Turning a fringe bet into a mainstream drinks category.
Category work for a space that hadn't been named. A white paper, data-led press, and the founder community behind the breakout brands that defined it.
When non-alc started moving, most of the trade treated it as a trend. A seasonal story. Dry January reliably surfaced the same five brands and the same five takes.
The category needed a voice that treated it as a real commercial story. Not a moral one. That was the version founders, retailers, and journalists were ready to back.
We framed non-alc as a permanent shift in consumer behaviour, not a seasonal peak. A white paper with reproducible data. An infographic system trade press could republish. Briefings with NYT, FT, The Economist in person, not via release.
The breakout brands shipped into a market DV had spent three years preparing for them. Ritual. Seedlip. Lyre's.
Positioning a category is the highest-leverage thing anyone in drinks can do. The brand you run inherits the tailwind. So does the fund.