The Secret to a Perfect Product Launch | Alicia Moore, Ex Halfdays, La Colombe,

(gentle music) - Hi, this is my best campaign. I'm Amanda Leesmith. I ask a question at the end of every episode of this podcast. What brands or campaigns are you loving right now? It's actually a question I ask almost every marketer I meet, and I meet a lot of marketers. And for a chunk of time last year, everyone was talking about this one campaign, a collaboration between Hoka and Half Days. Half Days, the cult level, women's ski, and snow apparel brand. So you better believe I hunted down the marketer at the helm of Half Days when that campaign came out, which led me to Alicia Moore. Alicia had so much intel about that campaign, but also more generally about how to plan a product launch that actually makes a mark. She and I talked about the importance of seizing a cultural moment in time and making it your own, but how to build a strong concept that can carry through to every touch point, and creating total cohesion from digital campaign to the big launch stunt, which in this case involved New York, Badega Ice Chess, and an eight foot shoe slash sled. Not only does Alicia give her playbook for how to do a strong product launch, she also shared some of the moves that locked in a super solid brand foundation when she was at the canned coffee juggernaut lack alone, and a McDonald's campaign that totally unlocked a new audience for that brand. This was a really fun conversation. Here is Alicia Moore. Okay, Alicia, you are one of my favorite kinds of brand marketers because you've worked the full spectrum. You've worked agency side where you worked with big global brands, and you worked at a small brand that grew into a behemoth while you were there. And then you went for growth again when you joined Half Days. And in the conversations we've had so far, I get the sense, you have a really fun sense of just like anything's possible. Are there any campaigns from your time agency side that you're really proud of? - Yeah, I mean, I feel very fortunate because I've had the opportunity to work on some really, really fun brands. And they were kind of all over the place. Everything from Verizon wireless, general motors, choice hotels, and yeah, so I feel very fortunate. I would say one thing that I really love to do is finally to stand out. And I guess the example that I would give that I think was really fun was on behalf of McDonald's. So I was working for a Tierney, which was an IPG agency. And I was doing PR and social and communications for McDonald's. So we represented hundreds and hundreds of owner operators all around the Tri-State area in New York and Philadelphia. And one of the products that was rolling out was called the Nick Rap. It was like a rap sandwich that was coming out. And the way that McDonald's works is they put together this massive toolkit national. And then they distributed all to their regional owner operators and to their agency partners. And then we get the ability to figure out what we think will resonate with the audience that we're talking to. So in this case, it was the Philadelphia community. So the idea was like, it was starting to be spring. People were getting back out. And I don't know exactly where it all came from. But one of the ideas we had was this nostalgia of McDonald's and what it meant for us as kids. And then we started talking about wraps and a wrap dress. And so we ended up reaching out to a couple of different independent designers in Philadelphia. People who had these love affairs with a McDonald's story about what it was like for them when they were younger. And they were designers. They all designed wrap dresses in their own artistic vision. And we launched it at a Nordstrom in the King of Prussian Wall. We did a runway show in the middle of the Nordstrom with all of these designers. And we had audience of people. And we served McRap sandwiches to like these big white linen round tables of donors. And they got to auction off these dresses to raise money for the Ronald McDonald's house charity. So it was like a really good opportunity to bring owner operators in, to bring the community in, to feel like they're doing something for a cause. And it tied back to getting sure that everybody in the room got to try the new product that was launching. And it was just fun. I mean, it was totally different. Like they had never done anything like that for a product launch. And we saw the McRap. I think the McRap that year in Philadelphia was the number one selling region for the McRap that year. Which was like a crossing entire country, which was really wild. So I like to think that the fashion show hasn't been to do with it. Yeah, because it taps maybe in a different audience than you might think of specifically targeting for McRap McDonald's. But the fact is, like everyone eats McRap McDonald's sometimes. Maybe with a few exceptions. Like, yeah, you're on a road trip, you're somewhere. And it's like you want to know that you have that go to, that you are actually going to enjoy that maybe like fits in with your, with your diet or whatever. I feel like the McRap is the easiest solution. It was a great solution. I don't know if they still make it, but it was great. It was really fun. It was definitely like a new product for them. So it was nice to make some noise. Yeah. On top of the many fun things you did agency side, you have a pretty powerful case study of growing a brand that was like in the small startup stage to being a household name. You were with Lackalom, which is a coffee company. I love because it has that perfect kind of not too sweet non-dairy latte that is literally the thing that keeps me awake when I'm driving between Vancouver and Portland. Every week. But when you joined, it was really like a cafe brand. And eventually it was acquired by Chabani for almost a billion dollars. Through a marketing lens, what do you think enabled that kind of outcome for the brand? You know, I would say two things about the Lackalom like grow story. One is that like Lackalom was so true to who they are. You know, we were always a company that like, you know, we used to say this isn't as brand as a marathon. We're like going to trust our gut. We're going to make products that we're really proud of. And that was like the through line my entire time there. And so I think that there was just a lot of being like very authentic and understanding our why that was really important. The other piece was like, you know, I think if you were to ask Todd and JP at the time, they would say it was like luck and innovation that like kind of collided at once. The industry was ready for disruption. Like people were seeing people starting to drink more cold brew. And so the cold brew as a category didn't