GHOST Lifestyle Secures AB InBev Investment For RTD Beverage Launches
Did my good buddy and GHOST Lifestyle CEO Daniel Lourenço take inspo from a “Last Dance” reprise of Michael Jordan’s quote right after arriving in Chicago in 1984?
“I just want the franchise, the Chicago Bulls to be respected as a team, like the Lakers or the Philadelphia 76ers or the Boston Celtics”
If beverage portfolios were 1980s-era NBA teams, The Coca-Cola Company would be the Celtics, PepsiCo would be the Lakers, and Keurig Dr Pepper would be the 76ers. Who would be the Bulls? AB InBev…and they just selected GHOST Lifestyle with the 3rd pick in the 1984 NBA Draft to be their version of Michael Jordan.
GHOST Lifestyle Partners With AB InBev
Last week, GHOST Lifestyle secured investment from AB InBev’s ZX Ventures arm (deal size details or specifics weren’t disclosed). Essentially, the ZX Ventures investment will create a joint-venture (JV) that will be a subsidiary of the parent company GHOST Lifestyle. This JV will be responsible for GHOST Lifestyle’s ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage division, which is expected to initially launch online through GHOST Lifestyle’s D2C website and nationwide at the nutritional supplement specialty retailer GNC.
Who is GHOST Lifestyle?
For those readers that might not be familiar with GHOST, it’s the world’s first lifestyle sports nutrition brand. GHOST encourages people to rethink the boundaries and lifestyles championed by traditional sports nutrition brands in exchange for an all encompassing, fit-lifestyle.
Before they were a smooth-talking lifestyle brand, check out a section of my comments from a 2016 article (only weeks after their launch), where I declared them the #1 positioned brand to “win” in the sports nutrition market…
“In an industry that’s full of followers, this company has decided to pull inspiration from much different places and lead a new path to success. They understand that transparency in every aspect of their brand is a competitive advantage…”
I’m just glad that founders Ryan Hughes (CMO) and Daniel Lourenço (CEO) have so-far upheld their end of the bargain with that prediction because I could have looked extremely crazy for putting an unproven brand on a pedestal to take over a $50B+ CPG category.
Currently, GHOST Lifestyle sells a selection of sports nutrition products, which includes hero SKUs GHOST Legend pre-workout and GHOST Whey protein powder. Additionally, those hero SKUs have something special, in that they contain the sports nutrition industry’s first exclusive licencing deals with several consumer brands from Mondelez International, Sonic Drive-In, Welch’s, and Warheads.
GHOST Lifestyle RTD Beverage Plans
While not publicly disclosed yet, the strongest move for GHOST Lifestyle would be to launch RTD beverages that are extensions on their two hero SKU categories; energy and protein. This makes the most sense for the brand because it leads with their best foot forward and also strengthens the core GHOST Lifestyle ready-to-mix brand offerings. As an example, if a consumer grabs a GHOST Legend energy drink at 7-Eleven, they might do further brand discovery to find they offer a powdered version.
Following the same thought process, I believe the GHOST Lifestyle packaged energy drinks and protein RTD beverages will be offered in a number of existing powdered GHOST Legend and GHOST Whey flavors…including licensed flavors! While all GHOST Lifestyle flavor systems are amazing, the collection of licensed flavors give the brand the best chance of getting initial trial, by borrowing brand equity from those familiar consumer brands, in new retailing environments.
Outside of energy and protein, the next likely space would be to attack the sports drink market.
This JV Will Prove To Be Brilliant…Here’s Why!
This is all about playing into the core strengths of both businesses involved in the JV…
- GHOST Lifestyle = their strengths are within building an authentically cool lifestyle sports nutrition brand
- AB InBev = their strengths are within beverage industry go-to-market strategies, leveraging its national distribution network and team of world-class sales professionals
GHOST gets to continue to focus on its “North Star” of the brand and it’s customer and they don’t distract themselves by trying to learn, build, and scale a very complex beverage division completely on their own. This saves them from wasting massive resources and costs (both real and opportunity).
AB InBev gets a potentially winning horse to enter into the “Kentucky Derby of Beverage Categories” aka energy drinks. AB InBev already lost previous long-term deals with Monster Energy (2012) and Bang Energy (2020), so creating a JV through ZX Ventures gives them a more solid partnership with GHOST Lifestyle.
My Honest Thoughts on Success Rate
I have built a strong professional relationship with GHOST’s CEO over the last four years. After hearing that, you might be discounting my thoughts because of a number of perceived biases, but just remember that I make my living as a strategy consultant. The foundation of that career is essentially about explaining to entrepreneurs everyday that some aspect of “their baby is ugly.”
Lucky for GHOST Lifestyle, I strongly believe they have a chance at making a real impact in the beverage industry. I’ve worked within the beverage industry for much of the last 10 years, so I am very aware that it’s arguably the most difficult industry to get materially large sales traction (over $100M annually).
I think the success rate will be strong because of a few simple things…
- Confidence in the products meeting or surpassing all consumer purchase criteria compared to category competition
- Attachment to licensed partners, which makes its trialing effect strong even when GHOST Lifestyle’s brand equity in food, mass, and convenience is low
- AB InBev wants its non-alcoholic portfolio to become major share of total revenue long-term
- GHOST Lifestyle knows how to effectively reach its customers, which also happen to already buy a great deal of packaged energy drinks and protein RTDs. This strong customer base will drive momentum that will be matched by distribution scale by AB InBev (you never market to empty shelves…)
Are you interested in hearing more about the GHOST Lifestyle and AB InBev ZX Ventures deal? I will be creating content with GHOST Lifestyle CEO Daniel Lourenço that will go live on my Youtube channel next week. Don’t forget to subscribe to that channel with the link provided below…
