Review: Tibi Tonic

Tibi Tonic is a new hangover recovery supplement aimed at reaching consumers within the nightclub circuit. The brand, which took part in New Beverage Showdown 4 at BevNET Live Winter 12, has done well to differentiate itself from competing recovery drinks with its sophisticated packaging, but we can’t help but feel as though its branding would be better applied to some other form of functional beverage.

The (Deal) Killer in Our Midst

As those of you who’ve learned to skip right over them will know, I often start my columns with an amusing or revealing anecdote, or even sometimes a mordant joke. You won’t get that this month, because that certainly isn’t appropriate when the topic of the column is the killer in our midst: Energy drinks.

List Your Company in BevNET’s 2013 Supplier and Services Guide

BevNET’s Supplier and Services Guide is an annual resource to the 1,000+ beverage companies that turn to BevNET each year to identify and source vendors. The guide will be included in the Jan-Feb issue of BevNET Magazine, which is sent to 19,000 subscribers, and available online to BevNET’s 100,000+ monthly viewers.

2012: A Bump in the Numbers – From Wal-Mart

For those of you who dream nightly about this kind of thing – and yes, the BevNET crew is part of that group, don’t you doubt it – we recently got some spectacular news. Symphony IRI Group, the company that provides our awesome brand sales data, has updated its information to include Wal-Mart.

Monster Reassures Investors, Offers Glimpse of New Products for 2013

In a bid to reassure shareholders and investors about safety of its products as well as the current and future growth potential of its flagship energy drink, Monster Beverage Corp. issued a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that included a 61 slide presentation that began with the statement, “Monster Energy Products Are Safe.”

Contractually Exclude Competitors, Attorney Suggests at BevNET Live

With knowledge of some legal terminology and a well-prepared plan, your brand can avoid a suffocating contract and keep investors interested. At least, that’s what a group of lawyers told BevNET Live attendees during a breakout session in which they covered everything from trademark law to buyout terms.

Day One of BevNET Live Challenged Startups To Find Point of Differentiation

Startups and growing brands heard it repeatedly—investors with full pockets are waiting for your next marketable innovation. This was a steady mantra at BevNET Live in Santa Monica on Dec. 3 and 4, a conference that gathered representatives of the beverage industry from across the world to engage in panels, presentations, expositions and a sampling bar.

Reali-Tea: MetaBrand’s Schnell to Appear on “Tia & Tamera”

Eric Schnell is going Hollywood. The MetaBrand founder and CEO, who has over 15 years of experience developing and launching natural beverage brands, will appear on the reality TV show “Tia & Tamara” tonight to help advise Tia and Tamara Mowry - the twin sisters best known as the stars of 1990s sitcom “Sister, Sister” - on a new bottled herbal tea line that the pair is attempting to create.

Gourmet CSDs Battle On

These attempts to make over the pedestrian soda category with highbrow products seem to come every year, making for a diverse set of companies for retailers and distributors to consider. The entrepreneurs wouldn’t mind the consideration – it’s tough out there, they say, when you’re competing with the Cokes of the world. But things are starting to turn...

BevNET’s 2013 New Beverage Guide is Now Available for Download

Featuring over 140 new brands and products from a wide variety of drink categories, BevNET's 2013 New Beverage Guide is an essential resource for beverage manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers. Download your FREE copy of the guide by following the link below...

Review: RIZE Energy

Billed as a hybrid sports nutrition/energy drink, RIZE is formulated with trehalose, a naturally occurring sugar that the marketer claims provides twice the energy of glucose. For each of its two flavors, the brand features a pleasant flavor profile, but needs some work to improve its packaging, particularly in detailing the benefits of its formulation and differentiating itself from other products in the energy space.

PepsiCo Looks to “Drinkify” Snacks

Aiming to pump new life into its beverage division, PepsiCo is developing a range of snack-based drinks, according to The Financial Times. Speaking at Beverage Digest's Future Smarts conference in New York yesterday, PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said that the company has a “whole range of products… in the pipeline that are value-added products that can be snacks made into beverages.”

Pepsi, Beyoncé Agree to “Pioneering” $50 Million Deal

In a deal that the company calls “pioneering” in its range and scale, PepsiCo announced today that it has entered into a new multi-year partnership with pop singer Beyoncé. PepsiCo has hailed the deal – estimated to be worth $50 million, according to The New York Times – as a “true creative and wide-ranging collaboration” that will expand Beyoncé’s presence in global advertising and marketing campaigns for Pepsi and support new creative projects launched by the Grammy-winning artist.

POM Wonderful Case: FTC To Stay Tough on Claims, Attorney Sez

With about six weeks to go before a scheduled appeals decision concerning the Federal Trade Commission in the agency's false advertising claims complaint against POM Wonderful, the agency -- and the companies it regulates -- may soon have a good handle on the kinds of evidence it needs to substantiate scientific claims, according to a legal blogger.