KEVIN SHERMAN, CMO, True Drinks (AquaBall): ‘Getting this kind of distribution in less than a year is almost unheard of in the beverage industry’
Water is boring, soda is off limits, juices are nutrient-packed but sugary, and milk isn’t cool, so what do you put in your kids’ lunchbox?
One firm convinced it has the answer is California-based True Drinks, which reckons it has hit on the formula for explosive growth with AquaBall: a zero-calorie line of naturally flavored and sweetened vitamin waters in distinctive ball-shaped bottles emblazoned with Disney and Marvel characters.
Introduced to the market in 2012, the stevia-sweetened brand was re-launched in early 2013 with zero calories in four flavors (orange, grape, berry and fruit punch), and has since gained authorization in more than 25,000 grocery, drug, mass and club stores from Safeway and Kroger, to Rite Aid, Albertson’s and ShopRite.
So could it be a $100m brand? “Absolutely”, says AquaBall’s creator and True Drinks’ chief marketing officer Kevin Sherman. “Getting that kind of distribution in less than a year is almost unheard of in the beverage industry.”
So what’s the secret to its success? “Moms don’t want their kids to drink soda, and juice is great in small quantities, but you don’t want to be drinking eight glasses of it a day for hydration,” says Sherman.
“There are actually surprisingly few truly healthy hydration beverages for kids, and yet look at the rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. I was amazed when I first started looking at this space.”
Click HERE to read our interview with Sherman.
