Huib van Bockel, founder and CEO of Tenzing Natural Energy, on leaving Red Bull to build a natural challenger brand from scratch.
Inspired by the teas of Himalayan Sherpas, founder and CEO Huib van Bockel set out to prove energy drinks could be healthier, more sustainable and every bit as effective.
Damian Fowler (00:01):
I'm Damian Fowler and welcome to The Big Impression. This week we're joined by Huib van Bockel founder and CEO of Tenzing Natural Energy. The energy drink market's long been dominated by brands built around speed, intensity, and extremes, but Tenzing has taken a very different approach, positioning itself around natural ingredients, performance, and what it calls good energy. And it's that idea at the center of its latest campaign, which taps into familiar cultural moments such as the pressure of New Year's resolutions, the winter slump, and moments when we just need a reset. And it's part of a bigger shift happening across food and beverage where consumers are being more intentional about what they put in their bodies and what they want to get out of the brands they buy. So it's an opportunity for challenger brands to rethink old categories. Tell us how you came up with the idea of Tenzing.
(01:00):
Where's the name come from? What's the brand?
Huib van Bockel (01:04):
Well, I used to be at Red Bull for a long time, and then I thought after eight years or so, I thought there must be a better way. So when you leave and venture out on your own, you need effectively two things, like a proper. I knew already I wanted to create something that was natural. So that's the whole concept I had only was from nature for nature, something around those lines. And then I was traveling and I found out what they drink in the Himalayas, and they drink a really strong tea with salt, and they drink a lemon tea. And I had a nutritional doctor that was helping me with my recipe. And I said, "Does this make sense? Is it a cultural thing or does it actually make sense when you're scaling world's highest mountains?" And he goes, "It makes a lot of sense because it's triple hits of natural caffeine, vitamin C, and electrolytes." And that then became the basis of our recipe.
(01:50):
And then I thought the word Tenzing came to me because he was the first man in Mount Everest in 1953. And my father was actually always a big Sherpa Tenzing fan. I think he was probably back in the Holland 10 when he saw the. And he loved that kind of, he always loved the underdog stories and he loved the impossible stories. And this is an extremely unique story where a local man saw the top of Everest, though, "I want to be on top," and somehow made it because the rest are all like. You got to think these times are all about adventurer times and English and Swiss, and they're all trying to. And he made it with Edmund Hillary. So I thought that was always a great story. And then Tenzing came to me and Zing means energy. And he's basically also kind of been forgotten.
(02:34):
And I thought he was an amazing hero, so I thought it'd be a great way to bring back his legacy.
Damian Fowler (02:38):
I love that. Yeah, that's great. Because I remember that growing up, learning about that team, Tenzing always stayed in my head. And it's funny, when I saw the brand name, I was like, "That rings a bell." But actually until you said it, I hadn't actually connected it.
Huib van Bockel (02:53):
No, and I kind of like that. If you call your brand whatever, Churchill, and there's too much already loaded there. So the cool story was as well, and it was still available, which is very difficult in the markets of, because the same trademark area as beer, soft drinks, energy drinks, juices. So you can just imagine how much names are gone in that area. It's even hard to name it. And this one is still available. And then you have to talk to a trademark office and I said, "Do I need the permission of the family?" And he goes, "Yeah, you don't actually, because it's a very common name there. Same someone in the pool would call their drink John." But I thought I want their permission. I want to know more about the family, about the recipes. So I traveled out there. My family ended up meeting their whole family and we got their blessing and they're shareholders in the business and they get revenue shares.
(03:43):
So yeah, that was an amazing start to the journey.
Damian Fowler (03:46):
Yeah.
Huib van Bockel (03:46):
Brilliant
Damian Fowler (03:47):
Human kind of start to it.
Huib van Bockel (03:49):
Yeah.
Damian Fowler (03:49):
So you got the recipe, you got the name. What was next? How did you feel confident to take the risk to step into a market that may seem already fairly crowded?
