The old playbook of geographic expansion, consolidation, and premiumization were widely successful, but those strategies seem to have run their course. If big brewers want to grow, they’ll have look outside of the beer category. In this episode, we bring you success stories from around the globe of brewers diversifying their portfolio and outline a strategy that could help all beverage companies take full advantage of this changing world. Read our latest Beer Quarterly: research.rabobank.com...
Dec 09, 2021•48 min
Earlier this year, Marian Leitner-Waldman, CEO of canned wine brand Archer Roose, found an unusual business partner: the actor, producer, and director Elizabeth Banks. Celebrity-backed brands are not a new phenomenon, but the trend is gaining considerable momentum in beverages. In this episode, Marian and Elizabeth (now Co-Owner and Chief Creative Officer at the company) help us understand celebrity partnerships as a modern brand-building strategy – discussing why they joined forces, where they ...
Nov 11, 2021•54 min
Steve Chasen, VP of Trade Marketing at Campari America, helped execute one of the most successful on-premise brand-building campaigns in history: that of the Aperol spritz. Linden Pride, Co-Founder & President of Dante NYC, is the proprietor of Caffe Dante, which was named the "World’s Best Bar" in 2019 and played a major role in popularizing the eminently Instagrammable fluorescent-orange cocktail. Together, they help us answer an important question: In the age of social media, e-commerce, ...
Oct 15, 2021•55 min
Pinterest is a powerful platform for occasion-based marketing. Kym Lewis, their Partnership Manager for beverages, and Tina Pukonen, their Global Head of Vertical Strategy & Marketing, share their best practices for building an occasion-based marketing strategy, on Pinterest and beyond.
Sep 21, 2021•46 min
We started our conversation expecting to talk about the news, but so much of the news has been dominated by major beverage companies shaking up their portfolio. Whether it was Molson Coors shutting down 11 brands, Coca-Cola cutting its portfolio in half, PepsiCo selling its juice brands for USD 3bn or Boston Beer partnering with PepsiCo and Beam Suntory, we try to figure out how each of these decisions fit into a larger strategy and what they may mean for the future of the beverage industry....
Sep 01, 2021•39 min
Chris Swonger, CEO of Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and Responsibility.org , and David Ozgo, their Chief Economist, talk about regulations, tariffs, and the overall well-being of the US spirits industry.
Aug 12, 2021•42 min
They warned us about the return of inflation during their last appearance on Liquid Assets . Now, six months later, we welcome back the Rabobank economic duo, Jane Foley and Christian Lawrence to discuss this pesky inflation situation and dive deep into how the beverage industry is dealing with upstream price spikes and shortages.
Jul 14, 2021•39 min
We have just completed three years of producing Liquid Assets, and it is high time for some joyful navel-gazing. In this episode, we look back at three years of the show and discuss what we got right and what we got wrong, and we send some love to the industry leaders who inform and inspire us and fill us with jealous rage.
Jun 25, 2021•42 min
This week, we are joined by Wine Industry Person of the Year, Heidi Scheid, and leading industry analyst Dale Stratton to discuss how quickly the wine industry will recover from Covid-19 and the opportunity for the wine industry to tap into health and wellness trends.
Jun 02, 2021•53 min
When a beverage company wants to create a new product – anything from a new line extension to a non-alcoholic drink – they turn to companies like Kerry Group. John Kelly and Paul Villis take a break from their work at Kerry Group to discuss product, ingredient, and flavor innovation trends.
May 11, 2021•48 min
In this episode, we're joined by Rabobank analysts Francois Sonneville and Maria Afonso as well as Brent Atthill, CEO of RMI Analytics and former global procurement director at SAB Miller and AB InBev, to take a look upstream at the malting barley supply chain, how it is evolving, and how it is linked to the overall health of the beer industry around the globe. To learn more: Rabobank’s Malting Industry Outlook Podcast: What Will Australia Do With All of Its Barley?...
Apr 27, 2021•34 min
Our guest Wayne Blum is currently Director of US E-Commerce Strategy and Partnerships at Diageo, but before that he led digital for Nestlé Waters and their direct-to-consumer (DTC) business, ReadyRefresh. Wayne joins us to discuss why the world’s biggest brands are interested in going DTC, the challenges they face in the channel, and what’s behind the success of the world’s largest and most profitable DTC programs in the food and beverage world. For more reading, check out our latest reports on ...
Apr 13, 2021•52 min
For Matt Dukes and Rachel Vodofsky, it wasn’t enough to build one successful digitally native brand. They built two! Leveraging learnings and consumer insights from their wine-tasting subscription service, Vinebox, they were able to successfully build a stand-alone sister brand, Usual. On this episode, Rachel and Matt explain what it takes to build a sustainable direct-to-consumer business, create value for consumers, and perhaps even revolutionize your brand development pipeline. For more, chec...
Mar 23, 2021•40 min
On March 11, 2020, the WHO officially designated the Covid-19 crisis a pandemic. One year later, we’ve asked NBWA chief economist Lester Jones to help us reflect on how beer – or should we say hard seltzer – consumption has changed and ask for an update on the recovery of bars and restaurants. Lastly, we have a lively debate about the most important trends facing America’s beer distributors: hard seltzer, RTDs, and digital transformation.
Mar 11, 2021•42 min
Our guest this week is Pat Roney, CEO and Founding Partner of Vintage Wine Estates. Pat’s company is going to merge with Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The USD 690m deal may not be the biggest we see in 2021, but it is super important and could set off a new trend in M&A, with massive repercussions for the wider beverage industry. For more on the latest trends in the wine and spirits industry, check out Rabobank’s latest Wine Quarterly report:...
