AG1 CEO Kat Cole: up 40% Black Friday YoY after launching AG1 flavors, AGZ sleep product, and entering Costco

long the renovation was going to happen. Congratulations. I'm glad it's over. Wait, what'd you get? 83.

83.

Oo, wow. Came back with some authority. With some authority. Well, we have we have Cat from AG1 in the rear. Welcome former guest. She's back. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. It's such a busy busy day

right after Thanksgiving. Welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Great to see you.

Since we last talked, what's new in your world? I I we we've been we've been sort of bucketing brands. Okay. Someone's more of a you know, this is Black Friday. It's the most giftable Game Boy possible. It's going to be under the Christmas tree. Uh and then uh David Protein, you know, sales are down 20% today. Gearing up for January, new year, new Black Friday is not a huge focus.

How are you? Yeah. How are you thinking about making the most out of today, Monday, the rest of the year generally at AG1?

You know, I think of today twofold. One is today is a day to capture demand. We've been building throughout the year. When I was hanging out with you guys, I think it was in June. Yeah.

We had just launched in Costco.

Yeah. We had not even launched our new flavors.

That was the number one tip we learned from you. If you're in consumer package goods, just launch in Costco. Win in Costco and then you're good. That's the tip.

Uh it's been incredible. But after that, we launched flavors for AG1.

And we launched our first ever truly second brand and product with AGZ. So we went from one product to

this. Az. And so today is about capturing the demand we've been building throughout the year with these product launches, investments in upgrading the formula, multiple human clinical trials, really bridging into retail and having multiple products. So as we market, as we invest, as people flood into market for what are typically offers, but still to shop, to make purchases, it is absolutely a demand capture moment. That being said, much like some of the other premium brands you've spoken to, it's also a day just to be in front of people and build future demand for when more are in market at the end of December and in January. But we are

we're up almost 40% Black Friday to Black Friday.

Wow.

And uh Yes. And I think a big part of that is bring on the gong.

The gong.

You know what? I I shared this on X a little earlier that this is a brave new world for us having multiple products so we can create bundles. We don't discount per se but we can add value with multiple products allowing people to bundle and that is absolutely what's driving that year-over-year growth on Black Friday. People are adding AGZ to their AG1 orders. They're adding a flavor sampler to their order. They're bundling our omegas and D3K2. We just we didn't have that portfolio a year ago. you were playing on, you guys were playing on expert mode, just single skew.

So, so up 40% year-over-year on Black Friday to Black Friday. Uh, obviously that's driven by products, new products, expansion. Uh but if there's one marketing or growth strategy that really stuck out over 2025 as particularly effective, um what what can you share about a a strategy or a channel that that that you you think you executed particularly well on this year?

I'll share one strategy and one channel that stood out for us this year. One strategy was shifting the marketing focus

from as influencer and creator forward to more science forward. You know, we invested

over 10 million in four double blind randomized placeboc controlled human trials and it makes a lot of sense to try to get credit for that and help to stand out in the crowd.

So for the first half of the year, we pulled back marketing investment 40%. to focus on executing product launches, executing channel launches and building the story around the real work of quality science and research. So that strategy, that approach which colored everything we did from the actual marketing where we put up huge billboards, we invested millions in out of home advertising that said something like please enjoy your d your randomized double blind placeboc controlled daily health drink. you know advertising beautiful I don't know you know

I would say maybe like literally like 0.1 001% of supplement companies actually do like studies on their products and they're just like hey this study happened over here with this one ingredient and so we're just going to apply that

yeah over here

yeah it's you know and it that strategy even colored our partnership approach we instead of partnering with athletes this fall did NIL deals with nutrition students,

college students. So we just and we had them put on the hat, the jersey, everything and sign up. So the science strategy pulled through the year.

The channel strategy that we are really starting to see the value of is actually TV linear and CTV. We were on game seven of the World Series with our Good Morning Moon campaign narrated by the Ever Epic and a longtime AG1 drinker Rick Rubin.

No way.

Nice.

And it was much more brand, top off funnel, emotional like who are our people and what do they do when they get up early in the morning? And then we created 15 and 30 subcuts of that for parents, for runners, for athletes. And so that's pulling through to the high season as we get into December and January. And we're starting to see, again, it's tougher to track those types of things. Uh, but there's incredible AI and technology out there to help with that. We're starting to see that channel contribute meaningfully and especially now that we're in retail and we're in Costco today. We'll launch additional national retailers next year thoughtfully going direct to national. And so, you know, as many others have said today, when you have multiple channels, you make those top offunnel marketing investments. They have more places to contribute.

Yeah. Uh, so we can expect to see a Super Bowl ad.

One day. One day.

You can expect to see more human clinical trials. I got another 20 million going into research.

Oh, 20 million. That's

amazing. Um uh how do you how do you rate the overall health of the consumer and just kind of the macro over the last uh we had a friend of ours Nish from Ray on. He said the first six months of this year felt wildly different from a from a macro standpoint uh than uh than than uh the last uh five or so months. But what's been your view? You know, certainly if you look at the economic data, it says there's a tale of two cities in the world of consumer um with, you know, people who have higher income propping up spending versus those who don't. For us and our business, because about, you know, into the first quarter, but halfway through the calendar year, we had so many back-to-back launches of products, channels, and innovation. It masked what might have otherwise been bumpiness. Yeah. With a more mature model and it gave some variety again, some value creation for that consumer. What hasn't changed and I've heard a few others on with you today reference this is how deeply considered these premium purchases are. Yeah.

And so the investments we made a year ago in top of funnel marketing, 6 months ago in clinical trials, two months ago in launching AGZ, leaning in still to our podcast partners and the creator economy, uh where we were early movers, and it's still a key part of our strategy today, but nowhere near the largest uh channel from a marketing perspective. All of that brings people to for us what on average is 8 to 10 touch points before they purchase.

Wow. I mean it is a long consideration journey and we're seeing it play out in multiple markets. In our partnership with Shopify, we launched Australia, we launched Japan, we are launching more of these products in our our European business now and we see very similar behaviors. So we are a premium price point, but it's also an incredible value because we consolidate an otherwise very expensive supplement stack in both AG1 and AGZ.

Yep. Uh got anything else? I we'd love to have you back on in January when we kick off the new year. That that will be a massive uh a massive period for for you guys, but uh wish we had more time, but um

and just to clarify, there's there's a question in the chat about AGZ. Uh it's for sleep, correct?

AGZ. Where's my little AGZ?

Az, I have it here.

So, it's a melatonin free.

Okay.

Uh nighttime rest and restore product. So we just like we did for AG1, we consolidated a multivitamin, a probiotic, and greens. For AGZ, we consolidated what most people are making, their sleepy girl, sleepy boy mocktails with ashwagandha and magnesium, two types of magnesium, and incredible researchbacked herbal blend. So AG1 for the morning, AGZ for the night to calm and develop a restored

247.

Fantastic 247.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come chat with us. great rest of your day.

Congrats on Friday. Likewise, thanks for having me. Talk to you soon. Cheers.

Happy Black Friday.

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