Huib van Bockel (04:00):
Yeah, so look, I think anyone, you'll have a lot of founders here on the podcast, I guess. I think you have to be just either incredibly naive. I mean, if I would've known it was this difficult, I sometimes think, I don't know if I would've done it. I'm glad I did, because I knew the data. Even back then, it's got worse. But even back then, you already knew people worried about the negative effects of energy drinks, of artificial drinks. And there was two main negative effects or people worried is the artificial stuff, the aspartames, the artificial caffeines, and the high sugars. So I was like, if I tackle those two, it'll be easy. But it doesn't work that way. Those habits are deeply ingrained. They're deeply ingrained. They're obviously through distribution and awareness, as you said, by pumpted by billions of pounds of marketing dollars through the extreme sports, which I knew because I was kind of part of, but it's still like you're battling that.
(04:59):
So funny enough, so when I came back from Nepal and I had the name and the rough recipe, I'm a big believer in then because I also knew, of course, what I was up against. I knew the budgets I was up against and you can't compete. So I then thought, okay, we have to do this one community at a time. And really cool, actually, there's a bit of a serendipity thing that I came back from Nepal and I was built around, it's called Tenzing. It has mountains on the can. And I though mountaineering is a good area, but how much people in the UK where it was launched in London?
Damian Fowler (05:31):
Yeah, not many mountains there.
Huib van Bockel (05:32):
Not really mountains. But then bouldering kind of started, the indoor bouldering scene. So I think in 2016 I started, and I think there were two or three bouldering walls in London, and now there's like 45. So we were really part of that community. So that's where we started. And then we supported that community from the get-go. We'd organize events because it would be really cool that it would usually be a passionate climber that would start a bouldering wall and we'd help get awareness of that, get more people into the bouldering world. So we kind of grew together in the UK, which is really cool.
Damian Fowler (06:08):
It's a great observation. I love how that sense of community informs your marketing strategy, if
Huib van Bockel (06:13):
You want
Damian Fowler (06:13):
To call it that. Could you talk a little bit about how that works?
Huib van Bockel (06:17):
Well, I think it's one of my kind of. Because there's so much advice out there. If you're starting a business, so much advice out there. And I would say you forget, not forget, but don't listen to any of it because every brand that you start, even if it's also a drink, could be very different. I met the founder of Fever Tree and his thing was go abroad quite quick because at the end of the day, he went to Spain and the gin was on the rise and it's more distribution game because people order a gin tonic and then they'll get a FeverTree. But with Tenzing, for instance, going abroad didn't work at all because you need a brand, you need to build that brand. So I think advices are very difficult about that, but I think the key advice is always focus. You have to focus around one community or one thing.
(07:01):
For instance, I love the example of Strava. And they had an app that contracts your movement. So they could have launched it with every sport possible, but they just chose cycling. And then you can make that relationship with the cyclists very deep and they will share about it. And that's what we did. We organized events. So for instance, we organized a Tenzing Climbing Festival where it was the first time we made it into a group sport. So it was always very individual, but this time you could bring a team from your local wall and we made it like a relay. So we added new elements to the sports and we brought things to the sport. We didn't only kind of target them as consumers, which I always hate that term. We just looked at the. I love climbing. I climb twice or three times a week.
(07:42):
So I'm in that community. And I think that's where the authenticity also comes from, although a very heavily overused, misused word. But I literally climb with the fellow community that we're in. So it's real. And I think that's where big companies lose their way because they're targeting these people. So I think that doesn't work.
Damian Fowler (08:05):
That puts me in mind of a great interview we had on this podcast a few years back with Liquid Death before they really took off. And one of their observations was around punk rock. They noticed that some of the musicians on stage were drinking water out of energy cans, the big tall boys. And they thought, well, why not? They want water. They don't want alcohol necessarily
Huib van Bockel (08:27):
On stage. Yeah, exactly. Alcohol or energy drinks. So I think there was like the Monster had these, apparently, that's what I heard from interview from him as well. Monster had these cans where it just had water on them. So in the back you could see they had water because all those artists didn't want to drink that stuff. And he was really appalled by that idea because he was like, "These punk rock bands are marketing something they don't even drink themselves," which is in that sense, very the same as our insight. And then again, going for one community, super strong that you can then be really part of and grow within.
Damian Fowler (09:00):
So from there then, let's talk about the new campaign. It's 2026, it's time for good energy. It feels like bigger as it were than a product pitch. Let's talk about that a little bit.
