You’ll hear all about Battlbox’s golden goose content strategy and how a single YouTube creator (who started as a super fan) has become one of the most important Battlboxers on the team, generating 500K YouTube Subscribers and almost 200 million video views…
Transcript from video:
all these Facebook ads are ready to go
it's like Friday five six o'clock we all
get a notification on our phone that an
ad has been declined and another one
another one another one we jump in and
look at it and our Facebook ad account
has been canceled done dad you are
booted you are not allowed to advertise
ever again you're gone at the time we
have battlbox forum which was a Reddit
style bulletin board so we Post in there
hey anybody have any ideas the craziest
thing one of our customers Works a
couple Cube rows over from the manual
team that did it he's like I'll just go
over there and ask him or Okay and like
within a couple hours we were back
hello and welcome to d2c podcast I'm
Eric dick today we're running into the
wild with battlbox's John Roman John
joined battlbox a monthly subscription
for hand-picked outdoor gear shortly
after they instruct product Market fit
gold and has helped propel them to high
eight-figure revenues with an absolutely
scorching subscription LTV that
approaches a thousand dollars per
customer you'll hear all about
battlbox's Golden Goose content
strategy and how a single YouTube
Creator who started as a super fan has
gone on to become one of the most
important battlboxers on the team
generating 500 000 YouTube subscribers
and almost 200 million video views to
date and oh yeah also ultimately led to
a lucrative Netflix production that
reads basically like a battlbox
commercial you'll learn what it's like
to hitch a ride on the Netflix rocket
and what their most important metric is
completion rate and how it will
determine your Netflix fate I hope you
enjoy it on with the show
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John welcome to the d2c podcast start by
telling me the story of battlbox and
how you came to be involved with it sure
Eric super excited to be here uh wow so
the battlbox story so it starts in
December 2014.
so I have a Christmas party every year
um you know as you get older you have
all these different circle of friends
that you've accumulated through the
years and the purpose of the Christmas
party is all of these friends through
the years everybody's invited and it's a
great time
uh one of from the the friend Circle
when when I was in college
um a lot of people a lot of that group
came
one of the guys came his name was Daniel
um my previous business partner and just
chatting with him on the back porch
him and another gentleman had a they
were entrepreneurs they had a uh
design screen print business that so
they had two locations both outside
universities
um so the school fraternity authorities
social groups intramural sports teams
would go to them for shirts logos caps
hoodies Etc
um December is like historically dead
during that time right everybody's left
left school
uh so we were just chatting and he's an
idea guy chatting through some ideas
um things he wanted to do he didn't want
to do what he was currently doing
forever and
it was a good conversation
um
ended it and I I was doing this a lot of
the time I still do this is when I have
a conversation like that I I typically
give a couple of pieces of homework I
don't call it homework it doesn't feel
like it's homework but I'm really
putting the ball in someone else's Court
to see how they react and how they
behave and it's you know it's like the
it's almost like a first date right you
want to really fill that person out gave
him some homework
um
didn't
ever hear back from him on that
um maybe that was a a sign of later
times but
moving forward um we had that
conversation was a great conversation
two months later I'm talking to
another individual his business partner
in the in the current business
um and catching up with him and hey
what's what's going on what's new and
he's like uh Daniel came up with this
idea uh called battlbox it's gonna be a
monthly subscription of outdoor gear
camping survivalists outdoorsmen
Adventure Etc and I said wow that sounds
really cool
um for a multitude of reasons so my
background and job of the time is uh
building B2B sales teams so I know
subscription
very well and I know how great it is for
forecasting and valuations and check so
many boxes so I'm
instantly intrigued and I had had that
conversation with Daniel two months
prior and him saying hey I would like to
do something with you
so I as soon as I get done with that
conversation I put the phone call Daniel
said hey I want to be a part of this
um we in the next week and a half two
weeks came to an agreement
um where I was buying uh some Equity a
piece of the company and in turn
um offering some you know limited
advisement role maybe five hours a month
nothing of of a you know large scale and
I was completely
um and it was in this one pager that we
signed when the deal was done where I
was very transparent that I wanted to
kind of road map what this was and what
our go-to Market strategy was going to
