• 📱 Athletic Brewing Gamifies Dry January
• 💰 Anchor Auction End is Near
• 🍻 75% of Dry January Consumers Still On Track
• 📊 Bev-Alc Dollars Flat Through Week 2
• 🚂 Coors Light Chill Train Returns for Super Bowl

Dedicated non-alcoholic (NA) beer maker Athletic Brewing is taking a page out of 2010s craft beer check-in culture and run-tracking with its new app feature. Athletic launched “Track Record” earlier this month in order to give its app users a way of recording their alcohol-free days and creating streaks. 

Athletic CMO Andrew Katz told Brewbound that the goal of Track Record was to build awareness for the company's app, which launched a year and a half ago, and engage with users more frequently than when they’re out of beer. 

In the first 21 days since Track Record launched, 7,000 people have downloaded the Athletic app on IOS (it’s not yet available for Android), growing its user base to 35,464 users, Katz shared. More than 50,000 check-ins have been recorded, which Katz called “the ultimate litmus test” of determining whether the app is being used.

Nearly 4,000 users are actively engaging with Track Record, Katz said. Most check-ins occur on Tuesday, while the fewest are on Saturdays. 

The bump in app usage is helping drive sales. Since Track Record launched, Athletic has doubled its revenue on a daily basis, Katz said. 

Athletic communications manager Chris Furnari added that the company is on pace to double sales on in-app purchases in January compared to most other months. He added that visits to the brewery’s store locator have also increased around 50% compared to January 2023.

The app and Track Record are “a companion” to Athletic’s Give Dry a Try campaign for January, which leans less on complete abstinence and more on trying going alcohol-free. 

Once January ends, Athletic is looking to make Track Record “a year-round thing,” Katz said. The company plans to poll users about their experience using Track Record and ask how the feature could be expanded. 

Katz would like to build more community into the app in the future, giving it a “multiplayer mode” similar to cycling and running app Strava that would allow users to build in-app groups. He envisions potentially running or hiking groups forming out of it.

He said: “There's a lot of virtual and real world applications, but I do believe that community is at its core. And it's just a way to connect other users who are kind of active lifestyle like minded, mindful drinkers."

Three-quarters of consumers who said they would abstain from alcohol this month have stayed committed to Dry January, according to a survey by CGA, NIQ’s on-premise market research firm.

One-in-four consumers surveyed prior to January said they would participate in the yearly tradition, while six in 10 specifically said they plan to abstain from alcohol in bars and restaurants. The primary driver for participating was for “health reasons” (41%), followed by wanting to save money (35%), to “challenge myself” (30%) and to decrease alcohol intake (27%). 

Of note, 12% of participating consumers said there are “better non-alcoholic options available than in previous years.” 

Still, soft drinks are the primary replacement for bev-alc in the on-premise, chosen by 65% of participating consumers, followed by “hot drinks” (30%), energy drinks (26%) and sparkling water (23%). Nearly one-in-five consumers (19%) are replacing bev-alc with mocktails, followed by non-alcoholic (NA) or alcohol-free beer (15%), NA wine (14%) and NA spirits (13%). 

Of those who had a mocktail this month, 77% plan to continue to drink the alternative beverage past Dry January – the largest commitment of the four NA alternatives of bev-alc. The majority of consumers drinking NA beer and NA wine plan to continue drinking beverages in the segments past January (59% and 57%, respectively), while 46% of NA spirits consumers plan to continue.

CGA also dove into expected consumer behavior in the on-premise for the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day. Insiders can read more here.

Total bev-alc dollar sales were flat year-over-year (YoY) and down -1% week-over-week (WoW) in the latest weekly report ending January 14 from the market research firm Circana. 

The week followed a +5% YoY increase and -24% WoW decline recorded by bev-alc in the first week of January. Declines will “likely remain in value/volume levels” until Valentine’s Day, according to Circana’s Scott Scanlon. 

It is still “too early to determine” how Dry January is impacting bev-alc sales, but last year’s impact was not significant as many consumers had more damp Januarys, according to Scanlon. 

Non-alcholic (NA) beer increased dollar sales +34.7% and volume +31.1% YoY in the latest week. NA dollar sales in the previous week were up 37.9% YoY. 

Beer dollar sales were down -1.4% YoY and volume was down -2.4%, outpacing total bev-alc volume declines (-2%). Spirits dollar sales were up +5.4% and volume was up +5.2% – the largest increases among the three bev-alc segments. Wine dollar sales were up +2.3%, while volume was down -1.3%.

The fate of historic Anchor Brewing is expected to be determined by the end of January when the winning bids in the auctions for the nearly 130-year-old brewery’s brand and equipment are to be selected, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

There are “multiple bids” “under review,” and owner Sapporo is expected to select winners by the end of the month, spokesperson Sam Singer told the Chronicle. The sale would close in the first quarter of the year.

Up for auction either together or individually are: Anchor’s brand and intellectual property, its real estate in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, and the brewery’s equipment, with annual capacity of 1.9 million case equivalents, according to Hilco Global, which Sapporo has hired to manage the auction along with management firm SierraConstellation Partners. 

San Francisco resident Mike Walsh has assembled a group of investors – including former owner Fritz Maytag – to acquire the brewery as a going concern.

Walsh told NBC Bay Area News: “Our goal is to make beer right here.” 

Walsh’s investor team includes Maytag; Tony Foglio, one of the interim owners Maytag sold the brewery to in 2010; former Pete’s Wicked Ale CFO Jim Collins; and private equity investor Robert Sayle, according to the Chronicle. 

Other bidders include the Anchor SF Cooperative (ASFC), a group of former Anchor employees who have crowdfunded their efforts led by long-time Anchor brewmaster Dane Volek and packaging lead and union steward Patrick Machel.

Insiders can read more about Walsh’s plans for Anchor and the ASFC’s efforts.

Molson Coors is dipping into nostalgia for its 2024 Super Bowl ad. As Brewbound previously reported, Coors Light will be featured in this year’s big game ad. 

The company announced today that the Coors Light Chill Train is returning after a 12-year absence. 

Molson Coors is turning the Chill Train’s return into a sweepstakes, giving drinkers a chance to hop aboard and be featured in a slo-mo version of the ad, via CGI, that will be released online. Reservations open Sunday, January 28, with a teaser airing during the NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions.  

Molson Coors CMO Sofia Colucci said in the announcement: "After breaking records last year, now is the time to bring back the most iconic beer train of all time to one of the biggest moment in sports. Coors Light is the fastest volume share gainer in total beer, so it makes perfect sense to celebrate that rapid growth with our train by delivering chill across North America."

Get a refresher on the Coors Light train ads of the early 2000s.