Jones Soda built loyalty by inviting customers to create artwork on soda labels. They launched MyJones in 2007 which allowed customers to upload photos to labels, now making up 80% of online sales. A promotion with I Can Has Cheezburger drove a 172% increase in MyJones sales and 42% overall growth in 2008 by running a contest where the winning lolcat photo appeared on bottles. However, the winning photo posed challenges to take to retail since it featured "indecent exposure". Jones Soda was creative and packaged it with other lolcat photos to distribute 13,362 cases to retailers successfully.
1. Translating Online Success
into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Angel Djambazov, OPM, Jones Soda
2. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Speaker Introduction
Angel Djambazov Background:
I come from a background in journalism to the online space and have
worked with the Bag Borrow or Steal, Penta Water and Onlineshoes
brands.
Awards:
•Affiliate Manager of the Year (2006) award from Affiliate Summit
•In-house Manager of the Year (2006) award from ABestWeb
•Part of PopShops team awarded consecutive Best Affiliate Tool
awards (‟07 - „08) from ABestWeb,
•Affiliate Manager of the Year (2009) award from Affiliate Summit.
Currently I am one of the founding team members of PopShops.com
and serve as the Managing Editor for Revenews.com. I also have the
pleasure of being the OPM for Keen Shoes and Jones Soda.
3. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Brief History of Jones Soda
In 1987 company founder and president Peter van
Stolk recognized the potential of emerging
quot;alternativequot; products in the beverage industry; Jones
Soda quickly gained recognition and awards for its
unique packaging featuring constantly changing
labels created and submitted by its consumers.
Jones Soda focused on an alternative distribution
strategy by placing its own coolers bearing the
signature flames, in unique venues, such as skate,
surf and snowboarding shops, tattoo and piercing parlors, as well as national retail
clothing and music stores.
The strategy was successful and Jones Soda now enjoys a national distribution in such
places as Panera Bread, Wall-Mart, Target, and Alaska Airlines. All this while
maintaining the type of “street cred” that makes larger brands jealous.
4. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Building Loyalty
Building loyalty is about staying true to the
brand. You can‟t be edgy one day and
politically correct the next without losing
brand integrity. Your audience will know.
5. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Building Loyalty
You should consider this when you choose
someone to endorse your product.
6. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Building Loyalty
You should consider this when creating
content or ads to represent your brand.
7. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Label as Canvas
From the beginning Jones Soda thought of it‟s label as a canvas.
8. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Label as Canvas
From the beginning Jones Soda thought of it‟s label as a canvas.
Key to Jones Soda‟s success is inviting the customer to create art on that canvas. To
let the soda they drink reflect their personality.
In many ways Jones Soda was Web 2.0 before the term was fashionable.
9. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Success Equals Growing Pains
Due to a combination of pressure from retail partners and the appeal of an unreached
segment of consumers, Jones Soda launched a line of cans. Without the signature
label consumer adoption and sales fell way below expectations.
10. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Success Equals Growing Pains
In 2007 Jones Soda beat out
mainstream soda providers to become
the exclusive soda provider for the
Seattle Seahawks at Quest Field.
However even Jones Soda, for whom one of
the bestselling flavors is Turkey and
Gravy, had a hard time marketing a collector‟s
Fan response at the games and
pack with flavors like “Dirt” and “Perspiration”
sales provided proof of a winning
to a mixed audience.
combination.
11. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Barriers to Selling Soda Online
#1 Barrier is Cost of Shipping
The weight of the soda and the bottles is very
expensive to ship. It is even more expensive to
deal with such things as returns and breakage.
So the question becomes how to differentiate
the online experience enough to entice
consumers to look beyond the cost of shipping.
12. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Demographic Targets
Key Community Influncers
The Masses
With a limited budget we focused our online marketing on two demographics.
The criteria for both was to develop an audience that we could:
-Engage rapidly online
-Create direct online sales
-Have the most cost-effective pull through in aiding offline sales.
13. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Demographic Targets
Key Community Influncers
The Masses
-MyJones -MyJones
-Seahawks Game Day Photos -I Can Has Cheezburger
-Campaign Cola -Blogworld Sponsorship
-Graffiti -Comic and Gamer Geeks
*photo above by Brian Solis of his Jones
-Jones Soda Merchandise Soda label distributed at Blogworld.
14. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Launch of MyJones
With the launch of MyJones in 2007, Jones Soda gave its core audience complete
control of the label. Online users can upload a photo and place text on the back to make
the soda they drink truly part of their personality and memories.
MyJones currently makes up 80% of Jones Soda‟s sales online.
15. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of Ron Paul
During the Presidential Election of 2008 Jones
Soda launched Campaign Cola exclusively
online. We designed the product and our
marketing tactics to ensure placement on
political blogs, forums and major news outlets
carrying political stories. When Campaign Cola
was released it featured photos of the three
remaining candidates at the time:
-Hillary Clinton
-John McCain
-Barrack Obama
The micro-site for Campaign Cola also
featured a voting element allowing Jones Soda
customers to vote with their purchases which
candidate they wanted to win.
16. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of Ron Paul
We expected buzz, however Jones was
unprepared for the tidal wave of emails from
irate Ron Paul supporters who, despite the fact
their candidate was no longer in the race, were
livid that he wasn‟t represented in the
Campaign Cola race.
Two weeks after the Campaign Cola launch
Ron Paul finally got his campaign off the
ground and Ron Paul Revolution Cola joined
the race.
17. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of Ron Paul
And the results?
Listening to the online audience turned out to
be a profitable move. Ron Paul quickly outsold
both Hillary and McCain, and came close to
matching Obama‟s sales.
Our timing was just right. Campaign Cola
buyers caught the fervor of the moment and
we ended up reprinting both Obama and Ron
Paul „s soda dozens of times.
Equally as important was the brand awareness
generated by the campaign. Over 100 Million
impressions during the length of the campaign
at a cost of $0.20 CPM.
18. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of the lolcats
Despite initial success online Jones Soda was still seeking ways to replicate the offline
interaction with its audience online.
In December 2007, the suggestion of I Can Has Cheezburger first came up. Despite and
odd ball collection of flavors in its corporate portfolio Jones Soda was skeptical whether
the Jones audience would respond to lolcats…
19. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of the lolcats
…really?
20. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of the lolcats
Finally corporate tentatively agreed. For the next several months we worked on
developing the right promotion addressing the following concerns:
-Technical challenge of integrating MyJones with ICHC
-Making sure we dealt with both audiences organically so as not to repeat the
disconnect with the Seahawks collector‟s pack
-Handling copyright issues
-Making sure the engagement equaled sales
21. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of the lolcats
With Ben Huh‟s, CEO of ICHC, input we agreed on creating a
contest. The contest would run for one month on ICHC and users
could enter their lolcat photo into the contest. The prize was
national distribution on a Jones Soda bottle run. The winner would
be picked by the ICHC community.
The contest launched on March 24, 2008.
One month later we had received over 20,000 entries!
22. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of the lolcats
Beyond simply participating the ICHC community embraced both the
brand and the contest. The response was more than anyone expected:
-Over 250,000 votes were cast in the search for the winning lolcat
-Spike in traffic to Jones Soda driven by 12,000 posts about the contest
-Contest was mentioned by the television network CW
And sales?
-172% increase in MyJones sales month-over-month
-Sales from ICHC helped drive 42% growth year-over-year in „08
23. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Case of the lolcats
Management at Jones Soda was understandably thrilled with the
results. It was the kind of success you share with the shareholders
during the quarterly meetings.
Everyone wanted to take that growth and expand upon it even more.
Bringing the ICHC labeled Jones Soda to retail was the next logical
step.
There was only one problem. The winner was…
24. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
And the Winner Is
…this guy
25. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Challenges of Taking “this guy” to Retail
-Expense inherent with retail distribution
-Lead time for specialty packaging could take
months to coordinate with retail buyers
-Each chain or individual store has varying
packing and quantity requirements
-Each chain or individual store caters to a
slightly different audience with different tastes
-Retailers tend to stick with proven
merchandise rather than unproven specialty
products that take up valuable shelf space
26. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
How lolcats Went to Retail
Luckily both the folks at Jones Soda and at
ICHC can be very creative when put to the task.
We decided the best opportunity was to
package “Indecent Exposure” kitty with lolcat
community favorites. That way we could cater
better to the audience slant of our retail
partners.
We then went through the process of making
sure we cleared any ownership or copyright
issues with the photos.
27. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
How lolcats Went to Retail
In the Fall of 2008 the ICHC labeled Jones
Soda bottles hit retail shelves. 13,362 cases in
all were shipped to retail partners like:
A few lolcats even made it is far as the United
Kingdom.
28. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Working Towards a Repeat
Key to not becoming stale is to ever evolve your
online marketing. If you listen, your consumer will
tell you how.
In Jones Soda‟s case we are working hard to
repeat the level of engagement we reached with
I Can Has Cheezburger in new ways.
What
Next?
29. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
Working Towards a Repeat
One of this year's strategies is using Jones Soda‟s
counter-culture affinity to expand on co-branding
opportunities with brands who have a similar
audience.
For instance we recently launched an Emily
Strange collector‟s pack in conjunction with Dark
Horse Comics.
30. Translating Online Success into Offline Retail Sales:
a Jones Soda Case Study
In Conclusion
Any Questions?
Contact Information:
Angel Djambazov
Owner, Custom Tailored Marketing
Email: customtailoredmarketing@gmail.com
Twitter: @djambazov