The Celebrity Dilemma. Plus, Netflix And… Utz?

0:10hey friends thanks for tuning in to taste radio the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry I'm Ray Lateef, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jackie Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. Get access to limited swag and exclusive content by becoming a Taste Radio VIP. It's easy for you to join that group of very important people. Just head to tasteradio.com slash VIP and take one minute to sign up. As a reminder, it's free to sign up. It's free to get exclusive access if you are a VIP. It's free to get great swag. I just ordered some cool new swag.

0:48I'm not going to say what it is, though. Is it the dopest, flyest swag? Are we going to have a drop? It is dope slash fly. Wow, are drones going to drop it from the sky? Whoa. We're making up wraps now. Mike ordered the finest denim long-sleeve shirts with the Taste Radio logo embroidered in white above the nice little pocket that Mike has included for you. So I like that. It's actually a snacking pocket. Yes. Yeah. It feels very Brooklyn hipster. That's what it feels like. It's 100 % polyester. Totally kidding. That's your greatest snacking innovation since snacking butter. What? Snacking pocket.

1:32Oh, snacking pocket. Yeah, we should do a utility belt, you know, lots of pockets. Fit all the snacks and beverages. All the snacks. You know what? I actually really like that idea because especially for trade shows, so that like you can hold certain snacks that you actually want. Because all that stuff ends up in my backpack. And then I'm like weighed down by 30 pounds of like beverages and snacks by the end of the day. Don't forget the USB drives. You always... And USB drives. At least a thousand before the end of a trade show I have to collect. It's like business cards. People collect business cards.

2:01I collect thumb drives. You definitely have the largest thumb drive collection of anyone I've ever met. I will safely say that. I mean, you know, these are collector's items. They're branded. and sometimes, you know, they're very valuable. You know, those keychain openers, they have like, I think utility knives. There's all kinds of USB drives. I have two thumbs, two thumb drives. That's enough for me. Two thumb drives. Nate Brescher, director and minister of photographic arts, once reached out, he's like, hey, can I borrow one of those thumb drives? I'm like, which one, friend? Which one? So anyway.

2:32Very useful. I might have rifled through there a couple of times. You take everything from my office, John Craven. You've taken a coffee machine. That's right. Yeah, you've taken thumb drives. I'm just going to take your chair. Remember you took one of my Barbies from my Barbie collection? Oh, you haven't found that yet. Okay, good. We're going to edit that out. They're valuable. They're antiques. Anywho, Memorial Day weekend is here. Anyone have any fun plans for grilling outside? Any travel? Any forecasts? Ray started in his kitchen yesterday. He was practicing. I was going to do something fun, but then my wife blew all our funds on a Taylor Swift concert.

3:09She got tickets. Yeah, she, well, yeah, we, one of our kids had a ticket that she got, you know, through the Ticketmaster thingy. It was like 60 bucks, but it was for MetLife in New Jersey. So I think she sold that one for a thousand bucks and then bought another ticket at Gillette here in Massachusetts for like, it was 1200 bucks. So I don't know. We're just out more money. But then our other daughter wanted to go. And then of course my wife wants to go too. fun you know i don't even want to know how much i was like i was like just don't tell me she was giving me pointers i was saying oh yeah i i was telling her she said she might go to the show you know we all we all work together so we're carol and i were talking about this and and uh she knows like i'm kind of a swifty in that my daughter didn't want to go she's telling me she's working on getting tickets she's trying to give me some of her pro tips and she's got like three different ticket agencies open and she's got incognito windows open to see who has better prices there was there's a whole system behind it she was trying to save money but i don't know if it worked out in the end yeah i don't think they ever they were never what one would call cheap let's put it that way but she got to see taylor swift in the rain which is a thing like the taylor swift rain concert your daughter did legendary no no no they went sunday night no rain oh they skipped the rain yeah okay i knew people who went to that i thought that's crazy I am just blown away by this, the insanity that surrounds these concerts.

4:40I saw a picture or a video of one of her concerts. I don't know what city it was in. I think it was in Texas. And there were 10 ,000 fans who couldn't get tickets outside of the arena, like singing her songs. Like, what is going on here? I mean, they love Taylor Swift. You know, there is a parallel to this and is related to BevNet Live. If you don't have your ticket to BevNet Live, you will be standing outside the Metropolitan Pavilion. I've seen people do this. And then people, I swear to God, I've seen people do this where they're like, you know, hey, I couldn't get here in time. I know the show is sold out.

