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CBD drinks brand hires Monster Energy ‘guerilla marketing’ guru

22 July 2024 By Sarah Neish

CBD drinks brand Goodrays, based in London, has appointed the marketing director from the wildly successful Monster Energy as it embarks on major expansion.

Goodrays has appointed former Monster Energy marketing director Richard Pilbeam as its new head of marketing as it kickstarts “a period of major investment” in the brand, said founder Eoin Keenan.

Announcing the hire, Keenan revealed he hopes Goodrays, which produces a range of vegan, low-sugar CBD-infused carbonated drinks, will benefit from Pilbeam’s “guerilla marketing” experience and “hustle mentality”.

Having joined Monster Energy in 2019 (the same year that Goodrays was founded), Pilbeam launched multiple new brands underneath the Monster umbrella, and helped take the Monster Beverage Corporation to a gross profit of US$1,027, 129 for the quarterly period ended 31 March, 2024.

Goodrays was founded by Keenan, a CBD and medical cannabis industry veteran, who this year has driven the brand to become the fastest growing CBD drink in the UK. The drinks are currently listed with major retailers Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Tesco and Waitrose, as well as four of the largest retailers in France (the biggest global market for CBD drinks): Carrefour, Intermarché, E.Leclerc and Super U.

The drink contains 30mg of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive substance found in cannabis plants.

Monster hire

“While Richard was at Monster Energy he led rapid brand growth and accelerated sales exponentially,” said Keenan. “He brings both strategic and tactical knowledge from leading a heavyweight brand as well as the hustle mentality and guerilla marketing experience after cutting his teeth at a variety of challenger brands and working agency side with major FMCG brands.”

Keenan added that Goodrays has “been growing 100% year on year for the past four years”, introducing millions of people to CBD.

“The next step to supercharge growth is investing behind the brand, building awareness and driving trial. Rich is perfectly positioned to lead that part of our business,” he said. “The scale of growth and the pipeline of opportunities ahead has meant that it’s the perfect time for us to build out the team and switch things up a gear.”

Pilbeam called Goodrays “a dynamic company with immense potential to dominate the CBD drinks market.”

Commenting on his new role he added: “I’ve loved my journey at Monster Energy, marked by significant growth and working with some awesome people. Now, I’m stoked to bring my experience to Goodrays, helping to elevate their brand and expand their reach across further markets.”

In March 2023, the drinks business reported that Monster was launching an alcoholic product called The Beast Unleashed. The 6% ABV hard seltzer is made using ‘malt alcohol’ and quickly became the best-selling new brand in the beer space last year with more than US$87 million in sales.

Following on from the launch, Monster expanded its alcoholic drinks line with the release of hard iced tea Nasty Beast, available in four flavours.

Having acquired Canarchy in February 2022, Monster Beverage Corporation renamed the brewing collective as Monster Brewing Co. in February 2024 to better align it with Monster’s alcoholic drinks arm.