[00:00:03] Ray Latif: This is the BevNET podcast. I'm Ray Latif. I'm here with John Craven and Jon Landis. This is episode 53 of the BevNET podcast. And it's April 13th, but the podcast edition is for the 14th, which means that we're kind of playing with the future a little bit.
[00:00:18] John Craven: In the future.
[00:00:19] Ray Latif: Back to the future. Back to the future. Transparency is key. I don't want anyone to think that we're recording this on the 14th and publishing on the 14th. I want to make a very clear cut.
[00:00:28] Jon Landis: Heaven forbid that they think that we record and... That would be impressive if we had that kind of turnaround in our organization.
[00:00:35] Ray Latif: It really would be. Maybe we should, you know... Someday. Live podcast. We'll get there. Someday. Action-packed podcast this episode is. This is a loaded podcast. We have Andrew Appel. who's the president and CEO of IRI, a global market research firm. I sit down with him for a wide ranging interview. Jon Landis meets up with our superstar staff reporters on the BevNET side, senior reporter, Martín Caballero and Brad reporter, Brad Avery, talking about what they're drinking, what they're loving these days. We also have a quick interview with Allan Roth, who works with Glen Fiddick, a single malt scotch brand. I talked to him for about five minutes about all things related to innovation on the Single Malt Scotch Foundation. That's not a word, is it?
[00:01:22] Jon Landis: No, no, the, the, the barrels, the barrels. Yeah. I mean, you talk about the barrels.
[00:01:27] Ray Latif: I do talk about the barrels.
[00:01:28] Jon Landis: Yes. That's what the S that's what Scotch is all about.
[00:01:31] Ray Latif: Yes. Yeah. But before we get into those interviews, we have a couple, a couple months away from, from us being in the big Apple in New York weeks at this point. Yes. Yes. Less than a couple of months.
[00:01:42] John Craven: Someone said nine or 10 weeks or something like that.
[00:01:44] Ray Latif: Yeah. And why are we going to be in New York city? Landis live, live, live, live, live, live. So many conferences, so many conferences.
[00:01:55] Jon Landis: I mean, it's basically how weak for me. That's my, that's my, this is my version of how weak.
[00:02:01] John Craven: Well, okay. Let's put a nice little marketing. It's a great week of these rays for his action packed. 100% food and beverage conferences. We've got our educational components of bootcamp and beverage school. There's just so much there.
[00:02:19] Jon Landis: You should be there. Lots of Bev's to drink food, to eat beers, to crush.
[00:02:23] Ray Latif: Yeah, this sounds so exciting. I can't wait.
[00:02:27] John Craven: This is like, just kill me now.
[00:02:31] Ray Latif: Kill me now. No, frankly, you know, it's going to be a four day journey for, you know, the Bevanette team for sure. But anyone going to the conferences, you know, if you've been before, you're planning to go now. you know, of course, I'm going to be a little biased, but, you know, it's really unparalleled in what you're going to be seeing and hearing without patting ourselves in the back too, too much, I think produce some of the best conferences for entrepreneurship, innovation, trends and news, everything that's going on in the food, beverage and beer industry. So you don't want to miss these events. And I know it's, this is a little bit of a plug, but it's all coming from the heart. So I got to say on that, we're not paid to say that.
[00:03:11] Jon Landis: No, I am, but I'm talking. I'm talking to some really, really interesting people that are planning to come to these events and some really cool brands that are relatively undiscovered. And it's going to be a really nice community.
[00:03:26] John Craven: Well, it's still that we keep talking about this sort of unparalleled times that we're in right now. And, you know, I think it's pretty exciting for me, aside from, you know, all the hard work that's left to be done to have all that stuff crammed into one stretch where, you know, we're going to get the food brands, the beverage brands, the craft breweries, all sides of it. And part of why we're doing this is not just to punish ourselves, but there's a lot of people out there that want to see kind of all these different industries, just trying to make it easy for everyone else at our own expense.
[00:04:01] Jon Landis: So it's great. I would be remiss to, uh, if I didn't state that, you know, early registration for these events is ending soon.
[00:04:09] John Craven: Operators are standing by as soon as Landis gets off this podcast.
[00:04:13] Jon Landis: You got one week left before the ticket prices go up April 21st. We should do a full infomercial. Yeah. Why don't we do like a, I want to be Vince from Sham Wow. Can you get me some slap chop? Can you get me some public access time? And I can do like a telethon on a telethon.
[00:04:29] Ray Latif: Yeah. I like call you Jerry Lewis. Hey guys, both have the same initials. Jerry Lewis, Jon Landis. There you go. Chill dude. All right. Okay, anything anything else that we want to talk about? It's the live in session. Not live. Not live.
[00:04:42] John Craven: Okay, cool. All right. Well, I want to put one more shameless plug, which is just that we've got some upcoming podcast. Oh, right. Yes, road trips over to Santa Monica, and then to New York. So I guess if anyone out there thinks they're podcast worthy, we'll put the podcast, email us a podcast at BevNET.com. And we'll
[00:05:04] Ray Latif: I guess get back to you. And you never know if your podcast worthy. So just send us an email and we'll take a look. We'll get back to you.
[00:05:09] John Craven: Is it podcast or podcasts?
[00:05:10] Ray Latif: What do you mean podcast? Is it plural or not? No, no, just podcast. Podcast. Okay. I think I said podcast. No one listens to the end. So that's why you don't know. We're trying something different. Maybe we'll get more emails this week. Everyone listens to the end, actually, which is thank you again for listening to the end, those folks who do. All right. Let's get to Andrew Appel. I met up with Andrew at the IRI Growth Summit last week, which was held in Nashville. The IRI Growth Summit is this great event that the company puts on where they bring a lot of their clients and other folks that are really interested in emerging data trends, emerging ways to collect data. And it was really eye-opening for me to see the mass information coming in, you know, one of the first things I talked to Andrew about was he mentioned that in a presentation at the conference is 43 times increase in annual data by 2020. So there's already a ton of data out there and there's going to be about 43 times that, you know, just in about three years. And so, you know, you have all this data, what do you do with it? And so IRI, Growth Summit was a lot about figuring out how to best and most effectively utilize this stuff and in the innovative ways that you can, you know, reach people with it. And that's my conversation with him. And here it is. And here it is. All right. I'm here with Andrew Appel, the president and CEO of IRI. Andrew, thanks so much for being with me.
[00:06:35] Growth Summit: Thank you for having me.
[00:06:37] Ray Latif: We're backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. Grand Ole Opry, excuse me. And this is a pretty amazing venue you have. And the conference itself is pretty amazing to this point as well. You guys have executed a really informative and well-organized conference. So kudos to you for that.
[00:06:55] Growth Summit: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:06:56] Ray Latif: And part of that was your presentation that you had in the general session. And I wanted to talk to you about some of the things, some of the talking points that you had in that presentation. Great. You noted that there's going to be a 43 times increase in annual data by 2020. And mastering that big data is the new challenge, quote unquote, mastering that data. So what kind of new data is coming to the forefront and how is IRI going to be using it to its fullest effectiveness?