exist. But it was like certainly starting to exist. And when I first started, like there was no cold ready to drink set in grocery stores that like didn't exist. And so we as a cafe business saw the increase in people wanting to purchase cold brew on bar in the cafe. And Todd, you know, took advantage of that. He created a patent to make the draft latte to replicate the draft drink that was in our cafe stores, created a patent on a can that would allow like nitrous oxide to froth the milk. And then launched it in grocery. And when we launched, we actually launched selling to dairy buyers because lattes are like 70% milk. So instead of going into like shelf stable center of the grocery store, we went to dairy buyers and was like, we want to sit alongside creamers and yogurts and brand of things. And then very quickly after that, they started creating ready to drink sets that like on end caps and so with that. So like the CPG business was a huge reason why the lock alone brand blew up. But I think even when we ventured into CPG and we started expanding on Ecom and opening up more cafes, it was like, there was always like, we know what we want to do. We want less sugar. We want real cane sugar. We want clean ingredients. We want a lot of the same things that we valued in the cat face base. Well, OK, so lock alone was really the first kind of shelf stable ready to drink latte. For sure. For sure. And the only vertically integrated ready to drink latte for a really, really long time. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate that you all sold to dairy buyers because to this day, that's where I look for it. And it's kind of the only thing that's in that little space on the grocery shelf. But I think consumers don't really understand how challenging it is to sell a product that doesn't have like an existing designated space in a grocery store. You're really like not just selling a product. You're selling a whole reconfiguration and an idea of something, right? Totally. And I think that really worked for early adopter grocery stores, like Whole Foods and folks that were used to kind of changing things up. It took us longer to get into like mass market grocery because they were like, where are we putting you? You know, like our plan of grams in shelf space don't necessarily allow for this. And now the conversations entirely different. Like our competitors at the time are like the frappuccino. And that was like it. Like there really wasn't much. And now it's like, I know there's a lot of it. But yeah, it was amazing journey. A really, really amazing journey. Were there any kind of stand out campaigns from your time there that you know had a huge impact on the brand? Again, I say like I was so fortunate to work on so many amazing, really, really fun campaigns. I think one of the ones that like stood out to me. And in some ways like almost changed the trajectory of like my career, it made me really interested in like the sustainability outdoor space was our partnership with the National Park Foundation. And it was also really impactful for the business. So we have always like Laughloom had always been a philanthropic brand. We had our Haiti coffee academy. We did a lot in terms of like internal sustainability initiatives. When it came down to finding a cost marketing partner, we were like really thoughtful about it. We had worked with-- I can't remember which came first, but we had worked with the ACLU. We would work with Feeding America. So we like knew what it was going to take and what we wanted to do, what kind of work we needed. organizations we wanted to partner with. I want to say it was like 2022. We partnered with the National Park Foundation. And that was an awesome time to be partnering with the National Park Foundation. It was like, there was so much conversation around like keeping our national parks protected and Todd who had held the world record for Crossing and Artica by himself in the shortest amount of time. He was like so, and he had also tried to break the world record for Death Valley. Like he was very committed. He's a high-tier. He was very committed to the outdoor space. And so anyway, long of the short, as we ended up partnering with the National Park Foundation, we made a philanthropic contribution based on cans. So it was a dollar for every can we sold. We rebranded all of our cans. And because we were vertically integrated, we had the ability to like turn quickly on that. They had like this tree artwork, which is really, really beautiful. And then we sold that into retailers. We also rebranded all of our cups on a quarterly basis. And it was the first time we'd ever used the real estate on our cafe cups to represent anything. And so every quarter we picked a different national park. We rebranded those cups. And so we had this like amazing artwork that was all over them to talk about the partnership, made donations to Park Service Rangers. We had really cool partnerships with like, Leigh Buys and Woolridge and had all this swag to support the partnership. We even, we ended up putting it because it was so success in the ready to drink space. We ended up putting it on our roasted coffee. And that was the first time Whole Foods committed to buying roasted from us in addition to ready to drink. And it was because it was a cause marketing partnership tied to the product. So it was just like, it was fully integrated. You saw in our cafes, you saw it online, you saw it in content influencers, we sent influencers out to take content in parks when there were camping. We did field marketing where we like showed up at trailheads and handed out cans. It was just like, it was felt across the entire business. It was product driven. It felt good. We went to Agar Retailer for two years in a row and like slunk hands. And yeah, it just, it was, it felt right for me as a person, but it also was just like a really fine partnership to bring to life. Yeah, I think when you think about cause marketing, you usually think of it as a brand level campaign. And it's gonna have good feels. And maybe there's like, you know, a long tail benefit of it. But the fact that you were able to tie in a product element and actually make it a product campaign as well. So you got to see the results from it right away. So you know, actually it's like track the impact that it had on the brand. That feels really terrible. Totally. And I almost like, again, this was like, this is so long ago that we were in some ways early adopters, like, you know, to create something brand new in partnership with somebody else. Now we see a lot of like product related partnerships, but it did feel like it was pretty early to that trend. Yeah, that was actually my next question I was gonna say. In the stay and age, and we're gonna