How the booming non-alc market helped Naked Life raise over $2m in two days

Demand for non-alcoholic drinks has risen rapidly over the last few years, with myriad brands launching into this burgeoning market and attempting to corner their own niche. Most brands launch with one or two products and attempt to scale from there. Melbourne-based Naked Life, one of the most successful brands in the market, however, took a completely different approach.Rather than focus on a single product, Naked Life went wide. “I was talking to someone about non-alcoholic beverages, and they mentioned that there were a bunch of different gin [alternatives] on the market, and said, ‘It sucks, because I don’t like gin, so there’s nothing there for me’,” Naked Life founder David Andrews told Inside FMCG. “So we did research on the top 10 mixed drinks in the country, and recreated them. That way, if someone was in any way curious about the brand, we [would be more likely to] have their favourite drink, and they’d be more inclined to try it.”Andrews believes that people who aren’t drinking alcohol are looking for the same complexity and choice on a night out, rather than being limited to soft drinks or water when at the pub. To remedy this, the brand launched a number of mocktails, from a classic gin and tonic to a cosmopolitan, that seek to reproduce the complexity and flavours of the real thing.And the results speak for themselves: Naked Life was named Australia’s leading non-alcoholic cocktail at the 2022 Melbourne International Spirits Competition, and is now available in over 30,000 distribution points across grocery, hospitality, food service and liquor stores.Ahead of Dry July,  the brand has plans to scale it up even further.Last week, Naked Life kicked off an equity crowdfunding raise through Birchal, and, at the time of writing, passed $2 million in funding in two days. Before the campaign, the business was valued at approximately $34.5 million.The proceeds from the raise will go to facilitate the brand’s expansion into the US and UK in an attempt to capture even more of the $14.7 billion global no/low-alcohol market, as well as a bigger marketing push to introduce the brand to more Australians. According to IWSR, 71 per cent of Australians are reducing their alcohol intake, signalling a structural and cultural shift in the country’s relationship with alcohol – and it’s being driven by 18-35 year olds. “The 18- to 35-year-old group isn’t necessarily replacing alcohol, they’re just not picking it up to start with. They’ve grown up with role models that were drinking less,” Andrews said. “And they’re now looking for more choice in what they drink.”Dry JulyWhile Australia has long been known for its drinking culture, a growing number of them are cutting back on the amount of alcohol they drink for the month of July. What started as a campaign aimed at raising money for cancer research has become an opportunity for Australians to improve their health, and the months leading up to it are generally some of the busiest for non-alcoholic brands.“It’s pretty hectic,” Andrews said. “There’s a lot of planning that goes into this because, really, we see it as an opportunity to show people who are drinkers how [Naked Life] can fit into their lives.”According to Andrews, the fact that Naked Life is available across the supermarket sector is a boon, since people abstaining from alcohol generally do not go to liquor stores to shop.“You can market your product all you want, but some of the best marketing is when someone wishes they had something, and your alternative is there,” Andrews said.