Speaking of the major beverage conglomerates, how are you assessing their NA presence?
NA is south of 8% [of sales] for any of those companies—92% of what they’re selling is alcohol, so I think they’re between a rock and a hard place. They don’t want to sell against themselves because that’s where the bulk of their revenue is coming from. They have to pay attention to their total portfolio. We’re really fortunate in that we focus on our 100% NA portfolio, which gives us degrees of freedom that some other bigger brands don’t have.
Walker Hayes has really internalized your brand—what does it mean to have him as a vocal ambassador?
We’ve been able to do some fun things that consumers are appreciating, and we’ve both been able to garner earned media at a time when it’s incredibly hard to break through. When he did Today recently, we saw an instant spike in our site traffic [250% within minutes]. And our fancy levels are through the roof at the moment.
Do your demographics overlap, or does Hayes put you in front of different consumer groups?
He has a lot of young families as fans, and that’s the audience we’ve been speaking to since day one. But as far as geography goes, where he tours and where he’s popular, that hits on some markets where we’re growing quickly but where there’s still a tremendous amount of [heartland] white space. The last thing we want is to be seen as a coastal brand. We need to make sure we have mass appeal, since we’re sold in all 50 states and at retailers like Target, Walmart, Trader Joe’s.
Talk about a few of your other partnerships and how you decide when there’s a fit for the brand.
We’re working with a range of people from sports to music to food, like chef David Chang and his Netflix show, Dinner Time Live, and Peloton instructor Kendall Toole. Over time, we’ve been able to reach out to bigger names, and we get a lot of inbound interest, too. A relationship begins with an alignment of values and a common understanding, and then we get into numbers like their reach, engagement and cultural relevance. In many cases, they’re not teetotalers, but Athletic is part of their lifestyle. They help us overcome this big barrier where people ask, “Why would I want an NA beer?” There’s still a lot of educating to do, but like with Walker, these partnerships help take away the stigma of drinking NA beer.
