Celebrity spirits are growing sales on-premise— and at a premium.
Consumers are paying 73% more per drink for a celeb-backed spirit at bars and restaurants, according to Union’s OnPrem Insights which gathers data from over 1,000 high volume accounts using the POS platform.
The new report shares which A-listers are on top, whose brands are up and coming, and how those spirits are selling compared to other spirits at bars and restaurants.
Growing Share
Data showed nearly 80% of Union venues (which operate in 34 states) carried celebrity spirits in the 12-month period ending July 31. At those venues, celebrity spirits account for about 160 out of more than 6,000 total spirits items sold on-premise — representing less than 3% of items, but bringing in over 10% of sales share (a 16% rise from last year).
That sales share is more than double that of rum; however the data is not entirely surprising as leading spirit categories like tequila, vodka and whiskey also overlap with the more prominent celebrity spirits.
Clooney Dominates
Growth for celebrity spirits is largely driven by George Clooney’s Casamigos, which represents 91% sales share of celebrity spirits sold at Union venues. Casamigos — launched in 2013 by Clooney and two partners — both lead on-premise celebrity spirit sales and grew its share by nearly three points in the period. The data echoes Casamigos dominance as one of the top three sellers off-premise as well.
Meanwhile, all other contenders in the top five have lost some share or remained stagnant during the 12-month period. Following Casamigos, Diddy’s Cîroc was down by 1.5 points, The Rock’s Teremana by 0.5 points, Jay-Z’s D’Usse by 0.1 points, and Miles Teller-backed The Finnish Long Drink fell by 0.4 points. While the fluctuations in share change are relative to each brand’s sales share, none of them come even close to Casamigos growth trajectory, which helped kick off the rise of premium tequila.
The Lone RTD Is…
More than 50 celebrity spirits brands are sold at Union’s bars and restaurants, and of the top-selling 15 brands, nearly half are tequila. Within tequila and mezcal, the top spirits after Casamigos are Teremana, Dos Hombres (from Breaking Bad duo Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul), Michal Jordan’s Cincoro, and Kendall Jenner’s 818.
While sales are nowhere near that of the biggest celebrity vodka brands — Cîroc, Effen, and Mulholland — SNL-alum Dan Aykrod’s ultra-premium Crystal Head Vodka comes in a hard-to-miss clear, skull-shaped bottle that gets attention at some Union venues, and actor William H. Macy’s Woody Creek Distillers Vodka also makes the list, as does its whiskey.
Two of the top 15 sellers are gin (Aviation and Mulholland) or gin-based. The latter belongs to an outlier among the top selling items but places 5th in sales: The Finnish Long Drink, a gin-based RTD whose primary investors include actor Miles Teller, along with musician DJ Kygo and golfer Rickie Fowler. It is the only RTD within the top-selling celebrity spirit items.
Growing Brands
Of the top brands, the report identified the brands with the most promising sales trajectories and velocity, using a combination of factors from their pace of growth to on-premise sales.
Blue Chair Bay Rum, a brand of flavored and spiced rums owned by country singer-songwriter Kenney Chesney, has been around for 10 years but sales grew three times as fast as celebrity brand rum sales overall in the 12-month period.
Among more recent entrants, “smart marketing tactics,” like traveling the country in a branded truck and pouring samples at Costco, are contributing to Dos Hombres’ success, according to the report: the mezcal brand experienced 42% growth in its share of celebrity brand sales in this 12-month period.
NBA superstar LeBron James launched his 1707 lineup of tequila and mezcal in 2020 and the brand saw skyrocketing growth at Union venues particularly in New York and California in the same period, garnering attention as of late with limited edition releases and after James set a new NBA record as the all-time career scoring leader.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based Mulholland Distilling is seeing success at Union venues, mostly in its homebase of Southern California, and mostly with its vodka. The brand climbed the charts this period, up against its nearest competitor, from about 2% of Cîroc Vodka’s sales (the top celebrity Vodka at Union venues) to about one-third of Cîroc’s sales.
While Teremana only represents 1.4% share, the tequila brand could overtake declining brand Cîroc as the number two top-selling celebrity spirit in the coming year if it gains additional traction on-premise (much of its early gains were at retail, as the brand launched during lockdowns).
Guests Pay a Premium Price
At $16.25, the average drink price for a celebrity spirits brand is a whopping 73% higher than for an average spirits drink, priced at $9.38. Guests also pay a high premium for celebrity cognac and tequila brands. But those stats might not indicate the specific celebrity’s pull on people’s pockets, more so the typically premium-and-above price tag of the majority of celebrity spirits.