DTC Holiday Gift Guide

And what you can learn from these brand’s marketing approach

Who is ready for the holidays?

Holidays means more shopping, more research, more money spent on ads, creative campaigns - it’s a marketers dream and nightmare at the same time.

To get ahead of the game, I wanted to share some brands who are on my radar. Treat this as a gift guide to find cool brands for your gifts but also an insight into why having your brand having an omni-channel approach is key.

We too often take into account how many likes and comments we get on content, and unfortunately in our industry cannot always track the success of our content. Some of these brands I am sharing today I may have never engaged with the content I saw, but typed in their website on my laptop to look into them. This is a message for everyone on making sure you have content going out consistently on organic and paid, seeding and supporting brand ambassadors, working with influencers, getting listed on relevant sites to your brand etc.

So, not only does my “gift guide” have some brands you should actually look into for your shopping this year, but I am sharing how I came across these brands, and my insight into their strategy.

Graza

Discovered via:?Chatter around the CPG community. I can’t remember the specific social channel, but this brand is highly talked about. After diving more into the brand (already in love with their bold packaging) I found they are not afraid to talk about their compatriot on their website and through their content. Being bold and confident is exactly what you have to be as a brand to stand out and truly cut though the noise.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Bold packaging
• Speaks about competitors
• Has early adopters talking

Have I engaged with the brand online??No

Jones Road Beauty

Discovered via:?Twitter - I am in love with CPG/DTC brands and follow a ton of marketers. I follow the CMO of this brand on Twitter and have learned so much not only about their marketing, their website, and their products that way. If you look into the brand you will soon discover the founder is Bobbi Brown. Remember, your customers come in all forms and backgrounds, so having people on your team being excited about their work (and talking about those specifics cubically) can be super helpful to pull people into your brand that may never have been in another format/way.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Famous Founder - building instant trust
• Clean packaging
• Excitement from employees as they build a new brand

Have I engaged with the brand online??No

Costa Brazil

Discovered via:?Mecca Cosmetics - while shopping at Mecca (an Australian Sephora) I saw this brand on the shelf and fell in love with the packaging - I just had to have something. I didn’t purchase that day but I took a look at their website, social media, and founder’s LinkedIn. The next time I went to the store I made my purchase (with the sales associate also being excited about my purchase) and I am really happy with it - the quality matches the price and packaging and I plan to buy more from their line and tell people about the brand.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Stand out packaging
• Great founder story

Have I engaged with the brand online??No

Seasons

Discovered via:?Influencers posting unboxing videos on TikTok. I continued to see these videos by influencers/content creators consistently so it made it easy to remember the brand and the look of the product.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Product looks different than all the competitors
• Consistent content from users showing up (on TikTok and Instagram)

Have I engaged with the brand online??Yes - only liking TikTok videos by the influencers posting.

Vacation

Discovered via:?I am not sure the first way I heard about the brand. I mainly see it on Instagram now and honestly they are talked about a lot via the CPG community on Twitter.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Their branding is very nostalgic
• They do really cool products, drops, and collaborations
• Every piece of content they put out feels like they care - effort is there (no “filler” content)

Have I engaged with the brand online??Yes - followed them on Instagram

Tea Gems

Discovered via:?TikTok -?this video specifically. I actually saved it to my “things to buy” collection on my TikTok Saved Videos

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Product in content just does the work for you - it’s a unique product
• Just goes to show if you have a standout product you can get people to buy (without having a rockstar website/branding at first)

Have I engaged with the brand online??No

Everlasting Candle Co

Discovered via:?TikTok - randomly have seen several videos about the product on TikTok and it just stands out since its such a cool product.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Innovative product, so cool just seeing it in a video/picture can be enough.
• They focused on one cool product, with the topic of different colors/sizes
• Seems to have gotten some great press and website/Instagram is really clean

Have I engaged with the brand online??No

Tulip

Discovered via:?Honestly not sure, but somewhere among the chatter of CPG people - maybe on?ThingTesting?first?

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Made a really specific product for a very specific audience that is beautifully designed
• Still a really new brand growing their presence (3.5k followers on IG so far) but I like their brand overall (look and feel)

Have I engaged with the brand online??Yes - have liked some content (not sure if even posted by them) on TikTok

Andy Blank

Discovered via:?TikTok - early 2020 I found this brand on TikTok (via their own brand account) and instantly fell in love. I have been a repeat customer, told my friends about the brand (and they have all become customers), been to their warehouse sale, etc.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Consistent posting of their products
• Sharing the BTS of making the products
• Marketing the upcoming drops in fun ways

Have I engaged with the brand online??Yes - followed them and posted IG stories and tagged them.

Emme

Discovered via:?TikTok - I continue to get content from this brand (with they founder as the face of the account) on TikTok. Once you see it so many times you have to click (even if you aren’t in the market to buy a candle at the moment).

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Continued posting of content, consistency is key
• Sharing BTS content/Founder perspective

Have I engaged with the brand online??No

Pill-Ar

Discovered via:?A video?by the founder on TikTok dropping off a package for the brand in person in NYC. That video was key - led me to looking into her page to see what she even sold and the product had the wow factor.

Spark Notes - What stands out?

• Founder video(s)
• Innovative product for a very specific audience
• Website/branding isn’t even special but the founder and product are

Have I engaged with the brand online??No, other than watching that video (one video view that matters)

Hopefully it’s clear on what your efforts are doing that you are not even aware of that may be working and also just having a presence in all sorts of places is important and can be what seals the deal for someone to make a purchase and even become a brand ambassador.

Thanks for reading our weekly social media marketing newsletter where we share the best tips, tricks, strategy suggestions and more each week for CPG brands trying to win on social media.?The Creative Exchange?is a social media agency and content studio for CPG brands, This week's newsletter was written by our founder and CEO,?Anna Sullivan. Questions about your social media? Email us at:?[email protected]?or tweet Anna at?@anna_sullivan10.