This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Feature
The most successful celebrity-backed spirits brands
A study of celebrity-owned businesses has revealed the most successful alcohol brands with famous backing. But which one has taken the top spot?
The list was compiled by packaging company Arka, which ranked the most popular celebrity-owned businesses by annual revenue to determine which is the most successful. Online search popularity of the businesses was also considered for ‘a more holistic list’.
While beauty and fashion companies dominated the list, it certainly wasn’t short of alcohol brands – perhaps unsurprising, considering IWSR data recently found that celebrity-backed spirits brands often outperform the growth of their categories globally.
To find out which celebrity-backed spirits businesses made the top list, keep scrolling.
9. Brother’s Bond Bourbon
Brother’s Bond Bourbon, founded by former Vampire Diaries actors Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, took the ninth spot in the list created by Arka.
Launched in 2020, Brother’s Bond was named after the pair’s former roles on the show, as well as their shared love of Bourbon and the ‘brotherhood’ they developed over the years they starred together.
In June, the duo starred in the first episode of The Spirits Business Podcast, in which they told host Melita Kiely about the brand and its portfolio of whiskeys, which is now available in the US and Canada.
8. Dos Hombres
Arka ranked Dos Hombres Mezcal, founded by actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, as the eighth most successful alcohol brand in the celeb-owned category.
The pair, best known for playing Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in AMC series Breaking Bad, launched their mezcal brand Dos Hombres in 2019. The brand’s portfolio consists of Tobala Mezcal and Espadín Mezcal, made using spirit from mezcal producers in San Luis del Rio, Oaxaca.
The brand receives approximately 33,100 online searches a year.
7. Casamigos
Bringing in approximately 710,100 online searches a year is George Clooney and Randy Gerber’s Casamigos brand – the lists seventh most successful alcohol brand backed by a famous face.
Last October, data showed celebrity brands accounted for 10% of spirits sold in Union’s venues in the year ended 31 July 2023, with Clooney’s brand being the most popular choice. Despite this, sales of the brand actually dropped by 20% in owner Diageo’s full-year results, published in July.
6. Betty Buzz
It Ends With Us star Blake Lively has capitalised on her title as a teetotaller and created a line of mixers that can be enjoyed both with and without alcohol.
Betty Buzz, along with its alcoholic sister range, Betty Booze, has been placed as the sixth most successful celebrity brand on the list. Meanwhile, Lively’s gin-slinging husband, Ryan Reynolds, is surprisingly absent from the list, despite his creative and extensive marketing campaigns for Aviation Gin, and the backing of spirits giant Diageo.
5. Gin & Juice
While Snoop Dogg’s position on this list can also be attributed to the success of his blended wine brand, 19 Crimes, the Drop It Like It’s Hot rapper also sees continuous success for his Gin & Juice product, which launched in the UK this summer.
Together, Snoop’s brands receive approximately 750,680 online searches.
4. Onda Tequila
Tequila-based seltzer brand Onda, co-founded by Pretty Little Liars actor Shay Mitchell, receives an estimated 520,600 searches online.
Since launching its ready-to-drink cans in 2020, Onda has added a a blanco and reposado Tequila to the range, both of which have been crafted in small batches from hand-cultivated agave azul, before being slow-cooked in steam ovens, milled with authentic stone Tahona wheels, and double-distilled in premium copper pot stills.
The seltzer line-up includes the classic collection (comprising grapefruit, lime, blood orange, and watermelon expressions), the tropical collection (boasting guava, coconut, pineapple, and peach expressions), and the paradise collection (featuring mango, passion fruit, pineapple, and strawberry expressions).
3. 818 Tequila
Following its initial launch in the US in May 2021, Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila has quickly become one of the best-selling Tequilas worldwide. It is reportedly China’s best-selling premium Tequila brand, and when it entered the UK market in early 2023 , it immediately faced unexpected demand, with sales rising by 150% above predicted levels within 12 days of launching.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that Arka has placed it at third on the list. What might be a surprise, given Jenner’s popularity on social media, is that the Tequila only receives 214,560 online searches a year, which, while still a large number, is somewhat modest compared with some of the other brands in this list.
2. Virginia Black Whiskey
Canadian rapper and singer Drake entered the spirits category in 2016, long before entering the spirits category was a rite of passage for a celebrity.
Launched in collaboration with Hocking, founder of Deléon Tequila, Virginia Black is a blend of two-, three- and four-year-old Bourbon, and is said to have a high-rye mash bill. According to Arka’s research, the American whiskey generates US$38.5m in annual sales, despite only seeing 9,200 yearly online searches.
1. Teremana Tequila
Finally, standing on top of the most-successful celebrity brands podium is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Teremana Tequila, which not only is the most successful celebrity-backed spirit brand on the list, but ranks as the ninth most successful business owned by a celebrity across all categories.
This year, Johnson’s Tequila brand made its debut in our Brand Champions report after the brand grew from 0.9 million nine-litre-case sales in 2022 to 1.0m in 2023 – a 17.7% increase.
Prior to that, Teremana revealed it would be expanding into five new markets this year: the UK, UAE (Dubai), Australia, Colombia and Germany, in addition to having just launched in global travel retail.
That news was then followed by the announcement that the brand would be expanding its distillery to meet increasing demand as it pursues international growth.
Related news
Gabriel Macht invests in Bear Fight Whiskey