XPO NRG headed to Vegas for marketing collaboration

PricePlow, the marketing and media platform that managed the project, described the not-made-for-retail energy drink as a fun marketing stunt that brings together industry clients to highlight what can come from “collaboration at the top.”

“Everyone in that can is a partner of PricePlow, and so […] the people who do work with us get a chance to really show their goods off,” said Mike Roberto, founder and CEO at PricePlow. “This is a way of rewarding those who deserve to be rewarded, and now people within the industry will know.”

Partners on the project include ingredient suppliers Ketone Labs, Kyowa Hakko, PLT Health Solutions, NNB Nutrition and TSI Group, flavor house Sensapure, branding and design firm NutraMedia, formulator Savage Nutra, contract manufacturer MacroCap Labs and custom label printer McDowell Label.

Energy without the caffeine​

Joey Savage, who had been working on combining some of the partner supplier ingredients for a beverage concept prior to the collaboration explained that they work well together to provide complementary cognitive benefits minus the spike and crash of traditional energy drinks.

“We wanted to prove that you can make an energy drink that doesn't have any caffeine—that is the true innovation of what we're bringing to the table,” he said. “This is a quote-unquote energy drink that does give you energy without the cardiovascular impact of caffeine, the anxiety inducing effect of caffeine.” 

As detailed on the supplement facts label, one 16 oz.-serving of XPO NRG combines Ketone Labs’ goBHB (5,000 mg), Kyowa Hakko’s Cognizin citicoline (250 mg), PLT Health’s Zembrin Sceletium tortuosum ​(25 mg), NNB Nutrition’s MitoPrime L-ergothioneine (25 mg) and TSI Group’s enfinity paraxanthine (200 mg) in a lemonade flavor that the team thought would best appeal to the international crowd at the trade show.

The project also highlights that the beverage is experiential, a catchword that has caught on in the industry in response to demand for results consumers can feel.

‘Wizards behind the curtains’​

For the collaborators, the XPO NRG can was devised as a vehicle to showcase the unseen components that contribute to creating a branded product.

“In our industry there's a lot of wizards that are behind curtains that are the primary movers of executing on certain projects, and a lot of times those individuals and those parties go unnoticed,” said Taylor Knox of NutraMedia. “This is a way for us to come together and show off our abilities to execute on our services in a collaborative nature that is fun and enjoyable for everyone […], but it allows us the opportunity to market ourselves without being the guys behind a brand or an NDA.”

Inspired by Formula 1 where sponsorship plasters brand logos on turbocharged race cars that provide global exposure during the high-octane motorsports event, Knox said XPO NRG features all partners involved in the project front-of-pack. There is even room on label for several paragraphs of marketing text.

“We can show you that we did this, and we're going to put our logos on the product as a way to market our own services and goods, but it's also fun, it's collaborative, it's innovative, and there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to all celebrate that,” Knox added. 

The project officially got underway on July 28 with a series of calls to onboard the ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturer and label printer to make sure the cans would arrive in Las Vegas by Oct. 30. 

“We were really concerned about getting everything together—the drink working in the can, the sleeves working on the can, there being no reactions between the ingredients, the flavor being good, all these things,” said Ben Kane of PricePlow. “We finally get it finished, and it feels like the product, the project is done but then a major hurricane hits the state it's in, and we had one more trial to go through.”

All parties donated their goods and services to the project to run the minimum batch of 50,000 units at Orlando-area MacroCap Labs. As to what will become of the 30,000-can reserve, Knox said it is still to be determined but that whatever happens, the decision will be a group effort.

XPO NRG will be available at participating exhibitor booths including Ketone Labs (Booth 6733), Kyowa Hakko (Booth 3765), NNB Nutrition (Booth 7311), PLT Health (Booth 4655), ​NutraMedia​ (Booth 7465), ​Sensapure Flavors (Booth 5923) and TSI Group (5831)​.