February 10, 2024 • 24 mins
We apply heat to Solo Stove’s decision to ax their CEO after a viral campaign failed to ignite sales and ask the essential question “what is successful marketing?”
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #Television #snoop #solostove #Ads #simplify #popculture #snoopdogg
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #Television #snoop #solostove #Ads #simplify #popculture #snoopdogg
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Speaking Human. Today, on SpeakingHuman, we apply heat to Solo Stove's
decision to ax their CEO after aviral campaign failed to ignite sales, and
ask the essential question, what issuccessful marketing? Speaking Human? Welcome to
(00:31):
Speaking Human, where we simplify theworld of marketing for humans. I'm Shad
Conley and with me as my cohost Patrick Jebber. So, Patrick,
where do you stand these days onsmokeless things, grills, fire pits?
Four you against? Do you wantthe smoke or do you want to get
(00:53):
rid of it? You want itout of there? Ah, that's an
insanely great question, Chad. It'sloaded. There's a lot, a lot
going on there. I don't.I mean, I know that there's varying
opinions here, but there is nothing, and I mean nothing as annoying as
smoke in a fire pit and agrill. I know some people love it
and some people aren't bothered by it, but not me. I can't tell
(01:15):
you. If I could get ridof camp smoke, I would camp more.
Probably if I could get rid ofcampfire smoke, even the grill.
Like when I'm grilling, you knowyou don't want it? Huh? I
mean, I love the smell.I just don't like it because it's in
my clothes afterwards, you know whatI mean. And that's the part I
don't like there is, you know, that terrible experience. You're sitting around
the campfire, you're having a goodtime, maybe you're making a s'more,
(01:38):
and then it's just the wind turnsa certain way and all of a sudden,
it's just blowing in your face.Yeah. Yeah, Then it's just
stuck on you and it's and itis. Then you're like, you have
to like take off your clothes,You've got to take a shower. If
you go to sleep like that,it's all it's it's in your sheets.
It's like spreading. Yeah. Butif you think of recent years, you
know, cigarettes, wildfires, thatcampfire smell, smoke's got a pretty bad
(02:01):
rap. I try to think,you know, is it all bad?
Should we just get rid of itall? So it's trying to think,
is they're good smoke? Should wejust suck all the Should we give a
vacuum and just suck all the smokeout of the world. Is there's something
worth saving? And then I thoughtof you know, smoking foods uh huh,
pretty hot trend. Right now.People liked, you know, the
smoked meats, so that's a positiveup in Smoke, the movie with Cheech
(02:25):
and Chong smoking the bandit. Yeah, yeah, one of the biggest hits
of the seventies. That's all Icould come up with with for Smoke.
Well, here's what I'll say isthat the outcome of smoke could be good.
Take your pick, the smoked meats, the fire pit, just sitting
around the fire pit, the outcomeof like sitting there and gathering that's great.
(02:46):
It's just the smoke itself. Yeah, we're fighting against the smoke and
smokeless fire pits. It's cool concept, but they do give off less heat
and they are in that uncanny valleysame bucket I think of as gas fireplaces,
which I have where they're convenient,but they also feel a little bit
like you're cgi in the world,you know, where things are just a
(03:07):
little bit off from being real.That's interesting. I never thought of it
that way. That's true, right, Yeah, it's like it feels like
something's not quite it's not quite asappealing, right as the smoked fire.
Yeah, it's not authentic. Yeah, it's not the true experience you can
enjoy it and you're getting something outof it, but you're like, something's
(03:28):
just a tick to the left.You can't I can feel it. That's
a really good point. I neverreally thought of it that way, but
that is true, like even withthe gas fireplaces. Yeah, So people
are probably wondering right now, whatare these guys going on about? Why
are they talking about smokeless things,smokeless fire pits. There's a point to
it. What is the point patch? That's a great question. So if
(03:49):
you don't know about a certain marketingcampaign that happened just last year, right
around Black Friday, right, yeah, Snoop Dogg Snoop Doggie dog as everyone
knows, the rapper from the eightiesSlash or technically nineties, I would say
nineties, yeah, nineties. Yeah. He basically released a statement saying that
(04:11):
he was giving up smoke. Yeah, yeah, I can. I can
give you the exact thing because it'spretty quick. So you get a picture
of Snoop, he's almost he's gothis hands in a prayer position, and
it says, after much consideration andconversation with my family, I've decided to
give up smoke. Please respect myprivacy at this time Snoop dog Anybody who
(04:32):
knows Snoop knows, you know,this guy's forever been associated with smoking blunts,
the chronic. He's got these theseassociations through his music, through his
persona. So this was kind ofa shocking deal most people. You know,
the the wording it was a littlecryptic. Yeah, is he really
(04:57):
giving up smoke? Is this tryingto say something else? No follow up?
