How to launch a brand in 2024: In conversation with Sidemen manager Jordan Schwarzenberger

Welcome to the Retail Wrap-Up, your source of sector-specific news and insights, created by LinkedIn News UK retail editor Aaron Toumazou .

In this week's edition, we sat down with Jordan Schwarzenberger , the manager of a YouTube collective boasting a combined following of over 240 million.?

This group, known as the Sidemen, is now making a splash on supermarket shelves with their own line of consumer goods. Here, Schwarzenberger shares his experience navigating this unique route to market, exploring the opportunities (and challenges) that arise with celebrity-fronted brands and a predominantly gen Z audience.

The Big Read

The Sidemen, a group of social media influencers including KSI (also a co-founder of energy drink PRIME ), Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123 and W2S, shot to fame sharing challenges, sketches and video game commentaries on YouTube.?

Having amassed a vast following, primarily of under-30s, they have more recently ventured into the consumer goods market with a growing portfolio of grocery lines. This includes the alcohol brand XIX Vodka , cereal brand Best, and a meat snacking range called Sides Strips, available in several major supermarkets across the UK.

Their route to market is one poised to become increasingly well trodden. From Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS to Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, celebrities are leveraging existing fanbases to generate immediate interest, making them an attractive proposition for potential stockists. Moreover, their approach often comes with the freedom to bypass traditional processes of established consumer goods brands, which can be seen as outdated in today's fast-paced environment.

In this interview, Schwarzenberger shares his learnings on forming impactful partnerships, using social media effectively and building brands that endure beyond their celebrity founders.

Why do you think we’ve seen such a rise in celebrity and influencer-founded brands in the last few years?

The one thing that all brands need is eyeballs, and when you have an inbuilt audience, it provides that zero to one opportunity that most people don’t get. If you have an audience that you're tapping into and you're giving them great value, then they're going to be happy, and if you have a great product, then that has the potential to go above and beyond that.?

It can feel like there's a new celebrity brand launching every week, and it’s obviously a very American-led trend that, in my opinion, is becoming oversaturated with bad products. That said, if you can bring great products and great experiences to the table, then why not use your audience to take it to another level? I think that's what we're seeing work for those who are doing it well.?

How do you bring products to market that aren't part of the trend of forgettable celebrity brands?

Well I think for us it's about working with great partners who are experts, rather than trying to do the operations ourselves, or selling what is essentially merch. It has to be a brand with a vision around it that goes beyond who you are, strategically and creatively.?

Nothing we do is for Sidemen fans exclusively; it starts with the fanbase because they're the first people to see it, but ultimately the scope and the scale is for everybody. The mindset should always be ‘how do we build something that can ultimately be bigger than us and that comes from working with amazing manufacturers and suppliers who understand the product at the heart. It’s not pretending that we know anything about launching a fried chicken restaurant or a cereal brand. We don't know these products and we shouldn't pretend to. I think that's really important.

The Sidemen’s audience largely falls into gen Z. When you make a product, do you have them specifically in mind?

It’s more that we take an approach of disrupting what’s been done. The same applies to food as what the Sidemen already did on YouTube. It's how do we take a guerrilla, DIY, very gen Z approach to building brands and launching products, and pair that with great corporate expertise and people who've done this a million times, have travelled that path, know the mistakes and so on. And ultimately how do you bring those two things together to produce something special.

Even though the audience is gen Z, all the brands touch everybody, and I think it all comes down to the point of distribution. Distribution hits everybody, if you're in retail, if you're in shopping centres, if you're in pubs – a brand can hit everybody. Of course, younger people are on social media and that's an immediately clear market to speak to, but the brands need a level of accessibility, they have to ultimately be great, universal products.

What do consumer goods brands need to think about now that they weren't necessarily thinking about five years ago?

One big thing is making sure that the brand is the marketing. The brands that are killing it, if you look at something like [sparkling water brand] Liquid Death , some of these brands that are now a pretty big deal have really baked in the concept of "brand being marketing". Every single person who sees Liquid Death laughs, and that experience of laughing when you see the juxtaposition of sparkling water with this gothic, beer-looking can, intrigues the buyer. It's making the product itself market to every single person who sees it, getting them to feel something.?

You mentioned humour there, which is something we see a lot of brands focusing more on. Why do you think trying to make people laugh has become so common in consumer goods marketing?

Simply from a macro perspective, the world is more volatile and more challenging. Things like the cost of living crisis are ultimately making people sadder. We live in a society with high amounts of depression and anxiety and generally speaking, a lot of people, especially in this country, are struggling. When you're struggling, there's a level of relief that comes with a world of consumption and content which doesn't take itself too seriously.?

It’s why a lot of authentic people are shining through. Why has TikTok become so big over the last few years? Well, why was it big during Covid? It’s because it provides people with that comfort every day from people who are real, funny, authentic. Humour always rises to the top, more than any other type of content, because people want relief when they go on their phones. I think especially with consumer goods, when you're distributing products in supermarkets and other retailers, there’s a clear opportunity to make people laugh at the concept and give them something that's just a relief.

What social media priorities should brands have today?

When it comes to socials, it's all about TikTok and real, organic, authentic, short-form content. But above all, it's about social proofing. So it's working with creators to make content about your brand where they are authentically loving it. Not faking it; authentically trying it and loving it.?