[00:07:23] Growth Summit: Well, you saw a little picture of it through the discussion now. And in fact, the team from Pepsi was just here talking about the same thing. So the 43 X folds coming from all over the place, right? So more and more mobile location data, more and more. Internet of Things type data sets are probably going to be added to it. The average consumer is using twice as much data. The size of the download files get bigger, right, the high definition, so it's more and more, you know, think of it as video and stuff like that. So, and then, of course, the advent of voice and the Google Home and Alexas and Siris and Cortanas of the world are going to be the next evolution of kind of interaction with consumers. Those are, at least in the world we live in, those are the new data sets. There's a whole industrial ecosystem about automating manufacturing, and there's a whole car connectivity. So imagine all your cars are connected, so there's a whole new data set around location data, driverless cars. Think about the amount of data Tesla's collecting, you read about that stuff. You know, in our life, it's about amalgamating all this information about consumers to help companies create more interactive discussions with their customers or their consumers, kind of using all this information to make it more real, more contextual, more appropriate, more accurate, and ultimately how that kind of cluster or panoply of interactions leads to, you know, additional sales if you're a company that makes products or additional trips to the store if you're a retailer that runs stores or a website.
[00:09:06] Ray Latif: Yeah, you just mentioned voice and that was something interesting as well from your presentation yesterday. You said that, quote, voice is the next platform. And you talked about how some large companies are sort of optimizing its use. Campbell's, for example, Campbell's Soup Company with its recipes. You know, you ask Alexa, you know, for a recipe and Campbell's Soup provides it. Is that kind of how it works?
[00:09:28] Growth Summit: Well, today, right? It's, uh, it's like so rudimentary. It's almost like what text was 10 years ago. So the reason I was, you know, highlighting voice is I believe it's like the next parallel platform. So, you know, you have in your, on your knee, a phone, right? You use your fingers to touch a piece of glass to get information that has a lot of benefits for certain kinds of information. But imagine, if you could talk to the world effectively, right? So right now, Alexa's a physical device at your home, and you can, you know, order up a recipe, you can order up something, order an Uber, order a pizza, order something from Amazon, Google Home, you can order something from Costco, and you can just talk to it. But that is the current release point one. I talk to a device and it does something for me. It also plays music, it turns my home on. But that's, you know, that's the first stage. At some point, the device will talk back to you and say, oh, hey, you know, you ordered, you just asked for a Campbell's soup recipe. Is that for today or tomorrow? Oh, it's for tomorrow. Well, you know, should we send you six, uh, you know, Campbell's soup is going to be on sale tomorrow. Should we send you a case of Campbell chicken noodle soup that you can use for the recipe?" And then you're like, yes. And they're like, oh, well, you know, crackers are on sale from, uh, so on. Would you like us to add that to the order? Oh, and I saw a month ago you, um, you ordered kind bars. Would you like us to add kind bars or on your shopping list? and your Google Assistant. So now you got an interactive dialogue in your home, but then what's to stop it from being in your car? What is the one place you're not supposed to use your phone?
[00:11:17] Ray Latif: In a swimming pool.
[00:11:18] Growth Summit: What's the other place?
[00:11:19] Ray Latif: A car.
[00:11:20] Growth Summit: You know, how many hours a day do people spend in places where it's not efficient for them to use their fingers? Alexa, Google Home, now it's in your car. You get in your car, it's like not only is it gonna say, hey, where am I going? But there's a great sale going on, why don't you stop here along the way or so on. And by the way, you just had the Campbell's thing. So now you've got that voice translating itself across platforms. And then what's to stop it in the third phase of it, you're walking down the street or in the Walgreens. And it knows it's you, either because it's got your mobile device or because it knows your voice. So now you're walking down the aisle and it's like, hey, Andrew. Now today you'd be like, what the heck? Who's talking to me?
[00:12:04] Ray Latif: Slightly terrifying, yeah.
[00:12:05] Growth Summit: Yeah, but so was the billion things that people do on their phones today was terrifying five years ago.
[00:12:11] Ray Latif: Yeah, that's very true.
[00:12:12] Growth Summit: So as long as it's contextual and valuable and you're like, oh, that's helpful. You're right. I forgot. I did need shampoo today. Or I do have a headache. God, how'd you know that? You know, there's a fine line between helpful and creepy.
[00:12:27] Ray Latif: Right. It's creating better and sort of actionable content that can benefit your day or life in general?
[00:12:33] Growth Summit: Yeah, I know we had a gentleman, Mick Ebling, speak yesterday, and it's everything that is possible today was once, you know, not possible. So it's the same thing with targeted consumer-based personalization, right? What was once seen as odd is very natural today. Yeah. And what's seen as odd today will be natural tomorrow.
[00:12:54] Ray Latif: Before I get to the next point, I do want to say Mick was incredible. And it was just an emotional rollercoaster during that presentation that he did. And it was so enlightening and so inspiring. So I mean, that was an amazing time for the audience. So thanks for doing that. And thanks for having him on stage.
[00:13:09] Growth Summit: Mick's an amazing guy. And I've followed him. He followed me in a speech 14 months ago. And I was just like the audience was yesterday. I hung around for an hour and ended up grabbing coffee with him. We've become very good friends and we were just talking last night about the hunger initiative. and how that may be one we can play a significant role because it's around data and providing food to homeless people. But he is just one of the most inspiring people. He makes the rest of us look a little bit pedestrian.
[00:13:43] Ray Latif: Yeah, you start to question your life, your job.
[00:13:47] Growth Summit: People come up to me. One person on my team said, I called my wife and I see a double the amount of money we donate to charity. We're not doing enough. Let's go to a soup kitchen this weekend to go help. I mean, people... Yeah.
[00:14:00] Ray Latif: Find your Daniel.
[00:14:00] Growth Summit: Find your Daniel. So it's Mick Ebeling at Not Impossible. For anybody who's listening to this, you should go and look it up and find a speech he gave at Google two years ago, which is where you can see the whole speech for 45 minutes.
[00:14:14] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Absolutely. Getting back to Campbell, one of the other things in your presentation you talked about was, you know, Campbell's sort of nascent efforts to personalize food around individual DNA. Talk about terrifying. Can you elaborate on that initiative and sort of the potential for disruptive innovation? And I guess, you know, to my point about terrifying, you know, how can sort of collection of DNA data be done without being invasive?