He's just throwing that out into theworld and like walking away. What's
going on here? Snoop Dogg alsoan entrepreneur known to promote products to market
products, So you know, thequestion immediately was like, is there something
else going on here? Is thisa promo? Is this a marketing campaign,
(05:20):
or is this guy really, afterall these years, stepping away from
what we've always known him to beattached to. Yeah, so he came
you know, he came out.He gave that cryptic message on his social
channels, and then shortly thereafter itwas revealed that he was hilling the Solo
(05:40):
Stove a limited edition with a bunchof stuff like limited edition stuff like a
hat going smokeless, a little stickerpack and stuff like that. That with
the Solo Stove this limited edition Solostove, and the campaign you know,
started with a video of him talkingabout him going smokeless and then revealing that
(06:01):
it was the Solo stove, whichis a smokeless fire pits grill. What
is the solo stove? I mean, they have like a grill component to
it that you can purchase, youknow, an add on. Of course,
it's not a cheap fire pit byany sense of the imagination. The
one with Snoop Dogg, the limitededition was three hundred and fifty bucks,
(06:23):
If that gives you any indication,I think the lesser version of that,
I think they run around three hundredbucks two hundred and fifty dollars, and
then they scaled down from there.They have like table top ones that they
sell to. So it's not cheap, but it's also a very niche product
because it's going after an audience that'sprobably a little i would say a little
(06:46):
higher echelon than you know, theaverage person who maybe is just doing a
fire pit in their backyard with somewooden stones around it. Right, It's
just that's the cheapest alternative that youcould probably find. So so the biggest
thing that came out of this wastheir announcement that this campaign got seven billion
(07:06):
impressions. Seven billion impressions, whichis which is a lot. It's a
lot. Yeah, No matter whatmarketing campaign, you're looking at seven billion
impressions. Pretty good certified viral.Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.
What did you so? What didyou think of this campaign? As far
as you know, we've seen somany of these viral campaigns come out,
especially like celebrity included, what doyou think of this one? Yeah,
(07:28):
so let me just say this,Shad. I think it's really important.
I do think this is important becauseeverybody knows that everybody has opinions. Things
like this are subjective. I thinkto a person, based on their past,
their history, right, how theyfeel about things. So I thought
it was important to set expectations becauseI think personal history does play a part
in a question like this, whatdo I think of this campaign? Because
(07:51):
I think some people might be biasedand not like the campaign just because of
the person who endorsed it. Let'ssay, to be clear, I'm a
Snoop fan. When I was younger, when I was a teenager, I
had his nineteen ninety three album DoggyStyle, as many did as many many
did, so I think there's somethingto that, And he's a personality that
(08:13):
I think, for whatever reason,is sort of endearing. And while some
of his lyrics aren't necessarily endearing,you know, he's a character that this
character that has been presented to theworld. He seems like a lovable,
pot smoking, insanely good lyricist.That's sort of how I picture him,
Like he's kind of chill and laidback and mellow. Is that all true.
(08:35):
I don't know the reality of theperson. I don't know what he's
like behind that, you know,potentially that facade or if he's genuine like
that, that's him. So Ithink that's a huge part of that.
It's like sort of how you cometo this whole campaign I think does matter.
I would say my perception of theworld is that most people do think
(08:56):
positively about Snoop. They don't lookat him negative light. So that's a
good thing for this campaign, forthis product. Yeah, I would agree
with you there. I mean,if you look at he's just one of
these pop culture figures. You lookat kind of his collaborations with Martha Stewart
in recent years, he's got thiskind of crossover appeal. He still guest
appears on tract of younger artists.So I think he's kind of known by
(09:18):
the young and old as this kindof like almost comedic figure. He's got
like eighty five million Instagram followers.He's one of these these just pop culture
staples. Yeah. So I thinkmost people, if you ask them,
would have a fairly positive at leastrecognition of him. Yeah. So,
I and I think that that inand of itself, I sort of set
(09:39):
the expectation. That's where I comefrom, and I think a lot of
people probably have very similar experiences thatlead them down that path to feel that
way about him, which is whyhe's got such good clout in the world.
So I think the campaign was prettygood in that way, right,
Like it's good to have your producte equated with someone of that stature.
(10:01):
In most cases, I would sayif it was you know, a good
connector, as we often say,you know, like if it aligned with
the brand. Beyond that, thecampaign wasn't much more than that. To
me, there wasn't a lot there. The product itself, I thought was
kind of like, eh, wouldI buy that? Yeah, it almost
seems like a stretch to call ita campaign, right, it's a post.
(10:24):
Yeah, it was a post andan endorsement essentially, but it wasn't
like it didn't have any kind oflegs beyond that. And maybe that's unfair
because there is like a crafted messagean idea behind it. Yeah, so
it wasn't some like slap dash thingthat was thrown off. There's something there
that somebody thought through considerably, SoI don't want to take that away from
(10:46):
it. But there wasn't this wholelike multifaceted aspect to it where it was
multiposts or you know, something thatwas executed over you know, several weeks
or anything like that. But Ithink I think what you hit. I
think choosing Snoop was very strategic.You know, he was He's somebody,
as you mentioned, who has thisreach to multiple audiences and particularly probably the
(11:11):
solo stove buying audience, who isyou know, of a certain age and
a certain income level. Right havea recognition of this guy, Yeah,
for sure, And I think that'swhere I think that's where all the positive
is in that sort of like theaudience, the age, the demographic that
they're going after probably was about thatdisposable income for a solo stove. So
(11:33):
I get all that, and Ithink that that that's all the good stuff.
