New Beverage Showdown 23 - Finals: SOMI Energy

Speaker 1 [00:14] All right. Up next we have Ariana Salinas, who is the co-founder and CEO of Somi Energy. Ariana. Once again, you have your clicker here. And please keep an eye on your timer.

Ariana Salinas [00:31] Good morning. My name is Ariana Salinas, and I'm the co-founder and CEO of SOMI, the world's healthiest energy drink. For decades, the $57 billion energy drink category has been a stubborn duopoly, forcing consumers to choose between their mental and physical health or energy. And though in the moment, these drinks may give you the energy you need, they oftentimes leave you feeling guilty, bloated, and jittery. While working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, as well as in the restaurant industry, I was like millions of other people, consuming an energy drink every day. I thought I lived a healthy lifestyle. I exercised regularly, ate nutrient-dense foods, and I avoided sugar at all costs. But my afternoon energy drink was my necessary evil. But in 2020, I decided I would no longer trade my health for energy. All other markets were innovating to meet the growing demand of the health conscious consumer, but it's like energy drinks were stuck in time. It's like we'd all made a silent agreement to trade our health for energy. But the truth is, nothing's more important than our health. And that we wish something as simple as an apple a day keeps the doctor away could be true. We at SOMI believe it's less about what you put into your body and more about what you refuse to allow in. That's why we created Somi, an all-natural, zero sugar, matcha-based energy drink. Somi is a Japanese term. It means beauty, hope, and idea. We turn to Japanese inspiration for our minimalistic packaging, our calligraphy inspired icon, and our name, all to pay homage to our hero ingredient, matcha. Each can is packed with 170 mg of natural caffeine, is gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, keto-friendly, and packaged in BPA-free cans. Somi's available in 3 delicious flavors, our super matcha, our Yuzu lemonade matcha, and fancy mango matcha, all with zero sugar and only 5 to 15 calories per can. Our mission is to break the stigma of energy drinks as a necessary evil. By creating a truly good for you energy drink free of compromise. To do this, we turn to the queen of caffeine, matcha. For centuries, matcha has been used not only as a clean energy source, but also for its natural antioxidants, which have been shown to lower cholesterol levels and decrease inflammation. As well, there's an amino acid in matcha called Etheni, which is known for reducing stress and anxiety while increasing clarity and focus. But what really is matcha? Matcha is a Japanese term that means ground tea. The traditional matcha ceremony involves ground tea leaves mixed with hot water and frothed with a bamboo whisk. The preparation of eating the entire leaf and consuming it as opposed to simply steeping the leaves allows matcha to have more benefits, more natural antioxidants, and more caffeine than traditional teas. Aside from matcha, Somi also contains another superfood, monk fruit. It's one of our natural sweeteners that allows Somi to be slightly sweet without any bitter aftertaste and without including our nemesis, sugar. Many industry experts have assured us that anything containing less than 5 g of sugar is acceptable by our market, but we refuse to compromise. By eliminating the mess and hassle of the traditional matcha ceremony, we believe Somi has the potential to be the number one energy drink in the natural category. Our market is. Excuse me, 18 to 40 years old, health conscious, and looking for products that not only look good, but make them feel good too. With 71% of matcha consumers being female today, we're targeting a primarily female audience, though our sleek packaging and 170 mg of natural caffeine caters to all genders. Since our launch in January, SoI can be found in over 70 Austin, Texas retailers, direct to consumer on our website and on Amazon. We've partnered with a local distributor and are currently onboarding with UNFI and GPuff to bring Somi to the greater Texas community. Our growth strategy outlines expansion first within Texas and then nationwide with retail partnerships in the Natural Grocery Channel, as well as the CStore Channel with established brands like Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Seven-Eleven, as well as innovative brands like Foxtrot and Neighborhood Goods. As we face the 800 pound gorilla that is the energy drink category, we at SOMI invite you to become one with Mother Nature's nourishing power. Enjoy the energy she has in store for you and meet your matcha. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [05:30] Hold on, grab your microphone. Uh, Matt, you know, it feels like there've been a lot of brands chasing that better for you energy opportunity. Feels like no one's really cracked the code on that yet. Can So me break that cycle?