[00:14:39] Growth Summit: Look, there are some things in the personalization world that are opt-in. So the Campbell's is invested in a company called Habit, which is an opt-in, right? You wouldn't go grab the DNA file from some laboratory and start providing people with, you know, there's laws around HIPAA and data protection and medical record world. Now that said. The prospect of using what people eat as part of the analytics around creating health products, pharma drugs, wellness, is an extraordinary opportunity and it's completely untapped in this country. So all the work in healthcare, because we do some work with the Milken Institute on that, is around big data, but it's around big data around medical and claims files. And so it's never linked to, you know, food consumption, and occasionally it's linked to your Fitbit for exercise. I mean, if you think about the things that drive your health, it's your genetics, it's your fitness, it's what you eat, and it's, you know, what is going on in your body as a product of all those three things. And all the research, you know, historically has been trials. Now it's around big data in medical. what Campbell's is doing is saying, we want to figure out how to personalize food. And we want to try that through creating, you know, effectively a vision of like, the soup is built to your DNA. And so, That's a pilot. I'm sure it's in their R&D lab. Although from what the team said to me, it's a really important initiative for Denise Morrison, who's the CEO. And it's an early foray into personalized food. And one of the attributes presumably is your health and your genetic makeup. And that will be a key input into what version of a of a product that would be tailored to your personal needs. But what makes it not scary is because that's the strategy of the business. And I'm sure I'm not familiar with it enough, but I imagine that it's, look, we will do a DNA test for you and we'll provide you with a set of recommendations about food that you should be eating given what shows up in your DNA test so that you can live a longer life.
[00:16:56] Ray Latif: So IRI's role is sort of identifying those consumers who would be best suited for personalized nutrition?
[00:17:03] Growth Summit: Well, IRI's role in that would be to help evaluate, bring the data in and then link it to which types of consumers are likely to eat which products that you can probably tailor the recommendations to the eating habits of that particular person. So that would be an example of... No, we're not... currently actively involved in that because it's just starting. They don't even have it out of the gate. But that would be in our vernacular, it's an example of we have what's called a private cloud at Campbell's that has all the data that you're familiar with and seeing purchase data, credit card, loyalty, mobile location, all matched around individuals. And then that would be another piece of information that might come in. so that they could then use the DNA and the personalized recognition if they're working, right? Ultimately, Campbell's is doing this because they have a dual mission, right? Healthier products and selling more products.
[00:18:05] Ray Latif: I think they're trying their hardest to do both at this point. Yeah, of course.
[00:18:10] Growth Summit: I mean, but it's very impressive how passionate the team at Campbell's is about the healthy dimension, as is Pepsi, as is a lot of the companies, right?
[00:18:23] Ray Latif: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, in Al Carey's presentation today, he talked about sort of flat growth for CPG. And he talked about, you know, that earlier this year, just based on the data they have, growth was about 0.2%. And if you remove perishables, yeah, if you remove perishables, it was negative 0.1%, which is saying something about healthy and perishables. why a lot of their focus is on the better for you kind of products. But you mentioned personalization, which has been a key theme of this entire conference. What are a couple examples of CPG companies that have been really effective with personalized marketing campaigns? And it was interesting, we just, again, heard from Al Carey who sort of talked about really finding that consumer at the store level and reaching that consumer. But are there other examples that you know of that have been really effective for CPG brands and reaching that consumer on a personalized way?
[00:19:15] Growth Summit: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of examples that when you say them, you're going to be like, oh, that seems incredibly obvious, but to execute it is relatively sophisticated. But I think the easy examples are the ones that are intuitive. So one very intuitive example is, you know, allergies. So there's a whole set of targeted advertising and activation around allergy trends and then the targeting of people who've bought allergy-related products. So I think Flonase and Zyrtec and Claritin do a very impressive job working with CVSs and Walgreens and mobile location and weather and pollen forecasts to target allergy-related ads, at times, pollen counts are high, right? You're like, oh, that seems rather obvious, but that's a pretty good example, just as there would be the equivalent of... And then, so on the retail side, I think Kroger has long had a very targeted, personalized interaction with their consumers, and then one of the examples I like a lot is that they... You know, they're able to deliver each and every household a personalized kind of coupon book every week. And so they use the history and the mass data that they know about the consumer and they've created basically the ability to custom print. So you're, what you get, you know, every week is your flyers are actually the things that you have either bought there before that are linked to purchases, whatever the algorithms are, you know, a product that some manufacturers trying to get you to try, but it's very targeted towards the actual needs of the consumer.
[00:20:58] Ray Latif: Right. So function, need, or?
[00:21:02] Growth Summit: selling history or uh... buying history yeah and probably many other characteristics but it's you know they're always customer first so it's you know they don't want they want to give the customer uh... a feeling that kroger cares about them and so it's not uh... you know pepsi wants to or coke wants to sell more diet coke so we're just gonna flood the circular with diet coke it's the opposite it's You know, these are the needs of our shoppers and our consumers, and we're going to make sure that, you know, we provide them with, you know, a book effectively of things that are important to them, some of which are on history, some of which are on behavior, some of which are on, you know, certainly linked to new products and innovations, but it's always designed around what the consumer needs.
[00:21:50] Ray Latif: with the consumer needs and is often acquired online these days. E-commerce is growing incredibly fast. Amazon's the unquestioned leader. You talked about Walmart's efforts though to enhance its online presence, including acquisitions such as Jet.com and its store number eight startup incubator having some effect on their sales growth online. But how is Walmart using data to best support its CPG brands via e-commerce?
[00:22:19] Growth Summit: You know, Walmart is a very sophisticated user of their data. And I think they're working to bring it all together, but lots of ways. Right. They have their own version of a loyalty program that they help, you know, CPG manufacturers, you know, target that same thing, types of consumers that are. interested in their products mostly through promotions or through displays. They're not a big advertiser organization. The whole Walmart e-commerce ecosystem uses data to target ads and promotions online to prioritize products based on the consumer needs and then, you know, supplier kind of collaboration goals. And I think they are, um, moving very quickly to build up their, basically trying to bring all the data together between the store side of the house and the website of the house. So their positioning of differentiation is, you know, a customer-centric, omni-channel, business model and to do that you know requires you know having the right data so you know what products I mean it's easy example for them is there a subset of products they're at the store next to you can go pick it up in an hour there are a subset of products that are in the warehouse in your region you can get it the next day and then there's a subset of products on Jet.com that are shipped to you And so just pulling that information together so that you can have the right offer to consumers, so you don't say, oh, go pick it up and then it's not there. You can imagine that's a huge amount of work and it's done in collaboration with manufacturers and suppliers who are trying to grow their business together.
[00:24:05] Ray Latif: Is it similar to what Target's doing, trying to streamline that customer experience offline and online?
[00:24:11] Growth Summit: I'm guessing it's similar to what I heard Christina talk about. Christina from Target? Yeah, Christina from Target. You know, both of them are, you know, every large retailer is trying to build a bit, you know, they're an e-commerce presence very quickly. It sounded like Target's model was also about changing the store experience as well. You heard all about displays and big investments and kind of the feeling and look and feel and designers of the store, but it also had a similar feel of consolidating and creating a one, similar to what Al Carey just said at Pepsi, right? You need one organization to support all these different, in the retailer's case, the multi-channel needs.
[00:24:57] Ray Latif: Are we out of time? Okay, I have one more question, so perfect. Okay, so small CPG companies are often praised as being nimble and able to fail fast with regard to new product development. But do you see the infusion of complex data, such as the products that IRI offer? as potentially slowing the innovation strategies or that process of new product development?