And I'm not obviously pooh pooing thecampaign and saying it doesn't have I
mean it was, you know,definitely thought through and all that Beyond that
though for me as a marketer,I was like, well, you know,
it's kind of like, okay,I didn't think there was anything insanely
creative beyond the association is kind oflike, okay, yeah, I get
(11:56):
it's kind of tongue in cheek funny. I did go look at it when
the campaign hit. When he announcedthat, I was like, I wonder
what this saying? What's this like, you know, like what's different about
it? It was pretty gimmicky,you know, like they put Snoop Dogg's
signature on the solo stove and stufflike that. I might have treated that
differently, I suppose if I wascreating it. I mean, it obviously
(12:18):
resonated with some people. Yeah,that I think was the weakest piece of
it myself. I don't even knowif that piece was necessary, the like
Snoop version of the stove. Idon't know how much of a grabber that
actually is. I'll add a fewthings on the light the post itself.
You know what they put up with. We'll call it the campaign the post.
There are a few things I likedabout it. When I think about
(12:39):
it in comparison to other like celebritykind of viral efforts, there are a
few things I liked about this one. It was real simple and easy to
get right. Yeah, you know, it was just like I've decided to
give up smoke. It was unexpected, so it flipped the script on a
familiar figure in a way that waskind of surprising. You're like, whoa
(13:01):
snoop giving up smoke? You know, it's kind of like hit the brakes,
m h. And in that,you know, in another respect,
it was mysterious, so you youkind of knew there was a twist to
it and you wanted to find outwhat that was. So it created that
anticipation, which I thought was good. You were waiting for the follow up
there and then there was just enoughyou know, humor cooked into it.
(13:24):
Yeah. I wouldn't say it wasflat out funny, but like you said,
there was tongue in cheek. Therewas something something to it. I
guess that kind of leads us indo you think it's good marketing, Like,
does it hit on a human level? Does this actual campaign strike a
chord? I mean I do.I think it got you know, it
got people's attention, and it gotthem interested in not this product, but
(13:48):
this individual which led them to thisproduct. Right on a human level,
you kind of define Snoop by smoketo some extent. That's part of his,
as we mede, part of hiskind of identity. So this creates
that that curiosity you kind of have, that WHOA, this can't be happening,
Snoop. No, Snoop, that'sthis's who you are. Everything's changing,
(14:11):
the world's upside down, cats anddogs living together, that kind of
reaction. So I think there wassome you know, good things about this
one where it kind of grabs yourattention in a particular way and then we
have to wait and see what happens. And in that time period, that's
when there was kind of this snowballof write ups about this where people really
(14:33):
started talking about it. Can youbelieve this is happening? Did you see
this? Yeah? Yeah, sothey got they got something there. What
about you? What are your thoughtsthere? Yeah? I think it does.
I think, you know, Isaw The argument that comes from this
is this sort of like bait andswitch is the sort of term they used
for it, which is fair.Yeah, I mean I think and I
(14:54):
think that is fair. Where heclaimed to be quitting smoking pot right or
chronic as it's called many words forit was kind of deceptive and made those
who have done the same in theirlives, right that felt like it was
an achievement to do feel a littlebad whatever that means to that person.
I'm not the biggest fan of thatargument, and I realize there are some
(15:16):
people who thought this was a veryhonest statement. We see things in a
light that maybe others might overlook ornot see. And so to those who
use that argument of like this isa bait and switch, I'd say his
cryptic message was clearly selling something likeI don't ever, I don't I feel
like people who took that as genuineand authentic that he was quitting smoking marijuana
(15:43):
I thought was really weird, Likewhy would you think that it's possible?
You know, you can read anybodycan read anything in any way, But
I never that was never my experience. More so for me, it was
what is it exactly that he's sellingright. Yeah, that's probably where my
radar would have sent me in atotally different direction because I would not have
(16:04):
guessed the solo stove, and beinghonest, you know, like that to
me, I thought a hit ona human level. I don't agree with
the argument of the bait and switch, but I definitely wouldn't have guessed the
solo stove. Yeah, And there'snothing more human than I can say than
I was interested. Yeah, Likeit caught my attention and I was personally
(16:25):
like I wanted to know. Iwanted to know what was going on.
And that's sort of the beauty ofthe message in the campaign. The marketing,
right is like, you know,if they did just come out with
the video, it had been likea brief chuckle at like the way they
executed the video itself, you knowwhere he was. It was a close
up, and then they pan outand he's at this fire pit where he's
talking about giving up smoke, andthen they show the actual punchline. That
(16:48):
would have been okay, it definitelywouldn't have gotten talked about as much as
it did, where he had thiscryptic message that really turned everybody upside down,
like what this guy this is all, his whole person is associated with
pot and now he's not going todo it anymore. That's where the real
(17:11):
ticket was I think in this Yeah, it was a cliffhanger. M This
story doesn't end there though. It'snot just a triumph for Solo Stove.
You know, we had this greatviral marketing campaign We're on the top of
the world, which they were,Yeah, in November, even in December,
that's like everybody looked like a bigmarketing win for Solo Stove after you
found out, okay, this wasactually a promotion for Solo Stove. Solo
(17:37):
Stove's in the news, everybody's talkingabout them, big win, end of
story. And then they fired theirCEO one month later after the campaign dropped,
and I think a lot of thesources cited this campaign's results with that.
