As the next step in growing its flagship energy drink platform C4, Nutrabolt is aiming for consumer’s heads.
The Austin, Texas-based supplement brand sent out the first shipments of its latest ready-to-drink innovation, a four-SKU line called C4 Smart Energy, this week to GNC stores, with HyVee and a handful of select grocery accounts set to follow later this month. Thanks to the addition of nootropic ingredients, the new product gives C4 a foothold outside of athletic performance or fitness-based use occasions, something that the brand’s consumers were already helping to drive.
“People are taking C4 for commuting, waking up in the morning, for that 2 p.m. crash at work, for studying late,” said Nutrabolt CMO John Hardesty. “When we look at the moments of occasion in which they are taking the product, we know how to formulate for those exact needs.”
Like other brands helping to grow the brain-boosting beverage segment — along with Brain Juice, Synapse and FocusAID, to name a few — C4 Smart Energy features nootropics; in this case it’s Cognizin, a proprietary form of the chemical citicoline developed by Kyowa Hakko USA, Inc. According to some clinical trials, Cognizin has been shown to be effective in helping combat certain neurodegenerative processes and to support normal cognitive function.
Each 16 oz. can of Smart Energy — available in Cotton Candy, Peach Mango Nectar, Electric Sour and Freedom Ice — contains 250 mg of Cognizin, along with vitamin B12 and 200 mg of InnovaTea, a naturally derived, green tea-based caffeine source developed by NutriScience. As with other C4 ready-to-drink products, Smart Energy is naturally flavored and contains no sugar, calories or artificial colors. However, unlike the core line, it does not contain CarnoSyn Beta-Alanine, another proprietary ingredient used for muscle building and recovery.
Smart Energy brings C4 a step further outside of the gyms and specialty fitness channels where the brand has laid its foundations. With its appeal to brain-focused energy, Hardesty noted the line “gives us more permission to go play in areas and with more audiences that we haven’t done before.” For example, Smart Energy will feature prominently in Nutrabolt’s college-based field marketing programs this year, which will be mainly focused on schools in California, Texas, New York and Arizona. The brand is also developing influencer marketing and original content through YouTube that will be directed towards specific demographics — such as gamers, construction workers and long-haul truckers — with whom the brand is resonating.
With a new use occasion to serve, the growing C4 product family also opens new opportunities at retail; the two lines can still work with a 2-for-$5 promotional pricing, Hardesty said, with each aimed at a different function and day part. After launching in GNC and select grocers, Smart Energy is set to begin expanding at the end of Q1 into some of Nutrabolt’s DSD partners, including Big Geyser in New York City, and at Walmart, which will offer the line in a 12 oz. can (with 150 mg of caffeine and 250 mg of Cognizin). Meanwhile, the brand’s other sublines — the all-natural C4 Natural Zero and C4 Ultimate, made with 300 mg of caffeine — are taking different paths to retail, with the former currently being sold in Sprouts Farmers Market stores and LifeTime Fitness locations. That structure reflects Nutrabolt’s strategy of gradually widening its energy platform through function rather than going deep on flavors.
“Our background is based on science and innovation for consumers that are looking for energy, but we make it very specific to their needs,” said Hardesty. “We want to lead the way, rather than being afraid. We want to advance the consumer.”