Thread by @TaylorHoliday

A detailed example of how we created a "peak" in a down season for @QALORing ⛰

Teaser: It's not a hack or single ad.

Let's break it down...

If you haven't yet read my thread on "4 Peaks Theory" I would start there as this might not make sense:

https://twitter.com/TaylorHoliday/status/1481679960796323840?s=20

At QALO we had 3 "peaks" naturally built into the calendar:

Valentine's Day
Mother's Day / Father's Day
Q4 Holiday's

This was a great start but left us with a gap in the late summer months. So we wanted to design a fourth peak...

We combined a timed product release ("The Athletic Collection" 5 new colorways and some apparel) with a major cultural moment that occurred in late July, the Crossfit Games.

Then we built out a 360 degree marketing plan to support the launch. This included...

Partnerships: We had a partnership with CrossFit that included an in-person presence at every regional event and the main event. Signage on digital, TV (ESPN), and in person. And co-branded content creation.

Physical presence at all the top gyms: We built a list of the top 100 CrossFit gyms and made a goal to get a giant banner hanging in 50 of them. We accomplished it by offering to outfit their staff with products.

Influencer product seeding: We built of the 100 most influential people in the industry. This included execs at the top companies, athletes, media personalities etc.

Then we seeded the product to them early in a special gift box. Many would post for free!

Influencer Endorsements: We selected 2 athletes to be the face of the campaign @JasonKhalipa and @JulieFOUCHER and shot story, campaign, and ad content with them ahead of the launch.

Here is a sample of that content with almost 300k views

Podcast Placements: We sponsored some very niche industry podcasts like: "Girls Gone WOD" and scheduled reads for the entire month.

Charity Partnership: We formed a partnership with Barbells for Boobs an endemic crossfit charity that help support testing for early detection of breast cancer. We did a limited edition custom colorway to support.

Physical Retail: We lined up the new product line to go live in key sports retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods and other gyms with consistent branding and messaging for the campaign.

PR: We got lucky and Julie Foucher (our sponsored athlete) tore here Achilles mid competition and finished the event! (See the video above).

It became a big story and we had the footage that every outlet used because we had a press pass for the event from our partnership

Email: We built out a complete email calendar for the month of the campaign that included teaser content, release, follow-on flows, and even a secret hidden colorway that we delayed launched two weeks after the core launch just to juice the tail of the campaign.

Paid: And of course, we ran paid...

We had SO much content to choose from and more organic traffic than ever before to balance our prospecting and remarketing.

And guess what?

The ROAS AND VOLUME were higher than in ANY previous month. We had turned our worst months of the year into a PEAK.

Was it because of the ads? the creative? no.

It was because if you were a married crossfitter everywhere you turned you saw QALO.

On the hands of your heroes, alongside brands you love at events and in stores, at your gym when you worked out, and of course in your newsfeed.

At that point, CBO vs. ABO vs LAL vs BROAD matters very little.

The DEMAND CREATION HAS ALREADY OCCURRED.

This is the goal of 4 peaks theory. To create a reason to buy right NOW when it previously didn't exist.

That is the key to DIRECT RESPONSE. You need to create an imperative to purchase at this exact moment.

In the ideal state the ad account is not the engine for your growth, it is the distribution and reinforcement of a message. It captures demand and helps to create more. It is often insufficient on its own.

If you can get to 4 peaks (or even more!) you will be able to better manage cash, drive greater efficiency and build compounding value in your business.

To help out we create this tool to spark ideas on building your next peak. commonthreadco.com/blogs/coachs-c…