Yeah, it seemed like the ideawas they had certain sales projections for
(17:59):
the fourth were particularly based on thismarketing campaign what they thought it was gonna
do, and they didn't meet them, and as a result, ceo out
campaign considered a fail and moving onbringing in a different CEO. This,
you know, in the marketing world, created something of a firestorm. Getting
rid of that CEO less than twomonths after that marketing campaign dropped. Where
(18:22):
do you stand on that? Patrick? What do you think of that response?
Do you think it was the rightresponse, an appropriate action? Where's
your brain? Tell you? Here'swhat I come to. Why exactly was
he fired? Okay, it mightcorrelate to this campaign. We all assume
that he was fired because of thiscampaign specifically, But I think the campaign
(18:44):
was really just an indicator of whatI call brand misalignment. This was probably
brewing for some time before the campaign. I think they fired him because somewhere
inside the company, maybe these twobrothers who started the Solo Stove I don't
know, but somewhere inside the company, the idea that Snoop was going to
bring positive brand awareness and sales wasnot shared as strongly, and when it
(19:04):
didn't raise sales, they use itas an excuse to remove him. Because
this guy has obviously helped the companybuild. He came in, they needed
some help. You know, thiswas a Kickstarter campaign once upon a time.
Solo Stove is now like somewhere overfive hundred million dollars in sales.
So they paid Snoop Dog one milliondollars for this endorsement, and they wanted
(19:26):
certain results out of that, likethe sales goals for whatever that was.
I don't know what that ended upbeing the projection, but when it didn't
hit those, I think there's somethingbehind this that led to it. I
think this is just the culmination ofwhatever it was, and I think it's
like maybe somewhere in because this guywas really the big driver of this campaign.
(19:48):
He believed that this was going tobe a big thing and they didn't,
and then they used this as anexcuse to oust him. That's that's
my perception of it, because thethis itself shouldn't have probably done that.
Maybe beyond this guy, nobody wasever behind the campaign. You know,
I had kind of similar reaction.I will say my first you know,
you see some of the write ups. My first reaction is this is outrageous.
(20:11):
You know, this campaign got sixtythousand new social followers for the brand.
Half the people, you know,this brand wasn't even on their radar
and now they know what Solo Stoveis. Brand awareness takes time to transform
into sales, something that people makingdecisions just constantly overlook. You know,
when we're talking about like leadership,something that they is pushed aside all the
(20:36):
time. But if you know onehundreds of thousands of more people are aware
of your company now associates smokeless firepits with solo stove, that seems like
a huge win. And again,nothing like this happens overnight. I don't
think that this. I mean,sure expectations could have been set maybe too
high, but did they really firehim over this or was this like what's
(21:00):
the analogy, you know, thewhat broke the camel's back? Right?
Is this the thing? I thinkthat's more likely. Yeah, if you
have a guy who's who you're behind, who has a campaign that everybody's you
know, talking about pretty positively,you don't hit sales figures one quarter,
you're probably gonna keep him on andsee what else he can do. Yeah,
(21:22):
there's something else going on there.And from what I read, I
mean, he has really boosted thiscompany since the beginning, So that to
me sounds like that can't even bethe case, right, Like where it's
just one quarter, you would thinkthat the longevity would have played a big
part in that. So yeah,I don't think it's the right response,
(21:44):
But then again, I don't knowwhat the actual response is too. Did
he do something else along the waythat has caused a lot of like ruffling
of feathers and things like that inthe company. I don't know. Yeah,
there's more going on in there thatwe don't know, but we can
talk more. I think about thebigger question what's the purpose of marketing?
And ultimately comes back to sales.Right, that's why you hear marketing and
(22:08):
sales. If you don't have sales, how can your company exist? Marketing
is a murky topic. It's oneof the reasons why we started this whole
podcast to begin with, right,was the shed light on the best practices
of marketing. You know, there'sthis reality we're living with. Do marketers
sometimes do things for the right reasonsor just because they feel like they should
(22:29):
be doing it? Right? AmI doing this because it's the right thing
for this brand at this moment?Or am I doing it because it's what
it's always been done? Yeah?No, I think that's a good thought.
The why is the always the hardestquestion to answer, but probably the
most important question to ask. Yeah. So, I think I would leave
our listeners with a quote. Wouldyou say it's a nugget of human wisdom?
(22:52):
I mean, some might call itthat a quote from you know,
some commenters on Snoop Dogg's cryptic posts. One person wrote in the comment thread
on Snoop's Instagram post, not youposting that you're done smoking as a way
to bring in tons of attention toyour page and then marketing tons of different
new products. That's a great wayto market all of your newest collabs.