Feb 19, 2021•36 min
Following a tough year, 2021 hasn’t had the most auspicious beginning. Will things improve? To better understand the economic outlook for the year ahead, we invited Rabobank’s Senior Markets Analyst, Christian Lawrence, and Rabobank’s Head of FX Strategy, Jane Foley, to discuss markets, the economy, and what a new US administration could mean for beverage companies.
Jan 25, 2021•39 min
Luckily for you, our last episode of 2020 is totally Covid-free. No mention of 'unprecedented times,' 'uncertainty,' or 'trying times,' and definitely no use of the phrase 'the new normal.' Steve, Jim, and Bourcard break down three stories that caught their attention and are (mostly) not Covid-19 related: Bang! and PepsiCo’s tumultuous first year of marriage, the growing investments in alcohol e-commerce, and what beverage M&A trends tell us about how companies are thinking about innovation....
Dec 22, 2020•36 min
This week we partnered with our sister podcast, Consumer Foods To Go , to discuss how bars, restaurants, and manufacturers have survived Covid-19 thus far and how quickly they can recover (fingers crossed) once the pandemic is over. Listeners of Liquid Assets will love the work done by the team at Consumer Foods To Go . If you are interested in trends in retail, foodservice, or packaged foods, you can subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app....
Nov 30, 2020•45 min
We tour the world of non-alcoholic spirits and cocktails through the eyes of the people who built its most recognizable and pioneering brands. Ben Branson, CEO and founder of Seedlip, and Claire Warner, co-founder of Aecorn, discuss their brands, how the industry should approach the non-alcoholic spirits category, and their partnership with Diageo.
Nov 04, 2020•46 min
A few months back, the outlook for specialty coffee was dire. Industry leaders feared that more than half of the coffee shops in the US would permanently close. To our delight and surprise, small coffee shops and roasters have proved far more resilient. Peter Giuliano, Chief Research Officer for the Specialty Coffee Association, shares how coffee shops have pivoted and become more digital and community-focused to not only survive but thrive in the current environment. We also discuss how the shi...
Oct 14, 2020•40 min
Thirsty for growth, beverage companies are shrugging off the yoke of tradition in search of greener pastures. Whether invading adjacent categories or creating new ones, big companies are pouring investment into new spaces where their skills and distribution offer them a distinct advantage. In this episode, we take a look at these ‘white spaces’ from four different angles.
Sep 24, 2020•43 min
Social media is starting to blur the lines between marketing and e-commerce. Rachel Tipograph, a leader in the digital marketing world and CEO of MikMak, helps us breakdown the basics: what social commerce is, why it's important to your business, and how you can use it to grow your brands.
Sep 02, 2020•38 min
Liquid Assets gets newsy! Instead of covering one topic this week, we help you catch up on some of the biggest news from recent weeks – accompanied by our expert commentary, of course. Later, we spend some time with Rabobank senior analyst Sudip Sinha on his playbook for capturing attention and sales from consumers stuck at home.
Aug 20, 2020•43 min
Just days before pubs were set to reopen in the UK, we caught up with Steve Alton from the British Institute of Innkeeping. As CEO of the leading membership organization supporting on-trade establishments in the UK, Steve has a unique perspective on the well-being of the UK pub scene and how it is changing as a consequence of Covid-19. We talk about the role of the pub, digital transformations in hospitality, the impact on big beer vs. craft, and more. It’s bigger than just a UK story and will n...
Jul 21, 2020•41 min
Tom Cole is CEO of RNDC, one of the largest distributors in the United States. Tom came on the show to discuss how his company is helping bars and restaurants navigate the reopening process, how distributors are supporting growth of e-commerce, and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the wholesaler business (hint: more consolidation). This episode was recorded on June 17th.
Jul 02, 2020•40 min
Historically, companies could choose between two things: making lots of money or making the world a better place. Our guest, a leading voice in the world of marketing for over two decades, would argue that the opposite is true. If you want your business to do well, then you've got to do good – not just talk about it. We are seeing an example of this play out in real time. People around the world are pushing back against systemic racism. Consumers are demanding companies and brands do more than s...
Jun 17, 2020•38 min
The data provided by Nielsen is a critical asset for the beverage industry, helping leaders understand and plan around the impacts of the current crisis. Our guest, Danny Brager, is SVP of Nielsen’s US Beverage Alcohol Practice. In this episode, Danny takes us beyond the headline numbers to answer some pressing questions about the recent dynamics of consumer behavior and how past recessions have impacted consumption, and he offers a framework for how he is looking at the future. Note: This episo...
Jun 03, 2020•48 min
A recent survey of US craft brewers suggests that 60% of US craft breweries will close if severe social distancing guidelines aren’t lifted by June. As chief economist for the Brewers Association, Bart Watson (Dr. Watson, actually) was one of the people who produced that survey. With help from Bart, we take the pulse of the craft beer business and discuss whether we will recognize it after the Covid-19 crisis is over.
Apr 30, 2020•51 min
What will US and global GDP growth look like in 2020? What will the recovery from the current recession look like? What indicators should we be watching to know if things are getting better or worse? Rabobank’s fantastic Markets Strategist, Christian Lawrence, sits down to answer these questions and more as we discuss the macroeconomic impacts of Covid-19. This episode was recorded on April 17 and features Rabobank’s Senior Market Strategist Christian Lawrence, Senior Beverage Analyst Jim Watson...
Apr 22, 2020•45 min
With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting every aspect of daily life and business around the globe, we turned to our international team (Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America) for a briefing on how Covid-19 is impacting consumers and businesses in their regions and what steps governments are taking to control its spread. We recorded this episode early morning on Monday March 23rd.
Mar 24, 2020•44 min