Speaker 3 [05:43] Yeah, we'll see. Uh, maybe. I think, um, early days, obviously, I, I love the category play. I mean. If you're gonna pick a category, pick a big one. So, well done. Uh, it's, it's, it's giant, um, but with some really established players and, and so coming after it from a health and wellness angle is interesting. Um, I think you will have some local success, regional success. The big question will be, you know, can you make that leap to national and scale it? With, uh, without a, a DSD presence will be a question. So that, that's got to be in your algorithm at some point, I would think, because your, your competitors are all out there really in a, in a DSD environment. So, um, but, uh, we'll see. It, it's, it's a good start and, uh, having a health, a, a healthier concept than the key competitors is a good place to play.

Speaker 1 [06:39] Uh, Danielle, we heard from Ariana about, uh, this is the world's healthiest energy drink. Um, did you see that? Did that speak to you in terms of the package design?

Speaker 4 [06:49] I do think that the package design is effective. I really like the concept. Um, I do think it comes across as being a health and wellness product, and it's a very clean design. I think there's gonna be a shopability issue with your citrus skews. I think you need to differentiate those color bands a little bit. Um, and I also would increase the size of your statement of identity a little so it's easier to recognize.

Ariana Salinas [07:15] Thank you. If I may chime in, we actually are undergoing our package change because we, that was the first thing we realized when they're all in the tray, you can't tell the difference in the flavors. So we're bringing the color band up and also launching an additional flavor.

Speaker 1 [07:27] Mike, you're a big matcha drinker, aren't you? I love matcha, yeah, yeah. What do you think of

Speaker 5 [07:31] Somi? Well, first, I want to acknowledge that you have the charisma of a superhero, and you're, you're saying female, and the audience will agree. The audience will agree, but you, uh, you're saying this is female and natural, but you just talked about the 800 pound gorilla, and it's not an 800 pound gorilla. It's like boxing and MMA. You're going against like Mike Tyson, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey all at once in, you know, in Rockstar Bang, Red Bull, Monster, Godzilla even too. Um, so, and you've seen, you saw Macha bar try to take them on hustle. This is, this is kind of your similar fighters here, and why do you, a similar but like smaller resource wise fighter, think you can stand out in this market and go toe to toe with these folks?

Ariana Salinas [08:12] You forgot the rock. Oh

Speaker 5 [08:14] yeah.

Ariana Salinas [08:15] You know, that's who I like to stand next to. They're, they're these big players in the space, but I like to think of myself as kind of a relatable player and also speaking to a market that I feel like it's being ignored in the energy category. I feel like Celsius is going, doing a good job of catering to the female audience, um, but there's still that audience of people who are. They aren't extreme athletes. They aren't daredevils. They're not trying to do life-risking activities. They're trying to live their everyday life. They're trying to go to work. They maybe want to raise a family. Maybe they endure, enjoy yoga and Pilates and being outside. So we're looking to do like that everyday lifestyle energy as opposed to your extremist.

Speaker 1 [08:49] Bonnie, you hear a lot of pitches. Uh, I'm sure you hear 10 or so daily at this point, at this point. Um, did you hear what you wanted to hear out of Somi's, uh, pitch today? And if not, did you have any questions for?

Speaker 6 [09:01] I did. One thing that I really liked is that you're focusing on the market and you're focusing digitally. I like that you're focusing on one market, um, that's gonna let you really go deep into the market and really build a reputation for yourself and, and efficiently spend your marketing dollars on one market and testing the concept, figuring out what works for you and then expanding that. I think you're, I, I love matcha, um, and I'm 71% female. I think it's really, I think you're really focused and I think that's gonna really help you build your brand. One thing that I was thinking about is your brand is really modern. It's, it's really modern, it's really clean. But sometimes if you, if you think about energy, it's really energetic and it can be really fun and loud, right? I think bang with their crazy flavors really helped them differentiate in the market, and I wonder if you could do something similar with matcha and, you know, maybe bring in some heritage flavors or uh make it really unique that people were like, oh I wanna try that. Um, your flavors are, are great, but I think you could maybe be a little more creative to. To bring something fun

Speaker 1 [10:12] Thank you. All right, we're out of time, but very well done. Thank you, Ma.