[00:25:22] Growth Summit: Oh, no, quite the opposite. You know, the ability to evaluate, you know, new product at even levels below a product, right, at the attribute, characteristic level, emotional need level, quickly is going to accelerate with, you know, things like AI and machine learning and the advent of data, right? So most of the new product testing that big companies do is sample panel-based, show a small number of people something, describe something. I mean, you know, even as, you know, Al Carey from Pepsi described, right, the ability to get an actual product in the hands of the right people to get quick feedback using the actual data of the sales and the purchase behavior is going to revolutionize even new product testing. and new product innovation. We're in conversations with a terrific organization, a really smart guy who's using like neural science. to evaluate entertainment trends, to look for unmet needs, processing, you know, huge amounts of data to create, like, need states, but using information. And he's been doing a lot of work with Unilever, and that led to Breakfast Ben & Jerry's Ice Creams, which is, you know, off the charts in its early trials. They won't know for six months. And it was this unmet need that came out of, you know, data mining, neural networking, and AI of music. So I think there's the prospect of using data and analytics to accelerate innovation and keep up with customers' behaviors and get ahead of them. The old Steve Jobs, don't ask the customer, lead them to where they want to go. They'll actually accelerate innovation.
[00:27:10] Ray Latif: Will it accelerate lead times for new product launches?
[00:27:14] Growth Summit: I think it'll accelerate the analytic process to evaluate where the larger companies look. I think a lot of the smaller companies, you know, they grow. in their early stages more in a Darwinian way, right? A hundred startups, winners win, non-winners don't win. And so I suspect a lot of the, at least in the very small space, is somebody who comes up with a great idea. Quest Bars is an example. I've met the CEO of Quest. He's a health He has a really interesting view about the future of health. And so they design Quest bars, they start to take off. There's probably six other bars that didn't take off. So I think it's in the second evolution, right, when they have to do, you know, they come up with their second product. that the product life cycle kind of takes an effect. And data becomes that much more important. That the ability to get manufacturing done very quickly on new products is also accelerating innovation in the industry. I recall a conversation with the CEO of Quest they're like able to shift manufacturing in days now, right? Versus, you know, the days of a changeover on a line or a new line taking, you know, forever is now. Customized automation and manufacturing is doing the same thing in the food business.
[00:28:39] Ray Latif: Yeah, for sure. Customized manufacturing, some of it led by AI, artificial intelligence. And that's the last point I want to kind of talk about. You mentioned this at the presentation yesterday, and it kind of freaked some people out, I think, myself included a little bit. You know, it's one of those topics that you don't necessarily feel completely comfortable with.
[00:29:00] Growth Summit: You should have seen the stuff I cut out. Okay? I saw some stuff in doing the research on artificial intelligence that would make the simple stuff I described. There's some really kind of funky concepts out there.
[00:29:14] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, well, just on a baseline level, I mean, The talking points about the millions of jobs potentially being lost by the infusion of AI into manufacturing, current manufacturing today, is one big question. But beyond that, it's just sort of handing over the keys to a computer to live or to handle. It's a very scary concept.
[00:29:38] Growth Summit: Societal issues associated with the advent of that machine learning, AI, and technology are, in my opinion, and I'm not a politician, and I may be wrong, is probably the single largest issue facing our planet for the next 30 years. Because you can't stop it. So if you said, okay, offshoring, right? The labor arbitrage associated with the fact that very large countries like India, Brazil, and China were able to educate their workforce and get them to be equally productive to the 90% of the U.S. workforce at half the price or a quarter of the price was labor arbitrage, right? You could theoretically, you know, regulate against labor arbitrage, right? You could do what, you know, the current administration is trying to do, raise, you know, import fees, import duties, reduce the the movement of workers, encourage companies to build. So you can't actually, could have managed around that as a country. You can't regulate technology.
[00:30:40] Ray Latif: This is true.
[00:30:41] Growth Summit: You can't regulate it. And so there's, you know. the likelihood that, you know, automation, AI and technology is going to streamline jobs all over the world is pretty high in the next 30 years. And so we as a kind of planet are going to have to figure out what is the next set of things to do. Right. So we'll all be retired by then. So it's really our kids challenge. But I think it's true. I don't know how you stop. You know, you could regulate against driverless cars, right? And I guess. But that seems unlikely. And then you'll just have every other country in the world, their trucks will be driven by machines, and then your supply chains will be really inefficient.
[00:31:26] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, you know, for your business, and for some CPG brands as well, you talked about AI as quote unquote, a way to automate the simple. And can you give a couple examples of how you're planning on or currently using AI to sort of enhance the user experience, to enhance your customer's experience?
[00:31:44] Growth Summit: Oh, yeah, I mean, there's just numerous, you know, if you saw in the presentation we gave, right, there were two very, you know, easy examples. One is we've created a learning and workflow platform so that, you know, with the 30 different datasets and, you know, across 300 million consumers and 200,000 stores, it's, It could take 30 people just to work through a chart after chart after chart after chart, build charts. And so, you know, we've created the ability to tag alerts and then create a work queue. So we want to take, you know, kind of PowerPoint insight work and turn it into workflow, right? So I'm now taking complicated, sophisticated analytics and first putting it into a workflow model. Then we will write our AI-related programs such that the system will just learn over time what the triggers are that people looked at. So here's a great example, right? We'll create millions of alerts, right? They'll get distributed. Then it'll correlate itself against which ones were taking action. Then it'll look at the sales impact of which actions and it will learn which alerts are actually more accurate. It'll also use who clicked on them, right? So if somebody ignored these alerts, you know, week after week, then it'll say, oh, well, those aren't very good alerts. Let's de-skill those. Those are just simple. So over time, the armies of people that, you know, analyze data won't actually be necessary, right? It'll be the people who actually can decide what action. And then at some point, Some of those, quote, alerts are going to be just so effective, they're just going to feed right through to a supply chain or a pricing algorithm. So you won't need a person in the middle saying, oh, my price gap was wrong. Let's just change the price. I mean, that's effectively how Amazon runs its pricing, for example. There's nobody. You're setting parameters, and then the system is developing and pricing algorithms. It gets smarter and smarter and smarter and tailored and tailored and tailored and more custom and more custom and custom. So that's an example of how, and then the other one is, you know, we talked about the ability to upload data science and statistics code to create custom analytics and, you know, our platforms. You know, we talk about that as stat programmers with PhDs, you know, designing code, looking for patterns and data that are driving behavior or sales or whatever you want to do, mostly sales. You know, then the next step is the AI and machine learning and neural networks are doing that code development. They're looking for those patterns and they're uploading into the system. So now, you know, that's another example where some of the science will get automated over time. But it doesn't happen, by the way. The good news is that the world is nothing happens overnight. You know, our planet has a wonderful way of resetting itself. And there are many, many higher order tasks that people don't have time to do because even in our world, because so much time is spent doing basic reporting. And so the areas that involve, you know, I talk to our clients all the time. Oh, well, you know, you're bringing all this new data. Is this going to be more expensive? And one of my comments is, yeah, probably. But if you think about where you should be spending your money, if you have a chunk of money to spend on how you're running your business, you should be spending more money in data and AI. The guy from Anheuser-Busch who came off yesterday said, You know, as I was talking to him, he's like, if you're running a big manufacturer, a food company, and you're not kind of maniacal about data sciences, then you're not going to make it.
