s exclusive Molson Coors distributor. DM, meanwhile, gets to consolidate Dogfish Head/Boston. The deal is set to close by December 18.
Recall, Hammond Beverage Group, a new distributor consolidator, struck a deal to buy 3 million case Buck in the spring [see BBD 04-20-2020].
The Hammond Group said this alignment deal “continues our efforts to invest in the beer business, specifically in Maryland. In working with the Berger family at DM we have been able to consummate a deal that augments our previous acquisition of Buck Distributing in Upper Marlboro,” per Hammond Beverage CEO, Jeff Reeder.
“Despite the challenging economic environment and business disruptions, we have developed a strong working relationship with the team at DM.”
With the beefed-up Buck, Hammond now controls about 9.5 million cases total (including Ace Distributing and W&L Sales in PA).
OCTOBER DOMESTIC TAX PAID SHIPMENTS UP A SMIDGE, YTD DOWN A SMIDGE, AND MORE REVISIONS TO COME
October tax paid shipments (domestic beer shipments) are in, with modest gains: up 0.6%, following a flat September, and low-single-digit gains the prior three months, per the Beer Institute. The first part of the year had been mostly negative.
October’s number brings the YTD domestic trends to down 0.7%, or 1,032,663 less than this point last year.
But of course, 2020 tax paids have seen extensive revisions. And the BI says to expect more tweaks as the year rolls on, particularly as the TTB has postponed reporting requirements for filing and payment due dates for up to 90 days.
HUSA LAUNCHES FIRST CROSS-PORTFOLIO CAMPAIGN WITH PINTEREST AND TASTEMADE
Heineken USA announced yesterday that the company is partnering with Tastemade and Pinterest to create a “Holiday Hacks” campaign to showcase ways to repurpose Heineken, Dos Equis and Tecate bottles and cans. The six video series launched last night.
HUSA’s Senior Manager External Communications, Tom Hunt, noted a 77% increase in online searches for the holidays in April 2020 versus April 2019, including three times more searches for “Christmas gift ideas,” leading the company to tap into festive crafting how-tos and recipes for the holiday season.
If you’re wondering why the HUSA chose Pinterest and Tastemade, both companies come with an impressive list of credentials.
“Pinterest reaches 75% of US primary grocery shoppers,” or women between the ages of 25-54, Tom notes. Even more people turn to Pinterest for food inspiration. Over 4 billion food ideas were saved this past year alone on the site.
As for Tastemade, the popular food and recipe site gets over 100 million viewers per month on Pinterest. Many of those engagements are successful, as three out of four viewers are “likely to consider a product recommended” by the site, and 70% of viewers “aim to buy specific products featured in Tastemade content.”
ON-PREMISE SUFFERING, AGAIN, IN LATEST BEERBOARD DATA
The latest on-premise report from BeerBoard is in and, well, it’s not looking any better for the channel.
OPEN RATE DROPS TO 85%. The open rate, which BeerBoard defines as “locations open and pouring beer,” continues to drop. When we last checked in, the open rate stood at 90% for the weekend of November 6-8, per BeerBoard. And in this latest set, which covers the weekend of November 20-22, the open rate dropped to 85%.
The last time the open rate was that low was late June of this year, per BeerBoard data.
NUMBER OF TAP HANDLES DWINDLING. The open rate isn’t the only metric on the decline either. The average number of tap handles are also dwindling. After falling to a national average of 17 tap handles in the prior period (November 6-8), the number fell for a second consecutive time to 16 in this latest weekend. Note that some states with indoor dining bans are down to single-digit tap handles, like Illinois (5), Michigan (3), and Minnesota (9).
PERCENTAGE OF TAPS POURING TOO. As the number of tap handles drop, so does the percentage of taps pouring. Indeed, in this latest weekend, BeerBoard suggests that only 59% of national taps tracked by BeerBoard were pouring. In the aforementioned states with dining restrictions – Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota – the data is even grimmer. In Minnesota, a third of the taps are pouring; Illinois has less than a fifth of its taps pouring (18%), and in Michigan a mere 8% of taps are pouring.
