MC is ramping up mktg for Coors Banquet in a big way amid continued strong growth. After making "waves" in popular TV series Yellowstone as frequent beverage of choice, Coors Banquet and Yellowstone "will appear together beyond the screen" with new partnership that allows Coors to utilize cross-branded marketing at retail and elsewhere, brand director Katie Feldman shared at MC distrib meeting. Yellowstone (and Cobra Kai) TV shows "catapulted brand awareness and love to new heights" organically, said Katie, including Yellowstone drawing more viewers than NFL Prime Time. Last season of Yellowstone, Coors had a product integration deal with the show. But for season 5, now MC can do "much more" with rights to the "marks, show, drama" and all, including branded POS for in-store displays that encourage consumers to "Live Like a Dutton." First time Coors and Yellowstone will be able to appear together at retail.

Tho not exactly unprecedented, it isn't every day that a major alc bev industry member walks away from a major trade group. Diageo will not renew its membership in DISCUS, co confirmed with Politico. Departure described as "amicable," and co will continue to collaborate with the org on Responsibility.org and Pronghorn inclusion and diversity initiative. But it's also a blow to an org that's been riding high in recent years.

It hadda happen as Twisted kept rising and Truly kept falling. And now Twisted Tea has truly arrived, up 34% to $18.7 mil in sales in latest week of IRI data thru Sep 18. That makes Twisted Tea a top 10 beer brand family, something Boston Beer almost certainly never envisioned when it launched a regional FMB. And Twisted is Boston Beer's largest brand too, almost $1 mil bigger than Truly family in latest week. Truly down 22% to $17.8 million. Total Boston Beer $$ sales flattish, down 0.3% for 1 week. (Gotta note, this data doesn't include Truly flavored vodkas or vodka seltzer RTDs.)

Another AB dist deal inked early this week as Watkins Dist will acquire northwest MT-based Flathead Beverage. Flathead sells about 650K cases annually with AB making up around 3/4 of mix. Fairly extensive list of smaller suppliers and new-age NA brands like Bang, Celsius (for now), Alani Nu, C4, A Shoc, Essentia, Liquid Death make up rest of the ~150K cases/yr. Deal expected to close by end of yr and puts Watkins Dist at nearly 5 mil cases total. While Flathead is relatively small, northern MT territory draws solid tourism biz thru Glacier National Park and several other cos were interested in Flathead, INSIGHTS understands.

A heckuva lot happened in the first half of 2020. And heck, that was before Coca-Cola shook up bev and beer industries with news it was getting into hard seltzer biz! Unpack the most important stories and understand how the US beer biz navigated these wild times - and the role that non-alcoholic brands can play in generating consistent growth - during Beer & Beyond at the Half 2020. On Aug 12, join this mid-year review webinar from Beer Marketer's Insights to dig into key metrics and crucial developments in US beer, presented by Benj Steinman. You'll also get a timely update on the innovations and opportunities in NA bevs from Gerry Khermouch, editor of Beverage Business Insights. Listen as Benj and Gerry discuss the increasing overlap between the beer and beverage worlds and pose your own questions to these experts. All in an action-packed 90 minutes, Wed 8/12 at 1 pm ET, for just $200 per attendee. Sign up your whole team and save: multiple-r

Ashley Allan has joined oatmilk giant Oatly as chief sustainability officer. She'll "help lead a movement toward a more climate-smart, nature-conscious food system," she noted in social media post. She comes off 3 years at climate & land sr mgr at Mars, following climate-related jobs at USAID and State Dept . . . Riff Cold Brewed, launched in Bend, Ore, by vets of breweries and bevcos like Crux Fermentation Project and Stumptown Coffee, has brought onto its advisory board the retired NFL tight end and actor Vernon Davis, who's developed a post-football entrepreneurial career and has been investing in socially driven cos including canned water purveyor PathWater. Among Davis' other involvements are Jamba Juice franchises in Northern Calif, his own supplement co called Timeless and co-ownership stake in Pescavor seafood jerky co. At Riff, he's expected to offer help with brand building, product innovation and social issues. Davis joins advisory board that includes likes of former Anheuser-Busch prexy Dave Peacock (who's also chmn of biggest Jamba Juice franchisee); Humm Kombucha cofounder Jamie Danek; consultant Bump Williams; former Rogue Ales ceo Brett Joyce and former Canvas (now Take Two) barley bev entrepreneur Sarah Pool . . . Tohi, the functional line harnessing antioxidant richness of Midwest-grown aronia berries, has recruited LA Clippers shooting guard Landry Shamet as a brand ambassador. Shamet, who hails from Midwest, has been drinking the products for 2 years and worked it into exacting nutritional regimen, co said.

Inner Life is launching prebiotic drink mix that's made from repurposed wheat crop leftovers using proprietary extraction process of its parent, the London, Ontario-based foodtech co Comet Bio. Inner Life, which shares offices with Comet Bio outside Chicago in Schaumburg, Ill, said the peach-tea-flavored mix contains 3.8 grams of co's Arabinoxylan prebiotic fiber, produced from upcycled wheat crop leftovers. It employs monk fruit and stevia as sweeteners, coming in at 10 calories per 0.17-oz powder stick. It's packed in 15-unit boxes priced at $29.99 at InnerLifePrebiotics.com. Premise of co founder Andrew Richard, an expert in biochemical engineering, is that crop leftovers like stalks, leaves and hulls contain nutritional value that can be captured in products like Inner Life, helping close the loop on food system. Comet Bio's investors include Sofinnova and PM Equity Partners, a venture arm of tobacco giant Philip Morris Int'l.

7-Eleven just increased its US retail footprint by about 40% with move to acquire Marathon Petroleum's Speedway chain of gas stations. 7-E is paying staggering $21 bil in cash for Speedway, which operates 3,900 gas station/c-stores in 35 states, many of them in Midwest and East Coast areas where 7-E has been anxious to build out its footprint. "Following the transaction, 7-Eleven will have a presence in 47 of the top 50 most populated metro areas in the US, positioning the company as a clear industry leader in a fragmented industry with favorable macroeconomic trends," the co said in announcing deal. 7-E currently operates over 9,800 c-stores in N America; its parent, Seven & I Holdings operates 21K stores in Japan, where it's based.