• 🏈 Who Really Won Last Sunday’s Super Bowl?
• 📰 ICYMI: BevNET’s Jan/Feb Issue Taps into Coffee Trends
• 🤝 Westrock, Select Milk Team Up
• 📉Pernod: ‘Normalizing’ Market Still Hurts Sales
• ✅ Jel Sert Wants to Go Cross-Category

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It's no secret that Super Bowl LVII (and every past Super Bowl for that matter) was as much about that game played between the commercial breaks as it was about the brands who threw down $7 million for 30-seconds of fame. But how does a company justify shelling out that kind of cash – without knowing for sure whether it will be worth it?

Aside from Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s team, data from GoPuff points to a handful of clear winners. Lindor Chocolate saw the biggest ROI after its new “Life Is A Ball” campaign aired, with unit sales spiking 231% on the ultra-fast delivery platform. 

Starry and Nerds both saw a 186% increase in sales on the platform during and in the hour after the game (We hear they are still trying to break the tie in overtime). Poppi (66%), M&Ms (48%) and Oreo (40%) all saw notable spikes as well. 

“Spots during the Big Game are among the most expensive ads available – but it’s difficult to leverage those commercials to drive immediate sales or measure the immediate impact of that huge investment,” said Daniel Folkman, Gopuff’s SVP of Business. It appears this year at least, CPG companies were fairly successful in doing just that. 

Behavioral research company Veylinx also tracked a correlation between a brand’s Super Bowl commercial and a boost in demand for its products. The firm honed in on eight companies: Michelob Ultra, Hellmann's Mayo, Pringles, e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Dove, Doritos Dinamita and Mtn Dew Baja Blast.

A quick sidebar for the sober curious crowd: 56% of Veylinx respondents said they didn't drink any alcohol at all during the game. 

But among Gen Z watchers, ads for Doritos Dinamita, Dove and e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter generated the highest spikes in consumer demand. Notably, Doritos took a celebrity centric approach that featured actress Jenna Ortega and actor Danny Ramirez while embracing the generations’ affinity for “absurdism”-style humor.

And while Poppi has stepped up to claim the title for most watched Super Bowl ad (according to analytics firm Samba TV), Dan O’s Seasoning this week launched the alter ego of all Super Bowl Ads with a campaign dubbed the "Smallest Ad Ever." The seasoning company is offering brands a chance to feature their ad along the bottom of a bottle of Dan-O’s. For reference, that means squeezing something memorable onto a 3.5 oz shaker bottle that often gets lost in the back of a cabinet anyways. 

But the most notable value from those ads may be symbolic, rather than tangible: Amidst a sea of giant corporations with eye-watering marketing budgets, some savvy independents can still claim a piece of the Big Game commercial bonanza.

"We're flavor rich, but not RICH rich. If you’re a brand without the big budget for the big game, this ad’s for you," said the Dan O’s team.

BevNET’s first issue of 2024 is all about coffee, whether that’s your hot morning cup of a nighttime buzz. Along with commentaries from industry experts like BevNET editor-in-chief Jeff Klineman and journalist Gerry Khermouch, you’ll find these exciting feature stories:

☕ First, Marty Caballero takes you inside Westrock Coffee’s $300 million bet on the future of coffee, in the guise of its massive, soon-to-be-completed fluid coffee facility in Conway, Arkansas. Hear from management about how the company has been actively recruiting high-profile partners via M&A and JVs (see blurb below) with broad market expansion in mind. 

🍸 For the Spirits feature, we stay in coffee for a deep dive into one of the hottest categories within RTD/RTS: the espresso martini. BevNET Spirits Editor Ferron Salniker unpacks the mechanics and motives behind the resurgent cocktail, and what indicators it holds for the space at large. 

🥃 Positioned with one foot in alcohol and the other in the ascendant non-alc movement, how do mixers fit into the evolving beverage landscape? By refining their identities and offerings, brands are finding white spaces to exploit, writes Lukas Southard. 