Huib van Bockel (09:13):
Yeah. So I think I'm such a big believer in having a clear mission or a feeling that you want to get across. And I think in the smaller amount of words you can say it, the better. One is best, but so we said good energy. It's also literally been our mission from day one to bring good energy to the world. And so this was a very simple execution of that. So in January we did a campaign on London Underground where it said, "It's 2026, it's time for good energy." And funny enough, probably because it's not a world that feels full of good energy at the moment, with all the stuff that's going on, it just caught on in a way that we didn't even. So we actually ran it even our digital team. At one point I served an ad myself in June. I said, "It's 2026 time for good energy." I'm like, "Why are we still running this?" Because she said that's the best performing ad we still have.
(10:09):
So it's like people just love that like, "Oh God, I'm tired." And that's the beauty of it.Exactly like you said, it doesn't only cover artificial energy drinks, which I'm tired of, but also I'm tired of all the negativity. And I think that's what we always try and bring out as a brand.
Damian Fowler (10:24):
That's very cool. I like that underground in the tube story. That's high profile. Why do you think this was the right moment for you to widen the aperture as it were on the brand?
Huib van Bockel (10:36):
So we've done out-of-home campaigns before. So if you go back to our first, we started in the climbing community and then we actually went to the running community. So I like sports, so we choose them very carefully. First of all, that's the beauty of a brand. You can build that around your own hobbies. My key hobbies are out running, climbing. And running, of course, the run club has been such a huge thing in London, but all over the world, I think. In the UK, it's just a big thing. Strava says, for instance, the run club has become the new nightclub. So that's where we are. And then slowly but surely we grew and then we went into Tesco. We're now every retailer in the UK, I think. So you need bigger campaigns. You need beer campaigns, and this is one of them.
Damian Fowler (11:23):
So the out-of-home campaign is all about scale, but then you get the social element of that too. Could you talk about the interplay between those street level placements and platforms where people explored, talked about tensing?
Huib van Bockel (11:41):
Yeah. So we've always tried the idea of being good energy in actually everything we do. So for instance, for runners, so there's an online platform where you can see how the air quality is when you run in it. So we worked with the Imperial College and we link it with Strava. So if you've gone for a run or looked before, you can see how clean the air was. So we're talking about clean air running in the big smoke. So we always try and activate it around something real that actually benefits people. So that's our approach.
Damian Fowler (12:16):
And then talk a little bit more about the good energy versus bad energy narrative. It's a really interesting concept and how you trying to break through. You mentioned it was difficult to
Huib van Bockel (12:26):
Break through. Yeah. So our payoff has always been, or has been for a couple of years now, is like life's too good for bad energy.
(12:34):
And it has obviously the funny kind of double meaning. We're obviously taking the Mickey a bit out of the artificial energy, which we say is the bad energy. But also indeed it's about an attitude in life. And it doesn't have to mean it's all happy-go-lucky because I think again, so our good energy, we hate to find it around four pillars. One is just what you put in your body. Obviously you don't want to put artificial stuff, and then you want to put stuff that gives you energy that. And it's really cool actually, just thinking about it. People try Tension for the first time because they look for a better for you option, like a healthier option, but they actually stay because it tastes better and it gives them a better effect. So 91% of our customers say they get the same or more energy than an artificial energy drink, but without the crash because we have lower sugar, natural ingredients, so you don't get the artificial caffeine spike.
(13:21):
So that's the one thing. Then the other thing is your personal Everest. We always say there was only one man on earth that his personal Everest was actually Everest, and that was sheer potentity. So it's like, have a goal. Go for something, go for something big. And that's not always pleasant. I note myself as your own startup. It's not always pleasant going for a goal because you see your own limitations. And thirdly, it's about doing things with the community. Again, if you think about the big energy brand, it's all about the number one or Formula One, beating each other. And we're all about group sports, like run clubs, community sports, like climbing. And the last thing is leave it better than you found it. So we really want to do our bit to leave it better than we found it. So we're B Corp certified.
(14:00):
We have carbon label all our products. We use rainforest life ingredients, and we've got a real cool project in Nepal now where we help clean up the mountain.
