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Last week, Solo Brands, the parent company of direct-to-consumer brands Solo Stove and others, named Christopher T. Metz president, CEO and chairman of the board.

But that's not the interesting story.

The story is why Solo Brands changed their brand quarterback. The CFO said Solo's unique marketing campaigns failed to generate expected revenue, which negatively impacted the company's results.

Danger. Here comes another bus to subject marketing to.

We asked Robert Rose, CMI's chief strategy advisor, for his opinion. Watch the video or read on for his insight:

Snoop Dogg's campaign leads to CEO's departure

Rapper Snoop Dogg made headlines again last week for a campaign he ran for Solo Stove last November.

You may remember Snoop's headline-grabbing tweet: “After much consideration and discussion with my family, I have decided to quit smoking. Please respect my privacy at this time.”

It spread virally across social media channels and mainstream news coverage. It went viral because the only celebrity more associated with smoking weed than Snoop Dogg might be Willie Nelson. But did Snoop really give up? Did he just want to eat something edible now?

No. The tweet was part of a brand awareness campaign for Solo Stove's new smokeless stove. In a follow-up video, Snoop explains that he is tired of coughing and that his clothes smell bad. As the camera pans further, Snoop is seen sitting in front of a smokeless fire pit from Solo Stove.

What an incredible influencer and brand awareness campaign, right? It garnered 30 million likes, comments and shares on social media. Ad Age even ranked it 18th (registration required) in its Top 40 Ads of 2023.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, Solo says it didn't work and has abandoned the marketing campaign because of the slightly lower sales forecast – and apparently replaced the CEO because of it.

In his new CEO announcement, the interim CFO said, “While our unique marketing campaigns increased Solo Stove's brand awareness among an expanded and new consumer audience, they did not result in the revenue increase we had planned, which, combined with the increased marketing investments, worked had a negative impact on our EBITDA.”

She continued: “We believe we have a great opportunity to increase awareness and that these new campaigns will expand our reach and benefit our brands in the long term.”

Blunder: Brand awareness with sales as a success metric

Solo said with a serious face that the brand awareness campaign launched in November 2023 had not brought an increase in sales in six weeks. SIX. weeks. They probably hadn't even paid the agency's bill yet. Leave that there for now.

There are two things you should consider and acknowledge in this situation.

First, it's a great example of something I often teach: applying the right business goals and objectives to the right part of the marketing journey. If business and marketing goals don't align, don't be surprised if no one achieves any of them.

Solo ran a brand awareness campaign. As a marketer, I can tell that it is designed for pure brand awareness based on the social media posts, TikTok videos and of course the ad posted on the YouTube channel which reaches 1.1 million videos at the time of publication. None of the content contained a call to action other than a simple “Learn more” at the end of the video ad that directed viewers to Solo Stove’s website.

Brilliant content and beautifully delivered. Solo has created a perfect vehicle to generate more conversation and awareness for its brand. The content for conversions has not been created.

This is what they said a month after launch. In The Daily, a magazine for outdoor retailers, then-CEO John Merris discussed hiring Martin Agency to create the campaign, explaining its purpose: “You certainly don't track it by sales…you track it by Things like unsupported brand awareness.”

I'm an outsider looking in, and the solo team may have a better insight. But if brand awareness were the business goal and all marketing leaders were on the same page, it would simply be wrong to let the campaign fail because it didn't meet sales goals. The campaign wasn't designed to increase sales, let alone only had six weeks to do so.

Mistake: Audience-building content without CTAs to engage the audience

Now I have issues with their strategy of “building audience” through the campaign. In my world, the Solo campaign would have had CTAs to build an audience. Why not invite the audience to be part of Snoop's Smokeless World? They could create their own customized “smoke-free plan”, download all the benefits of being smoke-free and have lots of interactive fun. Solo would have built an approachable audience.

That was the real marketing mistake – they didn't associate the campaign with anything else. They came up with a brilliant concept for an amazing, differentiating story told by an exceptional influencer and didn't connect it to any part of their client's journey. Any links from their beautifully designed campaign? Everyone goes to Solo's boring e-commerce store – very convenient if you want to buy a stove, but terrible if you want to understand why you should buy a smokeless stove.

They could have continued the Snoop story into the demand generation part of the journey and developed more interest in and purchased the ovens. They could have used the goodwill and brand recognition to attract more people to smokeless stoves and fire pits.

In CMI and TCA's First-Party Data Workshop, we teach how to leverage engagement and interaction with content to deliver the best next experience. When marketers capture a person's attention, what is the best next experience that person might have? Combine that with the content that brought them to the cinema and keep it there.

This means integrating your content and marketing strategy.

As you think about ways to bring to market the amazing, new, disruptive, and viral content your creative team has discovered, just think about this story. Ask how you can connect this content to a bigger, best next experience so your audience always has a place to go deeper, learn more and build a relationship with you and your brand.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps

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