Surf, sounds and NFTs collide in a new-wave, better-for-you movement.
Australia’s appetite for alcohol is changing. Known throughout the world for our love of an icy, cold, beer after a hard day’s yakka (work), there’s a swelling movement towards drinking better. Premium brands are in, but also, low sugar, low calorie, low carbohydrate and sometimes not even alcoholic.
Drinks market analysis by IWSR predicts the Australian seltzer market will grow 24% by 2025, driven by consumer demand for flavourful drinks with those “better-for-you” attributes.
International star DJ Paul Fisher just completed his first Australian tour over the past few weekends and Hard FIZZ seltzer sold 100,000 cans. DJ FISHER and more than 40 others privately raised $4 million to launch the brand in 2020. Another $1.5 million was raised privately in June this year and now the brand has 48 investors, who have a social media reach of nine million.
They include Hard FIZZ CEO Wade Tiller, who once worked for Bacardi, ex-Masterchef celebrity Hayden Quinn, surfers Nikki Van Dijk and Laura Enever and DJ Tigerlily and DJ Brook Evers, and former TV camera operator Joel Scott, Paul and his wife Chloe Fisher.
The brand, with a little help from these founders and ambassadors, has quickly become the third-biggest seller in seltzers after majors including White Claw and Smirnoff.
“It was so cool to see the crowd doublefisting Hard FIZZ cans in the audience,” Fisher says in an interview with Forbes Australia, after his Australian tour.
The reality might have been awesome, but the latest collaboration is in the metaverse. Salty Pirate Crew has partnered with Hard FIZZ to move into Web 3 with an NFT. Barrett Ovens founded the Salty Pirate Crew, an NFT collection and blockchain game built on Ethereum. The collection sold for $850,000 in three days.
Just like a treasure chest, a golden can of Hard FIZZ has been “buried” in every 10th carton of the beverage with the lucky finders rewarded with a “Metaverse Key” NFT, giving them exclusive access to special events and benefits within the Salty Pirate Crew world.
“The backbone of NFT is all about community,” says Ovens. “Brands that have created communities over many years will use NFTs to connect people on a level never seen before. The next wave of adoption will be brands entering the market, not for money or quick profits, but to truly connect their audience. That’s why working with Hard FIZZ is a great starting point for not only Salty Pirate Crew but for NFT adoption.”
Hard FIZZ investor Joel Scott says, “We thought it was a really cool idea to be the first kind of seltzer to do an NFT.”
While DJ FISHER puts Ibiza as his No.1 venue, if he were asked to DJ in the metaverse, he says he wouldn’t say ‘no’. “People are really starting to talk about that. A lot of people over in Europe have been trying to design how to go about it and yeah, it’d be cool to have a character in that world for sure.”
Surf to success
A former pro surfer, Fisher credits Australia’s beach culture as part of the inspiration behind the seltzer’s success.
“Everyone wants to be down on the beach hanging out and that’s where everyone kind of gets together. Being a surfer and if you have a bit of a name behind yourself already, I think it just helps you straight away. For us, it was a no brainer. You know, all my mates hanging on the beach. We surf all day and then crack a fizz in the afternoon and have a good time.
“I think for us it was all about the branding. Everyone knows your face, and it’s easy to get the brand out there. Having social media or a platform has enabled us to do what we do now and looking at where we’re going into the future and what you can do with social media, why wouldn’t you?” he says.
The team talks about their FIZZ drinkers as “family”. While traditionally a seltzer might have been seen as a lady’s drink, over 50% of their sales are to males and 70% of their audience is aged between 25 and 34.
CEO Tiller says “better-for-you” is a growing trend around the world. “I think the underlying thought process today is that we want stuff that’s better for us. Everyone loves beer and Australia’s always going to drink a lot of beer. But people do want to explore different things as well and I’ve been in the alcohol sector a long time. I’ve never before seen it where people will try so many different things. Back in the day it was like you were rusted on – you were either a beer drinker or you drank probably bourbon, or scotch, but not all of them. Now they drink a bit of everything.”
When they launched in 2020, they might have had around 40 similar products fighting for market share, but now, with consolidation, there’s about six serious contenders. With a collective nine million audience on social media through its various founders and ambassadors, the drink’s popularity has skyrocketed.
“Without that star power, I think there’s a lot of great products out there, but they just don’t get to see the light of day,” says Scott. “Definitely our owner ambassadors have all got strategic value that Fish also brought to the table. They already had an audience, and they wanted to get them involved. That was how we got awareness, through social media.
“Because they’re all friends. There’s no push that today you have to do this. They want this to succeed. It’s kind of an easy win for us.”
They have privately raised a total $5.5 million with 48 investors “so it just means that everyone’s along for the ride”.
Could go global
The team is focused on continuing to win market share in Australia, but has everything in place to go global, considering more than 40 approaches from around the world. They are looking at doing other products beyond new flavours, admitting to “playing around with some unique brewing concepts” and looking at non-alcoholic varieties.
While they are full supporters of drinking responsibly, Scott says “part of our brand is that we don’t want to take it all too seriously. This is fun. Everything we do we kind of want it to have that aspect to it.”
Fisher says he first noticed the seltzer trend while DJing in the US. “I could see how good it was going in America. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to be a part of something like this in Australia’, for sure. And it was just cool to see. You know, what we’ve done with the brand now, from when we started, it’s crazy and I’m stoked.
“I saw that potential and it’s been a fun ride for me. I wanted to be a part of something fun. I’ve never been a part of something from the start like this. It’s pretty cool.”
Brewed in a microbrewery on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the team reaches out on social media to ask customers what they want next and the most popular flavours on tap get packaged up for the broader market.
“I’m really enjoying the process of just being a part of it right now,” says Fisher. “Hopefully we can do so much more with it. Yeah, it’s just fun. I just enjoy going in and seeing these boys and the crew that we’ve got working there. There’s no ego in our brand. It’s all about having fun and hopefully everyone enjoys the drink.”
Tiller adds, “We’re pretty excited about what we’ve got coming. It might sound a bit corny, but we are just getting started. We’re only two years old.”
