On its quest to one day become an internationally known brand, Glendale-based Sprecher Brewing Co. has been on an acquisition spree. A core component of the company’s growth strategy is acquiring smaller craft beverage manufacturers to help break into new markets.
Sprecher’s latest addition is the Los Angeles-based energy drink brand Juvee.
Acquiring Juvee not only adds an energy drink to Sprecher’s roster for the first time, but also a key addition to the company’s c-suite. The Juvee team is now part of Sprecher, and Juvee’s co-founder Sam Keene is now Sprecher’s chief marketing officer. With experience at well-known brands like Red Bull and Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand and gaming organization 100 Thieves (which previously owned Juvee), Keene has his own vision for how Sprecher’s marketing can help the company grow internationally.
BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Ashley Smart recently spoke with Keene about his vision for his new role. Below are excerpts from their conversation.
How’d you end up learning about Sprecher as a brand?
“The first time I heard of Sprecher was when I saw the press release for the acquisition of Ooh La Lemin. That’s something that my team here is learning about me. I try and do as much research and reading about the industry broadly as I can. I saw that release and I was just impressed with the vision that Sharad (Chadha) had shared and was impressed with this strong Midwest company that was growing as quickly as they were and acquiring new brands. As I got to know them better, I realized they didn’t have energy (drinks) and saw that as an opportunity, especially since they’re vertically integrated.”
What stood out to you about the company?
“It just seemed like they had all the pieces to the puzzle that we didn’t have at Juvee. That’s where I thought there was a great opportunity. Fortunately, a lot of gamers have an affinity for soda, and I’ve been absolutely blown away after announcing the acquisition by how much of our Juvee audience from the Midwest has come out. They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we love that company.’ It’s absolutely incredible.”
How did you get involved with 100 Thieves and end up launching an energy drink brand?
“Matthew Haag is the CEO of 100 Thieves. He created and built it. Matt and I go back more than a decade. He’s like a little brother to me. Part of what he envisioned for 100 Thieves was creating all these businesses that support gamers and support the lifestyle of gamers. One of those things that he cares about is energy drinks. He asked me, ‘Hey, we’ve interacted in the drink world before. Would you want to create this?’ I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go back and start something from scratch.”
What other experience do you have in the beverage industry?
“I worked for Red Bull for about 10 years, across lots of different departments, but most notably across digital platforms, and then I launched their video game department quarterly, and that’s where I interacted with Matthew Haag. The manufacturing part was all new to me. We wanted to do (Juvee) our way and we wanted to do it from scratch. There was a lot of learning involved, basically starting from water.”
From a marketing perspective, how will you support Sprecher’s ambition in becoming a national brand?
“We have incredible products. We have a best-in-class sales team. We have unbelievable marketing talent underneath the hood. Organizing and focusing that marketing is really that crucial piece of the puzzle in terms of driving awareness for a product nationally. I really think that’s the missing piece. That’s what Sharad and I have spent a lot of time talking about, and it’s truly the reason I’m here — to help make sure that people are aware, nationally, of our products, and to help tell our story. Truly I think if we tell our story at scale, people will fall in love with (the Sprecher brand).”
Are there any untapped marketing methods you’re looking at?
“Marketing is an art and what we’re going to start developing is the Sprecher marketing recipe. It’s different for every company. It’s different for every brand. What we want to do over the next several months is refine that recipe to find what works and is productive for Sprecher. My hope is from the outside looking in, you’ll see us trying a lot of things. They’re not all going to work. Some might be flops; some might be tops but that’s part of the process. It’s just getting out there and putting some pieces together to find a really strong marketing program. We had some great success early on with Juvee and it put us in a really good position heading into the end of 2023. We’re going to apply that same methodology here.”
Is the Juvee team here in Wisconsin or staying in L.A.?
“I think that’s something that’s going to evolve over time. We have people all over the country. I’m out here (in Milwaukee) this week. I’ll be in L.A. still. But I believe that’s going to change over time for everybody.”
What will be different for you when marketing sodas?
“The closest I came to soda in beverage was when Red Bull tried releasing a Red Bull cola. A firmly held belief of mine is that regardless of what you’re marketing, community is the most important part of it. The energy market is very crowded. There are a lot of products on that shelf but there are very few brands. What I mean by that is there are very few products that have a community that loves and believes in that product. What we set out to do with Juvee was to build a community around the product and brand that we had created. As I look at Sprecher, I think we have a wonderful foundation of community that loves Sprecher. What we want to do is just continue to grow and expand. To me, that’s the biggest delta: community is the foundation of everything.”
What’s next for Juvee following the acquisition?
“It was a very fun week for us at Juvee. We just released a new flavor this week on top of announcing the Sprecher relationship two weeks ago. Our community is just buzzing to try our new triple berry flavor. Flavor innovation has been something that we are really proud of. It’s something that we believe consumers are looking for and it’s something that really differentiates us from most of the mega-brands in energy who really follow a one, two, maybe three new flavors a year cadence. We launched five new flavors last year. Looking forward, we’re looking a lot more at retail in 2024. That’s going from being a predominantly online brand. Putting our products at arms reach for that moment of need is crucial for energy drinks. Then, just having the vertical integration with Sprecher, we have the opportunity to get better at producing our own product.”
What brands in the Sprecher portfolio are particularly exciting to you?
“You can ask anybody who’s seen me all week, I’ve had a different bottle in my hand. I’m like a kid in a candy shop. We have so much that we can work on. It’s going to be about choosing over time what we focus on. But for now, I’m still learning the catalog. I’ve been taking a backpack full of drinks home every night so I can continue trying them all evening. It’s really about getting familiar with all of the products first.”