5:12Anyway, I can get a ticket. And I'm like, unfortunately, my friend, there's no way. And tickets are non-transferable, too. So it's not like you can, like, get your ticket from someone else. We check IDs at the door. And then Ray finishes. But if you put$1 ,000 cash in my pocket right now. In my snacking pocket. Not in my pocket. But if you put it. Oh, in your blazer. In my blazer, you know, somehow slip it in there. I thought you were going to segue to a AFS. Oh, well, I'm getting there. Oh, sorry. All I'm trying to say is that everyone in the beverage industry and likely some folks in the food industry are going to be at BevNet Live on June 14th and 15th in New York City at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

5:53The agenda keeps expanding, keeps getting bigger. I'm really excited about this. Meet the retailer component to what we're doing. Jackie, can you explain a bit more about what this is? Yeah. So if you are a brand and a registered attendee of BevNet Live, you will have the opportunity to sign up for a one-to-one meeting with Sprouts. So all you have to do is register. You'll get the link into your inbox and then you just click one button and you sign up. But it's up to the discretion of Sprouts for that meeting, but you have the opportunity and they will be in the room and also on stage. There's a rumor there might be another retailer too.

6:28I heard it's going to be a pretty, pretty, pretty big one. Should we tell them? let's wait a little bit okay okay wait a little bit we'll hold that secret you know what we should do what's that we should just give the first initial of that retailer it's probably W oh well that could be a couple retailers it could be I'm thinking of at least three is it x-ray no there's at least three big ones out there and they're all ones you'd want to meet exactly exactly anyway is it Walla it's Walla yeah again Again, we're really excited to do these one-to-one meetings powered by SIP and high-touch distribution.

7:08There you go. You know, just another reason that Bevernet Live is the unparalleled event in the beverage industry. And again, if you're a food brand that's in the New York City area in the Northeast, you might want to attend the event as well to get that meeting with Sprouts. These are meetings you cannot get elsewhere. I mean, everyone knows how tough it is to be able to sit down with a buyer and share your story, make that first pitch. This is the place to do it. This is your chance to do it. I'm also really excited because I'm going to get to see Jackson and Brian Zapp from AFS Applied Food Sciences, some of the nicest guys, some of the most fun dudes in the world.

7:42AFS Applied Food Sciences is the leader in innovation for functional organic ingredients in the natural products industry. And it's built on the belief that quality is transparent from seed to label through organic farming, ethical sourcing and sustainability. Learn more at AppliedFoods.com. Is there any consumer out there that isn't looking for organic farming, ethical sourcing, and sustainability? I mean, is there anyone in the United States at this point who isn't looking for all three of those things in their products? There's probably a gamer or two or just chugging mountain dudes. No, but is there someone like, I want more GMOs.

8:17I want, you know, like poor labor practices. I want things that are going to ruin the earth. You probably find someone on the dark web. Yeah, just go on Twitter, right? Those people are there. Yeah, I try to spend a little bit of time on Twitter. Is Twitter part of the dark web now? No, it feels like it. I don't know, you're on it more than anyone. The backbone of the dark web. Yeah. But I mean, again, you know, Applied Food Sciences, they know, I'm gonna say it again, organic farming, ethical sourcing, sustainability, and how to source ingredients that meet all three concepts, requirements, whatever you wanna call it.

8:49They are as good as it gets. And if you have an opportunity to meet Jackson and Brian in person, you should definitely do so. AFS, see those guys at BevNet Live. Do you guys see the new partnership between Ryan Seacrest and HealthAid? I did. I did. Yeah, it's interesting. Exciting stuff. I mean, okay, quick tangent here. This is kind of Todd to BedNet Live. I'm a little embarrassed to say this. Someone actually once reached out and said, hey, Ray, you're like the Ryan Seacrest slash Jimmy Fallon of Pitch Slams. Love that. That's nice. I would say it's accurate. I took that as a compliment. I liked it.

9:29Yeah. And true story, I actually watched so much American Idol back in the day in the aughts that I think I pretty much modeled my style after Ryan Seacrest. It's very much that, you know, let's give targeted questions to the judges. Let's try to make the guest or the competitor feel comfortable on stage. Let's try to keep things moving in a sort of fun and lively way and just always dress well. Yeah, you mastered that. And you used to watch American Idol. I still watch American Idol. Really? It's a guilty pleasure. You're not supposed to admit that on a recorded format, Jackie. Come on. I know.

10:06I had to. I admit it. I'm a Swifty, so I think she can. Do you watch it live, Jackie? I watched it on Hulu, and I watched it last night, the finale. So it comes out a day after it's live. Gotcha. Just as good. I was very much of the Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson. Oh, yeah. You're going to Hollywood. Those are the days, dog. Yeah, you're going to Hollywood kind of thing. So what's the HealthAid-Ryan Seacrest partnership for our listeners? Jackie? What's the partnership? I mean, I think it's interesting. And I think if you think about Ryan Seacrest, he's multi-channel. He is on the radio in the morning.

