Should You Be Provocative? Best & Worst Rebrands, and What’s Next for Celsius

Scott kicks things off with advice on whether being provocative helps or hurts when building your brand. He then unpacks some of the best and worst rebrands in recent memory. Finally, he weighs in on Celsius’ rise in the energy drink wars, and where the brand could go next. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [email protected], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Northwest Registered Agent. Your business identity is everything that makes your business legitimate and professional. With Northwest Registered Agent, you don't just form a business, you start a complete foundation built for privacy, credibility, and growth. That includes registered agent service, a business address, operating agreement, domain, website, professional email, phone number, and built-in privacy. In other words, your home address, personal email, and phone number stay private. Don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get from Northwest for free. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/profgfree.

• 0:50Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. What's happening? Today, we're finishing off our special series, Prof G on Marketing, where we answer your marketing questions. And just a reminder, Office Hours now drops every Monday and Friday. That's twice a week, twice the Prof G. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode. First question. Our first question comes from Sam on Reddit. Jesus, that's the least original name I've heard on Reddit. Sam, works.

• 1:35Scott Galloway?

  "Scott, you have a strong personal brand. How would you prioritize being provocative versus authentic when trying to break into your industry's discourse early on?" Thanks, Sam. Okay. I think it's not an either/or. I think the more substance you have...

• 1:53Scott Galloway?

  The easier it is to be provocative. If you're just provocative without any substance, or any logic, or any fact checking, or any narrative arc, or any entertainment value, then you're just fucking obnoxious. I'm convinced that a decent amount of my success is a function of the credibility I get from being on the faculty of NYU. And I take that position seriously and try to be, I don't know, more truthful. I think about the data I put out there. There is, it's drilled into you at a university that you are supposed to fact check your data. And it is the most embarrassing thing that can happen is if you put out data that's incorrect. So I take that seriously, and I think it's made me better at being a media personality, if you will. But I do like stating the obvious.

• 2:36Scott Galloway?

  And where I'm provocative is I get angry, I curse, I use profane analogies, I call people out, I make personal attacks. My rule on personal attacks is I only make them on people who are more powerful than me. You know, if I were to say that this person is a sociopath, and is clearly broken, and probably didn't get laid enough in college, and is a total misogynist, I don't know, Elon Musk, or Mark Zuckerberg, or is engaged in child abandonment issues, or child or male abandonment, see above again, Elon Musk, those are fairly provocative things to say. Those are personal attacks. But one, I think they're true. I have receipts, whether it's reporting from the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal, that in fact says that Elon Musk is a rabid drug addict.

• 3:20Scott Galloway?

  And also, I have powers of observation where I can see him in the White House, where he looks like he's about too many hits of Molly at a Kegel concert, which sounds like a good time to me. I just would probably not do that before showing up to the White House with a black eye. Jesus Christ. Seriously. We treat the guy like he's a fucking runaway teen, and in a year and a half, he's going to start getting AARP mail. Grow the fuck up, you weirdo. Anyways. I think that essentially the combination of the two. So, all right. Your larger question is how do you build your personal brand? You want to think about what your brand stands for. And if it's, let's talk about it in the context of professional behavior. Find a subject where you can go really deep and become a mild expert on.

• 4:03Scott Galloway?

  No more anything, no more than anyone about deep water economics or blue water economics or valuation of the biotech industry or how influencers go up per noun or how they leverage YouTube. Find a very narrow piece of the world and try and own it and then start producing content on it. And what is success? Success is a series of small demonstrations of discipline every day. If you work out 20 or 30 minutes every day, within 12, 18 months, you're going to be a big fucking stack of awesome. Right? You're going to be fast, agile and strong. If you produce one piece of content every day, or maybe a really solid, well-produced piece of content once, twice, three times a week, before you know it, it aggregates and it builds up. It's like investing, you know? Hundred bucks a week.

• 4:48Scott Galloway?

