The story behind NOS Energy Drink is simple.

What better way to represent an energy drink brand than with a name that stands for everything fast and furious?
That name is Nitrous Oxide Systems (NOS). While the acronym may only be familiar to motorsports enthusiasts—NOS being the power unit put into a racecar’s engine to deliver a powerful boost—what it stands for transcends far beyond the niche group of racecar fans. And that transcending message is human horsepower.

“NOS was always the deciding factor on whether you won or lost because it really did enhance the horsepower of a car and make it faster,” says Lance Collins, founder of Fuze Beverage, makers of NOS Energy Drink. “From the get-go, the day we started manufacturing NOS in 16-ounce cans, it just resonated so well with that energy drink consumer.”

Fuze was able to obtain the license for the NOS trademark from Holley Performance Products, an automotive manufacturing company. Today, it’s a wholly owned trademark of Fuze Beverage LLC Co., says Collins.

The energy drink brand, which launched nearly two years ago, has continued to experience double-digit growth and in 2007 grew 181 percent, according to the company. NOS has climbed to become the No. 6 selling energy drink in convenience stores, according to Nielsen data with the expectation of moving into the No. 5 spot by the end of the year, according to Carl Sweat, president/general manager, Fuze Beverage.

One of the secrets to NOS’ success, says Sweat, has been its ability to maintain its entrepreneurial atmosphere while having the support of its parent company, The Coca-Cola Company and its distribution system. With that business dynamic in play, NOS, which is sold nationally in convenience stores including 7-Eleven, Chevron, Sunoco, Kroger and QuikTrip, has been able to find its niche in a crowded energy drink market by resonating with consumers through its turbo boost—80 milligrams of caffeine—platform, and, adds Sweat, being a brand that remains true to its roots.

NOS was one of the first energy drinks to offer consumers energy on-the-go with a 22-ounce resealable PET designed to resemble the look of a NOS canister that would be put into a car. The bottles were launched in December 2006 with a valve over cap that was available on the first 50,000 cases.

In 2007, the package design was recognized as one of the most innovative packages manufactured that year winning a Silver Award of Excellence from the National Association of Container Distributors (NACD).

“The resealability is the functional aspect of it, but the imagery and the connection point back to speed and maximum performance, that’s what it’s all intended to convey,” says Sweat.

Earlier this year, the company came out with what Sweat calls “the logical branding extension,” which was a
2-ounce NOS PowerShot. According to Nielsen data, the PowerShot has become the No. 3 selling SKU in convenience stores.

“Every time we’ve designed a new bottle, whether it be the 2-ounce PowerShot or the 11-ounce PET, which replicates the Sneaky Pete Holley canister, we really tried to maintain that authenticity and that’s what this consumer who is into motorsports looks to see,” says Sweat.

New products from the energy brand include two new flavors—grape and fruit punch—which will be distributed nationally, and a new PowerShot, PowerShot X—a berry flavored high antioxidant energy shot.

Brand authenticity also is reinforced on the street level with grassroots sampling—a marketing approach that has proved successful for NOS. So much so, that NASCAR driver Kyle Busch approached the brand about a partnership, which was created this year.

“I go from the Spirit Cup Series to the Nationwide Series, to the Craftsman Truck Series and I even run late models, so every time I’m traveling around I will have NOS with me to keep me energized for each race,” said Busch in a press release. “As I move into the next chapter of my career I wanted to align myself with partners that reflect my drive and attitude and NOS is a perfect fit.”

Sweat says, “He has been a phenomenal ambassador. There’s been a great partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing and the Coca-Cola family that really helped us in that racing space. That’s the epicenter that we really tried to build around motorsports. We know where our target consumers are and we know that the messaging of the brand transcends motorsports. But motorsports is a great way of bringing it to life.”

Within the next month, NOS will be launching new shrinkwrap promotional can graphics in North and South Carolina through Coca-Cola Enterprises to reinforce the brand’s partnership with Busch.

Aside from motorsports, another arena where NOS has earned face time is on FOX’s television series “House.” Actor Hugh Laurie who plays Dr. Gregory House is a fan of the energy drink—on and off the set.

“That was a great example of where someone who clearly doesn’t have a motorsports background, clearly has no motorsports affiliation, understood what the brand really was trying to communicate, which was maximum performance, which fits his character if you watch that show,” says Sweat.

Watching the growth of NOS, Sweat says that the beverage market can expect to see much of the same where his philosophy is “if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.” The plans are to “double down” on more grassroots marketing and more sampling to ultimately reach more consumers.

“What we found fairly quickly was that you don’t have to be a motorsports enthusiast to understand what rocket fuel is,” he says. “The consumer gets it… whether they are a motorsports person or not, once they try it… they can feel the difference.

VITAL STATS
FUZE BEVERAGE (NOS Energy Drink)
FOUNDER: Lance Collins
PRESIDENT/GM: Carl Sweat
HEADQUARTERS: Englewood Cliffs, N.J., USA
EMPLOYEES: about 140
GOALS: The NOS brand grew five times faster than the national energy drink average in 2007 and is on track to more than double its business in 2008.