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 week, subscribe here.

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ART

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BRB - currently crying over Dove's latest campaign

Over the past year whenever I've walked into a Space NK, Sephora or Boots, I've been overwhelmed by the amount of young girls crowded around skincare shelves testing the latest skincare potions. Since the dawn of TikTok, there's been a noticeable cultural shift in young children engaging in adult skincare, and rather than leveraging this new demographic, Dove is the first brand to put it's hat in the ring and tackle the issue with their new #TheFaceof10 campaign.

At surface level, it may look like Dove is just commenting on this cultural phenomenon for relevancy and to spark conversation, but at a deeper level I believe it's a genius campaign that is targeting one of their core audience groups - mothers. Because who is else is more invested in protecting the self-esteem of young girls?

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A new era is here: the festivalisation of running

Judge me all you want, but I'll be at the London Marathon this weekend not only supporting a pal, but for the ✨ fashion and vibes ✨, not the running. The stylish visual and creative rebrand of running culture has been bubbling for a while now. In 2014, Matt Taylor brought a trendy, collegiate aesthetic to the running category with Tracksmith, and since then there has been a boom in design-led running brands like District Vision, Pure Sport, Soar and Satisfy. It's going beyond fashion too, from breakfast runs to panel talks, pizza parties and boozy DJ nights, marathons are no longer a simple “race day” but a “race week” bonanza for runners and brands alike. It's time to tap in.

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SCIENCE

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Can YouTube be more effective than TikTok and PMAX? Yes.

‍Across the industry, YouTube has historically been seen as an essential part of driving upper-funnel activity, helping raise brand awareness on a broad scale, and perhaps not being so great at driving conversions in-platform. However, for the brands we work with at Charlie Oscar, YouTube has been shown to drive high volumes of new customers at an efficient CPA in 2024 so far. For example, COmpass, our attribution solution, helped illustrate that YouTube drove 1,000s of new customers for one cosmetics brand at an efficient CPA under £20. In this particular analysis, YouTube was shown to be more effective than TikTok and PMAX. This not only shows the potential in using YouTube as a upper- and lower-funnel marketing tool, but also using an omnichannel attribution tool like COmpass to fairly assess the impact of all your marketing channels.

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Three key learnings from Klaviyo's recent 2024 Benchmark Report

‍1. Consistency is Key in Email Engagement: Most industries experienced steady quarter-over-quarter engagement rates, with slight fluctuations. However, Q4 saw a slight uptick in the food and beverage sector, emphasizing the power of timing and relevancy in marketing efforts.

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2. Automation Unlocks Revenue: Automated email and SMS flows, such as abandoned cart or post-purchase messages, are significantly more effective than one-time campaigns, boasting up to 30x more revenue per recipient. It’s clear that automation is not just convenient but crucial for conversion-focused marketers.

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3. SMS's Rising Potential: SMS marketing is slightly outperforming email in terms of average revenue per recipient across all ecommerce sectors. With its high ROI for high-intent buyers, SMS's integration with email best practices hints at an even greater revenue-driving capability.