Your mission, should you choose to accept it: convince five fearsome Dragons to invest in a nascent ‘nootropic’ beer start-up called Impossibrew. This was the task 24-year-old Mark Wong set himself in January 2022. But, unlike Mission Impossible’s Tom Cruise, Wong failed.
Despite BBC Dragons – Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Sara Davies, Steven Bartlett, and Touker Suleyman – all being impressed by Wong’s impeccable presentation skills and precocious levels of composure and self-belief, the five felt Impossibrew would struggle in the hyper-competitive £975.2m per annum non-alcohol sector, against the likes of BrewDog and Diageo.
Just two years later, Wong is proving them wrong.
Instead of focussing on a negative – the missing alcohol, he’s cleverly positioned Impossibrew around a positive. The “buzz” and possibility to “unwind” its nootropic-infused “Social Blend” offers consumers.
Nootropics are brain supplements found in natural, semisynthetic, or synthetic compounds which are thought to improve cognitive functions.
As The Grocer points out, “Using its Social Blend, a proprietary blend of nootropics, the startup says its non-alcoholic beers can promote relaxation in a similar way to alcohol, without the negative effects.”
Impossibrew clams that, in tests, 97% of respondents felt more relaxed after trying its product range. And that, “Alcohol works by targeting GABA receptors in the brain, releasing Dopamine - the 'feel-good' chemical in the brain. Our Social Blend™ is designed to boost your alpha brain waves and work with, not against, your dopaminergic receptors to bring you relaxation.”
Byron Beatty, a Drayton Senior Partner, and Drinks Sector expert, commented, “From a marketing perspective, Impossibrew have been very smart. In a non-alcohol category that’s now overserved, they have managed to generate genuine standout by offering the ‘buzz’ you want from a beer without the dreaded hangover. A message that clearly resonates with Gen-Z consumers.”
So, too, it seems, does the beer’s taste. The quality of which the Dragons also noted. That must have been particularly pleasing to Wong as, by his own admission, making Impossibrew taste good was one of his biggest battles. As he told the Club Soda podcast, “it was just so foul tasting, the herbs are very bitter, they’re very strong flavoured, and not characteristics you will find in beer. So that became the biggest challenge: how to match these amazing herbs with beer and not taste the difference.”
The Grocer again, Impossibrew’s “beers also taste better than other low & no-alcohol alternatives, it says, due to an innovative brewing process that sees an undrinkable base liquid undergo cryogenic fermentation, creating a natural brew of up to 0.5% abv. This approach means the drink isn’t watered down, as no alcohol is removed.”
Luckily for you, this message will not – Mission Impossible-style – destruct in five seconds. And neither, it seems, as those Dragons once confidently predicted, will Mr Wong’s business strategy.