talk about partnerships more from your time at half days, but in the stay and age, we're used to seeing kind of wacky partnerships. But I'm curious about the partnerships with Levi's and Woolrich. How did those show up? Yeah, so we wanted additional things that we could turn into a collection on our website. And this is like just as our econ business was starting to take off, subscriptions was starting to take off. And, you know, frankly, like I would say like a good what we did at half day, I had to excuse me, at Locke Loan was like, because we thought it was cool. It was like intuition. Like we didn't have all the measurement tools at that point in the Locke Loan journey that we did when I had left. And so like, why did we decide to partner with Levi's and create a custom denim jacket that had our like tagline for national parks on it and had this like beautiful artwork? Because we were like, we want it. It's cool. It looks awesome. I'd like to wear it. And the same thing with the Woolrich blanket, we were like, this is cool. It looks awesome. We would want to have it. Our baristas were all like, that's cool. And they were always like a barometer for us. I was like, does, you know, do the baristas think it's awesome? Like we do do that. Okay, we're good. We just kind of did them because they were cool. They weren't like, we had good margins, but they weren't like huge money makers for us. But I have found that like, ancillary things like that often drive additional purchases for inline stuff. And so like, people would go on and they would see I'm like the cut in New York Mag that we launched this Levi's jacket. And then they'd be like, you know, and I'm just gonna toss in a couple boxes of coffee. And then you start to build routine and like, you know, repeat customers, but it was just because it was like fun. And we're like, we can get some press coverage for this and we'd want to buy it. So why not make it, you know? - I think that's such a good attitude when you're going in on a partnership too. Like you see this, I just had a guy named Sydney Baptista who owns a run brand called Pioneers on the podcast. And he has a partnership with Brooks. And when you look at a partnership like that, like for Brooks, it's not a huge inventory play, but it is like a coolness play, like a validity play. Like there's only reasons to do a partnership that aren't necessarily about revenue, right? And so if you go into it thinking like this, the goal isn't revenue. This is just like, interest, spreading the word, doing something that we think is fun and that our customers are probably gonna think is fun and put on their radar too. And as long as you're not like bleeding money, you know? I feel like it's always worth a try. - Yeah, do you still have a Levi's jacket kicking around from that side? - I do. I do. I was like, I want this, I'm gonna wear this. So yeah, no, I definitely do. - That's the good sign. If you still have it, you know, it was a good partnership. - Okay, so there you ended up at Half Days, which is how you got on my radar. I met two of the co-founders, like, I don't know, pre pandemic, I think, at outdoor retailer. And then I actually got to go to the very first half days to pop up in Denver, which was such a delight. But it seems like the brand has really been just a rocket ship since then. What was happening at the brand when you joined them? - Yeah, I had left Locollum after we were acquired by Giovanni. And I, at the time I was living in Colorado, when I was just like, I want to, you know, I joked that like, going back to fashion and apparel felt like a bit of a coming home story for me because I started my career at David's bridal. So I was looking in that outdoor space. And I had, I too had met Ariana like years before when she had first started and have kind of been tracking the brand into your point. Like they have, you know, consistently grown in the five years that they've been in operations and existed. And so, you know, long story short, she was standing up her marketing team here in Denver. And I took the role of leading the marketing team, which was just honestly such a huge honor. And really, I feel like we, I jumped in, and there was already just so much momentum. Like as soon as I got there, it was like, we have all these amazing projects in the works. And like now we just need somebody to help bring them to life. Sort of thing. And so, yeah, I mean, it was like a real honor, honor to be part of that team. And we had such an amazing time launching Spring, Summer, Winter, collaborations, all this stuff. Yeah, I remember right after I met Correll, she and I hopped on a call and she was telling me about their approach to just getting assets for social. And the thing that impressed me was just the pace, like the speed at which that team was used to getting like really good assets, not kind of wasting time, not overproducing, just like jumping on opportunities as they commented. Has that spirit kind of carried through still? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have like, we have seasonal campaigns where we like shoot those. And in a lot of times we have to travel to shoot those. And those are more like high production bigger launches. And then we have monthly, like, like photo shoots. So where we are like out on trail, out on mountain, getting content that's really digital, like digitally native content. It's meant to be pumped out. And then there's a lot of things that we just like make in the office where like, hey guys, here's a trend we're seeing. Let's go outside real fast and shoot this with the team and stuff like that. And you know, the team is amazing. The marketing team at Happdays is spectacular. And they have done such a spectacular job of being nimble and taking advantage of trends and really just like, yeah, being a machine when it comes to like all things content. Yeah, yeah, I love that you called out that digital first or digital native mindset. So it's just like, let's get it out. And I feel like that's been so much of where Half Day's growth has happened through socials and just like being on all the time. So half day is obviously our good at a lot of things and something that they do really, really well is a great product launch event. And it looks like you were involved in a few fun launches in your time there. Do you have a favorite from your time with them? I have two favorites. Our product team, you know, I say our marketing team is amazing. Our product team is also spectacular because it is, it blows my mind how nimble they can be when we come to them with like, here's an idea or they come to us and like, we have an idea, but we're going to have to move quick and make this happen. And some things like schemes, no board take a lot longer to execute