New Beverage Showdown 23 - Finals: Leisure Project

Speaker 1 [00:14] All right. Up next, we have Alex and Steve Michaelson, the co-founders of Leisure Project. Come on up, guys. One mic for each of you, your clicker, and your timer. Please keep an eye on

Speaker 2 [00:29] it. Hi everyone. We're the team at Leisure Project. We're a brother co-founded duo out of Los Angeles, California. We're former D1 athletes turned creative marketers, and we're flipping the script on hydration for the next generation.

Speaker 3 [00:45] So we believe the hydration category has fallen asleep at the wheel. All of you in the audience right now are probably saying, what is this guy saying? So let us explain. For decades, brands like Gatorade, Powerade, and body armor have dominated the hydration set. But they've only ever been branded for athletes and exercise, and the products have only ever been formulated for physical performance. Times are changing and so are consumer aspirations. Young consumers, they don't wanna be athletes anymore. They wanna be creatives, creators, and doers. Things like art, music, and entrepreneurship, they're just more interesting and fun for them than sports. Their needs are changing too, right? 91% of Gen Z say that they have a symptom of, of stress every day. So it's clear that we're more stressed than ever before. Research shows that hydration plays a massive role in how we feel and perform mentally. With 3/4 of Americans today being chronically dehydrated, it's no wonder why we're feeling the consequences of stress.

Speaker 2 [01:52] So we believe that it's time to rethink what hydration can mean for the consumer of tomorrow. Introducing leisure, an all-natural mind-boosting hydration drink infused with electrolytes, adaptogens, and nootropics that help enhance focus, support stress, and boost mental clarity, so you can feel like your most creative and productive self each day. Each can of leisure is only 30 calories, 5 g of sugar, and has 50% more electrolytes than a serving of coconut water. To top it off, leisure is infused with a potent, mind-supporting blend of functional ingredients like magnesium and trace minerals from the ocean, plant-based vitamin D3, lemon balm, L-theanine, and gaba. While function is great, we know that taste is king. Our line of hydrating wellness aids are our take on what we call lemonade reimagined. A just sweet enough formula that packs equally as much flavor as it does function. When looking at the hydration set, we see 3 main subcategories. Leisure takes the best attributes of sports drinks, plant waters, and enhanced waters, and supercharges them with functional ingredients that support how we feel and perform mentally. We aim to be the first brand in the category to go beyond physical performance and champion mental health and mental well-being. Over the last 5 years or so, brands like Poppy and Ollipop have brought gut and digestive health to the mainstream. As it stands today though, the brain health market is 5 times smaller than gut health. Yet stress and anxiety is the number one health concern of Americans today. As more and more Americans continue to take charge of their health, we believe brain health is on the verge of becoming the next wave in the functional set, and leisure brings an approachable, flavor-forward format that we believe can scale into the mainstream.

Speaker 3 [03:38] Beyond our product we're building a lifestyle brand that represents the creative aspirations of the younger generation. Welcome to the leisure verse. Our brand universe flips the script on the traditional sports and performance driven narrative around hydration right on its head. We're bringing a sense of fun and creativity to a category that hasn't evolved. It's. Messaging or identity in decades. It's a brand universe crafted with intention and built to go beyond just physical product. Meet the leisure creature NFT community. Earlier this year, Leisure Project became the world's first Web 3 native beverage brand through the launch of our brand-owned NFT project. This new age membership model enables holders to gain special perks like discounts, first access, co-creation opportunities, and this initial NFT drop generated over 6 figures in pre-launch revenue, but most importantly to us, it galvanized a passionate group of brand evangelists before we produced a single can of leisure.

Speaker 2 [04:36] Although we, although we launched our brand digitally to start, we're focused on winning where it matters in beverage, retail. Just one month into our retail launch, you can find us on the shelf at iconic LA grocers like Erwan and Vicente Foods and highly influential food service locations like Bravo Toast, highly likely in Giada, where we've established ourselves as a top performer in month one. This summer we plan, we're 100% focused on building out the brand in LA with plans to grow distribution through regional chains, food service, hospitality, and workspaces. But next year we plan to strategically grow distribution into new markets, and in the future we have big plans to establish ourselves over time as a go to better for you hydration option for the younger generation through the mass and convenience channels. Overall, leisure is positioned to be a perfect all-day hydration drink for those using their minds to create, work and build on a daily basis. Who's ready to enter into your leisure state?

