Ana Kornegay – Building Sammy Hagar and Guy Fieri's Tequila Brand

Shelf Help: The Tactical CPG Podcast

On this episode, we’re joined by Ana Kornegay, the VP of Marketing at Santo Spirits, the premium tequila brand co-founded by Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar.
Before leading the charge at Santo, Ana spent over 15 years at Brown-Forman overseeing iconic spirits like Gentleman Jack and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. She's also the founder of Hummingbird Branding & Marketing, and holds a Master’s in Medical Cannabis Science & Therapeutics.
We cover a ton of actionable insights and tactics.
Episode Highlights:
🌵 How Santo turned a “what if?” into the world’s first “Mezquila”
📦 The 3 biggest packaging mistakes she sees new brands make
🚀 What to expect if you want to jump from “Big CPG” to an “upstart brand”, and where should new grads start
🧩 “Build vs buy” (hiring internally our outsource?)
⚖️ Siloing agencies vs spreading across multiple in-house brands
🤘 Building a celebrity brand without losing authenticity
🧠 When and why to refresh packaging (and when to leave it alone)
🔮 The rise of NA and functional beverages
⏱️ Table of Contents
00:00 – Intro & Ana’s Career in Spirits
03:00 – Santo’s Origin Story & Mezquila Launch
07:00 – Startup vs. Corporate Marketing Life
12:00 – Celebrity-Backed Brands: Behind the Curtain
18:00 – Trends in Low/No Proof & Functional Beverages
24:00 – Packaging Frameworks for Spirit Brands
30:00 – When a Packaging Refresh is the Right Move
35:00 – Campaigns That Flopped & What She Learned
39:00 – AI in Marketing: Love it or Hate it?
Links:
Santo Spirits – https://www.santospirits.com
Follow Ana on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-kornegay
Follow Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

Check out https://www.kitprint.co/ for CPG production design support.