#066: Dan Lourenço & Ryan Hughes - GHOST x TMNT and the Future of Collabs

Apr 25, 2022

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https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/dan-lourenco-ryan-hughes-ghost-tmnt-collabs-066

On April 18, 2022, Team PricePlow flew into Chicago, IL to visit the Ghost Lifestyle headquarters, celebrating the Ghost Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collaboration launch. After meeting up with CEO Dan LourenÃ§o, CMO Ryan Hughes, and the rest of the team, we received a tour, then got down to business.

You can see much of our trip in the incredible Building The Brand episode (S8:E27) named “Turtle Power”, where we got to participate in “mailtime”, doming a scoop (or two) of the new OOZE flavor, and celebrating in this launch.

But most importantly, our podcast with Dan and Ryan, where we talk about branding, the future of collabs, Ghost Energy’s insane success, and where Ghost goes from here.

Detailed show notes are below, and you can find the episode on our audio feeds or watch on YouTube:

Video: PricePlow Visits the Ghost HQ with Dan and Ryan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmgEIiNDjDw

(1:00) – The official announcement of Ghost’s collaboration with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Dan comments that there were some frustrating leaks, but when was the last time people were so excited about a sports nutrition release that they couldn’t wait to leak it?
(2:15) – Ghost is now strategic about when they release collaborations. They don’t just want to trot everything under the sun.
(4:10) – Mike backs things up and explains the entire collaboration – four different supplements, a new one in Ghost Gamer Non-Stim, and a new flavor named OOZE.
(4:45) – In the late 80s and early 90s, Mike explains that the Ninja Turtles were everything. They sold over a billion dollars worth of action figures (in 1990s money)!
(5:00) – Dan’s first exposure to the Ninja Turtles were the legendary Konami video game.
(5:45) – Dan loves to force that nostalgia on the younger folks in the office. Whether it’s Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish, Oreos and Chips Ahoy, Space Jam, Ninja Turtles… they like to have a lot of fun with what they do.
(6:15) – It’s become an easier story to tell to new partners. When pitching a new idea to a potential partner, Ghost already has social proof. They pitch their idea, and can essentially ask “Are you guys in or out?” — and then they get feedback and dial things in.
(7:30) – Any content with licensed products needs to be extremely well planned and curated – you can’t always have humans or objects next to the cartoons… but Space Jam could do that. Turtles didn’t have that, because that’s not how the brand ever worked.
(8:30) – Which Ninja Turtle are you? Dan, Ben, and Mike all gravitated towards Donatello as a kid, and Ryan liked Michaelangelo — no…