📦 - You Miss All The Shots You Don’t Take

DTC 508 - Osea’s Leap Year Promo, Biosteel’s Pivot, and Entrepreneur Journey Wednesday, March 6, 2024 “Have you tried… unplugging it and plugging it back in again?” Good morning, ANOTHA ONE. Meta experienced another global outage yesterday morning. Make sure you’re double checking all your campaigns and account for any anomalies. Here’s a tip from the Pilothouse team: Go into your custom reports and check spend by hour within the past 24 hour time frame. Don’t be alarmed if spend looks looooow during the outage, there was no one to actually deliver ads to. 🤷 Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC: - We analyze Osea Malibu’s creative Leap Year promo as they turn back the clock with a 90s-inspired campaign. - How Dan Crosby used the BioSteel acquisition to grow a company without taking on any debt. - And a reminder that the entrepreneurial journey is a marathon, not a sprint. You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Modern Pirate, Aug X Labs, and Storage Authority. 👋 CREATIVE 👀 We Know A Secret About Some Of The Ads Performing in TikTok’s Top CVR 1%... Lean in, a little closer… the brands are using [content made with minisocial](. TikTok not your thing? No worries! Brands like Plant People are using minisocial content for their acquisition channels and seeing a 30%+ increase in ROAS and 50% decrease in cost per add-to-cart. minisocial makes it easy for you. Their [fully-managed solution](: - Partners your brand with high-quality micro influencers who will also share the content with their followers. - Delivers you fully licensed content to use across all your marketing channels (yes, ads too!). Worried that the system won’t match you up with the right creators? Worry erased: there is no system! Creators are hand-picked by minisocial’s expert team for your brand — No software or AI in sight. 👋 Thousands of DTC brands are already creating [scroll-stopping content with minisocial](. What are you waiting for? [Get Creative That Stops The Scroll]( *Sponsored CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN 🛼 Osea’s Leap Year Campaign Is A Major Throwback The 90s are SO back! 😎 When [Osea Malibu]( ran its Leap Year promotion last week, the brand turned back the clock on its website design and prices for a fun and engaging marketing campaign. Don’t worry, we grabbed all the screenshots beforehand so you can sneak a peek at all of the cool retro visuals. (And pssst, if you didn’t get the chance to run a Leap Day promo this year that’s OK. Meta Ads are pretty volatile right now.) Let’s get into it! 👇 [Osea Malibu’s retro website is pure nostalgia] 🧠 The campaign idea Since the California brand was founded in 1996 during a Leap Year, they decided to go with a 90s-inspired campaign which included giving their website a makeover. The skincare brand promised customers incredible savings that came ‘only once every four years’ and ‘deals bigger than Black Friday’ which motivated customers to shop and stock up on their favorite Osea items. The brand also took advantage of this special occasion to tell its brand story and invite its fanbase to learn more about [the founders and their product history](. Providing education about the brand not only helps form a deeper emotional connection with customers but highlights the brand’s credibility as well. 💟 [Osea highlights their brand story on their homepage] 90s Leap Year campaign highlights: - Refreshed website design: The retro site featured turquoise and purple colors inspired by the iconic 90s Solo cup, retro fonts, and 90s magazine cutouts. 🛼 - 90s-inspired activations: Website visitors could stream [a branded Ultimate 90s Mixtape]( on Spotify and play with an interactive sticker bank filled with Osea’s best-selling products and items like Tamagochis and Beanie Babies. - Limited edition 90s merch: The brand even created a 90s-inspired size-inclusive crew neck available as a nice add-on for shoppers. [Osea’s 90s inspired merch and activations on their site] The takeaways? - Turned site into a fun destination: Along with an irresistible cost savings offer, the site had plenty of 90s activations to drive more traffic and clicks. - 90s theme resonates well with the target audience: The decision to go with a 90s theme is aligned with their core female demographic who grew up