(23:15):
I think I may have to copythis lesson and say we're done with pancake
art forever. So I thought thatwas interesting. Another person said, let's
be fair, it says smoke,not smoking. We interpret it how we
wanted to smiley face emoji. Yeah, and that's almost like peeling back another
layer, which is kind of somethingwe touched on earlier. But we become
(23:38):
a world that it's harder to marketto because we are so meta conscious of
marketing now mm hmm. You know, we're always like thinking about marketing as
it's happening to us. So that'sand that maybe is a topic for another
show. It very well could be. Yeah, Well, we hope you
(24:00):
got a lot out of today's episode, and you can find current and past
episodes of the podcast on Speakinghuman dotcom We'll be back in two weeks with
another episode of Speaking Human Catch You, then Humans Speaking Human
Speaking Human. Today, on SpeakingHuman, we apply heat to Solo Stove's
decision to ax their CEO after aviral campaign failed to ignite sales, and
ask the essential question, what issuccessful marketing? Speaking Human? Welcome to
(00:31):
Speaking Human, where we simplify theworld of marketing for humans. I'm Shad
Conley and with me as my cohost Patrick Jebber. So, Patrick,
where do you stand these days onsmokeless things, grills, fire pits?
Four you against? Do you wantthe smoke or do you want to get
(00:53):
rid of it? You want itout of there? Ah, that's an
insanely great question, Chad. It'sloaded. There's a lot, a lot
going on there. I don't.I mean, I know that there's varying
opinions here, but there is nothing, and I mean nothing as annoying as
smoke in a fire pit and agrill. I know some people love it
and some people aren't bothered by it, but not me. I can't tell
(01:15):
you. If I could get ridof camp smoke, I would camp more.
Probably if I could get rid ofcampfire smoke, even the grill.
Like when I'm grilling, you knowyou don't want it? Huh? I
mean, I love the smell.I just don't like it because it's in
my clothes afterwards, you know whatI mean. And that's the part I
don't like there is, you know, that terrible experience. You're sitting around
the campfire, you're having a goodtime, maybe you're making a s'more,
(01:38):
and then it's just the wind turnsa certain way and all of a sudden,
it's just blowing in your face.Yeah. Yeah, Then it's just
stuck on you and it's and itis. Then you're like, you have
to like take off your clothes,You've got to take a shower. If
you go to sleep like that,it's all it's it's in your sheets.
It's like spreading. Yeah. Butif you think of recent years, you
know, cigarettes, wildfires, thatcampfire smell, smoke's got a pretty bad
(02:01):
rap. I try to think,you know, is it all bad?
Should we just get rid of itall? So it's trying to think,
is they're good smoke? Should wejust suck all the Should we give a
vacuum and just suck all the smokeout of the world. Is there's something
worth saving? And then I thoughtof you know, smoking foods uh huh,
pretty hot trend. Right now.People liked, you know, the
smoked meats, so that's a positiveup in Smoke, the movie with Cheech
(02:25):
and Chong smoking the bandit. Yeah, yeah, one of the biggest hits
of the seventies. That's all Icould come up with with for Smoke.
Well, here's what I'll say isthat the outcome of smoke could be good.
Take your pick, the smoked meats, the fire pit, just sitting
around the fire pit, the outcomeof like sitting there and gathering that's great.
(02:46):
It's just the smoke itself. Yeah, we're fighting against the smoke and
smokeless fire pits. It's cool concept, but they do give off less heat
and they are in that uncanny valleysame bucket I think of as gas fireplaces,
which I have where they're convenient,but they also feel a little bit
like you're cgi in the world,you know, where things are just a
(03:07):
little bit off from being real.That's interesting. I never thought of it
that way. That's true, right, Yeah, it's like it feels like
something's not quite it's not quite asappealing, right as the smoked fire.
Yeah, it's not authentic. Yeah, it's not the true experience you can
enjoy it and you're getting something outof it, but you're like, something's
(03:28):
just a tick to the left.You can't I can feel it. That's
a really good point. I neverreally thought of it that way, but
that is true, like even withthe gas fireplaces. Yeah, So people
are probably wondering right now, whatare these guys going on about? Why
are they talking about smokeless things,smokeless fire pits. There's a point to
it. What is the point patch? That's a great question. So if
(03:49):
you don't know about a certain marketingcampaign that happened just last year, right
around Black Friday, right, yeah, Snoop Dogg Snoop Doggie dog as everyone
knows, the rapper from the eightiesSlash or technically nineties, I would say
nineties, yeah, nineties. Yeah. He basically released a statement saying that
(04:11):
he was giving up smoke. Yeah, yeah, I can. I can
give you the exact thing because it'spretty quick. So you get a picture
of Snoop, he's almost he's gothis hands in a prayer position, and
it says, after much consideration andconversation with my family, I've decided to
give up smoke. Please respect myprivacy at this time Snoop dog Anybody who
(04:32):
knows Snoop knows, you know,this guy's forever been associated with smoking blunts,
the chronic. He's got these theseassociations through his music, through his
persona. So this was kind ofa shocking deal most people. You know,
the the wording it was a littlecryptic. Yeah, is he really
(04:57):
giving up smoke? Is this tryingto say something else? No follow up?
