Solo Stove launched another marketing campaign with rapper, entrepreneur, and recent Olympic correspondent Snoop Dogg, this time with tweaks to drive more conversions to build on the viral brand awareness generated last year.
“Blunt Marketing,” a partnership with The Martin Agency, features Snoop’s longtime West Coast music friend Warren G, and is an integrated, full funnel-marketing campaign that includes video, digital, social, influencer, audio, search, performance, and retail running across programs and channels such as Thursday Night Football, NFL Ticket, The Voice (which Snoop Dogg appears on as a coach), TikTok, and Amazon.
It’s the largest campaign the smokeless fire pit brand has launched, according to a press release.
“We brought Snoop back in an entirely new way with a deliberate nod to how brands engage influencers to promote their products,” said Solo Brands Chief Marketing Officer Luana Bumachar, who joined the company in February, in a statement.
“This isn’t just marketing, it’s blunt, direct, unapologetic, and entertaining,” Bumachar said. “And we’re confident in this approach because we know our products deliver every time.”
Last year’s Snoop campaign featured the rapper cryptically announcing that he was “giving up smoke,” creating all kinds of online chatter from people wondering if the cannabis enthusiast was giving up smoking. When it was revealed that he was promoting smokeless fire pits by Solo Stove, the campaign earned accolades for generating so much attention.
But the chatter didn’t convert to the sales boost the company hoped for, and former Solo Brands CEO John Merris left the company shortly after the campaign concluded. In January, new CEO Chris Metz noted that there were a few issues with the campaign: Timing, focusing too much on the top of the sales funnel, and a disconnect between the campaign and the brand’s email and website.
Solo Stove Aims to Grow DTC, Retail Sales
Before this revised Snoop campaign was announced, Metz said on an earnings call Aug. 7 that Solo Stove needed to grow both its DTC and wholesale sales.
“We’re seeing down-traffic, as an example, on our online direct-to-consumer website, we know that our website needs to be refreshed,” Metz said.
“It doesn’t give the shopper the experience that we need it to. We know that the marketing campaigns that we’ve run over the past couple of years haven’t been as effective as they should be.”
This year, Solo is spending on a broader set of channels and a variety of tactics to use its marketing dollars more efficiently, Metz said.
The new “360-degree” campaign with Snoop will feed into the company’s website, its marketplaces, and its wholesale accounts. The company has also tweaked its campaign timing, launching in August rather than November, feeding the top of the funnel earlier in the year and gradually creating a more “conversion-focused” approach through the fall toward the company’s fourth quarter – a key selling time for Solo.
Solo will launch three new products throughout the duration of the campaign. The company has also invested in its retail sales team, which is tasked with working with retailers to better plan what products to bring in and when.
“And so there are dramatic differences between this year’s approach and last year’s approach,” Metz said.
Blunt Campaign Loses the Cryptic Message
While it still plays with cannabis culture – a “blunt” is another word for a cannabis joint – the new Blunt Marketing campaign is also less cryptic, with Snoop directly acknowledging his celebrity power in the ad.
“I’m here because you’re more likely to buy this fire pit because I’m Snoop,” the rapper says to the camera with pal Warren G at his side as they sit by the fire. “Facts.”
Snoop Dogg’s highly publicized presence at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris also won’t hurt the campaign, said freelance Brand and Marketing Consultant Pablo La Rosa.
“You have to strike while the iron’s hot and it didn’t get any hotter in terms of Snoop Dogg’s visibility than this summer,” La Rosa said.
La Rosa said that because of the high cost of celebrity endorsements, Solo is smart to build on the success of the brand awareness generated the first time around and play the long game.
“A second wave will further reinforce this association, but ideally [they] should not have let so much time pass in between,” La Rosa said. But taking a “full-funnel” approach, which will expose the brand to potential customers at each stage of the purchasing journey on multiple media channels will help meet the goals of the campaign.
“Therefore, the campaign should be not only working on building mental availability for future purchases but stimulating conversions for those who are ready to buy now.”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate.robertson@emeraldx.com.