be so that we could try to replicate it
and stamp it out with other brands
um and in turn he would be receiving
equity in those
uh the same Equity that he was selling
me in in battlbox and that's how we
agreed to
um a lower valuation was it pre-sales at
that point or had there been some sales
there have been some sales
um it was uh it was you know when the
when the ink dried from that it was
maybe two and a half weeks past launch
and there was there was already a
considerable amount of sales there was
already I think 40 something thousand
dollars in sales which is for for a
startup that isn't funded that's just
making some Facebook ads that's that's
actually pretty good
um so yeah so we were Off to the Races
and we we saw some instant success that
first month we had about 200
um subscribers and uh which is a great
start uh but month two uh that March we
had a thousand new and then that April
we had 1200 new and it just kept kept
kept going
so my five hours of of you know some
time of month quickly turned into you
know 10 and then 15 then 20 then you
know then it was 10 a week and it just
kept kept building and we continued to
see growth uh so Daniel and Patrick
um who were two of the four of us they
had from the jump they were basically in
it full time
um they instantly identified hey this in
you know in a in a month is already
potentially producing more than we can
make in the other business so they still
had that business for a moment but the
focus was on battlbox
um we had another partner who um who who
was involved as well and uh so we kept
going
in 2016 early 2016 April in January I
had made a switch to a startup company
um I left a a larger company for this
startup and uh
it wasn't going as planned and uh it was
a few months in and I was looking at
what our projected run rate was going to
be for battlbox and it was going to be
eight figures and if we if we kept the
course and the growth that we were
seeing and no reason to believe we
wouldn't
um and then I was looking at the size of
the company I just joined and
it was gonna be about about the same
size by the end of the year and I have
some major equity in one and I have
um promise of equity if there's an exit
in the other but if I left it's zero so
I said Okay
um let's let's do this so spoke to them
and spoke to the wife and in April 2016
so 14 months after launched I jumped in
full time
um
and the growth that you were seeing then
that was back in the Heyday of meta ads
was this mostly driven through through
Facebook ads yeah
um naivety to you know we none of us had
played in this world prior we all had
some some experience that that played to
the success but we had none of us had
Direct experience in this and uh yeah we
said we didn't know any better we were
we were 99 of our traffic was
um Facebook ads and we were
Kirk we were acquiring customers for
less than five dollars each
um
and and these are customers with an
average order value over a hundred
um an LTV or what's your like the
retention period is of months yeah yeah
typically around seven months
um so
we didn't know that then but we still
knew I mean five dollars is good but if
if I knew what I knew now
I would have maxed out every credit card
I would have borrowed from anybody that
would give me a dollar and put it all in
acquiring customers back then we didn't
know how good we had it
um what were you seeing like what what
like so one of the things I love about
battlbox versus any other subscription
program I've seen is it's literally it's
like you you canceling your subscription
could be a matter of survival you know
because it's not just like you're not
getting just more smoothies or more of
one thing you're literally getting these
essential pieces that you need in your
kit if you're gonna be an outdoors
person right uh and so there's probably
a real completist a completionist aspect
to people who subscribe to this versus
maybe others
but so with the same that's very true
but at the same time you look at that
need want scale and
unfortunately we're not as
you know over on the Need side is you
know like some kind of food or or
replenishable
um yeah men can convince themselves of
that a lot of things in the outdoors
world are necessary though
and it boils down to the number one
reason of cancels is
um I'm having space space issues I have
I have I have enough gear and we've also
done some testing and that also is
what's checked when a significant other
says enough's enough
uh this is why you need a battlbox I
was saying in the pre-interview you got
to get the box that people can put all
their stuff in and then the wives will
complain less it's a win-win so we we
should after this we we need to talk
about that so I sent it to the team and
we've had some conversations with them
so it's interesting we did a giveaway
for them uh a few months oh with Rooks
oh cool um so I I've had the emails
forwarded to me to try to figure out
where it was left off might pick your
brain a little bit on it
fantastic oh nice so yeah so we
continued to go go go
um all Facebook Facebook Facebook
Facebook Facebook and
um the only thing we're doing besides
Facebook part of our go-to Market
strategy we were sending these boxes out