He's just throwing that out into theworld and like walking away. What's
going on here? Snoop Dogg alsoan entrepreneur known to promote products to market
products, So you know, thequestion immediately was like, is there something
else going on here? Is thisa promo? Is this a marketing campaign,
(05:20):
or is this guy really, afterall these years, stepping away from
what we've always known him to beattached to. Yeah, so he came
you know, he came out.He gave that cryptic message on his social
channels, and then shortly thereafter itwas revealed that he was hilling the Solo
(05:40):
Stove a limited edition with a bunchof stuff like limited edition stuff like a
hat going smokeless, a little stickerpack and stuff like that. That with
the Solo Stove this limited edition Solostove, and the campaign you know,
started with a video of him talkingabout him going smokeless and then revealing that
(06:01):
it was the Solo stove, whichis a smokeless fire pits grill. What
is the solo stove? I mean, they have like a grill component to
it that you can purchase, youknow, an add on. Of course,
it's not a cheap fire pit byany sense of the imagination. The
one with Snoop Dogg, the limitededition was three hundred and fifty bucks,
(06:23):
If that gives you any indication,I think the lesser version of that,
I think they run around three hundredbucks two hundred and fifty dollars, and
then they scaled down from there.They have like table top ones that they
sell to. So it's not cheap, but it's also a very niche product
because it's going after an audience that'sprobably a little i would say a little
(06:46):
higher echelon than you know, theaverage person who maybe is just doing a
fire pit in their backyard with somewooden stones around it. Right, It's
just that's the cheapest alternative that youcould probably find. So so the biggest
thing that came out of this wastheir announcement that this campaign got seven billion
(07:06):
impressions. Seven billion impressions, whichis which is a lot. It's a
lot. Yeah, No matter whatmarketing campaign, you're looking at seven billion
impressions. Pretty good certified viral.Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.
What did you so? What didyou think of this campaign? As far
as you know, we've seen somany of these viral campaigns come out,
especially like celebrity included, what doyou think of this one? Yeah,
(07:28):
so let me just say this,Shad. I think it's really important.
I do think this is important becauseeverybody knows that everybody has opinions. Things
like this are subjective. I thinkto a person, based on their past,
their history, right, how theyfeel about things. So I thought
it was important to set expectations becauseI think personal history does play a part
in a question like this, whatdo I think of this campaign? Because
(07:51):
I think some people might be biasedand not like the campaign just because of
the person who endorsed it. Let'ssay, to be clear, I'm a
Snoop fan. When I was younger, when I was a teenager, I
had his nineteen ninety three album DoggyStyle, as many did as many many
did, so I think there's somethingto that, And he's a personality that
(08:13):
I think, for whatever reason,is sort of endearing. And while some
of his lyrics aren't necessarily endearing,you know, he's a character that this
character that has been presented to theworld. He seems like a lovable,
pot smoking, insanely good lyricist.That's sort of how I picture him,
Like he's kind of chill and laidback and mellow. Is that all true.
(08:35):
I don't know the reality of theperson. I don't know what he's
like behind that, you know,potentially that facade or if he's genuine like
that, that's him. So Ithink that's a huge part of that.
It's like sort of how you cometo this whole campaign I think does matter.
I would say my perception of theworld is that most people do think
(08:56):
positively about Snoop. They don't lookat him negative light. So that's a
good thing for this campaign, forthis product. Yeah, I would agree
with you there. I mean,if you look at he's just one of
these pop culture figures. You lookat kind of his collaborations with Martha Stewart
in recent years, he's got thiskind of crossover appeal. He still guest
appears on tract of younger artists.So I think he's kind of known by
(09:18):
the young and old as this kindof like almost comedic figure. He's got
like eighty five million Instagram followers.He's one of these these just pop culture
staples. Yeah. So I thinkmost people, if you ask them,
would have a fairly positive at leastrecognition of him. Yeah. So,
I and I think that that inand of itself, I sort of set
(09:39):
the expectation. That's where I comefrom, and I think a lot of
people probably have very similar experiences thatlead them down that path to feel that
way about him, which is whyhe's got such good clout in the world.
So I think the campaign was prettygood in that way, right,
Like it's good to have your producte equated with someone of that stature.
(10:01):
In most cases, I would sayif it was you know, a good
connector, as we often say,you know, like if it aligned with
the brand. Beyond that, thecampaign wasn't much more than that. To
me, there wasn't a lot there. The product itself, I thought was
kind of like, eh, wouldI buy that? Yeah, it almost
seems like a stretch to call ita campaign, right, it's a post.
(10:24):
Yeah, it was a post andan endorsement essentially, but it wasn't
like it didn't have any kind oflegs beyond that. And maybe that's unfair
because there is like a crafted messagean idea behind it. Yeah, so
it wasn't some like slap dash thingthat was thrown off. There's something there
that somebody thought through considerably, SoI don't want to take that away from
(10:46):
it. But there wasn't this wholelike multifaceted aspect to it where it was
multiposts or you know, something thatwas executed over you know, several weeks
or anything like that. But Ithink I think what you hit. I
think choosing Snoop was very strategic.You know, he was He's somebody,
as you mentioned, who has thisreach to multiple audiences and particularly probably the
(11:11):
solo stove buying audience, who isyou know, of a certain age and
a certain income level. Right havea recognition of this guy, Yeah,
for sure, And I think that'swhere I think that's where all the positive
is in that sort of like theaudience, the age, the demographic that
they're going after probably was about thatdisposable income for a solo stove. So
(11:33):
I get all that, and Ithink that that that's all the good stuff.
