How the Top YouTubers are Building Businesses in the Food and Beverage Space
The food and beverage industry has surprisingly been a successful venture for some of the biggest YouTubers. Despite the historical challenges of this industry, creators have found success with businesses ranging from chocolate bars and sports drinks to quick-service restaurants. These include MrBeast's MrBeast Burger and Feastables, Logan Paul and KSI's PRIME Hydration, Emma Chamberlain's Chamberlain Coffee, David Dobrik's Doughbrik’s Pizza, and the Sidemen's Sides.
What They Have Accomplished
These creators have achieved notable milestones in their businesses. Feastables generated $10 million in sales within its first few months, while PRIME reportedly did $250 million in retail sales during its first year. Chamberlain Coffee expanded its distribution to include major retailers such as Walmart and Sprouts Farmers Market. Looking ahead, the Sidemen have ambitious plans to launch over 200 locations for their fried chicken restaurant over the next ten years.
Why Food and Beverage Works for Creators
Everyday Demand: Food and beverages are part of everyday life, creating a consistent demand from people.
Accessibility: They are often priced lower, making them more accessible than other types of products that creators could sell.
Shareability: Food and beverages are prime for social media, allowing creators to benefit from their fans sharing photos or videos of their products in stores, consuming them, and more. This leads to an always-on type of awareness and word of mouth.
Combining Dynamic Creator Skills with Tried-and-True Strategies and Tactics
Creators and their massive YouTube audiences are at the core of the success of these businesses. However, they are not relying solely on that. Instead, they are combining their dynamic content creation, marketing, and community-building abilities with tried-and-true operational and marketing strategies and tactics. This allows them to deliver the best of both worlds.
Examples of these include hiring industry veterans to run their businesses (such as MrBeast, who hired former RXBAR's President, Jim Murray, as CEO of Feastables), securing distribution in prominent retailers (like Chamberlain Coffee in Walmart and Sprouts Farmers Market), becoming official sponsors of other companies, and investing in commercials, out-of-home advertising, and partnerships. All of this is true for PRIME, who ran a Super Bowl commercial this year, has partnerships with the UFC and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and much more.
The Gap Between Creator Brands and Legacy Brands
Currently, there is a significant gap between creator brands and category leaders. For example, PRIME generated an estimated $51.7 million in sales over a four-week period last April, compared to Gatorade's $263.5 million in the same period, according to market research data by Circana.
While creator brands still have a long way to go to surpass some legacy brands, the gap will narrow over time. In some cases, legacy brands may even acquire these creator brands for hundreds of millions or even billions as a way to expand their own businesses or reduce competition. This could make way for the first true digital billionaire creator.
Until then, don't be surprised to see some of these brands out and about. In the last two weeks alone, I came across Feastables at a 7-Eleven in New Hampshire during a road trip, and PRIME while grocery shopping at Target last week.