to YouTubers
um for for reviews for content and uh
keep going everything's great
loving it and uh we're going into Labor
Day weekend
um we have the most aggressive sale
we've ever had we're gonna do 20 off
your first box
um
I love that that's aggressive uh but at
the time that was we weren't we we still
to this day we don't like to Discount
um we we feel we don't need to because
of the quality products but
all these Facebook ads are ready to go
it's like Friday five six o'clock and we
all get a notification on our phone that
an ad is has been declined or not
approved but over as we're already
running and another one another one
other one and we we jump in and look at
it and our Facebook ad account has been
um canceled done dead you are booted you
are not allowed to advertise ever again
you're gone
um even back more so now but even back
then getting someone on the phone at
Facebook um
it's a little bit of a challenge to say
the least yeah live chat I only I've
always had success getting someone on
live chat but it doesn't it does nothing
get anywhere right so it's such a such a
challenge
um we can't get anybody we're calling
everybody we know emailing everybody we
know trying to find some kind of van at
the time we have
battlboxforum.com which was a Reddit
style bulletin board for for our
customer base it's been since we
migrated over it as a Facebook group now
um but at the time so we Post in there
hey anybody have any ideas and the
craziest thing one of our customers is a
Facebook employee and works
um a couple uh rooms or cube Rose over
from the manual
team that that did it
and uh we don't we don't have this
conversation find this out until like I
think Monday or Tuesday so we've already
lost out on on this big big sale we were
gonna have but he's like I'll just go
over there and ask him Mark Okay and
like within a couple hours we were back
up and running
oh you never hear stories like that you
never hear stories first of all I've
never heard of someone's customer base
being on the Facebook side of things but
them them actually having that ability
to go literally through the wall or
whatever of that appeal process to a
fellow co-worker and said hey this brand
you've called battlbox it says that you
you killed them like they're not doing
any of their following guidelines
um what was the reason what did they
think was wrong so
we not in advertisements not in
um not in the ads on the landing pages
but the top tier
um Pro Plus includes includes a knife
knives or weapons
um Facebook is an interesting thing
because we're not and we weren't selling
that we were selling the the non knife
products
um but it's Facebook's an interesting
world right Walmart and some large huge
Brands sell guns
but they're not selling them in the ads
it's in their catalog but that's not
what they're selling so it's allowed
um but it's allowed because they're also
spending you know probably seven figures
a month
so it's a weird
yeah where you're not promoting the
knife but it is in your catalog right so
it's it's the same thing but we're also
not spending a million dollars a month
um and you know all of a sudden certain
restrictions and doors and problems I'm
sure are alleviated when
you know you're giving them that much
money
I want to get into Facebook now versus
then but I'm just also curious just from
someone who had a subscription program
kind of work right out of the gate what
do you you know what do you attribute
that to mainly what factors to to having
it work right out of the gate do you
think you guys nailed sure so so with
certainty it was it was a product Market
fit
um so so when Daniel came up with the
idea it was because he saw his uh at the
time girlfriend opening up a birch box
and like he saw this excitement and
experience she was going through and he
went online to find one because he
wanted that experience and didn't see
one and then saw the opportunity so with
certainly product Market fit
um the other piece is is is content and
Community we hadn't fully figured out
the content piece at at the initial
launch but we had
figured out content indirectly via
YouTube and random people talking about
it and it wasn't our content but it was
still a lot of content we were sending
from month one 30 boxes out at least to
YouTubers that would do reviews the
community piece we had from the jump so
we launched with this battlbox forum
where we were jumping in every day we
were having conversations with our
customers we were truly building this
community of of like-minded people that
that enjoy the great outdoors and that
is
single-handedly it's the content in the
community we got better with both but we
had the community very similar to what
it is now off the Jump
how did your your community change from
into Facebook go because I I've heard
people go different ways from from a
private Forum into Facebook and vice
versa did you maintain the quality of
the conversation moving to Facebook from
your private Forum yeah so
that you're right you hear it on both
sides I spoke to a buddy literally last
week that was that had just moved off
from from Facebook to an to another
platform that's more like what we just
