Ben Stiller has Stiller’s Soda. Blake Lively has Betty Buzz. Michelle Obama has Plezi. Olipop is backed by celebrities such as the Jonas Brothers and Gwyneth Paltrow.
And that’s just in non-alc. Kendall Jenner has 818 Tequila, Matthew McConaughey has Pantalones Tequila, Emma Watson has Renais Gin and there’s many, many more. And George Clooney and Tom Holland are exploring the emerging non-alcoholic space with Crazy Mountain and Bero, respectively.
It’s a new world, where celebs are centre stage.
Celebrity culture
Next week, beverage industry conference The Beverage Forum will kick off at Manhattan Beach, California: bringing together top-tier industry leaders including founders, retailers, suppliers and investors driving the next era of beverage innovation.
And celebrities have become part of the event. Last year featured Jay Shetty, Lewis Hamilton and Tom Holland.
This year there’ll be NFL champion and Garage Beer co-owner, Jason Kelce. There’ll also be actor and producer Chris Pratt and Jocko Willink, partners behind Jocko Fuel and Warrior Kid.
It’s all part of today’s world, with a growing intersection of beverage, culture and entertainment, says Danny Stepper, CEO and co-founder of L.A. Libations.
Stepper has helped launch high profile beverage brands like Bero with Tom Holland, Happy with Robert Downey Jr, Plezi with Michelle Obama and Stephen Curry, and Zoa with Dwayne Johnson.
All this raises the question: is a celebrity now a critical part of a beverage brand launch?
Standing out from the crowd
The beverage category is full of innovation: and barriers to entry are low. Every week brings countless new launches.
And what’s now crucial is breaking through the noise.
Celebrities have a ready-made audience and following: giving brands an instant link to consumers.
You could have the greatest brand in the world: with the best liquid and boldest visual identity. But what good is that if nobody knows about it?
“I think that’s where celebrity comes in,” says Stepper. “It’s not the cake. It’s the icing on the cake,” says Stepper. “But it’s an incredible tool in your toolbox to drive awareness and trial.”
Celebrity might
With social media, celebrities are connected to millions of people: sharing their lifestyles and brands. They also accelerate cultural change: when they speak, act or align with a cause, they can influence a mass audience.
Celebs help embrace, and also influence, trends across a generation. In the same way that Gen Z and millennials are starting to turn away from alcohol, more celebs openly share that they don't drink (including Zac Efron and Anne Hathaway)
The trappings of celebrity
Where it can go wrong, says Stepper, is when brands expect celebrities to carry the brand: and forget everything else.
Today’s beverage market is cutthroat. Beverages that don’t taste good, or don’t deliver on what they promise consumers, just won’t make it.
Celebs can bring social media might: but there’s still plenty of work to do on-the-ground.
“You still have to get cans in hands,” said Stepper. “You still have to have incredible point of sale marketing. You have to demo at the point of purchase. All these things you still have to do. But if you throw an authentic celebrity on top of that, it’s amazing.”
And authenticity is key: the right celebrity can help a brand rocket, but consumers will quickly lose interest in something that does not feel authentic.
A different sense of scale
One essential of brand building is to start small and build up gradually, learning and perfecting a launch market before widening distribution.
But launching a celeb brand can throw that into chaos: forcing brands to run before they can walk.
It’s hard to do a soft launch or trial a test market with a superstar involved: “So you end up breaking your own rule and go too big, too fast and put the brand everywhere,” notes Stepper.
And yet no brand will ever get everything right first time: meaning pivots and adjustments may have to be done at scale.