Highlight Reel: Celebrity-backed brands | Highlight

Highlight Reel: Celebrity-backed brands

Founders behind celebrity-backed NA beverage brands discuss building trust beyond the name on the label — and using real consumer testing to earn repeat purchase, not just launch buzz.

What you’ll learn

The Highlight Reel: Setting up celebrity brands for success

Setting up celebrity CPG brands for success

In this episode of the Highlight Reel, we talk about the latest goldrush in CPG: celebrities founding their own brands. Join Barrel CEO Lucas Ballasy, Highlight CEO Dana Kim, and Jackie Widmann, SVP Marketing & Commercial at BERO as they discuss what it takes to attract shoppers to trial, build affinity, and drive the kind of long-term loyalty it takes to win in this competitive industry.

Hello and welcome to the highlight reel, an interview series featuring CPG industry leaders and trailblazers who are building products that people love. I'm Dana Kim, founder and CEO of highlight, and today I'm joined by two special guests to talk about the latest gold rush in CPG celebrity backed brands.

Please welcome Lucas Ballasy, CEO of Barrell, and Jackie Widmann, SVP of marketing and commercial at BERO.

Uh, let's start off with some intros. Jackie, let's start with you. I'm Jackie Widmann. I am the SVP of Marketing and Commercial at BERO. We are a premium non-alcoholic beer, um, founded and created by Tom Holland, who some of you may know from his, um, you know, series in Spider-Man and many, many other critically acclaimed films.

This product is really something that all of us on the team are super, super passionate about. We created a non-alcoholic beer that is crafted with really premium ingredients. We want this product to be something that people reach for when they are craving social connection and they want to be a part of the moment and celebrate all that life has to offer, but really allow ourselves to enjoy the moment without any of the negative effects that come with drinking alcohol.

It's not about sobriety. It's really more of a lifestyle.

Awesome Lucas. Sure.

Um, so Lucas, I'm the CEO at Barrell. Um, I've been with the company for the last 12 years, um, background in design and branding. So actually started there 12 years ago as a designer. Um, and have since really grown the agency to where we are today.

Um, and what we do is we work closely with CPG brands, helping them build out their digital experience across channels. So, uh, relevant for today's discussion, one of our recent clients was Stiller Soda, um, which we've had a lot of fun working on, but we've also, you know, worked with brands like McCormick once upon a farm, uh, Khloe Kardashian's Cloud.

Um, really helping figure out how to tell their story online, which we think is incredibly important in 2025, no matter where you're selling.

Digital Storytelling for Celebrity Brands

Well, we have BERO and Stillers on display here, but both of you have so much experience and a wealth of knowledge beyond those brands, so.

Very excited to dig in. Lucas, I'd love to start with you in terms of digging into, you talked a little bit about digital storytelling. Many CPG brands are really doubling down on retail as the most scalable, effective channel to reach customers.

If I am, you know, looking for a non-alcoholic option, I’m most likely just Googling each brand. If the site can't answer the questions on my mind about sourcing or who's behind this or why I should care, I'm not gonna pick it up off the shelf.

So, brands who aren't. Doing well or saying we're in retail, like we just have some products on the site, and then nothing about it gets that narrative.

Balancing Celebrity and Product Integrity

Jackie, there's so much messaging around Tom and his story as it relates to building the BERO brand and positioning. How do you balance the story of BERO while also proving it's delicious?

I think, you know, this ultimately is a challenge that we are thinking through every day because the way that people discover the brand may vary depending on what platform they come across us.

We really want to tell both stories just as much as we want to tell Tom's story. Our core customers can start to then be able to share via word of mouth.

Consumer Connection Through Testing

J can you share a bit more about the test and how it came to be?

We came to Dana with a specific ask that was a little bit around just proving that our product can stand above some of the competitive set. So specifically we tested our West Coast style IPA, which is an internal favorite, and BERO came out superior in a sample size of about 240.

It was a really, really great indication that from an enjoyment and flavor expectations being met, perspective that consumers were really happy and excited about.

Customer Segmentation

So I think for us, what's beautiful about the BERO brand and the opportunity that we have is, we are highly incremental to the category, meaning we've brought in new customers.

We're competing for the people who might go every other with a sparkling water at the bar.

Conclusion

Lucas, Jackie, thank you so, so much for joining us on the highlight reel.

We hope to continue this conversation in the future.