Rocco Milano, co-founder of ready-to-drink (RTD) brand On The Rocks was once told that “RTD was where brands go to die.” But five years after launching, the premium bottled cocktail company sold to Suntory Spirits in 2020.
“I encourage all of you to open yourselves up to possibilities, to different approaches, ways of working, new ways of looking at things,” he said during the 2024 Winter BevNET Live conference in Marina Del Rey.
So what were the secrets to his success?
The three founders were certainly scrappy and carved out a niche in the on-premise spaces where they could get an edge against well-resourced brands and distributors.
“A lot of people want to focus in on the retail shelf, what we tried focusing on initially was the travel and leisure segment,” he said.
The founders got onto airline menus, eventually winning Hawaiian Airlines a hospitality award, by first sneaking into the International Flight Services Association Conference and hunting for people with buyers’ badges.
“We had nothing other than we were going to be aggressive in sales,” he said.
They later directed their aim at hotels, where a bottled cocktail at the minibar, spa or pool was still novel at the time. If there was a 600,000 square-foot hotel, Milano wasn’t aiming to compete with the big distributors for placement at the bar and restaurant, he was thinking about how to get into the remaining 590,000 square-feet.
By driving trial in the on-premise, the company then began to get momentum in the off-premise– just as Americans were beginning to enjoy cocktails to-go.
Watch the video to learn more about how the company pivoted to retail, where they found an in with Suntory, and how the three founders are building out their newest gin venture with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.