It’s not a new phenomenon for celebrities to attach their name to a certain product; take for example, George Foreman’s grills, Dr Dre’s Beats by Dre headphones and Michael Jordan’s Nike Air Jordan footwear, but in recent years there’s been a distinct rise in the number of celebrity backed and own branded drinks.
Stirring up success in the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks sectors
Since 2014, Irish comedian and chat show host Graham Norton, in partnership with Invivo Wines, has sold a range of GN branded wines and spirits across the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, USA and Japan. The GN range has been quite the success with sales increasing by 396% year on year and in 2024, a glass of the GN Sauvignon Blanc was apparently enjoyed every 2 seconds by UK and Irish consumers, which is impressive, on all accounts.
Kylie Minogue then followed in 2020, in partnership with Benchmark Drinks, when she founded her own range of Prosecco and rosé wine called (as you might guess), “Kylie”. Kylie’s existing profile and platform has played an active role in the development and marketing of the brand; what better way to enjoy her music concerts than to do so while sipping on her Prosecco and rosé! Though, whilst her huge and loyal fan base has been instrumental to the brand’s success, pop fame alone doesn’t guarantee wine sales.
The appearance and distinctive look of the bottle is something one might expect from the pop icon, with its debossed hearts and clear bottle allowing the “pinkness” of the wine to shine through, but the wine is also of a good quality with grapes grown in and sourced primarily from Provence in southern France. That, combined with an A-list name and reputation, whilst selling at an affordable price, and noticeably undercutting other best-selling premium rosé wines in the UK, seems to be a good recipe for success. To date, the Kylie range has three Golds from the Drinks Business Wine Awards and over 20 million bottles have been sold globally. The Kylie range is available to purchase in 31 countries and the Kylie Prosecco Rosé alone accounts for 25% of the total Prosecco market in the UK.
Emerging NoLo drinks sector
Celebrities are not just drawn to the alcoholic drinks sector. Several celebrities, including Kylie, are also turning their attention to the increasingly lucrative and emerging NoLo (no- and low-alcohol) drinks sector. This is no wonder since the sector is already worth an estimated US $13 billion globally and GBP £380mn in the UK alone. Non-alcoholic beer and cider is likely to dominate the sector with its combined, global market value projected to hit USD $11.6 billion by 2027, according to GlobalData. These figures are set to continue to rise and are largely driven by a shift in consumer behaviour, with a greater interest in health and wellness, moderation, sobriety, ‘Dry January’ campaigns, and lifestyle choices of Gen Z and Millennials.
The barrier to entry is generally lower for NoLo products than traditional alcohol beverages, with fewer regulatory restrictions and greater opportunity and freedom on product development, however a dash of celebrity influence certainly helps as well as they take to their own social media pages to endorse and promote their new drinks brands to an already engaged fan base and consumer following.
Nowadays, it’s difficult to keep up with the continuous celebrity NoLo launches and brands - Katy Perry has a sparkling aperitif De Soi, Lewis Hamilton co-founded agave spirit Almave, Blake Lively regularly promotes her sparkling Betty Buzz mixers and mocktails, Tom Holland has recently moved into the NoLo beer space co-founding BERO and Bella Hadid co-founded seven years ago Kin Euphorics which is focused on providing adaptogens and nootropics.
One notable success, as one of the fastest growing NoLo brands on the market, is Spencer Matthews’ CleanCo alcohol-free ‘spirits’ brand, which he launched in the UK in 2019. Aside from the business’ claim that an estimated 8.8 million ‘Clean Cocktails’ were served in the UK in 2024, CleanCo’s sales revenue rose by 38% with over 300,000 bottles sold in 2024 across more than 6,000 major distribution points in the USA alone. CleanCo has also recently announced that England cricketer Ben Stokes OBE has joined the line-up as an investor and brand partner, further adding to the celebrity endorsement and reach, as part of the business’ latest USD $5m fundraise.
Pouring protection into the IP
While the buzz centres around the sleek bottles and star-studded marketing, there lies a complex layer of legal groundwork behind the scenes powering these ventures – especially in trade mark clearance and protection. As competition in the beverage space intensifies, securing exclusive rights internationally to brand names, logos and even the appearance of the packaging and shape of the bottles, has become just as important as the liquid inside the bottle. Even for celebrities, protecting their drinks brand is essential, particularly for when after the initial spotlight fades and they get down to business.
Many of the celebrity-backed brands discussed have secured trade mark protection for various elements such as their:
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Brand name(s)
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Logos, including the direction in which the name appears on the bottle,
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Label designs,
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Appearance of the bottle,
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Slogans / taglines,
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Personal names (where possible, subject to local laws in protecting an individuals’ name as a trade mark).
What’s interesting is that many have extended beyond their home market(s) and have adopted international registration strategies to safeguard their brands worldwide, into countries such as the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Argentina, India, Canada, Japan etc.
With all these celebrity drinks brand successes, it is not surprising that others have been influenced, including supermarket chain Aldi. In October 2024, Aldi launched its own range of rosé wine, called Rosalie which arguably bears a striking resemblance to Kylie’s rosé wine, both in terms of the appearance of the bottle and the font used for the name. Soon after, it made the press headlines that Kylie Minogue’s team was considering taking legal action, relying on her existing trade mark protection in the UK, but it’s as yet not clear whether they actually followed through. Needless to say, Aldi’s Rosalie wine is no longer available on their website, suggesting a possible out-of-court discussion and settlement was made.
More recently, Lionel Messi has been locked in his own battle off the pitch following the launch of his new MAS+ BY MESSI hydration drink. The dispute centres around a lawsuit filed at a New York federal court, by influencers Logan Paul and KSI alleging trade dress infringement of Prime Hydration’s distinctive packaging design. They claim that the MAS+ BY MESSI drink has copied the visual appearance and get-up of the Prime Hydration packaging. The case is ongoing but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds and what implications it could have on brand owners protecting their packaging designs.
One for the road?
It goes to show that no matter how many Grammy or Ballon d’Or awards you have to your name, if you want to move into the drinks sector, you still need to:
1) do the proper trade mark clearance checks to ensure your name, logos and get-up are available to use and register in your key markets and
2) consider what and how to protect your brand and in which markets.
What is important is to focus on the markets in which you manufacture, sell or plan to expand to, what to protect in terms of names, logos, distinctive visual elements, such as the packaging or the shape of the product and the form of protection i.e., through trade marks, designs etc.
If you have any questions relating to this topic, please get in touch with Justine Lynch, Carol Nyahasha or your usual Kilburn & Strode advisor.