the Joshua Schall Audio Experience

Stay with me here for a second, but the pursuit of the ultimate Pokémon card is a thrilling adventure that ignites the hearts of collectors. It encompasses the joy of discovery, the excitement of serendipity, and the satisfaction of completing a quest. Now…swap Pokémon card for PRIME Hydration drink or that’s how I envision Logan Paul pitched the idea! PRIME just launched its newest limited-editio...

Everywhere you turn, iron-clad sports nutrition brands of the past are now showing cracks in their armor. So, should the recent BPI Sports news have really surprised you? I’m going to let you in on a not so little secret within the supplement industry. Supplement brands are competing for every dollar from consumers who have a heightened sensitivity to costs, and though the supplement consumer has...

It has been over six months since my last MusclePharm bankruptcy update, but don’t misinterpret that silence as somehow indicating the court proceedings must have been good vibes only. If you followed my Bang Energy bankruptcy content, you know that process took around 260 days. But it was complex, involving creditor claims in the billion-dollar range…and had that infamous hostile takeover element...

They say that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” but I’m not sure this one passed the vibe check. When my creative director Grant Furness showed me the twitter jokes circulating around in late-May about Swift Lifestyle, I thought can you imagine the conversation that brand owner had with his design agency…or most likely the international freelancer on Fivver. It’s like “Hey Bro! I want...

MyProtein is in the early stages of rolling out a global rebrand, but is it impactful enough to make the future clearer for the THG Nutrition division? On September 14, 2023, THG (aka the company formerly known as The Hut Group) updated the public markets by releasing its 2023 first half earnings report. I’ll be utilizing that financial information, along with notes I took listening to the earning...

In my Biosteel content from July 6, titled "BioSteel Sales Misstatements & SEC Investigation | Canopy Growth Next Steps with Sports Drink", I knew major decisions would need to be made for brand survival, but I completely overlooked the probability of a BioSteel bankruptcy…mostly because Canopy Growth CEO said he still had “great confidence” in the sports drink brand. But on Septembe...

Even Edward Bernays would be impressed with whoever is behind the onslaught of propaganda against PRIME. First, several school districts in countries like Australia, Canada, and UK issue parental warnings or straight up ban the drinks. Plus, Canada supposedly recalled PRIME…even though the beverage brand doesn’t distribute into the country yet. And you might think crazy international folks, but ev...

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! For the past several months, you’ve probably noticed that branded beverage cooler over my shoulder. I call it my “get shit done” cooler because it’s stocked with mostly C4 Smart Energy drinks but also a variety of other f...

I’m going to let you in on a not so little secret within the supplement industry. Supplement brands are competing for every dollar from consumers who have a heightened sensitivity to costs, but the supplement consumer has proved once again that it’s highly resilient. And while the level of investment funding and quantity of M&A transactions are down this year (compared to the previous few year...

CPG brands must understand how quickly and dramatically they can be dragged into cultural battles that impact the bottom line. Does that mean CPG brands should deemphasize purpose-driven moves around identity and culture? It depends…mostly predicated on what I like to call The Rule of Nike. Because the fact is that most consumers want CPG brands to serve their basic needs by understanding what the...

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! If I asked you to make a list of the fastest-growing supplement brands of the 2020s, I’d consider you downright silly if you didn’t include the name Bloom. Excuse the punny joke, but if you weren’t aware…business is absol...

If I was a writer at one of those big clickbait paywalled media companies, this content’s title might read “AI unveils Satan’s new energy drink!” To decode that a bit, and no I didn’t make this energy drink name up, but Europe-based HELL Energy recently decided to let advanced AI systems craft every aspect of its newest product offering. AI started by formulating the perfect (and complaint) perfor...

It has been just over two years since I last created a piece of content focused on Thorne Healthtech, so it’s probably long overdue for an update…especially considering something big just happened! Outside of that August 2021 IPO deep analysis on Thorne Healthtech, the only other YouTube mention of the company was in this year’s annual outlandish supplement industry event prediction content. But i...

