The ketogenic diet is the latest health craze—even praised by celebrities Halle Berry and Kourtney Kardashian—but one keto snack maker has ditched its Keto Kookie name to appeal to a wider audience.
Nui Foods LLC, formerly Keto Kookie, announced a rebranding this month, changing everything from its name and logo to product packaging. It also moved its headquarters last month from Yorba Linda to Anaheim.
Co-founder Victor Macias said the new name means “greatness and abundance in all things.”
“While Keto Kookie was a great start for us, we found that lowering sugar levels aids in a number of other health issues that can impact people’s lives,” he said in a statement. “So while we continue to embrace the keto faithfully, we’re excited to extend the benefits of our products to a new customer set.”
Keto is a low-carb, moderate protein and high-fat diet meant to help the body burn fat instead of glucose.
Nui Foods makes gluten-free, non-GMO cookies with no artificial sweeteners. Flavors include peanut butter, snickerdoodle, chocolate chip and double chocolate. It plans to introduce new flavors in a few weeks, Macias said.
Nui is sold online and retails for $30 for a 10-pack totaling 20 cookies.
Macias said the rebrand was a yearlong process but that the team saw positives in making a change.
“What was really fun and unique was how we engaged our fans at every turn to help us define our brand name, logo and color scheme,” he said.
The company previously sold cookies in brown packaging stickered with a red Keto Kookie logo. Now they’re in brightly colored packs based on a cookie’s flavor, with the company’s new name in white.
Macias co-founded the brand with Kristoffer Quiaoit in September 2016 after raising nearly $80,000 on Kickstarter.
The pair embarked on the keto diet two years ago, and finding a lack of quality keto-friendly snacks, whipped up cookies in Quiaoit’s mom’s kitchen before moving to a commercial kitchen.
Macias said demand pushed it to move to Anaheim and that it’s excited to grow its customer base to those outside of the keto community.
“The process has certainly taken a lot of time and effort, but we’re really proud of the result, and we take ownership of the fact that our values have not changed overtime,” Macias said. “Nui supports our mission to help more people reach greatness and abundance in life, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer that promise to more people as we continue to grow.”
Search Party
Advertising executive Greg Mason is ready to settle into Orange County this month.
The founder of Reno-based ad agency GMAA Group, formerly Greg Mason Advertising Arts, said new clients in the OC area have it heading further west with a second office.
“As GMAA Group continues to grow, an office in Southern California seemed like a solid decision as we are in conversations with several clients in the area,” Mason said in a statement. “We are excited to become a part of the SoCal creative world.”
The company currently has a virtual office in Newport Beach as it looks for a suitable office space, he said.
Mason launched the business in 1988 with his first client—Bill’s Casino, the former boutique casino owned by Harrah’s in Stateline, Lake Tahoe.
GMAA specializes in gaming and events with clients such as Lodge Casino and Gilpin Casino in Colorado, Harvey’s Resort Lake Tahoe, Fallon Convention & Visitors Authority and Heritage Bank.
Game On
Digital entertainment company NCSOFT in Aliso Viejo named Chris Corry chief development officer this month.
He’ll oversee all development in the West for the South Korea-based company.
President Songyee Yoon said Corry will help centralize and drive growth as the company expands its global publishing reach.
“His leadership and wealth of experience in the games industry with some of the top companies in our field are perfectly timed with our vision of becoming one of the best digital entertainment companies in the world,” Yoon said in a statement.
Corry previously served as head of development management at mobile game entertainment company Kabam. He was also founding general manager of Zynga’s Los Angeles studio and co-founded mobile game company TapZen, which sold to Kabam in 2015.