10:46He's on American Idol at night. He used to be on a morning talk show. Not anymore, but he probably will be again. And I think you're just kidding. No doubt. Yeah, I mean, he is like New Year's Eve. Yeah, he's on TV. HealthAid's probably thinking about how can we just saturate the market? How can we get into every fridge? How can we educate consumers about kombucha that might not even know about kombucha? That's not going to Whole Foods. And Ryan Seacrest, I think, makes sense as a partner to try and hit all channels, all media across the US. So is he a spokesperson or are they like putting his face in the bottle or what's going on?

11:23He's a brand partner. So I think he's promoting health aid. They called it just a multi-year partnership with host, producer, and media personality, Ryan Seagrest. And they also called him a media mogul in the next sentence. Yeah. Are they calling it HealthCrest or anything? Jackie, you're 100 % right. It's better than C8. Here's someone who's very, very busy, does a lot, and always is looking after his own health to be able to do all the things that he does. So I think, you know, the partnership does make sense. I never really thought of Ryan Seacrest as sort of a beacon of health. But, you know, when you think about it, he probably does have to maintain a really healthy lifestyle just to keep up with everything he's doing.

12:01Just to keep his voice in shape. You know what that's like, right? You do a lot more talking than the rest of us do. Yeah, I usually start my days with A-E-I-O-U. A-E-I-O-U is sometimes Y. Do you do your scales? Well, may me, Mamu. Yeah, I do. Yes, I do my scales. I was thinking about this partnership and I was thinking about, you know, how healthy kind of came out of the gate as this soda alternative. this better for you beverage that could replace the not so great drinks in your lives. And with Ryan Seacrest, I mean, I like the partnership. It almost feels a little benign in that he's not a very controversial figure.

12:38He's not necessarily someone you'd be like, oh, wow, I'm going to start drinking HealthAid because Ryan Seacrest is, or I'm going to consider drinking HealthAid because Ryan Seacrest is. Yeah, but I think that seems like the point that now you're positioning it with like a mainstream person, much the same way. I don't know. Weren't there always like little, was it Coke cups on the, uh, judges table at American Idol? I mean, it's like trying to put health aid in that sort of league. So you're comparing Coke to health aid? I'm saying that the aspiration of it is to be a ubiquitous product that isn't like, Ooh, wow, here's a hack that Ryan Seacrest has, you know, he drinks kombucha.

13:17It's like, this is just a normal drink that, you know, someone who's a pretty high profile person consumes on a regular basis. And I think you have to look at your celebrity partnerships differently. Like, are you looking at them as a brand of their own and you want to tie into their brand? Are you looking at them as what do they have access to? What channels do they have access to? And are using them as like a vehicle to spread your message? It seems to be the kind of person who's ubiquitously loved and isn't going to be somebody that you find, I don't know, find out has a secret heroin addiction or something like that.

13:54Mike's just really going deep there. I mean, those are the kinds of things you think about when you have a partnership with somebody who's that, who's that big. Is that what you think? You sit around thinking, man, I just, God, I really hope this guy does not have a heroin problem. But that's why I called it a benign kind of partnership. It's nothing that's going to cause a stir, cause any problems for health aid. At the end of the day, I think Ryan Seacrest is a little bit older. He's 48 years old. No offense to anyone who's 48 years old. But I think he also— Those were the days, Mike. He's speaking to that, I don't know, that slightly older Gen Z slash millennial consumer who hasn't necessarily tried or heard of health aid.

14:36But maybe this gives him more of a reason to do so. Maybe this gives him— Gives it some brand exposure. Some brand exposure. He's got eight seconds to get their attention, so he might be able to do it. I mean, this is also one of just, you know, dozens of new celebrity-slash-athlete partnerships that are announced every year. I mean, just yesterday, Propel announced that Michael B. Jordan would be starring in a new TV spot for the brand. And then, you know, I think about these big, big names, and yet a lot of the folks that we speak with and meet with at trade shows and at BevNet Live are relatively early stage or emerging brands.

15:14And while they'd love to have that kind of partnership, there's no way they could fund it. So when you are thinking about aligning with maybe a lesser known celebrity or, you know, an athlete who isn't a household name at this point. I'm still waiting for Yesly to give me a call. Don't you think they'd want the striker for Lexington football club? No, I don't. No? No. It's almost like you're scouting these folks for their potential more than you are for, you know, what they're offering right now. And Jack, you mentioned that movie Air, which was kind of interesting. Yeah. So if you haven't seen it, I recommend going and seeing Air.