on, but then there are other projects that we can be a little bit quicker. Yeah, the product team is just like spectacular. Yeah, I have two, I have two launches, product launches that were really like special to me. One of them was a partnership we did with the million dollar cowboy bar. And so this was at the end of our summer season. It was pre fall actually roughly the same time as fall launched. Are you familiar with the million dollar cowboy bar? I am because I was cruising deep into your socials recently, but maybe give us the back story. What is this place? So the million dollar cowboy bar is like an iconic Western bar in Jackson, Hawaii, Oming. And half days as a brand, we have put our flag in the mountain. We've said like we are here to own the mountain. We are women first, women only and women founded brand. And the whole idea was to like make the mountains more inclusive for all women. and to make the mountains more accessible and inviting. And so for us owning the mountain meant like being in the mountain and being absorbed into like mountain culture. And so during our non-skis seasons, we were like, what does that mean? And so we wanted to partner with what we would say is like an iconic mountain institution. A place that has been around forever that everybody knows about. It's just like, when you think of Jackson Hole, you go straight in your mind to the million dollar cowboy bar. And so that was this place that we were like, if we can create a collab product with the million dollar cowboy bar, that would be pretty spectacular. But it is a bit of a boys club. Like it is a cowboy bar, you know? And that's how it's been since like it began. And I think personally for me, it was like, that made me want it more. I was like, this is going to be amazing. Like if we can partner with them, we can continue to reinforce our messaging about making more space for more women on the mountain. And so we got in touch with them and it took a little bit of convincing. You know, I remember on a call with them, they had said to us like, hey, like we're interested, but like we're not wrong, we're honky-tonk. And I was like, no, it's that, that's good. You know, like, cause it's the unexpected nature of these things that I think really make them stand out. You know, the more convincing it took them more, like frankly, wanted the partnerships. But anyway, they ended up saying yes, and they opened up their archives of artwork. And this is like centuries of like creative and postcards and matchbooks and all these amazing pieces of artwork and creative. And they will like have added. And so we combed through things and then designed a collection that like pay tribute to the million dollar cowboy bar, but we did it in our own way. We decided as part of the story that we wanted to rebrand the bar the million dollar cowgirl bar. And so everything said million dollar cowgirl bar in half days Wyoming. We had this like really cool artwork that again was pulled from the archives. And then we hosted an event in Jackson Hole. And we had a girls trip come out with a bunch of creators. And we had Brandy Cyrus, who's a country DJ, come and DJ a ladies night where all the ladies drank for free. We launched it and we saw an immediate uptake on our fall collection. And so it was like people were coming to the site cause they were like, this is sick. This is really fun. And they were converting on fall. Maybe even warning and converting on million dollar cowboy bar. And again, it just kind of goes to show not too dissimilar to the other examples. I've shared like how moments in time are and collapse are to drive in line sales. And it was just, it was fun. It was really fun. - I love that. You said there was another one that you really loved? - That's the Hoka collab. - Oh, okay. - So this past November we launched a product with Hoka. And those are the two that like released it out for me over the past year and a half to years. - Yeah. There is, I don't know if this is intentional or not. And maybe this is just my read of it. But, or maybe it's because I know that where half days is rooted, but it really reads like Rocky Mountains to me in a special way. And yet you still have to do, you know, you still have to appeal to women in LA, like Whistler of Vancouver, you do events in all different places when you've done launch events. Is there like a recipe to keeping that sort of Rocky Mountain feel that feels very half days, even when you're doing events in other cities, or am I reading into it? - Yeah, no, I don't know. I mean, we're really proud to be part of like the Denver like community and be right here in the mountains. And I think it's special like, but the reality is like most of our girls don't live here. Like, like we have a lot of women who shop half days that are from New York or Los Angeles or to your point. Like Vancouver is a huge market for us. - Huge. - And there's definitely this like aspirational like, I mean, they're traveling to the mountains or I wanna be in the mountains or something that, you know, I think resonates for everyone who's buying half days. Certainly proud to be here in the Rockies, but our girl is everywhere. And I think the beauty of being community first and digitally first is we can kind of show everywhere. Like we have brand ambassadors all across the country that holds on mountain ski meetups and on mountain hikes. And you know, they're from where you live, you know, they're from Vermont, they're from Portland. And they, you know, so they know the best trails of the hike and they're bringing out the community. And so yeah, I mean, we're proud to be here, but we're certainly excited for all women to have access to whatever mountains are never close to them. - Yeah, I think it's so important to put that flag in the ground, like to be a mountain brand that's women first. