Lower than two months in the past, Solo Range launched into what was extensively heralded as a genius advertising marketing campaign.
The model partnered with legendary rapper Snoop Dogg to make use of his not-so-secret affinity with hashish to trick the world into considering he’d given up “smoke,” solely to disclose that he was partnering with Solo Range to advertise their smokeless hearth pits.
A masterpiece in viral advertising, individuals stated. Advert Age listed it at #18 on its High 40 Adverts of 2023.
Solo Range was satisfied with it too. Then CEO, John Merris, stated on his LinkedIn on the time, “this one will go down as top-of-the-line. Snoop Dogg is unbelievable to work with and we discovered the proper collaboration between two manufacturers.”
And but, as of Jan. 15, John Merris is out of a job. In line with Solo Range interim CFO Andrea Tarbox, the marketing campaign “raised model consciousness” however “didn’t result in the gross sales carry that [they] had deliberate.”
Was this a case of a poorly spent advertising price range? Or unrealistic ROI expectations?
A pivot in technique
Let’s look a bit nearer at Solo Manufacturers. The corporate grew steadily by the Covid-19 pandemic, probably a results of an awesome product match for all of us caught at house. However since then, the model has managed to maintain that income steady, with web gross sales of $329.5 million for the final 9 months of 2023, up 2.8% for a similar interval in 2022. Not only a smokeless flash within the pan.
Till lately, Solo Range had been predominantly a direct-response centered enterprise, investing in social media and different measurable advertising channels.
So this Snoop Dogg marketing campaign was an enormous leap.
Don’t run an consciousness marketing campaign and choose it on gross sales
Too many instances we see manufacturers tick each field relating to what they’re in search of by way of ROI for a marketing campaign. Newsflash: you can’t have all of it.