• 💡 NIQ’s New Nutrition Scoring Could Guide Pricing
• 🥤 Big Soda Sues California Town Over Soda Tax
• ⏩ What’s Next For Suppliers After RNDC’s Cali Exit?
• ❌ Federal Spending Bill Could Kill Intoxicating Hemp
• 📦 Boxed Water Proves It Is Better (Sort of…)
• 🔀 Monday Moves

At Givaudan, we empower brands to develop with consumer understanding and innovation in mind. As the energy market evolves, consumers seek bold flavors and functionality. Let’s go Beyond the Boost to target the right consumers with the flavors and benefits they crave. Learn more

With brands fighting an all-out war for consumers’ attention, authenticity has become a non-negotiable in marketing. 

That, we suspect, is a big reason why name, image and likeness (NIL) deals have become such a potential game-changer for young and hungry beverage brands: it’s a chance to connect with a new generation of young influencers as their reach is still rising, before the inevitable commercialization machine of modern pro sports goes to work on them.

In other words, it’s a big bet on authenticity, and one that’s increasingly attracting young and hungry beverage brands like Loom.

• The New Jersey-based juice brand has brought on University of Michigan star Justice Haynes as an equity partner well ahead of his entrance to the NFL draft; Haynes still has two more seasons of eligibility at college level. 
• “We’re trying to plant a bunch of seeds with people that we have real, authentic relationships with, who are like minded and share the same morals and share the same values that we do, and watch ourselves all grow together,” said founder and CEO Bill Butrymowicz.

Executives may still prize landing generational talent, but this isn’t quite the days of Air anymore. NIL deals instead allow brands to spread the wealth: see Celsius, which signed one player from each men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournament teams (136 total) as part of its March Madness campaign. 

Those conditions have helped propel players like Colorado’s Travis Hunter (Mars, Celsius) and UConn’s Paige Bueckers (Gatorade) into major deals before they turn pro. But it remains to be seen if the smaller brands which NIL deals seem best poised to serve – like Aim High, a canned water startup that counts Hunter as a partner – can capitalize on that exposure amongst all the demands (and other endorsements) on Hunter’s plate. 

The biggest stars predictably pick up the most deals – Bueckers has 16, while University of Miami’s twin basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder have 18 between them, including Ghost and an equity deal with Slate. Will that dilute their brands? 

There’s also the potential for the reverse case: Individuals like LSU’s Livvy Dunne (an Accelerator ambassador with her own flavor) have become multi-million dollar brand names themselves, meaning, unless you have a time machine, they won’t come cheap: Dunne’s total endorsements are currently valued at $4.1 million.

Insiders can read the full story for more on Loom’s deal with Haynes and new innovation coming down the pipeline.

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NielsenIQ (NIQ) joined forces with nutrition intelligence platform FoodHealth Co. to integrate their respective datasets. 

🔍 That data partnership enables brands to spot and craft pitches around their products’ incrementality and the gaps it could fill in a retailer’s set on the basis of price, health and how those two factors affect consumer purchasing habits. 

🍎 The partnership marks the first time NIQ has offered “a comprehensive nutrient scoring system,” the data platform said in a release; FoodHealth Score, the tool created by FoodHealth Co., evaluates products based on nutrient density and ingredient quality.

🧪 These insights have already contributed to retailers reformulating private label products, and FoodHealth Co. CEO Sam Citro Alexander said these insights have the capacity to effect change around pricing strategies as well. 

Insiders can access the full story for a complete understanding of these new insights from NIQ.

Remedy Organics now offers 20g protein in top shakes—meeting demand for balanced nutrition without sacrificing taste or other wellness goals. Learn more

A new David versus Goliath battle is brewing in the seaside college town of Santa Cruz, Calif. where a recent city ordinance taxing “sugar-sweetened beverages (e.g. soda, energy drinks)” is being challenged by the American Beverage Association (ABA). 

❌ The ABA – an industry group backed by major strategics Keurig Dr Pepper, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, among others – contends that Measure Z violates the California’s Keep Groceries Affordable Act of 2018.

😡 The ABA, along with a host of California small business groups, argue that the measure was knowingly passed to challenge the state’s 2018 bill and, in the process, disenfranchises minority communities and local businesses.

How will the distributor’s exit from California impact independent spirits and ready-to-drink (RTD) brands? We talked to several experts and brands to see how they’re navigating.

🗺️ Hundreds of brands are now scrambling to find new distribution partners after RNDC ceased operations in California, which is already kicking off a shift in the distribution landscape. As major brands scatter, that may give rise to mid-size distributors and beer distributors. 

🚚 Smaller, independent brands may start seeing more options for distribution, but as they scale they will still need to fight for attention — the pecking order at one beer distributor, for instance, has changed dramatically. 

🔀 Brands already face the challenge of selecting distributors that serve the right "universe of accounts," and with mergers and acquisitions part and parcel of distribution, they now need to think about their pivot plan if their distribution becomes the acquirer or acquired. 

Read the full story for a deep dive into all of the dynamics at play.

A Republican-led House subcommittee approved the current version of a Congressional spending bill that includes a provision to restrict intoxicating hemp products by closing the door left open by the 2018 Farm Bill. 

📝 The provision, deep in the 138-page report, would prohibit cannabis products containing “quantifiable amounts” of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects.”

😵 This would bar any Delta-9, Delta-8 or other intoxicating products from being produced from hemp on a federal level, overriding many states efforts to offer low-dose beverages and edibles.  The spending bill will now go to the full Appropriations Committee for review.

Go Deeper: Intoxicating Hemp Regulations Take Shape in Several States

The National Advertising Division (NAD) had some good news and some bad news for Boxed Water is Better in its ruling on a challenge brought against the company by the International Bottled Water Association.

♻️ The NAD found that Boxed Water has “provided a reasonable basis” for its products' recyclability, efforts to plant trees and “certain environmental impact claims.”

❌ However, the brand was told it would do best to drop claims related to renewable materials and sustainable sourcing, such as its suggestion that its packaging is a “92% plant-based carton.”

🌳 Still, Boxed Water was able to prove its cartons can be fully recycled at the proper facilities, it has planted over 1.5 million trees and that slogans like “Better for the Planet” do not need qualifications. The company agreed to amend the necessary slogans.

Insiders can access the full story.

Here’s a taste of the people and products moving around the industry to start off your week.

🍀 Lucky Energy appointed Lou Fabiano president, effective immediately. Most recently, Fabiano served as VP of Sales, national convenience and petroleum, at AriZona Beverage Co. The appointment comes on the heels of Lucky’s recent investment from InvestBev Group. 

🧠 Jordan Shulman, former VP of sales at Local Weather, joined mental performance shot brand Magic Mind as senior director of sales. 

💧 Flow Beverage Corp. announced that CFO and EVP of operations Trent MacDonald has stepped down from his post. The company is searching for a successor and, in the interim, its director of finance will “perform similar functions to those of the CFO.” 

☕ Laird Superfood teamed up with café chain Bluestone Lane to introduce two iced coffee drinks with functional mushrooms: Laird Superfood Latte and Laird Superfood Mocha. Both beverages feature extracts of chaga, lion’s mane, maitake, and cordyceps. 

🎯 Super Coffee landed its 50 oz. Cold Brew in Target stores across New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Rhode Island. 

Insiders can check out additional distribution updates on BevNET.