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think a lot of your base layers can also be repurposed as active wear, but you've still managed to keep that mountain vibe to it. A big conversation that you hear in Vancouver and probably throughout the active wear market is kind of the perceived fall of Lululemon and how they've just tried to be, they've tried to be all things to all people. Were there conversations when you were at half days about how to keep that integrity of being a mountain brand and not veering into like being opportunistic just because there was a trend somewhere else like inactive wear? How do you keep that essence? - Yeah, you know, when I was at half days, we talked a lot about like what does our girl want? And at the end of the day, like versatility is really important. Like she wants to be able to wear her pieces when she's walking her dog and it's a chilly day and she also wants to wear the same pieces when she's on mountain. And I think, you know, it's easier to not jump on board of whatever is popular when you are constantly thinking about your customer and you're constantly thinking about like why you exist. And so, you know, we are always checking ourselves. Like why do we exist? We exist to make more women feel comfortable on the mountain and like that was the mission is to like make the mountain more accessible and to make sure that we fit in that, that white space between performance and fashion. And so everything we created was in that space. It had to hold up if you were backcountry skiing but it also had to look good and feel good if you only wanted to do one run and then, you know, go sit in the lodge. And so I think like, yeah, if you can stay true to who you are, who your customer is and why you have been started to like start off with, that should hopefully, you know, keep you from, you know, just jumping on board whatever seems to be popular at the time. This shocks me every time and it happens way too often. A new business comes to us with a budget for a campaign. They're putting spend against it. They've already made the media buy. They're so excited for a big launch or maybe their first ever campaign. And when they send me their brand book, all it has is a logo. There's no personality, no perspective, no positioning. That's not a brand, that's a color palette. Before you even think about dropping budget on a campaign, you need to know what you stand for. What white space can you claim? How are you making your customers lives better? If you don't start from a solid foundation of purpose or some core belief, you are throwing money away on a campaign. Sure, you might see some quick sales but you're building on sand. There's no foundation and you'll always be chasing the next sale. Brand building is creating a world and a system of beliefs that the right customers will see themselves in and get attached to. Like any investment, brand building have a long tail and it grows over time. You cannot cut corners. The team at Monday Creative are the brand architects who build that firm foundation with you. Pulling out the beliefs that are already there, elevating that golden, just sprinkling a little bit of Monday magic on top. If you know you need to do some building from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you. Find us at MondayCreative.co. What kind of toolkit would you use on your marketing team to keep that girl in focus? Like are you big believers in the kind of ideal customer persona was it the type of thing where she had a name and you guys would reference her in conversation? How did that show up for your team? Yep, she had a name. She had a name in the spring and summer and she had a name in the fall and winter. And so we had some segmentation that we did based on who our girl is and what she's looking for from a seasonality standpoint. I think it helps. And the same thing when I was at Lockhello, my both of these brands were very community focused. It helps to be present, to be with them, to go on mountain, to actually ski with our women and talk to them. And so when we were in Park City or when we were in Whistler, we were having these conversations with everyone and really unpacking how they're feeling and what our patients made them feel or how our customer journey was. And so yeah, I mean, we spent a lot of time doing that same at Lockhello. Like our headquarters was in the back of our flagship cafe in Philly. And so I was there every day waiting in line to get my latte with somebody else and we could have those conversations. And that's really how among many ways that we got to the personas, it was like meeting with our team and the people and the customers and then also pulling all the data from NETA and Google and, you know, well, our attribution tools and all Shopify to like understand who our customer is. And that's really how you get to these personas. Yeah. How, this is a question that I'm always wrestling with for my team when we're creating personas for our clients is how do you balance like actual data that you have? Like we know this is our shopper versus like aspirational persona because sometimes you want to make your shopper kind of that maven that everyone looks up to. And it doesn't, it doesn't always perfectly mirror the shopper maybe for half days it does. But how do you guys think about that balance of like real data versus aspirational girl? Oh, that's a really good question. You know, Todd used to say something like people don't know what they want to you show them what they want sort of things. And sometimes, like sometimes you do need to like take a leap and go okay this is where our girl But this is who we want our girl to be or this is what we think our girl is going. This is what we think she's going to want in a year and a half or two years when this collection drops But it's like technically doesn't fit squarely in this persona that we have identified and so there's a little bit of like fluidity in it like there you do you do want to say grounded like a good example of this is like while I was at half Day, if we were talking a lot about like the maturity of our girl and like how she's getting older and so side years ago Our girl was one thing and in five years our girls gonna be another thing and I would say very much so like the half-day Is consumer was graduating college and now she's like thinking about getting married and having kids right so like that's Those are huge transitions for women. Yeah, and so we need to like we need to understand what she was and like that We're squiring customers that are graduating from college that are looking for their first like set that they finally could afford and that They're really excited about but we also want to produce product that like maybe you live in teleride and you ski all the time And you have five sets being really want the glazed cherry colorway and so it it's a little bit of like being okay with your consumer evolving and then Making the decision that you want your consumer to evolve and then also like meeting your consumers each where they are based on what you're trying to tell them So like when we launched our glazed cherry set we knew very much this is gonna be the fashion girl This is gonna be a more mature person perhaps like it wasn't a very like playful bright butter color It was like a very mature glazed cherry color and so when we launched it we launched it with this campaign That was all around of this like 1970s disco shallay that was like really It was like kind of like mid-century vintage We created this whole studio in Los Angeles and we created a set that we could like bring to life And then we like threw a cocktail party in Manhattan that