Read the latest issue of BevNET Magazine here

Westrock Coffee’s much-hyped new facility in Arkansas is still yet to go online, but the company continues to leverage its deepening stake in the fluid coffee business to keep growing. The company announced yesterday it has signed a letter of intent with Select Milk to create a joint venture for dairy or plant-based milk coffee-based beverages.

🏭 The collaboration calls for the construction and operation of extended shelf-life and aseptic multi-serve bottle lines inside a new manufacturing facility Select Milk intends to build in Littlefield, Texas, set to go online in Q1 2026.

🚧 The Conway plant is also getting a pre-opening upgrade, adding cold-chain capability for multi-serve bottles. 

💰 Westrock is funding both the Select Milk joint venture and the Conway expansion by issuing $72 million in convertible senior unsecured notes (bearing 5% annual interest) due 2029 in a private offering. 

For more details, read the full story on BevNET

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Pernod Ricard is the latest major spirits group to grapple with declining sales growth, per the company’s most recent earnings report, and sales are expected to remain flat for the remainder of FY 2024.

⬇️ The French spirits group saw organic sales fall -3% overall and -7% in the U.S. after a slower than expected end-of-year lead to inventory adjustments stateside. Wholesaler inventories across the board reached historic highs at the end of last year.

😐 Like its closest rival Diageo announced last week in its earning call that the group expects its FY 2025 growth trajectory to improve compared to FY 2024. Spirits groups are adjusting to a “normalizing” market after the pandemic boom, while analysts have pointed to inflationary pressures on consumers as cause for the downturn across BevAlc.

🍸The second largest spirits company has used flavor extensions to recruit new drinkers into the fold of its flagship Jameson brand, and may be angling for its innovations in ready-to-drink to do the same. The company announced last week the launch of two new Absolut Vodka RTS varieties, and a line of Malibu Rum cocktails after launching RTDs in partnership with Ocean Spray earlier this month.

Read the full story on BevNET

What do fruit-flavored energy drinks and cold brew horchata lattes have in common? No, it’s not a trick question! They’re both featured in the latest edition of BevNET’s weekly New Products Gallery. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside: 

🐝 Beekeeper Coffee, known for its ready-to-drink coffee and latte flavors featuring a signature drop of honey, teams up with Taco Bell to create a new Cold Brew Horchata Latte. Exclusively available at the fast food restaurant, the new latte takes inspiration from the iconic, cinnamon-flavored Mexican beverage.

⚡ Better-for-you energy drink maker Celsius has introduced its newest flavor, Sparkling Raspberry Peach. Like the rest of the brand’s Original offerings, the new flavor boasts 200mg of caffeine derived from guarana extract and contains zero sugar.

🥛 Building on the success of its barista line, Oatly is pushing further into the coffee add-ins category with a new line of non-dairy creamers that’s hitting store shelves this month in Vanilla, Mocha, Sweet & Creamy and Caramel varieties. 

Check out the full NPG on BevNET.

The Jel Sert Company has made big business in recent years by producing co-branded, licensed drink mixes featuring iconic flavors like Starburst, Skittles and Warheads. Now, the Chicago-based company is looking to flip the script and begin licensing out its own brand portfolio for “cross-category product extensions.”

🪪 Jel Sert announced this week it has partnered with global food and beverage licensing agency Broad Street Licensing Group to develop “a range of licensed products” based off its Fla-Vor-Ice, Otter Pops, Wyler’s Light and Pure Kick brands.

🍭 Plans include making RTD beverages, workout supplements, fruit snacks and confections from the brands, which have historically played in the freezer pop and drink mix spaces.

🚰 At nearly a century old, Jel Sert has been ambitious in modernizing its portfolio and marketing strategy in recent years. The TikTok-first marketing campaigns it’s mounted since the #WaterTok trend helped blow up sales of its drink mix portfolio last year are just one example of how the company is staying nimble to grow its consumer base and stay in the conversation.