Damian Fowler (14:09):
I love that. That's amazing. Now, before this podcast, we were talking a little bit about the categories and how it's grown. Could you break that down a little bit for listeners in terms of the Cola category, the energy drink category? Where does it
Huib van Bockel (14:23):
Entail? Well, that comes back to, good question, comes back to the focus bit. So in the UK, where our main market is, I think it's about 11 billion is the total soft drink market. And then energy has just overtaken Cola as the number one segment within that. Cola is 2.8 billion in Red Bull Monster and us altogether now. We're about three billion. So it just shows it's a massive market. People always underestimate energy because they always still think it's like, oh, my nephew drinks that or it's for my son. I used to drink that when I was a teenager, but it's massive. And I think that's why we just focused on this one market and really want to change that first. Changing the energy drinks again for good is our business mission. And then only see if we go to other markets.
Damian Fowler (15:16):
Are you seeing beyond the community that you started with, the bouldering community, are
Huib van Bockel (15:20):
You
Damian Fowler (15:20):
Seeing this now expand to other communities? And
Huib van Bockel (15:23):
Where's
Damian Fowler (15:23):
That social conversation at?
Huib van Bockel (15:25):
Yeah, so bouldering was our key sports community, but we also focus really much on universities and offices. So for instance, Google was one of our first. So in all these kind of tech offices, Tenzing is the number one energy drink. In London Universities were the number one energy drink. So interestingly, if you look at energy, and you'll probably relate, everyone I tell this can kind of relate to this, you don't want to show up with that big artificial energy in the office. There is a sense of shame, funny enough. Yes, absolutely. It's like, are you hungover? What's wrong with you? So I actually see sometimes you see people down one of those artificial and they chuck it away and they go into the office. And we've always wanted to de-stigmatize that because if you walk around tensing, you're effectively saying, look, I care about energy, but I also care about my health.
(16:15):
And that really has been quite groundbreaking. And that's why we're so big in offices and unis as well.
Damian Fowler (16:22):
I mean, this goes to the point, I guess, that consumers are more aware now than ever about what they put in their bodies. And that is changing the energy category altogether. In some ways, maybe your brand is going to change that.
Huib van Bockel (16:37):
Yep. Yep. No, we were the first. I'm not entirely sure about the US, but there's the brand accord like Celsius. But they're just like a Red Bull sugar-free. They've just got artificial sweeteners in there. So it's like we were the first one that took our energy totally from nature and found to give back to nature. And yeah, it has slowly been changing. It's taken longer than I would've thought. And I think that's one of the key things. If you want to start your business, it is a long journey. Every now and then something crazy will happen like Poppy, for instance, that just exploded. But usually it takes longer and that's totally fine. And you pivot, you keep going and you try things. And I think we're now getting back to that mass level where we're number three energy brand in the UK now when it comes to value rate of sale, for instance.
(17:29):
So it's now become kind of a three-horse race between Red Bull Monsoon and ourselves.
Damian Fowler (17:34):
That's amazing. So you're in all the UK supermarkets?
Huib van Bockel (17:37):
All supermarkets, yep. Yeah. All gas station, the shelves and VPs. Yeah.
Damian Fowler (17:44):
In some ways, are you marketing now? Would you say you see yourself marketing a lifestyle rather than a beverage?
Huib van Bockel (17:50):
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. That's always kind of been the case, I think from the beginning. I think actually, funny enough, if you start a new product, things of liquid death is maybe an exception, but I think it has to start with a superior product. It starts with a product. Even Red Bull, people go like, "Oh, Formula One teams." But there was nothing. There was just an energy and drink that gave you energy in the beginning. Then it was already going viral before any of those ads started kicking in. I think people forget the first ad I think Red Bull did it was something like a radio ad that said, "Hey, what are you drinking? I'm drinking a Red Bull.What is that?" Well, it's an energy drink. An energy drink. Yeah, it gives you wings. Literally. There wasn't anything cool. And then it just became. But it was the product that did it in the beginning.
(18:35):
There was no such thing. And I think that's with us, there was no such thing as a natural, low calorie, energizing drink. So you need a new product. And then slowly but surely, the brand is built around that, I think.
Damian Fowler (18:47):
You mentioned sports and energy drinks. They seem to go hand in hand. Is that something you think about?