replicated the set and it was like all around this idea of this like Glazed cherry shell light which was this fictional place that was like yeah very 60s 70s like velvet and whatever and we were leaning into that customer as opposed to like our entry level just graduated college customer There's definitely like you know you you pick the campaign and then you decide who you're going to target with that campaign and you go from there Yeah, that launch event just looked like it was so much like moodier and darker than a typical half days Which reads like a more sophisticated audience and that's a really interesting grow strategy too I mean like when you start a brand you have a limited product run your targeting one customer But I guess as you grow you can like develop a product collection that's for that more sophisticated customer older customer While still serving that younger girl who's coming in so that's kind of a way to diversify your product line Yeah, okay really interesting Okay, there was one campaign that everyone on my team and even some of my guests in the last year have talked about And that was the half days in Hoka collaboration You and that team really came out strong on this particular campaign the product was so fun It was I used to say that it was like a puffer and a hiking shoe had a baby Walk me through that campaign first of all where did it start? The major kudos go to the Hoka team and the leadership team even before I arrived because when I had arrived They were like we're doing something with with Hoka now we Had decided what that looked like yet and like the product team had a lot of exploration to do with the Hoka team But it was like hey, we know we want to do something with them. What does it mean? What does it look like has it come to life and the way it worked at at half days was like a product collab more often than not Started with the product team. I mean the idea could come from anywhere But the product team had to like really usher it through and so they got together with the Hoka team was like okay This is the shoe we want to create it uses Gore-Tex and uses a vibrum Here's all the attributes and then here's how we make it make sense with our in-line pieces that are coming out during winter And so we knew we had amnethyst and glazed cherry as like colorways more known for our we were known for our colorways And so we knew we had that color and then we knew we had an oat milk and a like a chocolate brown color that were Part of the winter collection So how do we match it back and make sure that it feels like it makes sense with the rest of the pieces that we would end up styling it with And then Ariane Kylie and I'm the product team got in the weeds with every last detail from like the stitching So like what are contrasts and colors and where are they and how can we make the souls feel a little bit more exciting Should we do this speckle treatment? Should we not like I mean the amount of iterations that they went through to like just Hat make sure that it feels really authentic to both brands was like incredible And then the cheap product officer passed off the brief to the marketing team and was like you have a product How do you want to launch this like here's all the things you need to know about the product the things that make the product extra Special and things that like make the product function really well and all of that And then we got to kind of start to dream and to iterate and really think through like how people are going to wear this product And you know the big the big call out for that piece to your point. It was like highly functional But it's also very fat. It was very fashionable because of the colors And so we we really leaned into this idea that like this is the shoe you wear to and from the mountain that you wear before you put your boots on And when you take your boots off and it needs to work over ice over snow It needs to work in all the conditions that you you would experience when you get to like the base of a mountain And we latched on to this over ice idea Yeah, like over ice feels so fresh like you can wear when you're trekking You can wear when you're like in a icy parking lot whatever But it feels so it felt so half days because we were like we are also one of those brands that like if you're not back country skiing Maybe you're just having a drink and so there's this like playfulness around that like line of over ice that we like really lean into So that's kind of where the the campaign began and then it just I mean it evolved from there We were like okay, well we where we're gonna shoot this we were shooting in New Zealand for winter So we brought the shoes with us and then we sent Kylie up in a helicopter and she held me down She like put the shoe on Got on the plane like on the helicopter and then like you know took off and then she went back Country skiing to really highlight the technical aspects out there Like this is a shoe that can take you to the back country and then We we shot it. Yeah, so we shot it in like this beautiful glacier in Mount Cook in New Zealand and then when we got back to the state We were like okay now we have to figure out how we're gonna launch it to our customers And so we talked again a lot about this like over ice idea and one insight we had was like In New York in particular New Yorkers don't have ice makers in their freezers Like they're used to going to bodegas and getting bags of ice and that's what they used to make cocktails And so we're like there's something very playful about this idea of like an ice machine And like opening up an ice machine and taking out like a frostmock shoe Hoga shoe So anyway, we built a set we built a set in Los Angeles We shot this whole thing and then we brought it to life in a stunt in New York City Where we like created these like butter yellow ice boxes and littered them around the city and people can get A free bag of ice or and then there was like golden tickets in every ice bag that was like New one a free pair of shoes And so it's just like it was fun I mean like the creative the artwork we like we froze I froze the shoe in ice and then we had like the models Like hacking away at the ice It you know, it showed up in many many many fun creative pieces of content and experiential and It was great. It sold out in 24 or 48 hours the shoe went out It sold out we had lines around the block in like midtown in front of the Hoga flagship and people just went crazy for it I mean, it was really really excited That is wild like the fact that a mountain specific shoe very deliberately Pitched as the thing you were two and from the mountain sells out in Manhattan And I can see the thread like you you you made it you knew you guys did it You know, you made it really relevant