When Celebrity-Backed Brands Work – or Flop
Snoop’s “No more smoke” vs “Gin & Juice”
Snoop Dogg gives us two recent looks at celebrity-backed brands. One that feels authentic – and one that is a disastrous, complete flop.
“No More Smoke”
On its face, the Snoop influencer campaign for Solo Stove at the holidays looked like a smashing success. Engagement through the roof. New followers. Lots of social buzz. Recognition in trade publications.
But that wasn’t the goal. Driving sales was the goal. By that metric, the flashy (and I’m sure, expensive) campaign flopped. In fact, the CEO of the company “abandoned the ship” after dismal holiday sales.
Solo Stove reported that, in addition to not meeting sales goals, “increased marketing investments, it [the campaign] negatively impacted revenue.” Ouch.
The interim CFO noted that “while our unique marketing campaign raised brand awareness…it did not lead to the sales lift we planned, which combined with the increased marketing investments, negatively impacted our EBITDA.” Double ouch.
The Solo stove campaign failed because it was a gimmick. Sure, Snoop is known for “smoke”, but not THAT smoke.
And the audience was off. Sure, it was attention-grabbing. It used humor. But, ultimately, the campaign was seen as a stunt. A gimmick. People felt duped. In fact, The Drum called it “fake abstinence”, with the key word being “fake”.
“Fake” is not a recipe for success. Authenticity is.
Get the right combo: iconic AND authentic – and you’ll have a win.
“Gin & Juice”
A new beverage by Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre in the trending read-to-drink cocktails lands as a more authentic branding effort. This pairing reaches back more than 30 years and leverages the supremely iconic “gin & juice” from the duo.
The visual identity and packaging are on point – down to the take on the “parental advisory” label. The flavors are fresh and are presented as “collectible”. The cohesive and thematic packaging practically screams “try them all!” – and people WILL.
It will be curious to see where the sales land, but on its face, “Gin & Juice” looks to be a brilliant and authentic matchup of authentic icons. We’ve seen it proven with Dr. Dre’s successful Beats by Dre run that netted a $3b sell to Apple. And, Snoop has had other successful forays into the CPG space.
Authenticity plus a trending category should bode well. I’ll be watching for them in my local shops – and keeping an eye on the sales reporting.
Lisa Jordan 