  If you're disciplined, by the time you're my age, you're kind of done financially. That's what success looks like. So, we're going to find a narrow niche content area. We're going to start producing content every day on it. And then if you want to make a provocative statement, right? I think, I don't know, when have I said this provocative recently? I think America could end with a whimper. I said at the opening of this show, or the opening of my other Prop G pod, that you could have Texas, California, the Midwest and the East split into kind of four European Union-like countries focused on technology, oil and gas, manufacturing and financial services and do trades with their own, do trade with their own partners, have their own currency, their own militias. And essentially, America breaks up with a whimper. That's a fairly provocative thing to say, but I think it's interesting. I think there's data there.

• 5:33Scott Galloway?

  I think it makes sense when you hear it, or at least hear me kind of articulate it. And I'd like to think that some of the substance I've put out and some of the effort I put around pulling together data makes a provocative statement a little bit more interesting. So what are we going to do? We're going to find a niche that we can sort of own. We're going to start producing content on a regular basis and hold ourselves accountable. Provocative is a loaded word. I try not to say things that are just bullshit that I know are going to inflame people. In sum, you want a peanut butter and chocolate of substance and rigorous analysis and then be willing, if you believe something, to say something, even if it's not part of the narrative. I think that's the real thing that's provocative or interesting is occasionally just going where the truth takes you regardless of who it's going to offend, even if it offends your own tribe and the own orthodoxy that

• 6:17Scott Galloway?

  you've been taught to buy into if you're either blue, team blue, or team red. If you're not pissing off people and saying shit that you don't get pushed back on, it means you're probably not saying anything. So what are we going to do? Again, identify the niche, weaponize social media, piece of content on a regular basis, and instead of pursuing the provocative, pursue the truth regardless of who it offends or whether it supports an orthodoxy that you've wanted to sign up to. Appreciate the question. Our second question comes from Natural Swimming 247 on Reddit. They ask, what's the best rebrand of the past decade and the worst? I have an easier time with the worst than the best. For the best, I think the branding

• 7:01Scott Galloway?

  for the Premier League, the colors, the lion, and they've done a great job of trying to build up their individual brands within the portfolio and then the parent brand. I think it's just so well executed and so clean over the last decade. You know, there's some other kind of stupid or simpler stuff. Dunkin' Donuts going to Dunkin' was sort of a small piece of genius. The worst hands down is the brand destruction around Tesla, and that's just fucking stupid. All right, who do EVs appeal to? Democrats. Who should I piss off? Democrats. That just made no sense. I've never seen activity that's more contrarian to business interests. His political actions, specifically swallowing a red pill the size of the

• 7:46Scott Galloway?

  The Lusitania, 75% of Republicans would never consider buying an EV. So who's he trying to appeal to? In Northern Europe, the sales are off 50, 60, 70%. His sales are down 11% in California. Tesla's brand or Tesla's sales declined 20% year on year. There's no automotive company in the world crashing faster in terms of revenue than Tesla right now. Oh, wait, I thought of another one, probably the worst, going from HBO to HBO Go to HBO Now to HBO Joey Bag of Donuts to HBO Diet Coke to Max. And then they finally got their head out of their ass and decided to reincorporate what is arguably one of the most artisanal, strongest brands in the history of media, and that is HBO, which means better content.

• 8:28Scott Galloway?

  You know, if anyone's talking about a series around the water cooler, chances are it appeared on HBO. That culture, their consistent sort of ability to punch above their weight class and produce this sort of Ferrari Mercedes like content versus Toyota, just like this massive amount of data or content you find on other platforms. It's an amazing brand and that was absolutely going to just Max was the worst brand decision in media the last 10 years. Now, step back from the wrong direction to step in the right direction. They brought back HBO, but that it's amazing that they would be that stupid to ever even consider that.

• 9:07Scott Galloway?

  We'll be right back after a quick break.

• 9:15Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Nutraful, the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand used by over one and a half million people. With age comes knowledge, patience, and for some, hair loss. Didn't say it was all good things. And for those who want to do something about it, there's Nutraful. Nutraful has formulas built for men at different life stages. They have Nutraful Men for guys age 18 to 49, plus the new Nutraful Men 50 and older. That's the first product of its kind specifically for men over 50. You can now address the key root causes of thinning wherever you are in life. Grow visibly thicker, fuller hair in just three to six months. Start Nutraful today and make the hat optional. Visit nutraful.com and enter promo code PROP G for $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping.