in the 90s and can appreciate the nod to retro designs. - Strong cost-savings messaging: The brand prominently displayed steep discounts on its site and kept this messaging consistent on its social media channels and email sends to get a major boost in online sales. This Leap Year campaign deserves major points for its creativity! We love how the brand ties together an attractive promotion with its brand origin story. PARTNERSHIP 🔍 The Search for A Growth-Driven Partner Ends Here 💥 With 2024's challenges… it's crucial to have a [powerhouse team]( backing your brand. Does your current agency truly propel your business forward? Are they laser-focused on impactful strategies? Aligned with your ROI goals? Doing the most they possibly can to support you and your brand? If doubt lingers… [Meet Pilothouse](, DTC’s sister company. They’re hungry problem solvers, ROAS generators, and partners in your growth, right down to your bottom line. They’ve got a few spots open and we promise you want one of them. 🤝 [Get connected]( — no obligation. Pilothouse makes money when you do. *Sponsored PODCAST 🎧 BioSteel: Revitalizing a Hydration Empire In this episode of the pod, we interview Dan Crosby, the new owner of [BioSteel](. We discuss how this Canadian entrepreneur acquired the fledgling sports hydration brand after an ugly bankruptcy and was able to turn things around for the beloved CPG brand. The backstory BioSteel is a popular sugar-free electrolyte beverage with clean ingredients, best known for its long partnership with the NFL. Supporting professional hockey players was the perfect product market fit but the company faced some challenges in recent years as they burned through their revenue with high profile sponsorships. But things are looking up again as Dan focuses on reducing expenses, rebuilding brand equity, and streamlining BioSteel’s retail assortment by focusing on top-performing SKUs. Dan on profitability: “Every dollar I spend, I better see 10 dollars back. It doesn’t matter if I’m spending a hundred million to get to a billion or a dollar to get to ten. It’s easy to analyze this type of data and recognize whether or not it’s performing.” In this podcast, we cover: - Dan’s decision to acquire BioSteel and his experience in the sports nutrition industry - The importance of transparent ingredient labels - Dan’s performance marketing plan for BioSteel’s comeback moving forward 👉 You can listen to the full episode with Dan [here](. 🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE While there are many DTC brands in the news growing at an exponential rate, don’t forget that it’s not about who grows the fastest but which brands have the most longevity. Slow and steady. 🐢 Can't view the image? [Click here]( 🧰 THE TOOLKIT 🔎 Are you identifying as much of your website traffic as possible? If not, then you need a first-party data collection strategy and tools that leverage that data efficiently. [Stay ahead of the cookiepocalypse](. * 📰 NEWS - At least 500,000 Meta users [reported issues logging into Facebook and Instagram]( on Tuesday morning. - Google Ads [launches free tool Solutions to help streamline campaigns]( and automate tasks for advertisers. - Spanx unveils [its first global campaign titled ‘We Live in Spanx’]( in time for Women’s Day. - Poppi turns four years old and [celebrates the milestone with ‘Birthday Suit’ merch.]( - Guinness hosts a [Lucky Sunday program]( across the U.S. leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. SPONSOR DTC 📥 Got a B2B Biz? Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 160k brand leaders and founders this year. [Talk to our team to learn more](. Have you heard our latest podcasts? - ✍️ [AKNF 383:]( Meta State of The Union 2024 - 👚 Oren John on [Launching a Premium Niche Fashion Brand]( - 💰 [AKNF 381:]( The Ultimate CRO Framework for Media Buyers - 🧦 Streamlining Success – Outway's Taylor Fraser on [Simplifying to Scale Ecommerce]( - 👀 [AKNF 379:]( TikTok Shop Affiliates: The Time Is Now Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Frances Du](. Edited by [Eric Dyck](. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. NEED MORE DTC? 🚀 [Advertise]( in DTC Newsletter. Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content. [Direct To Consumer]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( [Unsubscribe](