[00:35:28] Ray Latif: Powerful stuff for sure. And the entire conference, once again, has been a really powerful and impressive and informative one for me personally. And I thank you for having me here. Really, really appreciate it. And I think our listeners are going to be in for a treat. Thanks again. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. Thanks. So were you guys scared by the conversation about AI and sort of artificial intelligence to sort of automate that stuff?
[00:35:51] John Craven: Well, you know, I think it's, I think it's really, you know, neat to hear IRI sort of thinking that way. You know, it's not like they're just talking about, you know, sort of the run of the mill, like, you know, this category is up or down. I mean, I think a lot of the stuff that he was saying about, you know, just big data and all these places that data is coming from, you know, really, I think, makes you wonder just how kind of, I don't know, things like market research and all that will be conducted like in the future. I mean, I think a lot of what he was saying sounds geared towards, you know, bigger companies right now, you know, that whole walking through the aisles of Walgreens scenario is probably not for, I don't know, whatever the latest, you know, kind of fermented beverage or food is right. It's some larger company that's more sophisticated. And well, it's getting there too. I mean, you know, I think my, my point is that I think it'll be interesting to see what other sort of scenarios exist aside from the obvious one of like, I don't know, a Pepsi or Frito-Lay same company whatever pushing more of you know their product or some new product you know will it be used to help consumers like discover new things and I think you know I guess by the end of the conversation I was honestly like surprised that Ray, you came back from Nashville as opposed to hiding in some, you know, bunker waiting for terminators to come.
[00:37:18] Ray Latif: But well, I still highly recommend putting a piece of tape over your camera.
[00:37:23] John Craven: Who loves, loves all that.
[00:37:24] Ray Latif: But Hey, you know, I went into the design cave the other day and everyone had a piece of tape over their camera on their, on their computers. So it's catchy.
[00:37:31] Jon Landis: You got a Tesla. You're one of the first, you know, the machines take over.
[00:37:36] John Craven: Hey, it makes filing mileage reports when you when you drive a lot easier.
[00:37:41] Ray Latif: Yeah. But to be clear, I mean, yeah, there's there was a lot of this, you know, a lot of the conversations seem to be geared toward bigger companies and companies that are, you know, doing massive amounts of business. You know, for smaller emerging and sort of mid-stage brands, it's really about trying to figure out not only where the data, where the best data is coming from, but how to apply it to extend your presence on shelf. And that is quickly becoming the CVSs and the Walgreens of the world. I mean, just look at, you know, you go into a CVS these days, what's on shelf, you know, in the coolers, Mamma Chia, Kavita. Evolution fresh harmless harvest that wasn't that wasn't the case two years ago, right?
[00:38:20] John Craven: and I think you know, I wonder if it to use a word that people like to use a lot in our space it if all this sort of democratizes Access to that sort of data. I mean, it's like the old days of market research way old days It's like you had to hire someone to go out and collect it right and now we have all this stuff that's being collected regardless like can a small company or medium company, whatever and or prospective entrepreneur, like get access to that stuff and find opportunities.
[00:38:50] Jon Landis: Well, I mean, those companies are also producing their own data. And this is something that I tell a lot of people who don't even really think about this. They're just concerned about opening up new accounts and, you know, getting that next production run done. But, you know, your business is generating data and it's all about collecting that and organizing it and then having it work for you. So yeah, I mean, it's great. Obviously to have the data of competitors and velocity data is through IRI, but you know, you have purchase order data. You have a lot of data that your business is generating on its own. So the first place to start, I always say is get a handle over that, especially for these smaller guys, because then that's when a lot of this other stuff becomes more relevant to you.
[00:39:34] Ray Latif: Right. For sure. You know, what else is relevant? what people are drinking in this office, because what people are drinking in this office is going to be what people are drinking out there maybe next year. Possibly.
[00:39:46] John Craven: We could do a what's nobody in the office drinking at some point. I don't think we should. We have content for that. I don't think we should do that. No, we won't. We won't do that.
[00:39:54] Ray Latif: But so where we're at, Landis, you know, in your conversation with Brad and Marty, the esteemed team over at the Editorial Cave you know, what was going on over there?
[00:40:04] Jon Landis: Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, this is just another opportunity for us to draw back the curtain a bit and show our listeners and readers, you know, who is running this place really. I mean, when it comes down to brass tacks, those guys are pumping out a lot of content. They're reading through a lot of stuff. These are the guys who, you know, your beverage brand out there, you know, you want content written. These are the guys most likely to get it done. So, you know, they're available. They love to hear from brands. They love getting samples sent to them. And we're going to talk to them a little bit about what we've been enjoying in the past week or two. Let's get to it. All right, so some of our savvy readers out there might have noticed recently the bylines on our website have been changing quite a bit. Neil Martinez-Belkin was writing for us for a couple of years and left to pen the autobiography of Gucci Mane, which will be out this fall. You can look it up on Amazon. But in his stead, we have two awesome new writers, reporters. I'm going to introduce to you guys. We have Brad Avery and we have Martín Caballero.
[00:41:10] Andrew Appel: Yes. Yes. Good to see you guys or hear you guys or have you guys hear me?
[00:41:14] Jon Landis: Yes.
[00:41:15] Andrew Appel: I've actually been on the podcast a couple of times before.
[00:41:17] Jon Landis: So yeah, it's not completely new to you. This is my first time on this podcast. Yes. Oh, right on. So Brad, what kind of background do you have? Where'd you come from before this?
[00:41:26] John Craven: I came from a newspaper background from Framingham, Massachusetts and was working at the Metro West Daily News in Framingham right before this. So I spent about a good year and a half there as a town beat reporter. So that sort of was my journalism training ground. And I came to BevNET through a job listing. I was looking to move on and just happened upon this and it's, what is it, the rest is history. And now you're a BevNerd. Yeah. Oh, it's changed me.
[00:41:58] Jon Landis: It's corrupted me. And Marty, you knew Neil, you have a similar background as him.
[00:42:05] Andrew Appel: Yeah. Oddly enough, we both have a bunch of experience doing music journalism, especially the hip hop stuff. So I've been a freelance journalist in the Boston area since around like 2008. So yeah, I sort of bounced around to Various different publications are in Boston, the Boston Herald, Boston Globe. Did some stuff for USA Today, did some more independent stuff on the side. But yeah, all in the music category. And yeah, Neil's a good friend. And he let me know that he was going to be a full blown book author and that this this job is opening up. So yeah, it's been really, really great learned a lot and just enjoying enjoying my time here. It's been great.
[00:42:45] Jon Landis: So what it was some of the we just went to Expo West that was probably a bit of culture shock for the both of you. And you know, you guys have been covering a lot. I mean, people who read see that there's usually stories with both your names on it every single day. What are some of the things that you're excited about? Marty, you just said you've been learning a lot. So what are kind of some of the things that you reported on that you found extra interesting or something that you didn't even think of before?
