Q Mixers is looking to raise its national profile with the appointment of comedian and TV host Joel McHale as Chief Happy Hour Officer. The celebrity partnership arrives as the company is seeking to expand its on-premise business as pandemic restrictions are lifted across the country.
McHale, known as the host of The Soup and for his role on NBC’s Community, will act as a marquee brand ambassador for Q by emceeing online Happy Hour events as well as in-person “Backyard Takeovers” at bars in select cities.
“Discovering Q Mixers was like a two by four to my head,” McHale said in a press release. “I used to spend all this time selecting the perfect spirit for my drink, only to ruin it with a bad mixer…. I am now an expert at easily making great drinks at home and I’m excited to join the team as Chief Happy Hour Officer, where I’ll help bring excitement back to five o’clock gatherings and show America what a quality mixer looks, or should I say, tastes like.”
Q Mixers founder and CEO Jordan Silbert said that the company looked at a number of potential ambassadors for the Chief Happy Hour Officer role and subjected McHale to a rigorous interview process that included testing his ability to keep his composure and tell jokes “after four or five drinks.”
The online happy hour events are set to begin Memorial Day weekend and will include social media streams and product giveaways. The Backyard Takeover series will start in June and will include Kiki on the River and The Gramercy in Miami, The Irving at the W Hotel in New York and Tavern on Rush in Chicago.
“This is a real opportunity to take it and run and really put our best foot forward,” Silbert said. “We obviously raised a round of capital back in January 2019, we had this really successful year at retail last year, and the last leg on the stool is really engaging with consumers in a fun, but also compelling and breakthrough way. And that’s that’s what this is, in all seriousness, it’s kind of a fun way to bring even more consumers into our franchise and get them to try Q for the first time.”
Q has also unveiled this week a brand refresh, updating its packaging to better call out the flavor names on the cans and adding pictures of the cocktails to multipack boxes. The new designs also aim to reduce confusion between SKUs and make more clear the differences between its various Ginger Beer flavors. As well, the company tweaked its logo to make the “Q” more prominent and “stronger,” Silbert said. The new packaging is currently rolling out to stores nationwide.
According to the company, sales of Q Mixers were up 70% year-over-year in MULO and Natural for the 52-week period ending March 21. According to IRI, the brand’s Ginger Beers grew 107.8% to $7.7 million in the same period.
The growth is in line with the brand’s strong performance over the past year, which was propelled by the pandemic as consumers sought to recreate the bar and restaurant experience in their own homes, driving sales for both mixers and spirits. According to SPINS, mixers were up 35.4% to $404.9 million in MULO during the 52-week period ending January 14, while distilled spirits saw a 19.9% spike to $7.1 billion.
“There were some trends pre-COVID for a move to cocktails from beer and wine, moreso from beer,” Silbert said. “And then within cocktails there’s a move towards premium spirits and premium mixers. So all those things have been happening for the last five to 10 years and the pandemic just kind of pushed the accelerator on that.”
Now as states across the country lift pandemic lockdown restrictions, Silbert said the genie is not about to go back into the bottle. Consumers, he said, have been fully converted to the brand (and broader premium mixer category) and continue to make repeat purchases. While the retail business has remained “more or less the same,” the on-premise business has returned “in full force,” he said. In March, the brand saw its strongest bar and restaurant sales in Florida to date surpassing pre-pandemic sales numbers.
To support growth this year, Silbert said Q has split its sales team into retail and on-premise divisions, with the former focused on ensuring old accounts come back online post-pandemic, in addition to securing new doors.
Q has also received a national account mandate with Marriott, where the brand will be sold across the corporation’s numerous hotel chains. However, Silbert noted that as many locations were closed for extended periods during the pandemic the brand needs to work with individual buyers to re-activate its business.
According to Silbert, Q is also working to go deeper in its retail business by working with retailers to expand its shelf space and add in-store displays.
“As people start to have happy hours and start to have parties again, we need to make sure that customers are seeing the products that they actually want to buy and that the retailer can make more money when they buy,” he said.