2before
We partnered with NZ Plant and Food Research to create a brand and define a market for an innovative health supplement.
How could we translate science into a commercial product? 2before is a natural sports performance supplement made from New Zealand blackcurrants that increases endurance, manages inflammation, supports immunity, and promotes adaptation.
Project Information:
Client: Plant & Food Research
Industry: Food & Beverage Innovation
Services: New Product Development, Building Brands & Storytelling
Translated science into a commercial opportunity.
Developed an ingredient brand for the unique split of cyaninidins and delphinidin found in NZ blackcurrants.
Built the consumer brand and product offering.
Created format, labelling, and packaging system.
Brand activation for web and digital.
Developed a framework for athlete endorsement and first sponsorship.
A new pre-activity ritual for athletes to adapt to peak performance
Elite performance begins with preparing the body to cope and adapt. Our goal is to inspire a movement towards a new ritual, to excel mentally and physically. It’s a bold new approach. 2Before exist to dramatically change peoples lives for the better, naturally.
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Overview
NZ’s Plant and Food Research (PFR) spent years developing and researching the benefits of a unique variety of blackcurrants with the aim of realising a marketable consumer product. They came to Virtuo to help define clear messaging around the benefits of blackcurrants, as there wasn’t anything similar on the market. They also needed to create a strategy for the product to be realised in a retail environment.
Frame
The big question we had to ask was: could we make a highly desirable product with strong technical and stylistic points of difference based on the novel blackcurrant science that PFR had discovered?
Adaptive anthocyanins (within New Zealand blackcurrants) fight off free radicals while activating your body’s own generation of NRF2 (the master antioxidant regulator) to mediate effects on oxidative stress, inflammation and immunity. Could this be translated into a brand and product system?
Our Approach
We began by developing a brand for the star ingredient, a unique variety of blackcurrant found only in New Zealand. The ingredient brand needed to define the special spilt of cyaninidins and delphinidins found in these specific blackcurrants. As the team began to fully understand the possibilities of this new science, we proposed Adaptive™ to become the traded term for the berry. This became the reference point for growing awareness of the science and as a way to talk about the unique properties found in New Zealand blackcurrants.
Territory Concepts
Once the branded ingredient was understood, we began to build a consumer brand around it.
The territory research led us to understand that the product would be best used as a new pre-activity ritual for athletes to adapt for peak performance. The goal for the consumer brand would be to inspire a movement towards a new mental and physical ritual to achieve the best.
Outcome
The product reaches maximum saturation in blood flow two hours after consumption, meaning it starts to prime the body for peak performance 2 hours before the desired maximum output. Using the consumer brand name as a way to communicate this technical understanding became a win-win for consumers being able to identify and understand this new brand.
Elite performance begins with preparing the body to cope and adapt. 2before™ came on the market as a new pre-activity ritual for athletes to adapt to peak performance. It’s a bold new approach which needed clear language to communicate a technical, science-based supplement. The label, pottle, shot and packaging offerings all worked together for the consumer to easily understand this new pre-performance ritual, which was in a category of its own.
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