Issue 096: Prime's $1.2B Playbook

+ Branding Tips from Chris Do

Wanna hear a joke?

A world where Meta doesn’t sh*t itself daily. 🙄 

🥁 Baddum-TSHHHH!

| TWEET OF THE WEEK

PRIME reached $1.2B yearly revenue in just 24 months–

And even though their Founders, YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI have over 40 million followers between them - this kind of viral growth doesn’t just come from followers.

Here’s how they pulled it off.

Attention before product

Before Logan Paul and KSI became friends and partners, they were rivals.

They riled up social media with their trash talking and brought it home with human nature's favorite entertainment: a highly publicized, trash talk filled boxing match that racked up millions of views across social.

And as boxing matches tend to go, ended with controversy and a ripe storyline for: what’s next?

| YOUTUBE UNIVERSITY

Genius Personal Branding Tips w/ Chris Do

| TOGETHER WITH EIGHTX

Get Actionable, Practical, No-BS Advice From A CFO Who Is Focused On Brand Growth, Profits & Scale

Testimonial by David Menzel @ Salty Face

After a few years of losses and declining sales, we helped the following baby-focused eCom brand turn the ship around for an 8-figure exit. How did we help?

  • Found new and better financing

  • Optimized ad and marketing budgets

  • Helped with supplier negotiations, got better terms

  • Forecasting and scenario planning to make sure we could adapt to changing economy and buyer behavior

  • Cut non-performing SKUs

  • and more 😜 

Sales growth for this CPG brand was phenomenal but we needed to break even, right away. How did we help?

  • Better reporting for all departments

  • Tight budgets and cost controls

  • Optimized ad and marketing budgets

  • SKU rationalization project

  • Set up subsidiaries in Asia and USA

  • and more 😎 

I have an offer for the Workspace6 crew. I want to talk about your business and all the lost profit we can find in it. Book a call and let’s chat. I’ll deliver a free Financial Plan, normally valued at $2500, for free to W6 members and readers. In it, you’ll get:

  • A 3-year financial forecast, by the month.

  • A P&L, cash flow plan and balance sheet forecast

  • Marketing and CAC budgets

  • Recommendations from our CFOs for increasing your valuation

  • And a lot more 👍️ 

I’m in the W6 Slack community if you want to chat. Just find me there. Otherwise, book a call and we’ll go from there. Talk soon!

| QUICK SHOTS

  • @shaneoleary1: This is....so bad. How was it signed off? Another great example of marketers/creatives trying to be way too smart or trying to create awards bait.

  • @andreilunev: 🌶️ What Resets AdSet Learnings on Facebook: 2 Insights (results of the test)👇

  • Luke Neely: In the early stages of your ecommerce brand? Acquisition is more important than retention. The problem is you’ve been duped into believing retention will save your business, when in reality..

  • @chrisorzy: How to grow your e-commerce brand by writing 1 email a day🧵

  • @danavirsarria: If you sell a product that is basically the same as competitors, you have to "own a word" competitors don't.

  • @heyitsalexP: If you're locked out of Meta, stop doom scrolling and read this recap of everything I learned running ads in 2023:

| HERE FOR THE MEMES

| AND IN OTHER NEWS…

Campaign Trail: Kayak shows limits of DIY with absurd, AI-powered ads

Despite using AI at nearly every stage of the creative process, Supernatural’s Paul Caiozzo says, “AI is not magic — it's just people using different tools.”

Kellogg spinoff Kellanova doubles down on digital transformation and commerce

Kellanova chief digital and information officer Lesley Salmon discusses how it will implement a range of new digital initiatives.

Vuori's 2024 playbook includes expansion in Asia & more new products than ever before

Vuori founder Joe Kudla spoke to Modern Retail about why 2024 will be the biggest year yet for product innovation.

How Zappos is reworking its influencer program to be more inclusive

Zappos is switching up its marketing strategy this year by tapping everyday people instead of top-tier influencers and celebrities.

How Natori Used AI to Sharpen Retargeting and Achieve a 943% ROAS - Retail TouchPoints

Women’s intimates and apparel retailer Natori has shown that using artificial intelligence (AI) can supercharge retailers’ retargeting efforts.

| GET LINKED

This company is valued at $1.2B and spends $2M/mo on podcasts.

Here's their story:

Founder Chris Ashenden had an interest in sports & nutrition from Bruce Lee films.

He started a sports supplement biz after college. Which failed.

The failure pushed him to work odd jobs from selling cars to policing. But nothing really stuck. Until...

Self-help books pulled him back into entrepreneurship. But in '08, real estate losses put him $5M in debt.

Chris was stressed, depressed, drinking heavily, and constantly sick.

Tests showed he couldn't absorb nutrients, and he was prescribed a $100/day, 50-pill/day regimen...

He thought, "No way THIS is the best solution."

So he won funding to develop an all-in-one, easy-to-consume nutritional supplement.

The result? 8 different multivitamins & probiotics combined into a single powder.

Here's the biz's first major green flag:

Chris was his own first customer.

He URGENTLY needed a solution to his failing health - so he built one himself.

This implicitly validated demand.

Plus, being your own customer means you've got a never-ending source of feedback: yourself.

But health products need a LOT of credibility.

So, to attract initial customers, Chris got endorsements from health influencers. Their sway convinced early adopter audiences.

This worked well enough. Until the business's major inflection point…

| YOU’RE HIRED

Brands

SaaS

  • Product Marketing Manager (Platter)

Got a job you want us to list? Let us know.

| THE OUTRO

Everybody make it thru the outage okay? Send a few plain texts, did you? Walked around outside with actual ground under your feet?

It’s a great day to be alive then! ✊ 

Workspace6