19 years back, a young Californian named Renold Aparicio was brought into the Monster Energy fold. In a black and green Monster Energy van, Renold would comb the mean streets of Southern California cold calling on convenience shops, liquor stores, supermarkets, restaurants – you name it – in an effort to try and establish and grow this new energy drink named Monster Energy. It took a while, but Aparicio hung with it. Flash forward to 2024 and Monster Energy is now a $58.51 Billion USD brand and Renold Aparicio is the Senior VP of Monster Equity Brands at Monster Brewing. The main man with the master plan for Monster Energy’s The Beast Unleashed alcohol offering, Aparicio has brought together an all-star ensemble of 23XI Racing, it’s driver Tyler Reddick and the high banks/high horsepower of NAACAR to take the leash of The Beast Unleased and set it free upon the world. With the Daytona 500 now coming at us at full speed, we spoke with Renold in his fourth-floor office at the Monster Energy Beverage Company.

Renold, nearly 20 years ago, you were first brought into Monster Energy in the role of Trade Development. This was during the infancy of the Monster Energy brand. What was all of that like back in the day?

It was around 2004 and 2005 and I was the guy in the black and green Monster Energy van slinging cases. In the beginning, it was hard with Monster Energy. We had to give the stuff away! I remember “Buy one! Get two free!” offers on Monster Energy in the beginning. It was hard going, but Monster Energy just kept growing and growing and growing.

What did you do when you were out and about?

I did a whole bunch of different sales roles. I had the van and what could be done with the product. I found success in that. You’d be walking into a store trying to sell them something they didn’t think they wanted; that was the hard part. You had to be okay with getting told no, and then finding ways to overcome that. Don’t ever let them say no. You had to know what it takes to win inside the store. That’s where the product gets sold. Inside the store.

How did you end up being the main man with the master plan with The Beast?

I was responsible for all the brands with the Monster Energy claw on it. I had a track record of taking on the new innovative initiatives and they had me in mind to be the guy to go to work on The Beast.

The Beast Unleashed was officially announced at Monster Energy headquarters on February 21, 2023. To your way of seeing things, what was your initial take on the No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry?

I was damn excited to see Beast on the car to be honest because it was the culmination of so many different things. First off, it was Monster Energy getting into the alcohol market for the first time. Our fans had been asking about us getting into alcohol since the very beginning, and here we were partnering with one of our most storied sporting platforms in NASCAR and motor racing. Then that day we were revealing the new Cup car to the fans as well as to our employee base; everybody was just jacked up internally about the whole program and getting into the alcohol space.

Tyler Reddick debuted the car in NASCAR competition that same weekend at Auto Club Speedway. What did you think?

It was really interesting. The fans thought Monster Energy, as a company, used the same graphics on the car over and over again. The fans were always asking for new and cool designs. We basically took all of that feedback in and got the greenlight from Rodney, our CEO, to go really wild with our paint scheme for the Beast car. We did that and showed up at Fontana and the fan base was totally behind us and super-excited with The Beast reveal.

Your impression of the No. 45 The Beast Unleashed car during the 2023 NASCAR Cup season?

It was great. I got to know NASCAR from the ground up because we went to all the races where The Beast was in the on the car. I went to the races and went down in the pits with everybody and went into the infield and the tailgates and got to understand our fan base. The fans were completely stoked with The Beast. The NASCAR fans all love Monster Energy and many of them drink alcohol and drink beer and this was Monster Energy and alcohol together and it all made sense to them. NASCAR works so well for us. Monster Energy has a history there and the fanbase already drinks alcohol and they live for the sport.

How have you liked working with Tyler and any highlights from the 2023 season?

It has been excellent. Especially with as successful as Tyler Reddick has been, that’s huge for us. As for highlights, there were a couple of times that we brought Tyler into the infield. One time we took him around at Talladega and he was a super-cool guy. We went around to people’s campsites and they were like, ‘Woah! Is that Tyler?!” He was a champ with that, man! He went around, shook hands and had some drinks with folks.

Do you enjoy working with the 23XI racing organization? You’ve spoken about how open the team and its people have been to new ideas and new thinking.

Yes, absolutely. The team is open to new ideas. I think we are all looking to drive the brand and the sport. We are obviously attached to Monster Energy, but we want to carve out our own space, as well. The team has been very eager to find ways for us to be able to do that.

Nasty Beast Hard Tea has been introduced to the world at Daytona International Speedway and the 2024 Daytona 500, huh?

Yeah, exactly. That’s the big thing. Daytona was the reveal of the Nasty Beast Hard Tea livery that Tyler Reddick will race. Daytona was a big reveal for us as was the team and Tyler Reddick representing Nasty Beast at the Daytona 500. We’ll be nationwide with Nasty Beast in the next three to four weeks and Tyler and Daytona will totally help us go after the Hard Tea business which is exploding right now. Another thing we’re excited about is that we will have The Beast on Tyler’s car for more races this year. These are going to be very big races for us and we are leaning into that big time. So come find The Beast tent and enjoy a Beast. The Beast Unleashed was the number one new alcohol in 2023 and we expect Nasty Beast to be the number one in 2024.