Speaker 1 [05:33] Thank you. Instant feedback. Yeah, you can hold out your microphones, pull up. Someone yelled, good job, I agree, well done. Um, Matt, let's start with you. Um, Alex and Steve talked about the opportunity for brain health beverages and that it's an opportunity that's, uh, ready to explode. Do you see it that way as well? Uh,

Speaker 4 [05:54] yeah, I'm, I'm wrong more times than I'm right. I, I'm a little confused by the positioning. Because that came through, but also you talked about sports. You talked about hydration. You have the a package that looks like an energy drink. So, so to me it's a little bit confusing as to what you are trying to stand for. I understand. I, I love the idea of a non-pharmaceutical mental well-being play. That's awesome and that's a huge space potentially, but it feels like you're, at least the way you talk about your business and even representing in packaging, you're not exactly there yet, so more to do, I think, but a great place to start.

Speaker 3 [06:30] Yeah, I can I, sure, I, I think what we're trying to show is that hydration really the only players are really sports drinks and what we're really saying is hydration can be a tool to help you feel a little bit less stressed, more focused, mental clarity, and so we're really trying to tap into that, um, and grow it out from there.

Speaker 1 [06:48] There is a lot going on with this brand. Danielle, um, you know, how do you articulate it on the front of the can, and, you know, what do you think of how they did?

Speaker 5 [06:56] Yeah, first of all, I really love what you guys are doing with the NFT and you're thinking outside the box and I think that's really great building the community ahead of the product. Um, I think it was confusing and I, and I'll tell you a little bit about why. I think leisure points to the calm. Uh, you have your top callouts at the top or balance, calm and clarity, but your visual identity is, is going toward creative, and it's going a little bit more of the sports drink, and it's just a lot to digest. So if I were in your shoes, I would really, um, find. Find the position again it's the same thing, find the right position, pick one and lean into something specific and I would maybe consider leaning into the creativity and clarity because I think that might be a nice intersection where you can absorb some of the other stuff in your messaging.

Speaker 2 [07:42] Thank you.

Speaker 1 [07:43] And Mike, uh, let's talk about the flavor and then I also wanna hear your thoughts on the leisure verse as a way to build a community for this brand.

Speaker 6 [07:51] I, I like the flavor. I think, you know, there's, there's some tweaks that could be made that, um, but I think, you know, for the function that you have in there, the flavor works for me. Um, I want to, uh, channel your partner in NFT crime, Gary Vayner Chuck for a second, um, and talk about you're trying to build community and customers, and there's a big difference in building community and customers. One, community is a give, give, give, give, give proposition, and customers is a sell, sell, sell, sell, sell proposition. You've got this roadmap, and I, I, I, you know, I, I've, I've been following you on Twitter as well. And so you have like this long list of we're gonnas, and you've gotta convert those to we did thems really quickly here and you gotta pay that stuff off and I worry about that, you know, but I said the same thing to Liquid Death, so I was wrong about them and I wanna be wrong about you too.

Speaker 1 [08:38] Not the first time you've been wrong.

Speaker 6 [08:39] It's not the first time you've been wrong. Won't be the last.

Speaker 1 [08:41] Uh, Bonnie, you know, uh, we heard about the go to market strategy and the distribution strategy going forward. Um, do you think they're on the right track? I think of all the beverages today I think your guys' category is my favorite. You guys are repositioning hydration from sports to everyday, and I think that's really, that's really smart. Everybody needs more hydration. People are sick of water. People want flavor, um, what you guys kind of remind me of is. A new vitamin water, right? Like people wanted to drink vitamin water to get extra nutrients, and now with nootropics and adaptogens becoming so hot, so trendy, are you, is this what this generation's vitamin water is? Is it water hydration with nootropics? So I think you guys have the capability of being mainstream, but I think you need to revisit your. Packaging, um, and I also wonder if you need to revisit your packet, your, your packs like being in a can. It's working for liquid death, but I think it might be easier for the consumer to realize that you're a hydration drink if you're maybe in 100% recycled ocean plastic or, you know, I know plastic is taboo but interesting.

Speaker 2 [09:56] I'll be quick, but I think the reason we, I, I'm Gen Z. Uh, my friends, our generation, we, we just can't, our brand can't do plastic, and I don't think Gen Z is going to pick up plastic bottles regardless of recycle in the future. So we'll, we'll, we just can't do it personally.

Speaker 1 [10:12] Yeah, that's great. I wonder who's clapping. Were you from Gen Z? Are you Gen Z? There you go. Gen Z. Fantastic. All right, great presentation, guys. Well done.