15:48It's about the whole story. You saw it? Yeah, it's really good. It's about the partnership between Nike and Michael Jordan. And it's honestly like a love letter to branding in the 80s and how we attached ourselves to advertising and personas. and it was cool to see the process of, you know, evaluating players as they're coming up. He was a rookie and you have to look at what is their potential? And you're kind of taking your risk, but you're also getting in early. So you have to evaluate a person and maybe like not a super high profile celebrity based on their potential. And if they align with your brand and what they could do for you in the future.

16:30And for example, Michael Jordan could have gone and like blown out his knee. And that was a risk they were willing to take, but they were betting on his potential. And by the way, it's streaming for free on Amazon Prime now. So you have no reason not to see it. Do you have stock in Amazon? Is this what's going on? No, we're just trying to help our community. I think I do actually. So please, yeah, just only shop at Amazon. Just give them all your money. Anyway, what I was going to say though, is the other thing that was really interesting in that movie was that they were building the shoe and the brand for Michael Jordan, not just trying to jam Nike down his throat, like, you know, endorse Nike.

17:09And I think that's something I'm not sure I've seen too much of in the CPG space. The product development was absolutely fascinating in that movie. And the way that they, you know, were doing the product development was basically between, it looked like it was between three people, although I'm sure more people were involved. I liked the risk they took. I'm sure you did too, Jackie, where they were just like, eh, we'll just make them red and pay the fines. And the CEO is hard. You could just see it fall right out the bottom. It was amazing. He's like, wait, wait, what? I didn't hear that part.

17:43Yeah. It's interesting we're talking about this because there is a brand called Barcode. I think we've talked about Barcode on the podcast. It's an all-natural premium hydration beverage. I think is primarily targeted to athletes. Mubarak Malik, a former NBA executive, is behind it. And they nailed one of the biggest partnerships in recent memory, or at least could be, with Victor Wimbanyama, who was described as the best NBA prospect in a generation. I asked Adam Loris, who is an investor in the brand and the founder of Mercenary, which is a CPG consulting firm, how they landed. Yeah, how they landed Victor.

18:25He said it was just months and months of work between Victor's camp or Wemby's camp and the team at Barcode and just a lot of sleepless nights, but they got it done. So pretty amazing stuff. It'll be interesting to see if they document that process and perhaps there'll be sort of an air movie for Wemby and his partnership with Barcode at some point down the line. We need a good beverage story movie. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's good. What is the best beverage movie of all time? Um, what's that one that's about those dudes in, uh, uh, is it Strange Brew? The Canadians who drink all that beer? They get stuck in like a tank or something.

19:01Is that how it goes? Yeah, that movie's Hamlet, by the way. That's the beverage industry's Hamlet. I like that. It is. Strange Brew, yeah. Strange Brew is it. I like Beer Fest. Remember Beer Fest? Mm, Beer Fest is good. The guys from Broken Lizard? Yeah, that kind of felt like a modern day version of Strange Brew. Okay. I would love a movie about Utz. U-T-Z, the snack brand best known for its potato chips. I mean, this is a legacy brand that everyone loves Uzz, don't they? I, you know, okay, hold on. I would not say I love Uzz, but I was very intrigued by this Uzz, Mike's Hot Honey. I guess we'll call it a collab because that's like the word you put on it, right?

19:40Sure. These chips, which you should try these. The Mike's Hot Honey bottle is pictured on the front of the pack. I'll give Mike a bag too. Yeah. I love how literal it is. It's like chips and Mike's hot honey. These are really, really spicy. This is Mike with Mike's. Here, Jackie, grab some.

20:01Do you get the sweetness from the honey? Yeah, a little bit. A play-by-play. It's naturally and artificially flavored with other natural flavors. It's one of those. I got the lawyers involved. Okay. Not a big fan of that statement, but whatever. I don't love the artificial flavors. Yeah, I mean, this is truly, like, the worst legal copy that's on so many CPG products. Yeah. Like, people joke about this all the time on Twitter. Like, what the hell does this mean? Right. Just lawyers. Naturally and artificially flavored with other natural flavors. In any event, I have, like, these are 2.625-ounce bags.