• 10:00Scott Galloway?

  Find out why Nutraful is the best selling hair growth supplement brand at nutraful.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com, promo code PROP G. That's nutraful.com promo code PROP G.

• 10:19Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back onto our final question from this kills my GPA on red. These people are genius. These people are genius. By the way, I'm taking my son to take his ACT this Saturday. And I have found, you know, initially they did away with testing because they thought they were culturally biased. By the way, the reason they came up with the SAT was such that they could help kids in the inner city or Long Island kids demonstrate excellence without a cultural bias. And then we decided as we got so fucking woke that everything was culturally biased. So we didn't want, we removed the SAT and the ACT. And what do you know, universities have decided it's a very strong indicator of your success in college and are reinstituting these tests. Anyways, I'm taking my son to take the ACT this Saturday.

• 10:59Scott Galloway?

  And what I've decided is that the ACT is really, is actually very biased against young men who don't really give a shit.

• 11:08Scott Galloway?

  I love that. I love that. Biased against people who don't really give a shit. Anyways, we'll see how he does. I don't know if he's going to Michigan or Michigan State or UVA or the University of Richmond. Not that there's anything wrong with Michigan State or the University of Richmond, but you want to talk about manufactured stress that's unnecessary? Just wait till your kid applies to college. Anyway, not what you were asking. Not what you were asking. Celsius has built a formidable brand in energy drinks viewed as a lighter, healthier product despite higher caffeine content, popular among women and those interested in fitness and the opposite of a gamer bro of the other energy drinks. They traded a lower price of sales and monstered despite plausibly having more growth ahead and room to expand internationally. However, they don't have that one flavor like OG Red Bull.

• 11:51Scott Galloway?

  And instead of getting acquired, they spent over a billion acquiring their closest competition. Where is or should this brand be headed? John, I don't know this market very well, John. In 2022 PepsiCo invested 500 million, 515 million Celsius. Jesus. In 2024 Celsius made up 9% of the US energy drink market by volume. Monster led with 46.6% of volume share with Red Bull at 20%. Celsius ad spend is rapidly growing 85 million in 2022, 116 in 2023, 220 million in 2024.

• 12:27Scott Galloway?

  I don't know the space. I think I would probably stay away from this. Let me just look at the stock really quickly.

• 12:36Scott Galloway?

  Okay, so what is it? It's got a market cap of 11 billion. It's P is 127. Yeah, I just don't know enough about this company. The reason I'm sort of initially a bit anemic here is that I just came from Summit in Detroit. And it just seems like anyone and everyone is starting. Energy drinks are different, CBD infused sodas. It strikes me that the whole space is just so incredibly crowded. They kind of have a mixed financial picture. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue of 320 million dropped by 7% yearly. Well, that's enough for me. If it's trading at a P of 120 and it's not growing.

• 13:19Scott Galloway?

  Revenue growth should improve in the near term due in part to the Alani New takeover. Alani New, I think that's a hotel I want to go to after my fifth divorce in Hawaii. In 2025, analysts forecast 60% revenue growth. But once Celsius benefits from that one-time bump, they expect revenue increase. That's, I'm sure that revenue bump is from the acquisition. They expect it to slow to 21%. Even though international sales made up 7% of revenue in Q2 2025, that part of the market grew by 41%. And I don't know, I just don't know the space well enough right now to go into this thing. And it looks expensive to me.

• 13:58Scott Galloway?

  But you know, what I would suggest is if you like the space, go into ETF focused on the energy drink space and get a little bit of all of it. Because what you're trying to do is stock pick relative to the rest of them. And I don't know if that's a good idea. Long-winded way of saying I don't know, but thanks for the question.

• 14:18Scott Galloway?

  That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.

• 14:38Scott Galloway?

  This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thanks for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every 5 seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing in wearable. So your vitals app, now with heart rate variability, can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Hear the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later required. Based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy, August 2026. Visit apple.com slash apple watch series 12.