to that audience and made them Care the image that I always have when I think of that that campaign is that simple image of the shoe in a block of ice and it was such like a A simple concept, you know, it's not complex, but it really does stick with you. You're like, why is this Hoga? In a giant block of ice and you don't want to know more and you want to dig into it And it's so cool to see how that that idea of over ice can be translated in a million different contexts And that you all just went ham on it like you did you didn't kind of put limits But it all traced back to that single concept Funny to say that we we also had that thing weekend of launch a on mountain party at a basin here in Colorado and We created a shoe that was like, I mean it was Humongous it was probably like I want to say eight feet long and like four feet high This massive shoe that was there and then we fro we made we had an entire bar That was made out of ice that we like froze a shoe into and etched the shoe into and it was it was an operate party So when people are finishing they can come down and have a drink with us and we really tried to like the through line was the product The through line was like here's how the product functions. Here's how the product works Here's why the product special here's how it looks and styled. I think we could do it in New York We can do it at a basin. We can run ads that are wheat paste or wild postings wherever we need to do it. We can like As long as the through line was the product and the attributes, like there was the ability to stay true to store over your trying to tell. - Yeah, that takes a really strong brief, honestly. So Kudos to you and the team for bringing that to you. I can imagine every production person that's listening, going, how do they do an eight foot shoe? Do you know how you manufactured that? Did you just have a great fabricator? How did that come to life? - You know, so this I would say was an incredible partnership between Hoka and Half Days. Like they very much said to us, like, you guys come up with whatever you want to do, we'll just give you the thumbs up. And so we came up with a concept, we pitched like all of the ideas. And then when it came to executing, like, you know, it was very much in collaboration with them. Like we knew who we wanted to work with, I'm an experiential standpoint in New York. They had a relationship with West Berlin, which is where we did like a concert party that night. We knew that we wanted to be an A-B-Syn because we have such a deep rich community here in Colorado. They had a relationship with the fabricator who made the shoe. So like, I just, I think the best campaigns require a phenomenal team is really what it comes down to. And we, I feel very fortunate because the Hoka team was really, really like gracious and generous and exciting to work with. And they were trusting in us to like, to execute on this idea that we like agreed upon. But it certainly was a joint effort. And we've really utilized all the resources we had available to us. - Yeah, you said the word, but the one that kept coming to mind as I was hearing you talking was trust. Like, it sounded like there was so much trust. And for, you know, being the smaller brand in a relationship, you probably felt a lot of pressure to like deliver on your end of that bargain. But you all really came through and made it really magical. So yeah, well done. I love that. - Thank you. - Thank you. - I wanted to know more about how, yeah, what makes a partnership like that work. But I feel like you really nailed it. Was there anything kind of on the front? And maybe you weren't there for that, but anything on the front, and that you think made it so successful in the back end? - I think like, I mean, marketing is a way, but it's like, it's a relationship game. And it is just like, it is, I think that Ari and Kylie did a phenomenal job of building a great relationship with the Hoka team, with the Gore team, with all the folks that were part of this. And that's where the trust started. And then they trusted us to execute on that vision from a product standpoint, from a marketing standpoint. And yeah, and I would say that like, at half days, and again, this is also the true at Loco. I'm like, I always felt like we punched above our weight. We were like, we're going to act as if we were this massive company. And we're just going to show up and I always say that like, I'm not the smartest person in the room, but I might be the most hardworking resourceful person in the room, like, so it is really just a matter of like these brands that I have been fortunate enough to work on our wildly resourceful and capable. And that's really something to be part of. - Yeah. Okay, transitioning a little bit, you know, you're a marketer through and through. And once a marketer, always a marketer, you've since left half days, but I suspect you're still keeping tabs on what's happening in the world of brand. Are there any brands or campaigns that have been inspiring you recently? - Yeah, I'm like such a student of brands. I like love to study and to like unpack the brand stories. Yeah, I mean, there are some brands that I've just been really impressed with with their like recent growth, you know, everything from like a Tacobas, which I just think is doing such a phenomenal job at owning the Western space and reinventing like, an industry that was like so reliant on wholesale. And now it's like, it's all direct to consumer, their owning PDR, their owning Texas, they're just like really, they're taking advantage of not too dissimilar to what happened at Locke Lone, like the right time, the right space, and they are just a powerhouse that I just like have been really, really impressed with. With them as a brand, I think about like still here is another like denim brand that I just feel like is doing such a good job at like creating space in the denim, like creating new products in the denim space. Like they have this pants called the sport pants that has like a drawstring is a denim, but a drawstring and like you can tighten the ankle to make it a bit more of a jogger. And I just feel like everyone I know has bought these pants. - I've not seen this. - They're phenomenal. They're phenomenal. I have a one I know who has bought these pants and I just, I'm like, and their marketing is really, really authentic. Like it's very much like not overly polished. They clearly have a vision of voice and it's been really fun to watch them grow. And so yeah, I've admired a lot of really cool. I feel like there's so many amazing brands that have just been really, really impressive. Bode, I think it's both BODE. They just launched their denim. I think it was in collaboration with Levi's and that was like phenomenal. I