Huib van Bockel (18:54):
Definitely. And I think we pick our sports very deliberately, like we said. They should be community-based, they should be outdoors based, although bouldering is of course inside sometimes. But people also boulder outside, of course. They usually do that as a practice to then boulder outside as well. And they should be easy to participate in. You should need a motorcycle. You should just put on a pair of shoes and go for a run. You literally need nothing to boulder or to run. So I think those are always the key things. Are they community-based? Are they outdoors? And do you need very little to be able to participate?
Damian Fowler (19:27):
What's the big misconception people still have about certain energy drinks? Or the category, should we say?
Huib van Bockel (19:36):
Look, not so much about the category, but about what made it more difficult than I thought in first instance for tensing.
Damian Fowler (19:44):
That's
Huib van Bockel (19:44):
The question. Is that people think it's bad for you, energy drinks, and because it works. So it's like the badness is what makes it work. So if we then say all of a sudden it doesn't have to be bad, people don't think it works. So that was in the beginning. We were actually struggling with that more. But we said no, before the 80s, before that was launched, we'd energize with coffee and tea and electrolytes and vitamin C. So it was always there, except energy drinks just pulled it in a whole different direction. So that's then become the mindset. So for us, we have to unlock that and go, you can actually just also get your energy from a green coffee bean or a green tea. And
Damian Fowler (20:29):
Then I guess the final question here is, how do you know when you've moved from a market product fit into something that's culturally a relevant thing?
Huib van Bockel (20:40):
Yeah, it's such an interesting question also. When do you know you've made it? And I get that quite a lot. And I think we're 10 years in, and I think 10 years, you hear that quite a lot, that that is that kind of invisible gate. There's big brands out there, like Rituals I saw the other day is like two billion brand or more now. And it took about 10 years as well to find their total feet and go through that invisible gate. He said the founder of Rituals said that. And I like that quote because all of a sudden, it's not that all of a sudden you go out of nowhere, you go there. It's all the work you've done till that point. Because I think people underestimate the social, you have to see someone drink it. So now when we're selling millions of cans every month, you'll see them around more and then the kind of flywheel starts because you see them drinking.
(21:30):
So I think we're now at that point where there's no turning back. I felt that for a long time. Another entrepreneur always said, "You're always two phone calls away from a bankruptcy." And I think we've passed that point now. So I think that's a great feeling.
Damian Fowler (21:48):
I guess want to ask you how you're thinking about future marketing campaigns? It's a very general question, but do you have a sense of momentum now?
Huib van Bockel (21:57):
I'm always looking at, so that's where we're going to look next. I'm always looking at how to do it in a funny way. Actually meeting their old CMO for The Whopper in a minute at Burger King, just to discuss with him because they did that. I think one of their pillars is literally take the Mickey out of McDonald's. So how to do that, because I think we don't want to be a negative brand. We don't want to go, "Oh, they're all so bad for you, whatever." So how do you say life's too good for bad energy in a positive way? But do say, look guys, because it does work not only to it shows people who you are. If you say, "That's not who we are, this is who we are." It becomes a bit more clear who you are. You understand what I mean?
Damian Fowler (22:42):
So you've got to frame the narrative on your own terms
Huib van Bockel (22:44):
And not
Damian Fowler (22:45):
Constantly react.
Huib van Bockel (22:46):
Yeah, exactly. So I think that's our next kind of campaign is looking how we could do the life's too good for bad energy in a maybe a bit more fun or provocative way.
Damian Fowler (22:55):
Oh yeah, I look forward to that. Yeah. And so what's next for Tenzing?
Huib van Bockel (23:02):
Like I say, it's three-horse race now. I just get to proper, proper scale in the UK. I think that is our first stop. Get it into more stores, tell more people about it. So UK is still our number one priority. Cause like we said, it's three billion, 10% of that market share, which we're on our way to, is not a bad place to be. And then you can start thinking about second countries.
Damian Fowler (23:25):
That's great. Well, congrats. Thanks so much for talking to us.
Huib van Bockel (23:28):
No problem. Thank you very much.
Damian Fowler (23:34):
And that's it for this edition of The Big Impression. This show is produced by Molton Hart. Our theme is by Loving Caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns. And remember -
Huib van Bockel (23:43):
Our payoff has always been like, or it has been for a couple of years now. It's like life's too good for bad energy.
Damian Fowler (23:48):
I'm Damian, and we'll see you next time.