The golden – syrupy – age of Coca-Cola may be coming to an end. Relying on extensive distribution networks and mass marketing, it achieved global dominance and produced a 532% return over the last 20 years, making it one of the best performers in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio.
But the world has changed since Warren Buffett took his first sip of Coke. The next generation of consumers aren’t tuning into the radio or switching on the TV, they are scrolling on their feeds.
The shift to social media has given rise to the influencer – a powerful, relatively new type of celebrity that commands a loyal legion of supporters independent of mainstream media channels. Increasingly, they are monetising their audience and launching successful targeted products, especially consumer packaged goods (CPG).
Prime, the fastest-growing beverage in history, wasn’t an offering from Coca-Cola but from two superstar YouTubers. Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji – known online as KSI – and Logan Paul each began creating content over a decade ago and have amassed tens of billions of views. Since launching Prime, they’ve turned the full force of their platforms towards turning Prime into a beverage behemoth, incorporating the drink into music videos, buying a $10 million Super Bowl ad and securing a marketing partnership with UFC.
KSI used to stream himself playing FIFA in his underwear, now his company just did $1.2 billion in revenue in its first year of operations.
It’s a seismic shift that has investors salivating. The creator economy. Creators of all descriptions are cashing in, monetising their online tribes, often in niche communities perfect for targeted sales. These creators have cracked a cardinal truth: it’s more important to deeply resonate with a tribe than it is to weakly resonate with millions and get lost in the noise of the internet.
These challenger brands are sprouting out like the heads of a hydra, unseverable and growing fast. Especially in the consumer packaged goods industry. If you look at CPG industry reports, the top 25 brands account for only 3% of total growth. The microbrands account for 97% of growth. This statistic is driven by thousands of creators launching their own bespoke products to their audiences.
But it’s not just American creators disrupting the CPG conglomerates. Aussie creators are having a crack too. Someone who realised the power of tribe before everyone else is Aussie entrepreneur and influencer Zoë Foster Blake. She started a beauty blog in 2006, and then launched her skincare company Go-To in 2014. In 2021, she sold it for $89 million.
Comedic duo, the Inspired Unemployed, went viral with online dance videos in 2020. Since then they have grown to nearly two million fans on Instagram, which has spawned their own TV show as well as a beer brand, Better Beer. The brewing company has only been around for three years but has already frothed up a valuation of $80 million and claims to be Australia’s second-largest independently owned beer brand. It’s the type of growth that the old guard of beer makers could only dream of. But their old-school approach to mass marketing simply doesn’t taste as good as it used to.
The Inspired Unemployed have rallied their tribe around their personas as goofy tradies who love a Friday beer and eyebrow-wiggling dances. Their tribe drinks Better Beer.
Nedd Brockman rose to stardom after his heroic effort to run across the entirety of Australia in 47 days. His next act? Launching a milk company.
Nedd’s Milk is now available in Woolworths, and proudly features his face on the packaging. Sydney Swans players Ollie Florent and Will Hayward – each with their own digital followings – are busy building a community around their new seltzer, Doozy. Investors are taking notes and the trend is clear. Gen Z doesn’t want to buy from faceless corporations.
They want their buying decisions to reflect the digital tribes they belong to, be it a man who runs across Australia or someone who streams FIFA in their underwear.
Buffett might keep drinking Coke, but gen Z won’t, they drink Prime.
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Sean Stuart started his career as a venture capital investor where he specialised in AI, crypto and SaaS investments. He quit to run 80 marathons in 80 days across the USA. After that, he lived in Argentina where he wrote his second book, a mystery novel. Now he’s back in Sydney, at the intersection of these worlds — helping tech companies wield words.
