Brands Briefing: How brands aim to stand out this summer as it’s become ‘harder to create momentum’

But when you dig into results on the individual brand level, there are nuances. Some brands say that, while revenue among existing customers is up,  acquiring new customers has become harder and conversion rates are down. Some reported challenges with new customer acquisition through Meta specifically. And for other brands, it’s business as usual, with new product launches continuing to perform better than expected. 

Now, brands are preparing for a steady drumbeat of big sales moments throughout the summer: There’s Prime Day, happening this week, followed by the Fourth of July, the back-to-school season and Labor Day. There are also some unique events this summer, like the World Cup and America 250 celebrations, that some brands hope will drive extra buzz, excitement and sales among shoppers. 

For many brands, especially digitally native startups, the focus this summer is once again on continuing to diversify their marketing mix and distribution channels while also figuring out how to keep drumming up excitement among their customers who are willing to spend the most. 

Polly Wong, president of marketing agency Belardi Wong, said she’s expecting it to be a “healthy but mild summer.” Belardi Wong has over 300 clients, including brands like Evereve, Reformation and Birkenstock. 

She said that, so far this year, Belardi Wong has “not necessarily seen a correlation with consumer spending and consumer confidence.” That is, consumer spending has not fallen even as consumer sentiment is the lowest it’s ever been. 

Wong added that this year, Belardi Wong has generally seen that e-commerce revenue and traffic are up, but conversion rates are down. 

But May results indicate that the demand environment seems to be improving. In the month of May, among Belardi Wong clients, e-commerce revenue was up 7% year over year, up from a 2% increase in April. Conversion rates were down 5% from last year, but traffic was up 9%, while average order value was up 4%. 

Memorial Day, in particular, was a key proof point, with revenue during the holiday up 17% year over year.

It helped that Memorial Day took place earlier this year. But what Belardi Wong is also finding is that “promotional discounts are not any higher than they have been, but there are more days on promo,” Wong said. “So, let’s say a premium brand is 20% off [for Memorial Day], and maybe it was for three or four days last year. Maybe this year, it was 20% off for five or six days,” she said. 

Overall, Wong said she is seeing “fewer people buying, but those that are buying are spending more.” So the name of the game for many brands is to figure out how to get those high spenders to spend more. “The things they’re spending more on are products that are either more essential or where they can find value,” Wong said, like during a sale. 

Over at menswear brand Mack Weldon, founder and CEO Brian Berger said that spending among existing customers has held up well this year. But on the customer acquisition side, he said Mack Weldon has been more sensitive to fluctuations on Meta this year. 

“We’ve heard, kind of universally, that the first six months of this year, at least on Meta specifically, have been among the most challenging periods in recent memory,” Berger said. 

Quarterly earnings results from the tech-driven beauty company Oddity generated a lot of chatter among direct-to-consumer executives on social media this year. The company said during its fourth-quarter earnings call in February that “it experienced an unprecedented dislocation in our account with our largest advertising partner,” which many believed to be Meta. 

Oddity executives went on to say during the earnings call that they believed the dislocation was due to “recent changes in their algorithms that slightly diverted us to less desirable auctions and traffic at abnormally high costs.” 

Not everybody is experiencing the same disruptions on Meta. Wong said that what Belardi Wong is seeing on Meta mirrors what the brand is seeing elsewhere. That is, “mild single-digit sales growth, with increases in clicks and sessions offsetting a decline in conversion rate. Consumers are shopping, but fewer consumers are actually buying — a sign of the soft economy.”

Berger, for his part, says Mack Weldon is seeing pockets of momentum. The brand’s messaging around specific products like its Airknit X boxers and Ace Blazer has performed well on Meta. But it’s gotten harder to drive consistent performance on the platform. 

“I think it’s harder to create momentum,” he said.  “You have moments where your ability to drive efficient volume is challenging, despite all the things we do to facilitate that new ad creative [or] seasonal messaging — whatever the magic is, it’s harder to really get sustained momentum.”

This summer, he said Mack Weldon is continuing to diversify its marketing mix and distribution channels — something the company has long been focused on. Programmatic video, and TikTok in particular, are becoming a bigger focus for Mack Weldon.

Berger also said Mack Weldon is focused on refining “a muscle that we have been developing over the last two years around partnerships and around leaning into cultural moments to really amplify their impact on the brand.” The idea is that these types of partnerships can generate greater customer engagement and awareness and, ultimately, revenue. 

Mack Weldon’s team shot some social media content tied to the Knicks’ run in the NBA finals, for example, filming shots of its product outside of Madison Square Garden to wish the team “good luck.” Those posts performed about 200% above Mack Weldon’s benchmark for social reach and engagement, Berger said. Meanwhile, it also offered 10% off select orange and blue products during the Knicks’ playoff run.

“A certain pair of our boxer shorts, which are in two tones of blue, were in our top five best sellers for the first week of the finals,” Berger said. 

Traditional sales moments, like Memorial Day and Father’s Day, remain big areas of focus for Mack Weldon. But it’s initiatives like these that help keep customers engaged ahead of big sales. 

Put together, the strategy for many brands right now is figuring out the right cadence of sales, partnerships and new product launches that will keep customers consistently engaged. 

Michael Wieder, co-founder, president and CMO of baby and toddler brand Lalo, said the first half of the year has been great for his brand, as customers have responded well to the brand’s steady pipeline of new product ​​launches. 

Earlier this year, the brand launched a 3-in-1 product designed for different stages of product training. Ten days ago, it launched two new colorways of this product, and both sold out within 48 hours, Wieder said. 

“We just can’t keep it in stock,” he said. Wieder added that the company has another big product launch coming this summer, which he described as an “all-hands-on-deck moment.” 

Last year, the company launched in Target, a partnership that Wieder said continues to perform well. “We have this six-month end cap exclusively at Target, and there have been some weeks where there’s nothing on the end cap because customers are just wiping it clean.”

Overall, he said Lalo’s emphasis right now is on “great product, great innovation — and our distribution continues to expand.” In turn, he said, “We continue to see that customers are extremely, extremely resilient.”

What I’m reading

• Hollister is partnering with Target as part of its back-to-school strategy. 
• Business of Fashion has a deep dive on the business of Euro summer. 
• Why Oatly reworked its marketing playbook to focus more on events and become more of a cultural tastemaker in the beverage industry.

What we’ve covered

• How brands like Chobani, Xochitl and Goldbelly are showing up for America 250. 
• Faire is opening up its marketplace to hotels, offices and other non-retail customers. 
• World Cup tourists are going viral for social media posts about their impressions after visiting iconic retail chains like Walmart, Buc-ee’s and Bass Pro Shop for the first time.