[00:43:10] Andrew Appel: Sure. Well, obviously, we spent a lot of time sort of getting to know brands, getting to know categories and stuff like that. So that's been interesting. But for me personally, it's been fun to sort of dive into some of the process behind the manufacturing of beverages. So stories I've done about HPP, high pressure processing, recently did sort of a look in on recycling and how design affects recycling, upcycling and sustainability. So all the kind of things that sort of are background or in between steps in the process before the product actually ends up on shelves. And I have to also say I've had a really good time at those events. Expo West was great. And also Kombucha Con, which was in February in Long Beach, was also great. Just meeting a lot of people who have such a great entrepreneurial spirit, really driven by innovation, and really just passionate people who are working really hard to bring these really interesting products to the market. So it's been great just to be on the floor in those events and just have FaceTime with people and sort of get to know them.
[00:44:08] Jon Landis: It's such a neat industry because people come from all walks of life starting these coverage brands. And you get to meet really diverse background of people, but a lot of them to share in common, you know, that hard work, perseverance type of mentality. And it's a really fun group of people to get to know.
[00:44:26] Andrew Appel: It sort of combines a lot of different disciplines. I mean, you obviously have business side, you have a lot of creativity and artistic sort of you know, ideas that are driven there as well as, you know, health and nutrition. So it's just a really cool sort of meeting point of a lot of different disciplines and ideas. So yeah, it's been it's been tons of fun.
[00:44:44] Jon Landis: And Brad, speaking kind of to what Marty just said, I remember when I first was going to trade shows I was blown away by the fact that you have a badge that says BevNET and people like automatically know like who you are and your background and what you're about and it gives you like it opens so many doors to have so many great conversations with people. Is there any kind of you know categories or any things that you've enjoyed more than others just for your personal enjoyment in your reporting?
[00:45:13] John Craven: Well, you know, you talked about culture shock of Expo West. I think the first culture shock was a fancy food show this past winter, which helped acclimate me and give me an idea of what Expo West was going to be like, just knowing that it was just that, but way larger and sort of giving me the chance to go and experience the floor of a trade show and talk to people, meet them face to face. Because until then, mostly I just been talking to people over the phone. Sure. And that is sort of the difference between being in a newspaper as a town beat reporter and, you know, working here is I, before I would go out into the town and I'd meet people face to face, you don't get that opportunity as much. So you start learning about people through their, their brand websites and through their profiles online and you talk to them over the phone. And so you get a different kind of picture of sort of the, the company they created and the brand they're crafting and the image that they're projecting and how they go about doing that. It's really interesting to talk to them and learn about it. As far as my kind of ideas of beverage and categories has changed, it's definitely opened things up. As far as my thinking about it, there's a Whole Foods right next to my house and I almost never stepped foot in it before and now I go there a lot and I check out the aisle, I see what's new, I start thinking about the categories. I'm a coffee person so I'm very much into all the cold brews now and looking at who's doing what and who's got a new product on the shelf.
[00:46:40] Jon Landis: Right on. Yeah. Again, back going back to when I was in my first year or so here, I would go to Whole Foods or supermarkets and I would take pictures of all the bevs that I didn't recognize and bring them back to my computer and look them up and send them an email and say, Hey, you want to come to BevNET Live? You were the creep doing that. Yeah. You'd see me in the supermarket. Still do. If I, if I'm out traveling or something and see something interesting, I'm always taking photos of it in the store.
[00:47:04] Andrew Appel: Well, I mean, again, that's like another cool thing about this industry is like there's literally a section that you can go to in your, you know, local grocery store and just see the innovation that's going on right before your eyes. Like it's all just grouped together. You can come back, you know, in a month or two and see completely different stuff. It's really just like evolving right in real time. Totally.
[00:47:23] John Craven: It's funny because now when I'm in a store, I take an extra long look at the beverage aisle wherever I am and see, you know, like, I don't think I'd ever noticed Vita Coco before or Zico. And when they have been there for so long, they were right in front of my, right under my nose.
[00:47:41] Jon Landis: And now you're counting how many facings they have.
[00:47:43] John Craven: Exactly. It's actually and it's funny too about that. I think there's one story I did early on where CVS when they decided to pick up a lot of better for you brands. And I think we only found out about that because Ray Latif was in a CVS locally and noticed a lot of the brands we cover were suddenly there and what's up with this. And he passed that story along to me to do. And so I talked to a lot of the brands and learned about that initiative that CVS was you see the stores you shop in changing right before you.
[00:48:15] Jon Landis: It's part of the startup culture around here that, you know, it's not really a nine to five. It's, uh, at least, you know, for me, it's been this way. Uh, it's something that I don't really turn off. I kind of live this and it's not that exciting, but that's what you're in for gentlemen. So let's find out what you guys are drinking. You know, uh, Brad, you said that you're, you're been digging into all the different cold brews. What do you get? What are you finding out there?
[00:48:42] John Craven: Yeah, I really liked, again, just going to my local Whole Foods. I went around and saw what they have and now I know the brands because that's what I'm doing all day. So I've been into Grady's Cold Brew recently. I really like their concentrate and I'll mix it with Calafia Farns, so another brand I didn't know existed before this. But I really like their, they have an almond coconut. creamer mix that I, so I buy those together. They're a little expensive, so I don't always do them every day, but it's a nice treat when I want something good. Or, you know, I drink chameleon cold brew as well now.
[00:49:15] Jon Landis: Yeah, we have some here on tap at the office. I think some Grady's and something else. I don't know. What about you, Marty? What do you got?
[00:49:24] Andrew Appel: I'm kind of on a matcha kick at the moment. You know, it's just sort of, if people don't know, matcha is like green tea powder. that's, you know, typically consumed in Japan. You know, it's a little bit of a less caffeine alternative to coffee. It's about 80 grams of caffeine or 80 milligrams, I'd say. And so it's, you know, a little bit less than coffee, but I'm really digging the stuff from Matcha Bar, which is launched in 2014. They have, I think, three brick and mortar locations. It's a Brooklyn-based company, but they're doing some really cool stuff. It's about two grams of ceremonial matcha in each 10-ounce glass bottle. Comes in four different SKUs. It's apple, ginger, honey, mint, and original. And just really nice taste, nice branding. Just really like what they've been doing.
[00:50:11] Jon Landis: They were in our New Beverage Showdown last year and got a ton of exposure through that. Yeah, I love those guys. They're really, really nice guys and always good to see them at the shows and whatnot. They do a lot of weird stuff in Japan. They do these big events in Japan and they go over there and apparently their brand is big out in Tokyo and something like that too.
[00:50:32] Andrew Appel: Well, it's cool. Yeah, I think they've redid their labeling for Expo West, which is kind of cool. It's a little bit cleaned up. It's like a white paper label that's going to have like different texts, I think, depending on the season to describe each different SKU. But it's kind of cool. It kind of, you know, it fits in with sort of the trend of matcha itself is on trend, but also sort of people looking for different kinds of energy, different sort of offerings, clean energy, you know, in quotes is like a thing. So I think it kind of fits in with that. Uh, it's, you know, it, it is giving energy. It does have caffeine obviously, but it's a little bit tapered down. It's not a ultra high performance sort of energy drink or really strong coffee, more of like a mid afternoon pick me up. Sure. So yeah, definitely like what they've been doing.
