Remarkable Content with Ian Faison Solo Stove x Snoop Dogg: B2B Marketing Lessons from the Viral Ad with Chief Evangelist at Purple Cork, Corrina Owens
Your next campaign is going to go viral. That is, if you use the marketing lessons we’re sharing in this episode of Remarkable.
There’s a recipe basically guaranteed to get you eyeballs, likes, comments…pure and fevered engagement from your audience.
And we’re taking that recipe from Solo Stove’s viral ad featuring Snoop Dogg. That’s what we’re talking about in this episode of Remarkable with the help of special guest, Chief Evangelist at purple cork, Corrina Owens. Together, we talk about collaborating with an A-list celebrity, creating buzz, and timing your campaign just right.
About our guest, Corrina Owens
Corrina Owens is Chief Evangelist at purple cork. She has over a decade of experience driving revenue for high-growth B2B SaaS organizations and B2C organizations with integrated and multi-channel marketing strategies, building and scaling demand generation and account-based marketing departments, programs, and campaigns from the ground up. She also co-hosts Direct, a podcast that features unsung GTM heroes who make magic happen for their organizations. Corrina is also a GTM Advisor at Navattic, GTM Partners, and Postal.io. Prior to purple cork, Corrina was Senior Manager of ABM and Enterprise as well as podcast host at Gong.
About purple cork
Purple cork was started by former CMOs and go-to-market specialists offering end-to-end event management. They create fun, fresh and professional virtual tastings designed for business value. They’re helping hundreds of leading SaaS and other companies create unique and memorable experiences no matter where they are. They’ve driven over $3 million in closed won revenue from accounts who’ve attended their Taste of Qualified events.
About the Solo Stove
Solo Stove makes a suite of portable, smokeless fire pits and camp stoves, along with a pizza oven and grill, and all the accessories. The unique thing about the Solo Stove is that it’s smokeless. The company explains that it works more efficiently than a traditional fire pit by funneling air through the pit twice for a second burn. So not only is there no smoke, but it also burns hotter. Solo Stove was started by brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan in 2011 as a Kickstarter campaign that raised $15,000. It now has an enterprise value of nearly $500 million after going public in 2021 as Solo Brands. It has also since acquired the brands Chubbies, Oru Kayak and Isle.
What B2B Companies Can Learn From the Solo Stove:
- Aim for the stars. Solo Stove took a big swing when they asked Snoop Dogg to partner with them. And it paid off big. Corrina says, “What we see with B2B brands is that the ones that take big swings and make big bets - those are the ones that are going to stand out from the noise. So what's the risk here when the upside is just so massive? If nothing else, at least Snoop Dogg knows about solo stoves, right?” She adds that “leveraging celebrities that have that kind of vast appeal, but don't have so many endorsements quite yet, I think is the way in for marketers.”
- Spark buzz. On November 16th, 2023, Snoop Dogg posted to his Instagram account that he was “giving up smoke,” and to “respect his privacy at this time.” The post sent his fanbase into pure pandemonium. That is, until four days later when Solo Stove launched their collab with Snoop Dogg. One Snoop fan then responded to his Instagram post, “Got me one and I love it!!! 🔥❤️.” So drop hints and build anticipation for new campaigns, products, features, and services to drive engagement and make your content so remarkable it goes viral.
- Time your campaign right. Solo Stove’s Snoop Dogg campaign launched just days before Thanksgiving 2023 when, Ian says, “everyone is going to be talking around the dinner table and your weird uncle is going to bring up something weird. And you can be like, ‘Hey, did you know that Snoop's giving up smoking? That's crazy!’ Time your campaign launch so that it drops right when people will be together and in the perfect situation to talk about it, whether It be around a holiday or an event.
Quotes
*”Until Solo Stove has some comparable competitors for price point and offering, they really have a unique moment in time to make these big investments and take these really big swings to corner the market even further before potential new competition can catch up.” - Corrina Owens
*”Early into the pandemic, Conan was starting to get more creative with ads where you would hear him do ads, but it sounded like he was just doing a bit. They actually made a summer campfire series with him, his assistant, and his producer. They do it just for Solo Stove, Solo Stove is the only brand that sponsors it. And it's a unique part of their podcast. It's a video series, where it's after dark, they're not in their studio, they're all around the Solo Stove campfire, using it to make marshmallows, using it to keep themselves warm, like actually utilizing and showcasing the product in use, which is very cool.” - Corrina Owens
*”People love events. Going in person and meeting people is always important. But what we learned is that virtual events democratize information and access if you can't be there in person or you can't afford it. Like, if budgets are tight, then you can't go. That's not great. We see this with these massive events and conferences. Budgets are freaking wild for these events. They’re really expensive. And so virtual is one way to solve that.” - Ian Faison
Time Stamps
[0:55] Meet Corrina Owens, Chief Evangelist at purple cork
[1:21] Why are we talking about Solo Stove?
[1:54] Learn more about Corrina’s role at purple cork
[2:20] What is the Solo Stove?
[10:51] About Snoop Dogg’s ad for Solo Stove
[14:10] How did the Snoop Dogg ad come about?
[16:17] Marketing lessons from the Snoop Dogg x Solo Stove ad
[25:20] Engagement results from Snoop Dogg x Solo Stove ad
[36:38] About how purple cork hosts virtual events
[37:44] What is Corrina’s marketing strategy at purple cork?
[44:22] How does Corrina think about the ROI of content?
Links
See Snoop Dogg’s Instagram post about “giving up smoke”
Watch Solo Stove’s ad with Snoop Dogg
Connect with Corrina on LinkedIn
About Remarkable!
Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.
In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.
Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.