COMPANY: Sobe
CAN DESIGN: Fits the theme perfectly. Logo is readable yet looks like something from a heavy metal band. They even worked in their geckos from their original tea line. I have to give them kudos for the tagline "24 Karat Energy". But again, as with Sobe Superman, why don't they list their website on the can? Or am I blind?
CAN DETAILS: 16 FL OZ, 130 Calories
PRICE: 2.19 at Safeway
WEBSITE: Sobenofear.com
Full Throttle is in no danger here. The site tries but it's lacking. For one thing I would have the music automatically play as the visitor enters the site and then give them the option of turning it off. As it is, there is an audio player selection that you have to click on to play the music. I think the music helps the hype so it should be on no matter what unless the user is just annoyed by it--then they can click "turn off audio".
Currently the first thing you see on the page is their newest contest. I would be hesitant about allowing a contest to take up most of the page above the scroll line. It seems to me I would have given a contest a half of the page to the left and then other options to the right such as their commercial with is buried below the scroll line. Their commercial also shows a lack of imagination. Of course these guys don't have the budget of Coca-cola's Full Throttle commercial which is excellent, but half a music video with some motocross biker making a jump is kind of lame. With a theme like "No Fear" you could do plenty of things such as a Fear Factor parody or edit together bike crashes, skateboard crashes, and some insane stunts with blood and guts and adrenaline all over the place--plus some animation (and yes, as a cartoonist I'm biased) would be a nice touch.
Their commercial promo comes off as if someone put it together in about an hour. The plus side to the site is their wallpapers for promoting No Fear Gold. Themes with Gold Babes, looking like they're drugged out, enhance the image of the drink though I wonder if they could have taken this farther with more bling-bling. As far as "Stuff" to do, where are the screensavers, the games, vid clips, etc. Instead of saying "Stuff" as a menu option that might as well put "Wallpapers".
I realize I'm being hard on Sobe here, but they have some steep competition so they need to wake up--drinking you're own No Fear.
The website does list their "Crew" which are several extreme sports guys that they sponsor. This may be taking up most of their budget too. You can look some vid clips and stillz here, nothing too special though. Sponsoring motocross and auto racing is a great way to promote their drink--could more be done with it for their site?
TASTE: Kind of like watered down grapefruit juice. Grapefruit makes me wretch though and I actually thought the No Fear Gold taste was pretty good. Looking at the ingredients I do see grape seed extract--maybe that combined with Taurine creates that flavor. It has a fruity feel to it, however, as usual it is really, really sweet.
AFTERTASTE: Nothing noticeable
SUSTAINED EFFECTS: No worse or better than a cup of coffee. I try not to drink 16 FL Oz in one sitting so if you downed this in one shot you may feel a rush. I think the taste though would be hard to deal with if you're gulping heavily. I can gulp Monster Energy, I'm not so sure about No Fear Gold.
OVERALL: A decent variation on the Super Energy Drink. The image is better than usual, can design is good, and the site is lacking. It just needs some work if it is going to compete against Full Throttle.
WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN? Hmm, if Monster Energy and Full Throttle were not available, yes I would.

GENERAL COMMENTS: The key to the success of these energy drinks is the hype. Sobe Superman already failed on this point as far as I'm concerned. Sobe No Fear Gold, I'm sad to say, comes close because they still don't seem to be putting much "energy" into selling this variation on their regular No Fear drink. The idea of No Fear Gold is a good one but then how are you going to make it pop out amongst your regular line? There should be a promo commercial specifically for the Gold version.
They at least put up some wallpapers for it. If i was brainstorming, I would take the gold version and target the hip hop market. It makes perfect sense. The can is the Bling-Bling accessory to the hip-hop gotta get-rich-or-die-tryin' lifestyle combined with extreme sports including flashy cars and bikes. That would be fun, plus expand your audience. Instead, possibly because of limited funds, there seems to be a lazy approach to the marketing. Website extras are not that expensive as a whole. A flash cartoon, a video with unknown actors, a flash game--these are affordable options that could be dedicated to The Gold line. The site as a whole isn't bad, it tracks events, shows you real people hanging out, boasts about their tour bus, and so forth--it just seems to lack energy and the necessary amount of hype.