[00:51:17] Jon Landis: I'm drinking something from the guys who maybe were the original clean energy brand from Highball. They have their Alta Paula sparkling line and they came out with their sparkling waters and these things are incredible. They're going straight into see stores with this, looking to get into that glider rack and instead of doing like the multi-packs like you see with LaCroix and the 12 packs of cans, they're going to be trying to sell these Larger 16 ounce cans. It's a kind of a trade-off and they've had to find a way to work because you know Organic flavors are a lot more expensive and it's basically water and packaging is really like the only cost for traditional sparkling water brand So they have to find a way to make it work. So they found this kind of mid-range packaging size, which is like a I think the only thing that they're going to run into trouble with this is it's a little bit much for a single sitting sometimes, and you might want it to be resealable in a 16-ounce can. But again, it's sparkling water, so I don't think people will have trouble drinking the whole thing.
[00:52:18] John Craven: I'm a big sparkling water person now. I grew up with Coca-Cola and all that. It got to a point where I had to you know, find a leaner alternative. And I got big on the sparkling water kick. So, I... What do you like, polar? Yeah, you know, polar and seltzer is good. Well, it's available everywhere around here. Around here, yeah. But I, again, it's another, you know, thing I like being able to try is seeing a lot of people doing interesting things with sparkling water and trying out different flavors like Altipola.
[00:52:50] Jon Landis: I'm very bullish on sparkling water.
[00:52:53] Andrew Appel: We just got some ugly water at the office recently.
[00:52:56] Jon Landis: They're awesome. Sending us water across an ocean. It's worth it. It's good.
[00:53:04] Andrew Appel: We love it. We love it. I like that Alta Paula can, though. It's kind of eye-catching.
[00:53:09] John Craven: Well, you know, it's also New York Seltzer. I like their... They just relaunched the brand, but they came out also with a sugar-free sparkling water. that I like a lot. The orange flavor is really good. Again, I can't do the sugar that much anymore, so I'm really into the flavored zero calorie drinks.
[00:53:29] Jon Landis: Totally. Well, have you had much highball? you know, they have, they have highball seltzer too. So it's like zero calorie and it has all the caffeine and ginseng and all that stuff, but it's an energy water. Good stuff, man. I'll have to, Hey, Todd or Dan, if you guys are listening, we have some writers here who've never had a highball energy water, so.
[00:53:53] Andrew Appel: It's coming. The box is being packed as we speak.
[00:53:56] Jon Landis: We're on the matcha clean energy kick. So anyone out there listening, we'd love to hear from you. Always want to know about some new stuff. I've been talking to a bunch of people. I think BevNET Live is going to be really exciting. We're gearing up for the showdown and getting those applications in. And there's some really interesting stuff happening. So really can't wait to share that with folks. I think you guys are going to dig it too.
[00:54:17] Andrew Appel: Yeah, I can't wait to see what people come up with. I mean, if if anyone's listening, it hasn't been a BevNET live. I mean, you got to get in there and really experience like what's going on in that room, because it's really something that I don't think I've seen. And granted, my limited experience, but in all the events I've been to, it's really much different and really, really great creative space for people.
[00:54:37] Jon Landis: So thanks for the plug, Marnie.
[00:54:39] John Craven: Right off the bat, you know, I started in November. So right off the bat, I went to Bevanette live in Santa Monica and definitely had a blast there.
[00:54:50] Jon Landis: And it was like your initiation.
[00:54:52] John Craven: It really was. Well, it really was. Cause I got, again, that was my first chance to meet a lot of people face to face, but it was also really my first time being completely immersed in it. Yeah. And I love the new beverage showdown and sort of seeing eventually got to try all the different drinks throughout the weekend. And I think what's fun about the new beverage showdown is the hodgepodge of different categories that come together for it and seeing how you know, the all one person who comes up with a great coffee and then another person has something like a mother beverage one last year with the apple cider vinegar, which, uh, you know, just, you see these kind of playing off each other, but they all sort of have their own, you know, they, they stand out more in a way on stage because it's not just 11 coffees or 11 teas.
[00:55:39] Jon Landis: Yeah, no, we, we definitely work to make it an even playing field and try to, it's all brands less than a year old. So that's like the requirement. It doesn't matter, you know, what kind of beverage it is. So it should be exciting. And I'll keep you guys in the loop. We're going to do some voting for it in May. And I'll definitely bring both you guys in. So everyone listening, if you're into the new beverage showdown, if you want to check it out, Marty and Brad, you can send them some info. You should be sending these guys your press releases. Anyways, that's really what they want. They want all your news. They want to stay informed. They want to stay connected with you guys and they want your beverages. So please send those as well. Anything else?
[00:56:18] Andrew Appel: I just remember the beverages. Yeah. Don't forget that part. News is great, but you know, I can't drink news.
[00:56:24] Jon Landis: All right.
[00:56:24] Andrew Appel: Well, I say send the news though.
[00:56:26] Jon Landis: The news is great.
[00:56:27] Andrew Appel: Sure. Yeah.
[00:56:28] Jon Landis: And hopefully you guys enjoyed this little peek into our back office here and you know, we'll get back to writing the news.
[00:56:34] Ray Latif: Thanks for having us, John.
[00:56:35] SPEAKER_??: Yep.
[00:56:37] Ray Latif: you know, the first, the first couple of weeks that Brad was in the office, he joined the company about five months ago. He was drinking so much coconut water. I thought the guy was going to like turn into a coconut. I mean, he was really digging the coconut water. He hasn't, he hasn't been on that kick as much, but I'm not surprised.
[00:56:52] Jon Landis: I mean, he comes into my office and grabs some Zola every once in a while. Okay. Why, why, why are you hoarding Zola in your office? Someone was going to dump it all. Cause I was like, no, I want it.
[00:57:01] Ray Latif: So I've been drinking it. I don't think anyone's going to dump it, Landis. That's a lousy cop-out.
[00:57:06] Jon Landis: I don't know, man. We get a lot of stuff here, and sometimes people send us cases upon cases.
[00:57:13] Ray Latif: Yes, and I drink a lot of that stuff too. But no, I always see Brad and Marty digging in the kombucha, and they're always trying everything that's new, coming into the office as well. And it's really cool for that they're able to try all these things. Because like all of us, when we first got into this business, You know, I don't think that we were like, Hey, I'm going to start drinking kombucha on a regular basis, or I'm going to pull this, you know, this latest, uh, cold press juice, or, you know, this, this tea off the shelf. It was just some of the stuff like it just working here offers this great opportunity to try so many new things. And it's great to see these guys really jump, uh, you know, headfirst in, into crazy ideas and some really bleeding edge concepts that people are coming out with these days. And, uh, you know, they're really taking full advantage of that opportunity.
