Video: CNBC’s Darren Rovell Discusses Red Bull’s Sports Marketing Strategy at BevNET Live

Focusing on lessons that beverage entrepreneurs could take from Red Bull and its marketing techniques, CNBC reporter Darren Rovell dazzled BevNET Live attendees with his talk on the intersection of sports, marketing, and beverages. Rovell, who has covered the sports business beat for CNBC since 2006, called Red Bull's promotions, endorsement deals, and advertising campaigns, “an active case study” in innovative marketing.

Videos from BevNET Live Summer 2012 AVAILABLE NOW at BeverageSchool.com

Beginning today, video coverage of BevNET Live Summer 2012 will be available on BeverageSchool.com, BevNET's on-demand video learning site. For a nominal subscription fee, you can watch videos of speakers, panels, and discussions from BevNET Live Summer 2012, as well as hundreds of other educational videos featured on BeverageSchool.com covering a wide range of vital and relevant topics, including packaging, financing strategies, legal considerations, and branding.

Review: Snapple Lightly Sweetened

Latching onto growing consumer demand for lower sugar, low-calorie beverages, Snapple has launched a new line of all-natural teas lightly sweetened with real sugar. Snapple Lightly Sweetened Teas are made…

BevNET Live Summer 2012 Photo Gallery and Video Tour of Expo

Engulfing New York City's Metropolitan Pavilion with over 500 beverage entrepreneurs, suppliers, retailers, distributors, BevNET Live featured a whirlwind of education, networking, and growth opportunities in its biggest show to date. With some of the beverage industry's best taking the stage as well as an industry expo packed with flavor houses, packaging suppliers, and bottlers, BevNET Live offered attendees a wide range of ways to learn how to grow and develop their businesses.

Review: Parrot Soy Milk Drink

Parrot, which is a brand from Sun Hing Foods, has expanded their lineup to include a ready to drink sweetened soy milk beverage. While what’s inside the can is actually…

Coke (Quietly) Introduces Coconut Water-Infused Vitaminwater

Quietly, and with barely a shred of promotion, the Coca-Cola Co. Inc., has launched a new coconut water-infused Vitaminwater flavor called Coco-Refresh. It appears that Coke introduced Coco-Refresh exclusively in the New York City market a little over a month ago, and though the drink is listed among other Vitaminwater varieties on the company’s website, there are only a few tidbits of information about the product, mostly from the viral rants of beverage-crazed bloggers.

Bazi to Merge with GT Beverage Company

Energy shot maker Bazi announced yesterday that it has entered into a merger agreement with GT Beverage Company. According to a joint statement released by the two companies, GT Beverage, which manufactures a line of vitamin-enhanced water drinks for kids, will retain 95.5 percent of the common shares outstanding of Bazi, which has received a line of credit from GT for up to $600,000. The merger is expected to close on or before October 15, 2012.

Balance Water Adds Cash

Balance Water, a line of functional waters infused with tasteless herbal extracts, pulled in investment to the tune of about $4-5 million recently, according to co-founder Martin Chalk. The funding came from a mix of sources: Emil Capital Partners supplied institutional cash, while famed investor Thomas H. Lee, the founder of Thomas H. Lee partners, put in money as an individual investor, as did Australian actor Hugh Jackman.

Lance Gentry, Former Izze Executive, Passes Away

Lance Gentry, the well-known and well-liked former VP of marketing for Izze Beverage Co., passed away Friday following a battle with brain cancer that lasted more than a year. Gentry became a familiar and welcome presence when he visited the BevNET team during frequent trips to Boston as he attempted to open the market for Izze.

RelaxZen to Return

After spending months in limbo as product slowly trickled through a declining number of stores and online retailers, relaxation shot RelaxZen has been sold to a pair of Brooklyn-based investors by former CEO Brent Sonnek-Schmelz.

Review: Scheckter’s Organic Energy

Scheckter’s Organic Energy is a juice based USDA Organic certified energy drink that’s made in Europe. In addition to the juice, which makes the product taste great, Scheckter’s uses natural…

Review: Black Bear 500x

Black Bear 500x is a caffeine free energy drink that contains 500 times the vitamin B12 that is typically found in standard energy drinks. More importantly, the product uses hydroxycobalamin…

Snapple Launches “Lightly Sweetened” Teas

Latching onto growing consumer demand for lower sugar, low-calorie beverages, Snapple has launched a new line of all-natural teas lightly sweetened with real sugar. Snapple Lightly Sweetened Teas are made with a base of white tea and contain 18 grams of sugar - less than half the sugar content in other Snapple varieties.

BevNET Live Wrapup: Disruption, Distribution, Avoiding Distraction

Looking at the numbers at the seventh incarnation of BevNET Live, which finished up on Tuesday after two days of intense teaching, networking and community building in New York City, however, the event started and ended with the simplest number: one.