was like, this is a sick collab. But so my campaign standpoint, I could think of one good example that of a campaign that I has like resonated with me and it's actually not new at all, but it was a campaign with Airbnb. And I think they launched it back in 2024. And I think the thing that was most exciting about it was it really hinged on like insights that they have from their customers. So the campaign was all about what your experience is like in a hotel versus an Airbnb and why Airbnb is better. And it was an animated campaign that they ran on streaming. And I'm still getting served the ads. Like if I'm just like, - Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about. - All the time. But it's like these little tiny people and they're like the example I'll give it like for one of the campaigns is like the insight was like families, book, Airbnb's over hotels because they don't want to have the same bedtime as their children. And so there was like, this is why you're not in an Airbnb or in a hotel because you don't want to say bedtime as your children and they take this tiny room with like parents co-sleeping with their kids and then they blow it up into a house. And it's like, no, their downstairs is having a glass of wine together while their kids are sleeping upstairs. And that is the insight. And they did the same thing for like girls trips. Like we all know, we all experience but a girls trip is like, and I think as a woman, we also experience being like in a tiny hotel bathroom sharing a sink with your girlfriends and you're just like, get me out of here. And it's like, that's what a hotel experience is like. But if you get an Airbnb, you have three bathrooms. And I just like, I love the way that they took these insights and they are deeply human that we can all relate to and turn them into like animated streaming ads that like, yeah, just so real, so authentic. - I love that. - I'm also thinking about, you know, you get to a certain age and you go on a girls trip and there's moms who are just so happy to be able to sleep forever. And then the people that don't have kids who are like, I'm up early, I'm just having your own designated spaces. - Totally, totally. - Totally and so yeah, they like really lashed onto that. And there was like, I think they made like 12 of them. They worked with a really great agency to produce these and they all, and I also wonder like, I wish I could unpack their media by to be like, do you know that I'm a mother? Is that why you're studying this to me? Like what kind of information do you have based on my YouTube account that's like causing you send this to me? - Right. - But it's fascinating and they've done phenomenal job at taking a really awesome idea and bringing it to life with the right audience. - I think YouTube data has to be the most telling. Like even maybe more than our Google search data sometimes. Like you know exactly where someone is in life by the YouTube videos that they're watching. Like my YouTube videos. - For better or worse, I've been watching like Timber frame homes and I'm like, oh God, this is doing something really weird to my algorithm. It's like all architecture and I'm like, I don't know what's going on. (laughs) - It's not the worst thing that happened here. - In your album. Okay, last question for you that I love hearing from all of my guests. - What is the best piece of brand or marketing advice that you've ever been given? - This is not advice I've been given. It's just something I read that I thought was really impactful and it like has kind of stuck with me. Michael Eisenhower, Disney CEO or pharmacy CEO, was like, he had a quote, and I'm gonna butcher it. So clearly I'm not reading anything. It was like a brand is the product of a thousand tiny gestures. A brand is a living entity, the product of a thousand tiny gestures. And it's just really stuck with me. And I think about all the experiences I've had and on behalf of big global legacy brands and then some of these smaller ones and just how important everything is, right? Like everything from like UCX experience to the store experience, to the packaging, to whatever you put on social, the tone, the copy, the font, the colors. Like you think about Apple and how they had like a billion whites before they decided on the Apple white. It's like all of those things matter. They all matter. And a brand is constantly evolving. And so you have to constantly be considering all of the tiny gestures that your customer experience is. And as a marketer, it's like we're responsible for most of them. You know, like we are the reason, the way that people interact with brands. And I love how kind of it all comes together. But I'm always mind-so-loub. Like it's not one thing that's going to make this brand. It's all of these things that are going to make this brand. Yeah, that is so true. I was reading last month. I was reading a book called Unreasonable Hospitality. Have you heard of this? Oh my god, I love love. I read it like three times. So good. Like it should be marketing. to brand marketers because just seeing the way they went through every level of the restaurant to refine that experience, like that's how I think we need to be thinking about brand building, just like constant meaning. What did Wogadarra call those people who have their title is like "imaginate" imaginator? I don't know, it's like something like that where they have to like do the research and they're the ones that come up with a crazy idea to like make a hotdog special because the guy never had a street New York City street hat dog, like I want that job. That's time to do something. Yeah, they do have a special name, I can't remember what it is, but that's what inspired that scene in the bear when they kind of created snow in the back of the restaurant for that family that had like one as you were sledding in the park and I just love it. It's amazing, it's all those little gestures, all those little details that go such a long way. Yeah, I'll be hanging on to the idea of a brand as a living thing. I think I'll probably be dropping that into conversation multiple times for the next week. Amazing, Alicia, I learned so many things, I have so many notes, I'm gonna be stealing from you and referencing and yeah, I just really appreciate this. Thank you so much. Oh my good, it's my pleasure. I'm honored to be on the podcast, so thank you for having me. That was Alicia Moore, you can find her on Instagram at Alicia Rose Moore. My best campaign is brought to you by Monday Creative and this episode was produced by Emily Hibeck and hosted by me Amanda Lee Smith. Our sound engineer is Androba Gazbest, and her theme music is by Shimon Machita. Thanks for listening. If you haven't already, hit subscribe and follow along.