described
um I I enjoy it I like it it's it's
easier to moderate it's easier to make
sure you're not missing things
notifications
um there was a there is an app that was
like a third-party app that we could use
for a bulletin board called I think tap
something just it just wasn't the same
um the the features of of Facebook are
good
um since we have such a focus on
on video content now and and going live
Facebook offers that
um I I like it
I uh it it's
the the process of because you can only
be in the group if you're um an active
subscriber
so the the rules in place and the way
we're managing it now is a lot easier to
implement and execute with Facebook
um makes sense I'm a fan
nice how I'm curious too just on the
success of the subscription program how
much has gone into fine-tuning the order
of the products and the the products
that people get because I imagine you
you'll have a really people another
reason for people bailing from the
subscription program would be like oh I
already have the one that I'd get this
month or I don't really I'm not
interested in that one as much do you do
a lot of testing with the actual
products you're offering yeah so
so we do from from what we did in that
initial month or two to to now it's we
built such such a process
um so like currently what the process is
is so we have several funnels of product
potential product ideas
um one funnel is our website we have on
our website you you want to be in battlbox
and it's a vendor submission form it
it kicks them what where they need to
send samples to and then that enters the
funnel at that point once the samples
arrive
we have in the members only group uh
form that any members only
um any customer can fill out and give
suggestions and we'll have contests I
think we had a contest last month we
were giving like 500 worth of free gear
that we just wanted to give away to
whoever submitted uh the most quantity
but it had to be quality submissions and
product ideas so that's another funnel
we have an internal team
um so so all employees have a form where
if they come across a good idea
they can fill out the form and then when
then we reach out and ask for samples
and then we have a team that's job is
sourcing so we get all these all of
these funnels we get product samples
samples go to four different places
um at that point
we have
um a call so we have an internal team
um of of nine individuals varying ages
um demographics to make sure we're
touching the entire base of what a
typical battlbox customer is and we go
through an item
and we we talked to the benefits of it
and then we vote
um so nine people if more than one
person says no
it's out
interesting
um and and just because you I see in the
battlbox you've got to Define number
of products looks like 16 or 20 or so
but I imagine you just continue finding
new products all the time for people
that stay on yeah but it's tough so we
um so it's so it's not so it's never a
set amount of items with with certainty
there's there's a range of what we try
to do
um but we've we've done we're total
um in the biggest tier there were only
uh six items because they were high
priced items high quality items for each
it's it's not easy
um
and so you know this this month we're
sending out a um in the I believe it's
the pro tier so that the second from the
top we're sending out a Zippo ax
as as the item
um we actually sent that out uh
previously and it's one of the you know
we don't do that very often but we send
it out
five years ago
so the the argument is you know we still
we still have a couple hundred customers
that got it that they now have two but
it's been five years
it's about the shelf life if you're
using an ax you probably need a new one
yeah like if you're actually using it
and if you've been around that long
you're using the gear
um so at that point like that was one of
the ones we had to talk through and make
sure that that was that that made sense
to do but we came to the conclusion it's
something we can repeat every five years
right now you're probably looking at
conversions in Facebook or Google ads
thinking why doesn't the data line up
with my actual sales why doesn't more
spending bring more customers what ads
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I wanted to chat about growth Now versus
how it was in those heydays of 2015
2016. what does your what does your
growth look like and what does your your
growth strategy look like I imagine it's
a bit more diversificated than hitting
the scale button on on Facebook yeah so
our uh are what we got back on after we
got lucky and had a Facebook customer
that helped us
um
at that point we said okay having all
these eggs in one basket is not smart so
we instantly came up with a
diversification idea oh you can
advertise on Google too
probably should have known that
um so we started testing other other
platforms seeing what works
traditionally we don't want any single
lead source to be above uh a sixth of
our business 16 you know 16.6 repeating
percent and it's not to say like right
now
Facebook we have some campaigns going
that are performing really really well
so it's a little bit lopsided we just
don't want it to be in for any serious