BREWPIC:
Your first look at the new hard seltzer from Bang, The Fixx.
HAPPY TURKEY DAY. We here at Schuhmacher Publishing are extremely grateful for all of our readers. So from our family to yours, we hope you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, and enjoy plenty of good food and good brew. Barring any breaking news, we’ll be back in your inbox on Monday. Be safe out there.
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REMINDER: BEER SUMMIT VIRTUAL REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Join us for the 18th annual Beer Industry Summit January 18, 2021 — to be streamed virtually and available on-demand.
We have execs lined up from: Mike’s, Constellation, Molson Coors, AB, Gallo, Southern Glazers, Geloso, Boston Beer, Diageo, Walmart, Amazon, Cutwater ….. and several more.
Take a look at the agenda so far, in no particular order :
Beer Industry Summit:
–John Shea, new CMO of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, (that took over from Sanjiv, in his first beer industry public appearance).
–Bill Newlands, President and CEO of Constellation Brands (the fastest growing beer company in the U.S. despite inevitable product shortages due to Covid-19).
-Michel Doukeris – CEO of Anheuser-Busch, the largest division of the largest brewer in the world, which is coming out fast and furious with a slew of new products and innovations in 2021.
–Pete Marino, President of Emerging Growth, Molson Coors Beverage Company, (who has introduced more new product partnerships in the last two months than anybody).
–Paul Rene, US Business Director, Geloso Beverages. (The fastest growing malt FMB marketer you’ve never heard of.)
–Jim Koch, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Boston Beer Co. (Truly, Twisted ….. His company’s stock price is broaching $1,000 a share — ’nuff said.)
–Sam Calagione, Founder, Dogfish Head Brewing Co. (Once the smallest brewery in the U.S. makes good and is consistently growing.)
–Jason Fremstad, Vice President, Adult Beverage, Walmart. (It’s a retailer based in Arkansas. Not really sure why we invited them — they must be important. Ha, I tease, huge influencer on how bev-alc is sold.)
-Mary Guiver, Global Senior Category Merchant, Beer & Spirits at Whole Foods Market. (High end retailer – in tune with where the market is going. They are also owned by a larger company. Hint: It starts with an A.)
–Patrick Livingston, Principal, Client Insights, Beer, Wine and Spirits, IRI Worldwide. (They have all the numbers, all the numbers in the world.)
Wine & Spirits Summit, next day:
-Stephanie Gallo, CMO, E&J Gallo. (Gallo, who produces the best bev-alc executives in the world and is considered best-in-class in marketing and chain sales.)
-Claudia Schubert, US and Canada Spirits head, Diageo, (The largest spirits company in the world and a master marketer of brands.)
-Cory Rellas, CEO, Drizly (Covid taught us that online ordering from home is actually a thing, and that it’s here to stay. Drizly is the leader in bev-alc home delivery.)
-John Wittig, Chief Commercial Officer, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. (The largest bev-alc distributor in the world, and growing.)
–Alexandra Evans, CMO, Precept Wine. (Cool wine, well defined.)
-Earl Kight, Founder/Head of Sales, Cutwater Spirits, (How a quintessential beer guy is making it in the craft spirits world — with other beer people.)
-Merrilee Kick, CEO, Southern Champion/BuzzBallz. (This stuff is moving and moving fast at the Point-of-Sale at checkout. It’s a grab-and-go option that is often ignored.)
-James Morissey, co-founder, Maison No.9. (Post Malone and others have proved that celebrity partnerships matter. Here’s why.)
-Kurt Jetta, Executive Chairman and Founder, TABS Analytics. (All the numbers, all the numbers in the world.).
(Or call Jessica at 210-805-8006)
Until then,
Harry, Jenn and Jordan
“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
– George Bernard Shaw
———- Sell Day Calendar ———-
Today’s Sell Day: 18
Sell days this month: 21
Sell days this month last year: 21
This month ends on a: Mon.
This month last year ended on a: Fri.
YTD sell days Over/Under: 0