Too often, I see “better for you” or functional CPG brands thinking strategically about customer personas in these clean binary constructs. I get it though…an avid premium kombucha buyer would never have a shopping cart that’s also full of Oreos, hot and ready fried chicken, and cans of fake spray cheese, right? Well…CPG entrepreneurs with that kind of limiting mindset about consumer behavior leav...

Even as food inflation moderates slightly, private-label brands continue to pose an expanding level of competitive threat to functional CPG brands. What? Why would a functional CPG brand be worried about competition risk from private-label products? They are just cheaper basic versions of national brand products anyways, right? While those cheapest copycat focused private-label brands like Great V...

Serious question…have you ever seen an overweight squirrel? Yeah…me either, and I saw tons of them at Kent State University where the black squirrel is an unofficial mascot. Maybe us humans should be looking at those cute…I wish I had one as a pet, squirrels as our spirit animals for weight management. They do the basics everyday…exercise, sun exposure, and nutritionally dense meals full of acorns...

After a decade of consistent leadership coming to an end soon, will there be major changes ahead for the multibillion-dollar global nutrition company? Glanbia Performance Nutrition is one of two wholly-owned segments of Glanbia plc (LON:GLB), a multi-billion dollar global nutrition company. The brands in the Glanbia Performance Nutrition portfolio include; Optimum Nutrition, BSN, think!, Isopure,...

Have you ever wondered why so many of the largest global supplement companies utilize a multilevel marketing strategy? Is it just that effective or is there something deeper at play? I can’t be the only supplement industry professional that’s ever wondered why an MLM brand like Herbalife sells more supplements in 90 days than a massive brand like Optimum Nutrition can throughout an entire year. Or...

Hundreds of class actions lawsuits get filed each year against food and beverage CPG companies. While many of those legal complaints would be classified as reasonable, I want to take this in a totally different direction. I want to run down my top 3 weirdest lawsuits filed against food and beverage CPG companies over the last few years. Coming in at number three, Kellogg’s was sued because their S...

After another insanely positive quarterly performance, Premier Protein is now the number one brand in convenient nutrition, but it’s a recent “under the radar” partnership announcement that has me thinking about a previous crazy prediction I made in early 2021. BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR) is a portfolio that owns a collection of convenient nutrition brands like Premier Protein, Dymatize Nutrition...

Vibe this, vibe that, if CELSIUS really wanted to create an impactful flavor, maybe the next one should be PepsiCo Vibe. This is only the second quarter that Celsius energy drinks was fully integrated into the PepsiCo DSD distribution system after the August deal announcement. Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH) had quarterly revenue of $326 million, which was up 112% YoY. According to IRI last 52-wee...

It’s only been a week since Monster Beverage officially completed the acquisition, but leadership is finally unmuting itself about what’s next for Bang Energy. While the bulk of this content is going to be focused on reconciling what I previously predicted Monster Beverage would do with the Bang Energy asset to the strategic gameplan that leadership at Monster Beverage started to disclose during t...

Just like the hard seltzer craze from a few years ago and flavored malt beverages many moons before that, history looks to be repeating itself once again…as too many beverage entrepreneurs are rushing into a red-hot market. Yes, the RTD cocktail category has now grown to 5 percent share of the alcoholic beverage market…and yes, breakthrough innovation opportunities are always out there but most ne...

A multi-sensory brand experience creates a stronger emotional connection, and that’s why I think GHOST’s next big move should be building a curated lifestyle shop on the ground floor of its Chicago headquarters. While I'll provide historical context for that GHOST Lifestyle prediction, it all surrounded the pre-launch belief that GHOST Energy would be a mega success. That opened up GHOST Lifes...

Snoop Dogg is one of the most successful musicians in the world, but he’s also no slouch when it comes to impacting the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. So, what can CPG professionals learn from the hip-hop legend? I’ve always believed that hip-hop and CPG entrepreneurship are linked together. This is probably why you see so many hip-hop artists that are involved with CPG entrepreneurship o...