long period of time we when when that
starts to occur we have to find lead
sources or figure out the ones we have
and make them perform better
so that's that's a big thing uh A lot's
changed too in in the sense that we're
every year for the last couple of years
we've we've doubled down on content as
being a big piece of the business but
back to the growth trajectory so we were
going really really well we started to
stall out in in 2018 and 2019. we just
were struggling to grow
um we couldn't get as many customers as
we were just naturally treating each
month so we were really just kind of um
you know not drowning but not Treading
Water yeah just Treading Water
um and uh then 2020 game which
um
spoiler alert uh survival gear delivered
directly here to your door in a pandemic
is is a recipe for success and so was
all the e-commerce in general right so
so we saw this you know giant uplift
um start in the beginning of of 2020 and
in March and it continued and um
at the same point we were so focused on
content we had our big our big first
home run with content and I was a
Netflix TV show so it was a Netflix
original series called Southern survival
it's Global
um any any country can search for
battlbox or Southern survival and it
comes up and that aired in July July 4th
weekend 2020. and that that was we
thought we were seeing growth with the
pandemic this was just
um unfathomable growth grow growth you
know as an example leading up to it we
had elevated traffic on our site because
of the pandemic we're getting about 125
to 150 000 unique visitors in a month in
July when when that show premiered we
had 1.2 million unique visitors which
was
truth be told they did not perform and
behave like a regular customer that we
were targeting precisely with ads they
you know bought a lot of one-time
products they didn't converted the same
percentage about half uh of the usual
conversion rate but you do some quick
math it still was a major uplift and
just for them to have to go to a
different device and type in type
something in right it's not a direct
action like on any other ads you think
of that many people took the action so
how many people just became more aware
of your brand and you know like it's
crazy
um yeah so so that was a super Game
Changer and and
um it's funny what's become a boat how
did it how did that like how did that
manifest so so we had
um
so when we started off so so Brandon
Curran um if you if anybody listen to
this has seen a battlbox video he is
the bearded guy that is the face of
battlbox he's in 90 you know five
percent of our content so the story of
Brandon's pretty cool so Brandon was a
paying customer he was paying 100 at the
time 149.99 a month for the top tier
and we had uh you know we're talking
about 2015 so and we didn't know not
knowing any better we had a pre-purchase
survey
um you know don't buy yet don't make the
purchase first tell us how you how how
you came to find us um great for
conversion rate I'm sure so we had this
there and it was The Usual Suspects
um Facebook Instagram Google Etc but we
did have the little other bad new kid
and type something in and um we started
to get like
15 20 percent
of all of our peop of our surveyors were
saying other and typing in current 1776
so we like we go to our spreadsheet of
people were sending comp boxes to and
he's not on there we do a quick YouTube
search and we come across this guy and
we're like where's he getting this box
from do a little bit of Recon find out
his name is Brandon Curran we look him
up in our
customer database and he's a paying
customer so we're like okay well we need
to keep watching this and the next month
it's the same thing but it's like a
higher percentage it's like 25 percent
are saying this so we're like Okay
um
we're gonna reach out to him hey Brandon
dude we love what you're doing
um we're gonna comp your box from here
on out box is free don't worry about it
but in turn please keep doing these
reviews
um and of course he's he's uh he has
passion he loves this product that's why
he was buying it 150 is a lot of money
and um
continues to do it few months go by and
like it's continuing we're continuing to
grow and he's continuing to pull his
Lion's Share
and uh we reach out to him and we're
like hey man
um we want to give you 500 a month but
like you have to keep doing these videos
every month like we can't miss but we'll
give you 500 and a free box
he's like yeah so so brand of the time
is a uh career professional HVAC guy
he's been doing it for 20 something
years that's his career and
um he had been on um some some hunting
shows
um before but his his passion his hobby
was doing these reviews and doing other
content in his YouTube channel he was
trying to grow it was it was a side
hustle and um
after the 500 conversation that went on
for a few months the next conversation
was this is kind of crazy but do you
want to you know
um talk to your wife and your three kids
and
um move from North Carolina Down to
Georgia and go full-time BattlBox
um and we went back and forth and
he got to do what he loves every day
which is which is pretty cool and how he
started just as a paying customer is is