And I'm not obviously pooh pooing thecampaign and saying it doesn't have I
mean it was, you know,definitely thought through and all that Beyond that
though for me as a marketer,I was like, well, you know,
it's kind of like, okay,I didn't think there was anything insanely
creative beyond the association is kind oflike, okay, yeah, I get
(11:56):
it's kind of tongue in cheek funny. I did go look at it when
the campaign hit. When he announcedthat, I was like, I wonder
what this saying? What's this like, you know, like what's different about
it? It was pretty gimmicky,you know, like they put Snoop Dogg's
signature on the solo stove and stufflike that. I might have treated that
differently, I suppose if I wascreating it. I mean, it obviously
(12:18):
resonated with some people. Yeah,that I think was the weakest piece of
it myself. I don't even knowif that piece was necessary, the like
Snoop version of the stove. Idon't know how much of a grabber that
actually is. I'll add a fewthings on the light the post itself.
You know what they put up with. We'll call it the campaign the post.
There are a few things I likedabout it. When I think about
(12:39):
it in comparison to other like celebritykind of viral efforts, there are a
few things I liked about this one. It was real simple and easy to
get right. Yeah, you know, it was just like I've decided to
give up smoke. It was unexpected, so it flipped the script on a
familiar figure in a way that waskind of surprising. You're like, whoa
(13:01):
snoop giving up smoke? You know, it's kind of like hit the brakes,
m h. And in that,you know, in another respect,
it was mysterious, so you youkind of knew there was a twist to
it and you wanted to find outwhat that was. So it created that
anticipation, which I thought was good. You were waiting for the follow up
there and then there was just enoughyou know, humor cooked into it.
(13:24):
Yeah. I wouldn't say it wasflat out funny, but like you said,
there was tongue in cheek. Therewas something something to it. I
guess that kind of leads us indo you think it's good marketing, Like,
does it hit on a human level? Does this actual campaign strike a
chord? I mean I do.I think it got you know, it
got people's attention, and it gotthem interested in not this product, but
(13:48):
this individual which led them to thisproduct. Right on a human level,
you kind of define Snoop by smoketo some extent. That's part of his,
as we mede, part of hiskind of identity. So this creates
that that curiosity you kind of have, that WHOA, this can't be happening,
Snoop. No, Snoop, that'sthis's who you are. Everything's changing,
(14:11):
the world's upside down, cats anddogs living together, that kind of
reaction. So I think there wassome you know, good things about this
one where it kind of grabs yourattention in a particular way and then we
have to wait and see what happens. And in that time period, that's
when there was kind of this snowballof write ups about this where people really
(14:33):
started talking about it. Can youbelieve this is happening? Did you see
this? Yeah? Yeah, sothey got they got something there. What
about you? What are your thoughtsthere? Yeah? I think it does.
I think, you know, Isaw The argument that comes from this
is this sort of like bait andswitch is the sort of term they used
for it, which is fair.Yeah, I mean I think and I
(14:54):
think that is fair. Where heclaimed to be quitting smoking pot right or
chronic as it's called many words forit was kind of deceptive and made those
who have done the same in theirlives, right that felt like it was
an achievement to do feel a littlebad whatever that means to that person.
I'm not the biggest fan of thatargument, and I realize there are some
(15:16):
people who thought this was a veryhonest statement. We see things in a
light that maybe others might overlook ornot see. And so to those who
use that argument of like this isa bait and switch, I'd say his
cryptic message was clearly selling something likeI don't ever, I don't I feel
like people who took that as genuineand authentic that he was quitting smoking marijuana
(15:43):
I thought was really weird, Likewhy would you think that it's possible?
You know, you can read anybodycan read anything in any way, But
I never that was never my experience. More so for me, it was
what is it exactly that he's sellingright. Yeah, that's probably where my
radar would have sent me in atotally different direction because I would not have
(16:04):
guessed the solo stove, and beinghonest, you know, like that to
me, I thought a hit ona human level. I don't agree with
the argument of the bait and switch, but I definitely wouldn't have guessed the
solo stove. Yeah, And there'snothing more human than I can say than
I was interested. Yeah, Likeit caught my attention and I was personally
(16:25):
like I wanted to know. Iwanted to know what was going on.
And that's sort of the beauty ofthe message in the campaign. The marketing,
right is like, you know,if they did just come out with
the video, it had been likea brief chuckle at like the way they
executed the video itself, you knowwhere he was. It was a close
up, and then they pan outand he's at this fire pit where he's
talking about giving up smoke, andthen they show the actual punchline. That
(16:48):
would have been okay, it definitelywouldn't have gotten talked about as much as
it did, where he had thiscryptic message that really turned everybody upside down,
like what this guy this is all, his whole person is associated with
pot and now he's not going todo it anymore. That's where the real
(17:11):
ticket was I think in this Yeah, it was a cliffhanger. M This
story doesn't end there though. It'snot just a triumph for Solo Stove.
You know, we had this greatviral marketing campaign We're on the top of
the world, which they were,Yeah, in November, even in December,
that's like everybody looked like a bigmarketing win for Solo Stove after you
found out, okay, this wasactually a promotion for Solo Stove. Solo
(17:37):
Stove's in the news, everybody's talkingabout them, big win, end of
story. And then they fired theirCEO one month later after the campaign dropped,
and I think a lot of thesources cited this campaign's results with that.
