The Founder of Grey Goose Launched an Energy Drink With… Lil Jon?
From a young age, the late beverage tycoon Sidney Frank made it his life goal to hit the big time. Born in Connecticut in 1919, he got bit by the entrepreneurial bug at age 12 when he built a ladder up to a prime view of Long Island Sound and charged kids 10 cents to climb it. Roughly 20 years later, he made his first foray into the liquor importing business when he got a job working for Lewis Rosenstiel, his father-in-law and founder of now-defunct spirit importing company Schenley Industries.
By 1972, he set off on his own, founding Sidney Frank Importing Company. From there on out, his career was marked by win after win after win. He acquired the importing rights to Jägermeister in 1974, and turned U.S. sales of the then-obscure German liqueur from 600 cases a year to 430,000 cases annually by 1997 — the same year he launched French luxury vodka brand Grey Goose. In 2004, just seven years after the brand’s debut, Frank sold Grey Goose to Bacardi to the tune of $2 billion.
At the time, Frank was 84 years old and sitting on buckets of cash. Under such circumstances, most people would retire and embrace a life of leisure. But Frank had a different philosophy. As he told Forbes in 2004, “At my age, you either stay busy or die.”
Until his passing two years later, that’s exactly what he did. At the time of the Forbes interview, he had his hands full with three different projects. There was importing and marketing Corazón de Agave tequila, which was ultimately acquired by the Sazerac Company. He launched a line of budget-friendly Italian wines. And, strangely, he got into the then-booming energy drink market by starting a beverage brand with Atlanta-based rapper and record producer Lil Jon.
The brand went — and still goes — by the not-so-subtle name of CRUNK!!! Energy (yes, with the three exclamation points). The whole thing may sound ridiculous, but it’s important to note that Frank was a savvy marketer who had a sixth sense for success in the drinks business. Regardless of the endeavor, he knew how to shape brands that would resonate with the masses.
Crunk initially launched with one expression: a pomegranate-flavored caffeine bomb packed with myriad botanicals like ashwagandha, horny goat weed, milk thistle, and skullcap. As for the name, the brand’s president and CEO in 2007, Tom Mahlke, told Beverage Industry Magazine that “Crunk is a style of music. It’s not necessarily one genre of music. It’s really about the lifestyle of kind of letting loose, feeling free and high energy.”
Admittedly, the “Crunk” ethos is vague at best, but Lil Jon had already embraced the ideology prior to the energy drink brand’s launch. In 1997, Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz released an album entitled “Get Crunk, Who U Wit: Da Album,” following up with the record “We Still Crunk!!” in 2000. Four later albums by the hip-hop group also featured the word somewhere in their titles.
With Lil Jon as the face of the brand, Crunk first rolled out to markets in urban areas with the bulk of its distribution based in cities across the American Southeast. True to Frank’s track record, it proved to be an immediate success. The brand’s image, marketing efforts, and timing culminated in a perfect storm. Lil Jon’s music was dominating the airwaves. Energy drinks were booming, with notable brands like Rockstar Energy and Monster Energy also emerging in the early aughts. And Frank tied all those elements together into one 8.3-ounce can.
Forbes reported that Crunk sold 35,000 cases between April and September of 2004. Although Frank didn’t live to see the day, privately held company Solvi Brands LLC acquired the energy drink brand for an undisclosed sum in May 2007. Luckily, Lil Jon stayed on board as the chief brand advisor.
The brand was a peculiar last hurrah for Frank, but it worked. Between Jägermeister, Grey Goose, Crunk, and everything in between, Frank essentially played hopscotch through the ages, capitalizing on trends and always hitting the mark.
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