Actionable insights that bring beverage alcohol’s future into focus.
We believe that the most successful beverage companies leverage insights from across categories.
Within the traditional big three beverage alcohol categories - beer, wine, and spirits - we still see companies operating in a bubble - misunderstanding the modern drinker and falling back on conventional wisdoms.
Today’s drinker is more diverse, multi-modal, and exploratory than ever before.
Entirely new categories are emerging and taking share overnight - offering new formats, functions, and occasions while laggard portfolios add one line extensions after another, soaking up attention and resources and failing to deliver meaningful results.
Sightlines is a new approach to analysis and insight across beverage categories that serves companies looking to grow, innovate, and win new customers. The kind of insight you can take action on to develop new products, positioning, and pipelines.
You can’t pay attention to everything. Sightlines will help you see through the noise.
Get expert insights delivered directly to your inbox each week, and explore our recent white-papers.
Watch and listen to conversations with strategic decision-makers from across categories.
See how other decision-makers are developing bev alc concepts that meet today’s market needs.
Who we are:
Thought-provoking insights from analyst Bryan Roth, lead reporter Kate Bernot, and industry leader, bev alc founder, and innovation consultant Michael Kiser, combine a deep understanding of bev-alc with a curiosity for companies and industries beyond it.
The result? New ideas you can act on. Sightlines+ combines conversations, research, and discoveries that others miss, so you won’t.
Michael Kiser
FOUNDER + DIRECTOR
15 years innovation strategy for tech + CPG, i.e. mobile, telepresence, athletic gear, snack foods, soft drinks, and bev alc
Founder Good Beer Hunting and Sightlines in 2013, industry-leading, insights and editorial platform, top 1% podcast, 45 publishing awards, 12 countries, 3x James Beard winner
Founder of Feel Goods, innovation consultancy for top-performing bev alc companies
Imbibe Magazine “75 People to watch”
Michael Kiser is the founder of Feel Goods Company and an innovation strategist with 15+ years of CPG and tech experience. With a focus in the beverage sector he’s helped shape portfolio strategies for producers of all sizes, including PepsiCo, Martinelli’s, MillerCoors, AB Inbev, Diageo, as well as tech and experience programs for Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Snap-on Tools, Adobe, Apple, and Samsung. In the last six years, he’s helped launch small, highly differentiated start-up breweries like Brewery Bhavana, East Brother Beer Co., and Cinderlands, and helped shape innovation programs for Dewar’s Whiskey, New Belgium, Canopy Growth, Boston Beer Co., and Martinelli’s.
Bryan Roth
CONSUMER INSIGHTS + CATEGORY ANALYSIS
10+ as a leading bev alc analyst
Award-winning journalist + managing editor at Good Beer Hunting
14 years in corporate communications at Duke University
Frequent advisor and presenter for businesses and organizations, including state craft brewers guilds and the American Cider Association
Bryan Roth leads Sightlines’ news and analysis reporting, developing frameworks for decision-makers in beverage alcohol to execute against. He regularly presents across the country for bev alc associations and guilds who are in a position to lead and develop opportunities for their categories. His reporting helps make ambiguous trends and emerging consumer behaviors more tangible, relevant, and actionable for business leaders.
Kate Bernot
INSIGHTS REPORTING + MARKETING
10+ years of bev alc reporting across mass media, trade, and insights services
Appears in Good beer Hunting, New York Times, Washington Post, Craft Beer & Brewing
President of the North American Guild of Beer Writers
Frequent presenter to the Brewers Association, state guilds, and American Cider Association
Kate Bernot reports and develops new content for Sightlines subscribers, as well as leads panel discussions and industry roundtables about the future of the category. She is routinely cited as the beer and beverage alcohol industry’s most prolific and impactful business reporter.
“No one is looking at data the way the Sightlines team is. I’ve been able to use their insights, and the insights of the community, to outline opportunities for our team that we had big question about. They always seem two steps ahead of where we’re looking. Beer trends, seltzer, RTDs, all of it. It’s helped us outpace other top 25 craft brewers and set us up to explore beyond beer.”
— Andrew Emerton, Innovation Director, New Belgium Brewing
"I've been a personal reader and subscriber to Sightlines since business planning at Athletic. I've always appreciated everything from long-form dives to short-form email blasts that hit consumer insights and case studies. In an era where dedicated beer coverage is increasingly hard to find, Sightlines has continually reinvested in the category and its suppliers."
— Bill Shufelt, co‑founder and CEO, Athletic Brewing
“Sightlines has a been a solid source of inspiration for our team. They choose incredible interesting topics to cover, and go beyond surface level data to provide true industry insights.”
— Brad Schultz, co-founder and CMO, BeatBox Beverages