phenomenal too so he came full time as
soon as he came full-time content
content content
um and that that was that was the reason
so they reached out to us and said
um you know we're watching your videos
and this is shortly after we were just
he was full-time and we were just
pushing out as much content as possible
and they said we have some money uh from
History Channel to shoot a Sizzle reel
which is the thing that comes before a
pilot where you try to get the money
then for the pilot to then get money for
a season and we wanted this is the idea
this is the concept they came down for
four or five days
shot it
um History Channel then sat on it for
about six months came back and told us
no just not a fit we don't want to do it
um so we're super super sad and like
you know demoralized that okay maybe
this isn't gonna happen and uh High Noon
entertainment through the studio that um
that produced it for us they uh right we
have a we have a meeting with Discovery
next week ooh sounds like this could be
a show on Discovery Discovery sits on it
for like six or seven months and uh
finally come back and they say no
okay I guess this is just not happening
and um in in early 2019 in January 2019
um we had just in the previous month
heard the know about discovery
they're like we have a meeting we have
two meetings set for January one is with
Walmart's streaming service which
I don't even know what it's called and I
don't think anybody does I don't
remember but it doesn't sound like it
was a hit
um and Netflix and uh we're excited
about both they have the meeting with
Netflix and they basically come back and
they're like Netflix Netflix wants to do
it
um up until then they were
shopping this Sizzle reel to get a money
to shoot a pilot Netflix doesn't play
that game
Netflix is like yeah we'll do a season
and we want the right of first refusal
on the next seven
um
so that
that's how they made us first of all I
didn't know Walmart had a streaming
service
Voodoo okay
interesting I don't know if it still
exists at just the way Netflix came into
the industry like a bull in a china shop
right and that's a good example of how
they do it they sort of skip on the
formalities a little bit
um what was it like like what what are
you like working with Walmart like get
what is it like working with a behemoth
like Walmart like did you were you able
to get good data on how many streams you
were getting so on with Netflix with
Netflix story yeah yeah so um Netflix
working with them is not enjoyable so
they viewed us as Talent
um and they didn't care that we were a
business they didn't care that we needed
to forecast when how many how much
product do we need like what is this
going to be shown to like not fun to
work with in fact
um so I wasn't on the TV show
four of us were
um they would then they would send an
email Netflix would to those four and uh
and Daniel was one of them and say hey
we're gonna have a call Friday at 12
o'clock Daniel would reply back and like
loot me in Loop
um Richard our our CFO and Patrick or
CEO and be like hey I'm I'm bringing in
I'm copying in leadership so that they
can attend too and Netflix would reply
back and remove us and say no it's not
how this works like Daniel would have to
like have us like secretly like on like
speakerphone listening to the phone
calls because they wouldn't talk to us
um and they and they viewed us just as
Talent it's just they don't they don't
care that we're a business and how does
it work with the obviously when it
launches you get the Lion's Share but I
imagine you're still getting trailing
attention and trailing traffic from it
yeah so it's it's still there right it's
a Netflix original so it's theirs
um so it's not going anywhere
um knock on wood but it's still uh it's
funny the the rule of no um lead Source
being greater than 16
um or a sixth it is still every month
about I'd say on a good month 16 on a
bad month 12 between 12 and 16 of our
new customers still
um come come from that
did they take the second the second
Group of Seven episodes
Seven Seasons um Seven Seasons oh seven
seasons oh geez yeah like they wanted to
if it was gonna be a success they were
gonna have it for its entire lifespan
um no so they they never officially told
us no
um so Netflix cares about this metric
called completion rate which
um they view as it's defined as
um a user and this is a metric for their
original their content
um
completion is watching 90 or greater of
of a of a first season or a season of a
Netflix series
um
we have eight episodes so that would
mean you would have to
you know obviously go somewhat into the
eighth episode which you're not gonna
you're not gonna watch the first step
and start the eighth and not finish it
right so it's basically watching the
entire thing
so what they view is Success
um is
greater than 25
percent completion so if 10 million
people watch
our show 2.5 million need to watch the
entire thing if you're above 25 percent
green light second season rinse repeat
keep doing it right if you're below 20
it's
um it's not a fit they they missed the
mark somehow right if they shouldn't
have produced the content
um if you're between 20 and 25