20:39And I don't know. Anytime I see, like, here's a limited random collab product, I try to buy it. I didn't really read closely. I have like a shitload of these Bags Thanks there. They said you some no we bought them Yeah, I also failed at getting the Nike Haritos Bummer yeah, I wasn't picked Nike has they have one of these You know you go in you place your order and then to like Stop the scammer bought sort of stuff they basically take all the orders after you know whatever it is a half hour and then they pick who actually gets the order ah it's kind of like a sneaker release yeah it was sneaker release they go for like six hundred dollars now but aren't you like a significant influencer like don't you have that kind of like i mean they sent me all the they sent a bunch of the haritos nike like the beverage okay so i can get all that sure but i'm like here's my size for the sneaker and they just Sent back some laughing emojis at me.

21:44You know who probably got the sneakers? Danny Stepper. Stepper probably got the sneakers. Why would he wear a... He wouldn't wear a Haritos on a sneaker. I don't know. I think he might. Someone take these away from me. By the way, I got to mention Danny. Those are so crushable. We mentioned a couple episodes back. We talked about Michelle Obama's partnership as a co-founder and advisor for Plesi, which is the kids brand that is really focused on. delivering better ingredients and healthier formulations for children's beverages and beyond. And I forgot to mention that LA Libations had a strong hand in that deal and has worked really hard to make that happen.

22:26Danny... Are you going to say Danny, did he DM you? Well, he, we talked is all I can say. Did you get a call from Danny? No, but I mean, he's right. He's right. I mean, cause LA Libations, they, that's a pretty amazing partnership and great to see that happen. Great work by the team, for sure. And amazing that they kept that under wraps for a while. Incredible. I know. Yeah. All right. We got these Muddy Bites. Didn't you guys say you really wanted to get some Muddy Bites here in the office? Yes, we did. That was definitely one of our goals for the year. Muddy Bites are snackable mini cones. They're described as waffle cone snacks.

23:07There's three varieties, at least on this table. There's milk chocolate, there's chocolate cone, white chocolate and dark chocolate. And they just look like little mini ice cream cones, except they don't have the scoop on top. Yeah. They basically took the best part of the ice cream, which is that little chocolatey bite at the end and made it into, they scaled it. Yeah. And they scaled it. Look at them. I love the ingredient panel back here because the ingredients say, ingredients, colon, cone. and then it scratches in the cone. That's awesome. Nicely done. So simple. Yeah. And then the next ingredient is milk chocolate and scraps with milk chocolate or the ingredients in milk chocolate.

23:45And that's it. Cone and milk chocolate. Yeah. I just want to hear the story behind it. Like someone was eating an ice cream cone one day. That is the story, Jackie. That's amazing. That is the story. It was like, this is a genius idea. And still to this day, they have, you know, workers who just eat the ice cream cone and put each one in a little bag for you. that's how they make it. It's a real job. That's how they make it, Jackie. The story is literally on the back of the bag here by founders, Jared and Tyler. And it was exactly that, you know, what's better than eating a Sunday cone, enjoying the last bite over and over again.

24:19There's the bottom of the cone shortage. It's crazy. That reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with the muffin tops. Remember Wayne started a business where he just sold muffin tops? Yeah. Because that's the best part of the muffin. And they couldn't get rid of the muffin bottom. So they had Newman, like, come in as, like, the secret agent or whatever he was, and he ate all the muffin bottoms. There must be a way to make just a muffin top without a muffin bottom. Yeah, they make those. They sell pans for that now. Okay. Yeah. Really? It ruined everything. It just ruined it. It's kind of like to have those pans you can buy for making brownies that only makes the crust.

24:52The crust. It's like a big, like a pan that just sort of has a line in it, so there's no centerpieces. That's awesome. Oh, that's the best. It's amazing what sort of innovation people come up with to sell on QVC. I can't tell if that's progress Or just people are just too Placating the stupidity of society Okay, you said it better than I could have Some call it that Don't quote me for that You just said it So we're talking about interesting ingredients And I got this Vena Dr. Spice Which, first of all, I don't know why Why is it not Dr. Vena? Shouldn't it be Dr. Vena? But Dr. Vena is I'm sorry, Vena is Yeah, Vena is this soda with smarts, I guess they call it now.

25:33Does it still have apple cider vinegar in it? Same company that makes Vena makes De La Calle. Yeah. As an ACV-based beverage. But it's, you know, the old Dr. Pepper flavor, Dr. Spice. It's a good Dr. Pepper flavor. It's really good. But what I wanted to point out that I think is pretty interesting is up on the top here, it says organic and stevia-free. so i i kind of i don't know if i've seen someone calling out the fact that they don't have stevia i like that beverage yeah i like that too i guess that tells you where we're at right is that an old-fashioned pull tab or a zipper on the front i can't tell it's a pretty weird design yeah i don't know what that is exactly i mean it definitely does the job because it looks like dr pepper which is what they're going for well two things I didn't make the immediate connection between Dr.