I am sharing something that is mind-bending.

I found this brand and they have:

• No inherently easily share-able product but has huge word-of-mouth marketing

• They don’t measure their marketing as I thought they’d do

• Their contribution margin is crazy high

• And it’s not a SaaS or course

It’s a physical DTC brand that has flipped the marketing upside down.

But before introducing the brand, here are some credentials why I am in love with them:

• The founder of this brand had already sold a successful DTC product

• They focused on organic marketing first before paid social

• They value research: user and pricing research

How can they NOT win?

Without further ado, here’s the brand:

It’s Jolie Skin Care – It is a beauty wellness company that purifies the quality of your water for better skin, hair, and overall well-being.

It’s basically a showerhead filter.

Flipping idea tip # 1: Shower filters can be considered a skin care product. Why? Everything is connected to water. If you want to take care of your skin, then water is the first thing you need to focus on, not creams or lotions.

I recently heard Jolie’s CEO, Ryan Babenzien, speak out on Chew On This podcast - Digestible DTC Content. I highly recommend watching the entire episode and subscribing to their channel because my key lessons will be coming from this episode. (Thank you Ash and Ron for doing this).

Subscribe to their newsletter here (also a great resource, I never miss it):

Back.

So, how are they winning?

• Probably doing 8-figures already (they had $4.2M in 2021)

• They are a subscription product with 98% retention, better than Netflix

• They are disrupting the market by operating in a white space (skincare)

• While designing, Jolie’s team surveyed customers to ensure that the product was unique and recognizable

• They not only did proper customer research but also pricing research in the early days from an agency that does pricing surveys from McKinsey and BCGs of the world

• They focused on the product that focuses on two things: vanity and habit. Vanity – for example, a consumer would say, “Look at my skin, how pretty I feel.” Habit – something that we all do regularly - take a shower.

So, today I am going to touch on their organic marketing and their paid marketing.

But why organic? Good question.

First, I am not going to check their SEO strategy but rather, their influencer marketing & OOH that aligns with paid marketing. Second, if a brand is doing well organically, then paid acts as a booster.

Here’s a key mental model I learned recently: If the brand you are promoting on paid social does not have organic reach and customers, it would be PRETTAY hard for you to achieve profitability with your ads. It is possible to achieve it with genius marketing, but it will still be hard.

So, I am going to share their ads and we’ll analyze them too.

Let’s look at their organic playbook:

1. Seeding influencers

Jolie's strategy for promoting its brand is intriguing as they focused on having people talk about their products in everyday conversations and at events and parties.

Ryan believes that offline word-of-mouth promotion is as effective, if not more, than online marketing. By giving products to creators and encouraging them to share their opinions on social media, Jolie generated 5000 pieces of unique user-generated content in their first year of business. This year, they aim to double that number.

All cold outreaches are manual and management is manual. They reach out 100s of influencers per week. Ryan said that 7 out of 10 influencers receive a free Jolie showerhead to create content.

And he does not believe in tracking it. He estimates that 1/50 of people who see content might be taking action, but he does not track it.

His logic for continuing this tactic is that 98% of FB visitors also don’t buy, so how can we discount organic seeding?

Most importantly, he is not tracking reach, impressions nor conversion. The only thing that he is tracking is the number of content that gets out.

This is wild.

And do you know how long he gave for this strategy to prove if it was working or not? 6 months. Media buyers get fired if they don’t perform within 6 months and here Ryan is taking such a big bet.

And if seeding is something you want to give your attention to, you can try these tools:

• SARAL – I’ve been using it for the last 3 months and it is 10x cheaper than most influencer marketing tools. And the best part? It’s a CRM and has a Chrome extension that helps a lot in prospecting.

• Insense or Billo if you don’t want to do the manual hard work (although, I recommend doing it manually.)

That’s their seeding strategy.

2. OOH ads that make you stop and think

Ryan is prioritizing offline non-measured marketing for businesses; he believes offline word-of-mouth promotion is just as effective as online marketing.

He says, “We can’t measure everything and we should not.”

Jolie is using nontraditional out-of-home advertising, such as billboards on delivery trucks in New York City, to create brand awareness and recognition. They complement this with digital ads and sidewalk stickers with funny slogans.

Their OOH ads are going against the enemy aka dirty water.

He believes that it will eventually compound but you can’t see it yet.

Regardless, I do believe that it will help in their performance marketing for sure.

Since we are on the performance topic, let’s learn from their best ads.

Caveat: They’ve only recently started running ads so we might not be able to see “proven ads,” that have been working for a longer period, but I’m sure we’ll learn something.

Now let’s look at their ads strategy.

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Ads that appeal

Important: For a better appreciation of the ads, I recommend watching the ads first. These ads are hosted on Foreplay, a great platform that allows me to save ads for inspiration even after the brands have deleted them (they also have a discovery feature where I find good ad concepts to steal).

Ad # 1 - Credible Micro-Influencer Ad

This ad has been running for 44 days so far, so it must be working. Let’s take a look.

What immediately stands out:

• Green screen format

• Hook: My hair and skin are softer and shiner

• Looks very native Instagram style

• Whitelisting ad since it is coming from a credible micro-influencer due to her handle in the video

• She’s probably an affiliate too, but more importantly, she’s into skincare so credibility and authority are there

• Upon digging, I found her two-part story: video # 1 and video # 2 and this seems to be an authentic review

What can we learn from this ad:

• Other than that this product is AMAZING and had a great seeding strategy, they turn to micro-influencer content without any editing. It will look like an authentic reel and that’s what most of us (consumers) want to see

• Show before and after footage that look genuine

• Addressing the objection: Installation is easy

• Most importantly, always be on the lookout for organic content like this

Damn, I wish she was my customer.

Ad # 2 - ‘Did you know?’ hook, again

This ad has been running for 57 days so far, so it must be working. Let’s take a look.

What immediately stands out:

• The use of “Did you know?” hook.It always opens the curiosity loop. (Last time, I reported AG1 was exploiting it with all their UGCs creators)

• Hitting the rational brain: 85% removal of chlorine and other chemicals

• Talking about: Cleaner water, better skin, healthier hair and better well-being

• Product in action: Showing the product and taking a shower

What can we learn from this ad:

• I think we should all give this hook a try

• Always mention benefits and show the product in action

• Using a stat like this hits your audience hard

Ad # 3 – Hook follows the UGC Mashup

This ad has been running for 38 days so far, so it must be working. Let’s take a look.

What immediately stands out:

• Hook with a search bar. I’m going to try this.

• IGC authentic customer testimonial because it shows the Insta handles

• Everyone’s talking about before and after

• The video mashup also looks very native

What can we learn from this ad:

• Find your best customer or influencer or creator testimonial, test the mashup

• Make sure the mashup has all the hooks and punches

• Focus on before and after narrative

• Use the hook in the video

Now we know why they have 10K content and how else they are using their seeding strategy other than word of mouth and virality.

So here’s the TL;DR on their ads:

• Use authentic before and after stories

• Make a mashup for all the authentic

• Try hook with a search bar

• Try “Did you know?”…

• Don’t discount seeding content for ads

• Make your content authentic Instagram-style videos

• Address objections in your ads

You know the crazy part? They are a subscription company and all of their ads are profitable from the first purchase onward and with even 98% retention.

Here’s a parting thought for all marketers from Ryan (from the Chew On This podcast):

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

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