Welcome to the latest issue of Cuppa, a quick-fire newsletter for internet-first brand builders. Filled with analysis on the art, science and culture of building breakout brands in a digital age, it's quick enough to read over a cuppa. (Or something stronger if you need it...no judgement!). To get it direct to your inbox every other Wednesday, subscribe here.
ART
How to NOT start a flower delivery business on Amazon
In a post-pandemic world, paired with an unstable economic environment, digital brands are increasingly looking to channel diversification to keep up, and Amazon is quickly becoming a popular avenue thanks to their expansive reach. However, operating on Amazon is not always peachy. This is a fantastic read from Elliot Hawkins, the founder of Elliots, a fresh flower brand that operated exclusively on Amazon. It walks you through his journey from brand inception to the difficult decision to park the business, filled with incredible advice and tips about the intricacies, tools and details that make an Amazon channel successful.
Photoshoots shouldn't have to cost a bomb
If the costs and logistics of product photoshoots give you a headache, Soona is a service to have on your radar. Soona is the world’s first virtual content creation platform for e-commerce. You can have a remote photo shoot, where they virtually shoot your products, and turn around the final edited assets in just 24 hours, making it stress-free for brands to get quality content at affordable prices.
24hrs with the founder of a billion dollar empire
We gave Mr. Beast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) the Charlie Oscar stamp of approval for brand strategy back in February, when he launched his snack brand, Feastables. But if you don't hang around in his corner of the internet, it can be hard to grasp his influence. This mini-documentary follows the launch of his first physical restaurant, and is an incredible behind the scenes look into what Jimmy has built (an empire valued at $1.5B). If you take one thing away from it when it comes to brand building, it's Jimmy's obsession with making sure “the fans are happy.”
Keeping to the topic of influential founders, what if you're not a social media star? What role should you play as a founder? This article poses this question to 19 brand-builders. TLDR: Don’t be the face of your brand. Be the Chief Evangelist.
SCIENCE
Is QVC a channel worth exploring?
QVC sold over $3 billion-worth of stuff in 2021 making it a compelling channel for digital brands to showcase their product. But like any channel, live shopping has its own intricacies and audience behaviours to be aware of.
How to solve the omnichannel attribution gap
When making the jump to omnichannel, brands will often feel disheartened when the numbers come through. Without the attributed sales reporting from digital marketing platforms, the default response is to instead shift all focus to engagement metrics, which are less tied to business growth than the revenue metrics used in e-comm. But shifting towards (or back to) an omnichannel business model shouldn’t mean you have to lose the glimmer that comes with e-comm growth. In this article our Chief Data Officer, Dan, explains why, and how you can maintain the revenue link when it comes to assessing omnichannel activity.
Influencer programs can drive your bottom line
Whether it's sourcing influencers efficiently to managing multiple contracts, influencer programs are notoriously hard to scale in-house. And the biggest challenge of all? Accurately measuring ROI.
But at Charlie Oscar, we don't think influencer programs should be stressful to execute, nor should it be channel that you toss to the side because its impact on revenue is unknown.
So over the past several months we've been building a new influencer playbook for digital brands. A playbook that is efficient to execute, has full-funnel impact and drives revenue long-term.
Our playbook is built on the following principles:
1. Monthly product gifting to hundreds of nano and micro influencers. No over-inflated price tags, just genuine relationships with more reach for your dollar.
2. Generating an endless stream of high-quality UGC that can be repurposed and tested across paid ad accounts.
3. Always-on direct performance measurement combined with time-series regression modelling to reveal both indirect and direct sales attributed from influencers. It's a sales first, vanity metrics second philosophy.
After implementing our influencer playbook for our portfolio brand, Different Dog, to date we've achieved:
📉 30% drop in overall CPA across the FB ad account
💰 2250+ new subscriptions
💪 A blended CAC 60% under benchmark, outperforming all paid channels
And we're only getting started! If you're interested in building an influencer program that helps drive your bottom line, drop us a line, we'd love to chat!
