Issue 105: What we wish we knew BEFORE Walmart 😳

+ Top Strats to Grow Any Business by Raoul Plickat

April 16, 2024

You know what would have absolutely crushed it on Shopify?

PET ROCKS.

This brainchild of the great Gary Dahl was born in 1975 and took the world by storm. (Would you believe that Gary was in advertising?)

In a world of fancy widgets dropshipped from China, nothing says “Marketing bro!” quite like the infamous Pet Rock.

| TWEET OF THE WEEK

The entire process from finding a broker to the initial pitch to acceptance took about a year.

Yes, an entire year.

We knew we had a solid shot at actually getting in when we got invited to talk to the team in person at Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, AR.

They usually do these meetings over the phone, zoom, meet, etc., so we figured we actually had a decent shot here.

Ron put this whole ordeal on his back and said, ‘You know what? I'm just going to go knock this out and whatever happens, happens.”

Our previous appointments were always around 30 minutes.

Ron met with them for almost an hour…

Big retailers are so focused on what's moving on the shelves.

Legacy brands typically own the show here, but when Walmart sees new brands come in with new branding, new packaging, new ways of doing business, it becomes exciting for them.

It felt like they wanted the small businesses to win over these huge corporations, like they wanted to give us a chance.

The biggest milestone was the fact that they were so receptive to Obvi.

Honestly, it was such a cool thing to be a part of.

| YOUTUBE UNIVERSITY

#1 Marketing Expert: Top Strategies Guaranteed to Grow ANY Business | Raoul Plickat (E036)

| TOGETHER WITH SARAL

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| QUICK SHOTS

  • @FromVivien: Your landing page is a 3 act story…

  • @imrayjohnston: I have a theory. Long-ass landing pages only attract broke people. Why?…

  • Sarah Carusona: If you analyze your ECOM KPIs in a silo, you will miss the most valuable information. It's not the raw numbers, it's the context of those numbers against the time and environment.

  • @ashvinmelwani: We can all agree that Meta’s recent issues have been a massive pain in the ass. But believe it or not, the biggest thing that’s keeping us pushing through it all is what I’m always preaching: 30 - 50 new creatives, every week.. Without fail….

  • Jake Abrams: The comment section is killing your CAC.

  • @sourfraser: Spoke to a pretty cool DTC brand this week who’s trying a new approach to creative testing that is SO SMART…

  • @austriker27: Real talk about ecommerce. This is freaking hard. My business is up 422% YTD and yet I've been in the fight of my life to save it for months.

| HERE FOR THE MEMES

| AND IN OTHER NEWS…

Chase Launches Chase Media Solutions, a New Digital Media Business, Connecting 80 Million U.S. Consumers with the Brands They Love

Allbirds — Trading Well Below $1 — Has 6 Months to Raise Its Stock Price, Nasdaq Warns

Nasdaq has warned Allbirds that it has six months to raise its stock price to more than $1 dollar for 10 consecutive business days.

Meta Advertisers Say Automated System Has Been Glitchy for Weeks

Marketers on Facebook and Instagram notice glitches, higher prices and poorer returns on the once-reliable network

How marketers can score Gen Z loyalty during festival season

Music fests like Coachella provide an opportunity for brands to reach Gen Z both on and off the festival grounds, says Movers+Shakers’ AJ Pulvirenti.

‘You can’t cheat the fundamentals’: Why Prime has been reduced to the bargain bin

Energy drink brand Prime Hydration, created by YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul, once had fans queuing up at dawn to purchase, but now has been spotted in bargain bins.

Creators Say These Are the Social Trends to Watch

Experts at Social Media Week discuss Instagram's ceiling and testing content on X

| GET LINKED

The biggest mistake I see is writing sentences that say nothing.

To stop writing them, you've got to spot them. So I've devised a game.

Below are eight sentences about cars. Six say nothing. Two say something. Spot them.

P.S. Test your coworkers

| YOU’RE HIRED

Brand

SaaS

Agency

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

| THE OUTRO

Yep, Pet Rocks, Hair in a Can, The George Foreman… lots of this stuff was hawked on infomercials.

Which is another thing… 🤨 Whatever happened to the humble infomercial? Everyone going on about live selling and that’s cool and kinda the same thing.

But for those of us who loved tuning in to the hour long Magic Bullet special, someone really needs to create a channel just dedicated to live selling aficionados so we can binge on the marketing with ease.

✌️ Adios!

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