[00:57:58] Jon Landis: I love that. You know, we're getting some more Grady's love in here. It's been, when did they win the showdown in 2012?
[00:58:04] Ray Latif: That was a new beverage showdown for, and that was in 2012. Yeah.
[00:58:08] Jon Landis: Yeah. It's like five years. I mean, that's a successful beverage brand in my eyes, just being on the market for that long. So kudos to those dudes.
[00:58:17] Ray Latif: Indeed, indeed. And kudos to anyone who likes scotch, because this next and our final segment of the podcast is a very quick interview that I did with Allan Roth, who's a brand ambassador with Glenfiddich. As I mentioned, Glenfiddich is a famous single malt scotch brand. And the conversation that we had was held at this event called Cochon, Cochon 555, which was held in Boston last week. It's a food and drink kind of related event or focused events. A lot of chefs in the area and drink brands come together. The chefs take about 1,500 pounds of pork and come up with these really great innovative recipes that they serve to guests. And there's sort of contests for best meal served and best cocktail prepared. And Glenfiddich had this really cool experimental dome is what they called it. And inside they were talking about innovative ways that they are marketing and presenting Glenfiddich to consumers and new ways that they're coming and ways that they're coming out with new products as well. So Elle and I had an interesting conversation and here it is. All right, I'm at Cochon 505 here in Boston. I'm with Allan Roth, a brand ambassador with Glenn Fittick. Alan, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Fantastic. So, Glenn Fittick is a big sponsor of the event, and you're doing a lot of sort of sensory kind of education about what single malls are all about, and particularly what Glenn Fittick as a brand is all about. Can you sort of elaborate on what's going on here?
[00:59:45] Young Turk: Absolutely. So as a brand, we have a really amazing storied history, establishing the category of single malt scotch whiskey in the U.S., putting forward expressions that no distillery had ever thought to put together before. And right now, what we're doing is we're really focusing on getting both whiskey drinkers and non-whiskey drinkers alike to see how innovative our whiskeys are. And that's why We're featuring the India pale ale cask finish here at Cushone, as well as a number of single malt whiskey cocktails that really dive into the flavor of our single malts, the freshness and fruit forward flavor of the 12 year, the brown sugar and vanilla notes of the 14 year bourbon barrel reserve, and then the aromatic complexity of the 15 year Solera reserve. as well as giving the people coming to this food-focused festival an opportunity to see how color, flavor, and texture can all be experienced in different ways.
[01:00:42] Ray Latif: Well, what's interesting about what you said is you're trying to get more consumers to understand sort of nuances of flavor, the differences of flavor between certain aged malts versus others. How do you best educate consumers about how to identify those flavor nuances?
[01:00:58] Young Turk: We're much more interested in drinkers recognizing flavors that they like, even more than being able to attach a specific word to a flavor. If they have a certain feeling or even a certain preference among the different expressions of blemphitic that we have here, that's what we're interested in reinforcing, saying, if you like the 15-year, the Solera Reserve, right, what you might be tasting is going to be the complexity of that celeriac aging process, maybe the red fruit notes and some of the honey notes, and really just making sure that the drinker knows that it's the flavors that they're recognizing that is what they're appreciating and that they're not necessarily focusing on other more almost clinical aspects, right, not worrying that they're drinking it the right way so long as they're enjoying the flavor.
[01:01:48] Ray Latif: sort of remove the mystique of whiskey, similar to how winemakers often try to remove the mystique and say, look, try enough of it, you'll know what you like, and you'll be able to identify for yourself what you like and maybe what you don't like.
[01:02:02] Young Turk: Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's a huge reason why we're serving these three different glymphatic cocktails here at the festival, is that not just to show how well the spirit works in the cocktails, which we know it does, but to also show consumers that there are really no boundaries that they cannot break in enjoying single malt scotch whiskey.
[01:02:23] Ray Latif: You mentioned the IPA cask whiskey, pretty interesting process in terms of the formulation. We say formulation and I'm the non-alco side of things, but in terms of the processing, aging, however you want to call it, what kind of went into that whiskey?
[01:02:37] Young Turk: So that was a collaboration between a brewery and the Speyside Craft Brewery. and our malt master, Brian Kinsman. And the idea was we knew we wanted to do a beer barrel finished glymphitic. And what we did is we looked at what was available and we looked at the DNA of glymphitic and really found and thought that the more floral, citrusy tones of the hops in an IPA would really complement our whiskey. So what we did is basically Brian and Seb Jones, the brewer at Space Headcraft Brewery is the two of them really collaborated and created three different IPAs. And the challenge was to figure out how to brew an IPA that wouldn't necessarily extract flavor from the cask, but would actually push flavor into the cask so that we could then put our whiskey in there and combine those flavors with our single malt.
[01:03:31] Ray Latif: Pretty interesting stuff, considering that you see so many beers aged in barrels that have previously held wine or whiskey or what have you. And you guys are sort of doing the opposite of that, which is really cool. Alan, this has been great. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me and for a really great event that we have here.
[01:03:48] Young Turk: Thank you. Thank you very much. We're excited to take the Glenfiddich Experimental Dome across the country.
[01:03:53] Ray Latif: Fantastic. You guys thirsty for some scotch now?
[01:03:57] Jon Landis: Maybe.
[01:03:59] John Craven: I want to call that segment After Hours with Ray. But you can't say it like that.
[01:04:05] Ray Latif: You have to say it like, After Hours with Ray.
[01:04:08] Jon Landis: Were you guys like in the coat closet? The coat room?
[01:04:13] Ray Latif: What I want to know is how many scotches... Between the jeggings and the coat closet, I think we've gone completely off the rails.
[01:04:19] John Craven: I don't think the jeggings made the cut, but how many scotches had you had at the point you guys were talking. I mean, that's what people want to know.
[01:04:28] Ray Latif: It wasn't the amount. It wasn't the number of scotches I had. It was the rapid fire pace that you were drinking scotch because they wanted you to taste a lot of different things.
[01:04:35] John Craven: So it hadn't hit you yet.
[01:04:36] Ray Latif: I mean, you didn't sound too scotched up, so to speak. I was not scotched up. When I got home, he was scotched up. You fell down the stairs and yeah. Yes, yes. And Adam Stern, the good man that he is, the senior sales... Senior account specialist. Senior account specialist was with me by my side and he was drinking a lot of scotch for me. So that was nice of him to do that. I'm sure that was a pretty scene. Yeah. Anyway, thank you all so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the podcast. If you didn't, just send us an email. We're happy to hear from you at podcast.BevNET.com. If you have any ideas, questions, suggestions for future food and beverage and beer or even spirits related content, You can also send us an email also again to podcast at bethnet.com. Any final thoughts from you guys?
[01:05:24] John Craven: No email us a podcast at bethnet.com podcast at bethnet.com. I think we said that like six times. Yes.
[01:05:34] Jon Landis: And send us your Bev's Marty, Marty and Brad want more Bev's drink and sample and talk about until next time.
[01:05:42] Ray Latif: Thanks again. We'll see you soon.
