SAN CLEMENTE, CA – They’ve been busy growing their acai business for the past decade, but a recent meeting with Ryan and Jeremy Black, brothers and co-founders of Sambazon, revealed a new sense of excitement around their belief that something big is about to happen for the brand.
In one sense both Sambazon – and the acai category as a whole – has been out of the limelight this year while industry eyes have turned to the fast-evolving coconut water business. But that’s not because the category or brand has faltered, according to the Blacks. With Sambazon, they say, they’ve spent the last year adding distributors for their RTD beverage lines while continuing to see growth in their other acai formats, including supplements, frozen foods, and industrial sales.
This month, the Blacks’ focus returns to the beverage business with the launch of Sambazon’s first ever consumer targeted advertising campaign, the “Warrior Up Campaign.” Launching this week in San Diego, Calif., the first market Sambazon sold its products, “Warrior Up” represents a shift in the company’s marketing efforts. Instead of emphasizing the benefits of acai as a superfruit, the campaign promotes the benefits of Sambazon (both the product and company). Through the initial media campaign and its subsequent phases, the company will attempt to demonstrate that Sambazon has a superior product than the competition and that Sambazon is a socially conscious company. It comes at a time when two other acai players, Bossa Nova and Zola, are also gearing up for increased marketing efforts of their own – a competition that could quickly put the miracle berry right back under the industry microscope.
Watch the video interview to hear Ryan and Jeremy Black speak about their new campaign, the state of Sambazon and the industry, and what it has been like to be in the beverage industry for ten years.