it you're kind of like in a a Netflix
Purgatory if you will
um they haven't told us no they haven't
told us yes this like keeping us around
maybe you know over there
um not even acknowledging us but if they
need some outdoor content you know
they're going to look at the people that
are in that Purgatory that check that
box and it's a lot easier to grab from
there than Source new
um so we're in that weird stat status
for it I don't think we'll have I think
there's a strong possibility we'll have
another series
um I don't think it'll be with Netflix
interesting
um okay so if I were to give you fifty
thousand dollars to be used in your
marketing for the growth of battlbox
and you have to use it in q1 of 2023 how
would you uh how would you deploy those
funds
building the community
so very non-non-traditional right I
would do some sort of
um Community activity probably giving
some of it away in prizes
um maybe taking people to a location a
select amount of customers
um but all of this would be great for
the community it would also make great
content
yeah an outdoor Festival like a big Camp
you just go rent out like a huge like
Yosemite or something yeah with some
cool activities and some cool ways to
you know connect and bond and and and
build build
camaraderie with each other
and half of it on the event half of it
on the content about the event that you
can put through it all your channels
yeah
what channel are you most excited about
in 2023
um
so it's interesting so
in 2022 we started off really Bull on
tick tock and we still are
um Tick Tock is you know it's which I
think our largest Channel at this point
with like subscriber follower I think we
have 800 and something thousand on there
um
well we what we realized in
um probably the middle part not even the
middle part early of last year when uh
meta and and alphabet Google and
Facebook and Instagram all realize that
hey tick tock's kind of eating our lunch
a little bit so they all put
um you know they all made changes to
their algorithm where this short uh
vertical content is treated way better
than it necessarily maybe would have
been regularly
um and we saw that we saw it and we
still see it most with YouTube YouTube
Shorts YouTube treats that shorts
content
um it just it's a it's a shot of
steroids uh in the algorithm and it gets
way more eyeballs than traditional long
form does right I could post a horrible
short form video and it could easily get
a few hundred or even a thousand views
while I could do an actual decent long
form and if I don't have a reach already
and a subscriber base it might not get
any views
um so so so YouTube shorts honestly
um I think they're building on it I
think they're they're getting better
um I still think tick tock's algorithm
from a consumer experience is still
there's no competition
it is the best algorithm that there is
right now I agree like it's it's I used
to say this before and it's still true
that like any other live video algorithm
skirts along the surface but tick tock
goes to like all the things I'm
interested in for better for worse and
so there's a lot weirder stuff yeah and
so fast exactly like it knows so quickly
of what to like we could both open up
our tick tocks and compare them and they
would be night and day different
and not that we're different but just it
knows exactly what I want to see and
exactly what you want to see yeah
whereas reels and shorts it's still yeah
it's a lot more of General still I think
there'd be a lot more overlap in our
feeds there right yeah we would have
overlap for sure
super super interesting are you noticing
a a relation between this is something
we've invested a lot in shorts and we're
getting thousands of views on them
versus hundreds on the YouTube podcast
um and but but we haven't really been
able to correlate shorts into longer
form video views yet uh it's shorts are
going up but it doesn't necessarily mean
that longer form video views are going
up it's kind of its own thing it's it's
it's its own thing
um there's not there's not much of a
correlation we'll we'll try
um so we will do some testing where
we'll put in the shorts you know a small
little
um graphic uh uh make sure to subscribe
um with a you know a little animated
piece and and we'll do that which which
does convert US more subscribers because
a lot of people just like it's it's
crazy like 97 of our
people watching and even higher
sometimes aren't subscribers so
we're trying to get it in the sense that
we're trying to get them to subscribe so
that they'll get the notifications of
our longer form content
yeah makes sense nice John thanks for
coming on the d2c podcast today I think
we should we better stay in touch I want
to see how uh how you guys continue to
growth battlbox where might be
overlapping in Las Vegas in uh in March
so be fun too fun to see you and I'm
gonna earn an invite to that Christmas
party one of these years dude you're
already invited come on
foreign
thanks so much for listening to today's
episode if you're not a subscriber to
our newsletter you can do that right now
at direct to Consumer all one word dot
Co I'm Eric Dick and this has been the
d2c podcast we'll see you next time