Get real people talking about your product in a way that they love. People are genuinely influenced by normal people saying "Oh, this is actually really good, you should give it a go" in a way that isn't stamped with #AD, or a sponsored post on Instagram. TikTok is moving numbers when there is genuine advocacy, so double, triple-down on that.?

And then obviously, we’ve got the Sidemen behind us to amplify all the things we do organically from our own channels, but working with creators is key. Brands today are in the best position ever to be spending with creators and you can hit so many different audiences and so many people for not a lot of money.?

We’re in a golden era for branded short-form content, because there are so many creators around, they all want to make a living, and that is where you can come in and have the pick of the bunch if you have some capital to spend. That’s a massive opportunity that definitely didn’t exist five or six years ago.?

What are your dos and don'ts when forming partnerships with influencers?

For us it's about finding talent that can hit a different audience than just our space. Because the Sidemen have that presence in the influencer world, we don't necessarily need to just work with more creatives – it's not going to move the dial for us. So it's finding people who, especially in the UK, can tap into tabloid, sort of mainstream press, but also have enough of a link into our world that it feels congruent.?

Working with talent has to be about getting into new spaces, not just more of the same. We don't want to just work with other creators and other YouTubers because it doesn't really do anything. What does is actually hitting new audiences with talent that’s more mainstream and conventional.?

Do you think legacy brands can get stuck in how they do things? Are there any common practices you think don't necessarily have a place in today's consumer goods landscape??

I think it's mostly about not adapting quickly enough. I speak to brands all the time and the biggest challenge they have is they're stuck in their structures of creativity and they have too much of a gap between creative ideas and output. Whether it’s creative agencies slowing down the process, whether it's multiple sign-offs, whether it's social layers, whatever else.?

Actually, today, especially on social media, it's about how do you move very quickly? How do you get from idea to output and how do you constantly test, evolve and adapt every single day? How do you take away those boundaries and trust your team??

I think 马莎百货 has done this amazingly by decentralising all of its social channels. Sharry Cramond , M&S’s marketing director said to me ‘Well we trust these people to serve food to our customers, why would we not trust them to post on TikTok?’. It’s so obvious when you think about it like that. There's no reason why if you're hiring someone to be the face of your brand to consumers, you wouldn’t also trust them to promote the brand and get behind it??

They’ve had a massive amount of success through decentralising and I think that's a great example of a massive business that has understood that you need to be close and quick, and you can't always do that centrally. A lot of the big brands struggle with that still.

Pursuing the creative agency model in some of the agencies that we see, the work is not good enough, it’s old school, traditional, stuck in 2016/17. When you’re constantly testing, pumping out 20 or 30 videos a week, you're always seeing what's hot.

And then you need to have that realisation that you're not creatively amazing, you need to find great creatives and creators and trust them. That should feed into hiring and processes – trusting creators to drive the game rather than telling them you know best. That's the biggest thing. Find people who understand how to hit audiences and make engaging content, then give them the keys.

Gen Z: 'the unmarketable generation'

As gen Z's spending power grows, marketers are still getting to grips with what makes this demographic tick. It's a conundrum that Juliette Aiken , chief marketing officer at Dotdigital , has worked hard to crack. Here she shares her insights on why gen Z have such nuanced needs and the key to cutting through.

Gen Z is the newest generation beginning to make a significant impact within the marketing world. With a $450 billion spending power that is growing all the time, businesses across the globe are looking for ways to tap into this age group. However, it’s proving to be trickier than anticipated.

This generation was raised in the modern era. They have been sold to all their lives –? marketing has become exhaustive to them. Having grown up at the same time as the internet, they’ve been surrounded by 24/7 advertising since childhood. With many of them having entered adulthood during a global pandemic and cost of living crisis, is it any wonder they're not moved by traditional marketing ploys in the same way?

Gen Z has already been labelled the future cultural disruptors, changing ways of working and influencing how we consume modern-day media. They know who is paying lip service and who isn’t from a mile off, even becoming known for their harsh cancel culture. But while this generation may feel unmarketable, this is not to be mistaken for unengaged. Gen Z can and want to be engaged with, just in a way that suits their style.

?What Gen Z wants is a simple customer journey. With increasing reports of shortening attention spans in this age group, getting their attention is half the challenge, let alone keeping it. Digital marketers looking to engage with this group need to think creatively to achieve the level of engagement necessary for success.

Above all else, gen Z wants a personalised experience. These are exceptionally media-literate adults who understand that you are taking their data and therefore expect you to use it to give them the best experience.

Typically when brands are embarking on a personalisation strategy, they start with the question “How do we personalise our marketing?” But the focus should instead be on creating a seamless customer experience that helps retain that ever-important engagement. So a better place to begin would be starting off with questions like “how can we be more helpful?”, “what does the ideal customer journey look like?”, and “do we have the data to make that a reality?”.

Getting answers to questions like these can then enable you to formulate better, tailored experiences for customers with the help of the right customer data. From here, you can then begin to implement more impactful personalisation.

Spotlight

How did a social media hashtag grow to become the most engaging merchandising tagline in physical retail? CEO Ben Muir explains the power of ‘TikTok made me buy it’.

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