Yeah, it seemed like the ideawas they had certain sales projections for
(17:59):
the fourth were particularly based on thismarketing campaign what they thought it was gonna
do, and they didn't meet them, and as a result, ceo out
campaign considered a fail and moving onbringing in a different CEO. This,
you know, in the marketing world, created something of a firestorm. Getting
rid of that CEO less than twomonths after that marketing campaign dropped. Where
(18:22):
do you stand on that? Patrick? What do you think of that response?
Do you think it was the rightresponse, an appropriate action? Where's
your brain? Tell you? Here'swhat I come to. Why exactly was
he fired? Okay, it mightcorrelate to this campaign. We all assume
that he was fired because of thiscampaign specifically, But I think the campaign
(18:44):
was really just an indicator of whatI call brand misalignment. This was probably
brewing for some time before the campaign. I think they fired him because somewhere
inside the company, maybe these twobrothers who started the Solo Stove I don't
know, but somewhere inside the company, the idea that Snoop was going to
bring positive brand awareness and sales wasnot shared as strongly, and when it
(19:04):
didn't raise sales, they use itas an excuse to remove him. Because
this guy has obviously helped the companybuild. He came in, they needed
some help. You know, thiswas a Kickstarter campaign once upon a time.
Solo Stove is now like somewhere overfive hundred million dollars in sales.
So they paid Snoop Dog one milliondollars for this endorsement, and they wanted
(19:26):
certain results out of that, likethe sales goals for whatever that was.
I don't know what that ended upbeing the projection, but when it didn't
hit those, I think there's somethingbehind this that led to it. I
think this is just the culmination ofwhatever it was, and I think it's
like maybe somewhere in because this guywas really the big driver of this campaign.
(19:48):
He believed that this was going tobe a big thing and they didn't,
and then they used this as anexcuse to oust him. That's that's
my perception of it, because thethis itself shouldn't have probably done that.
Maybe beyond this guy, nobody wasever behind the campaign. You know,
I had kind of similar reaction.I will say my first you know,
you see some of the write ups. My first reaction is this is outrageous.
(20:11):
You know, this campaign got sixtythousand new social followers for the brand.
Half the people, you know,this brand wasn't even on their radar
and now they know what Solo Stoveis. Brand awareness takes time to transform
into sales, something that people makingdecisions just constantly overlook. You know,
when we're talking about like leadership,something that they is pushed aside all the
(20:36):
time. But if you know onehundreds of thousands of more people are aware
of your company now associates smokeless firepits with solo stove, that seems like
a huge win. And again,nothing like this happens overnight. I don't
think that this. I mean,sure expectations could have been set maybe too
high, but did they really firehim over this or was this like what's
(21:00):
the analogy, you know, thewhat broke the camel's back? Right?
Is this the thing? I thinkthat's more likely. Yeah, if you
have a guy who's who you're behind, who has a campaign that everybody's you
know, talking about pretty positively,you don't hit sales figures one quarter,
you're probably gonna keep him on andsee what else he can do. Yeah,
(21:22):
there's something else going on there.And from what I read, I
mean, he has really boosted thiscompany since the beginning, So that to
me sounds like that can't even bethe case, right, Like where it's
just one quarter, you would thinkthat the longevity would have played a big
part in that. So yeah,I don't think it's the right response,
(21:44):
But then again, I don't knowwhat the actual response is too. Did
he do something else along the waythat has caused a lot of like ruffling
of feathers and things like that inthe company. I don't know. Yeah,
there's more going on in there thatwe don't know, but we can
talk more. I think about thebigger question what's the purpose of marketing?
And ultimately comes back to sales.Right, that's why you hear marketing and
(22:08):
sales. If you don't have sales, how can your company exist? Marketing
is a murky topic. It's oneof the reasons why we started this whole
podcast to begin with, right,was the shed light on the best practices
of marketing. You know, there'sthis reality we're living with. Do marketers
sometimes do things for the right reasonsor just because they feel like they should
(22:29):
be doing it? Right? AmI doing this because it's the right thing
for this brand at this moment?Or am I doing it because it's what
it's always been done? Yeah?No, I think that's a good thought.
The why is the always the hardestquestion to answer, but probably the
most important question to ask. Yeah. So, I think I would leave
our listeners with a quote. Wouldyou say it's a nugget of human wisdom?
(22:52):
I mean, some might call itthat a quote from you know,
some commenters on Snoop Dogg's cryptic posts. One person wrote in the comment thread
on Snoop's Instagram post, not youposting that you're done smoking as a way
to bring in tons of attention toyour page and then marketing tons of different
new products. That's a great wayto market all of your newest collabs.
(23:15):
I think I may have to copythis lesson and say we're done with pancake
art forever. So I thought thatwas interesting. Another person said, let's
be fair, it says smoke,not smoking. We interpret it how we
wanted to smiley face emoji. Yeah, and that's almost like peeling back another
layer, which is kind of somethingwe touched on earlier. But we become
(23:38):
a world that it's harder to marketto because we are so meta conscious of
marketing now mm hmm. You know, we're always like thinking about marketing as
it's happening to us. So that'sand that maybe is a topic for another
show. It very well could be. Yeah, Well, we hope you
(24:00):
got a lot out of today's episode, and you can find current and past
episodes of the podcast on Speakinghuman dotcom We'll be back in two weeks with
another episode of Speaking Human Catch You, then Humans Speaking Human
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