- Startup Spells 🪄
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- 🪄 Thomas Ashbourne's Celebrity-Fueled Growth
🪄 Thomas Ashbourne's Celebrity-Fueled Growth
PLUS: Finding Hidden TikTok Shop Influencers
Startup Spells 🪄
September 08, 2024
Hey,
The Spells Master is back!
Welcome to the 155th issue.
Today's topics:
Thomas Ashbourne's Celebrity-Fueled Growth
A tool to Analyze Funnels, Explore Sessions, and Segment Visitors
One recommended video on Finding Hidden TikTok Shop Influencers feat. Obvi
Thomas Ashbourne's Celebrity-Fueled Growth
Thomas Ashbourne, a premium craft cocktail company, was launched in spring 2022 under the leadership of CEO Cara Kamenev, who brings 20 years of experience in the beverage industry.
Cara saw an opportunity in the alcohol industry to build a brand that harnesses celebrity partnerships and creates a product consumers love and trust, similar to what the beauty industry has mastered.
1. The Birth of the Brand
Thomas Ashbourne focuses on ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, including non-alcoholic options.
Their offerings boast all-natural, handcrafted, and gluten-free ingredients, featuring flavors like coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
The RTD spirits market is expanding rapidly, with expectations to reach $40 billion by 2027.
2. Celebrity Partnerships
The differentiators of Thomas Ashbourne are celebrity partnerships with genuine involvement where the focus is on brand building, not just celebrity endorsement.
The celebrity partners are all owners of the business and have equity in the brand. Notable celebrity partners include:
Sarah Jessica Parker: Developed The Cosmo Cocktail
Playboi Carti: Created The Hardscatto
Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Benson: Collaborated on The Margarita
Neil Patrick Harris: Created The Espresso Martini
Thomas Ashbourne's Notable Celebrity Partners
Celebrities that play positive characters can transfer their likeness by merely associating with a brand. This is the reason Apple never lets villains use iPhone in the movies.
"If they love the celebrity and think that celebrity has good taste. They will automatically make that association or assumption that the brand is a good one. A lot of consumers look to celebrities as goals for themselves."
The partnership approach involves selecting business-minded celebrities passionate about the product. It goes through an extensive taste testing and development process where the emphasis is on authenticity and quality in product creation.
Celebrities can bring people in to try their brand but if the product quality isn't there, then they're not going to come back for a second round. And taste is crucial for repeat purchases.
Their current offerings are:
The Old Fashioned: Created by Thomas Ashbourne
The Margalicious Margarita: Created by Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Benson
The Perfect Cosmo: Created by Sarah Jessica Parker
The Hardscatto: Created by Playboi Carti
The After Hours Espresso Martini: Created by Neil Patrick Harris
Thomas Ashbourne Non Alcoholic Cocktails
The visual appeal of the brand is similar to high-end fashion editorials like Vogue or Love Shack Fancy.
They are going for more celeb partnerships in 2025 and 2026.
They previously had John Cena but you can't see him now (pun intended.)
Thomas Ashbourne John Cena
3. Product Strategy
Thomas Ashbourne's cocktails are crafted by Michelin-starred mixologists, ensuring high quality.
Cocktails are chosen based on the data of the top-selling and fastest-growing drinks in the market. The focus is on classic, bar-quality cocktails like margaritas, cosmopolitans, and old-fashioned classics to establish the brand.
Each celebrity is matched with a cocktail that suits their personality, such as Sarah Jessica Parker with the "Perfect Cosmo."
The unique flavors are designed to be difficult to replicate at home. The Espresso Martini has at least 5 different ingredients in it.
4. The Strategy Behind Celebrity Partnerships
Celebrities must align with the Thomas Ashborne brand ethos and have a genuine connection to their cocktail.
The brand does thorough research on potential celebrity partners as the wrong celebrity partner can take down your entire brand. Adidas reported a $540 million loss from unsold Yeezy products after ending its partnership and parting ways with Kanye West due to his antisemitic remarks.
Cara also makes sure to find a celebrity partner who's trending but at the same time has a staying power.
5. Pricing Strategy
The brand aims to be accessible, offering a premium experience at an affordable price: $12.99 for a 350mL bottle or $19.99 for a four-pack of 200mL cans.
Their promotional strategies include:
In-store deal: Buy One Get One (BOGO) at ABC Fine Wine and Spirits.
Digital promotion: Try a cocktail for $2 through their Instagram Profile by providing a phone number.
Buy Thomas Ashbourne Cocktail For $2
There is a shift in consumer behavior where there is an increased focus on experiences and socialization and Thomas Ashbourne nails it.
Thomas Ashbourne has rapidly expanded, reaching over 30 states within the first year and surpassing $1 million in sales.
The brand's competitive advantage lies in its dual focus on brand building and celebrity influence, driving fast growth.
With the right celebrity partnership, Thomas Ashbourne has a sure chance to become a billion-dollar brand.
A tool to Analyze Funnels, Explore Sessions, and Segment Visitors
Pirsch helps you with funnels, A/B testing, and tag-based segmentation, drilling down into single sessions, or track your performance with flexible conversion goals.
One recommended video on Finding Hidden TikTok Shop Influencers feat. Obvi
This video shows you how to find hidden TikTok Shop Influencers.
Don't reach out to the same influencers in the same place as all the other brands. Reach out to the unique set of influencers that have the audience you want to reach out to.
Top Tweets of the day
1/
sometimes you gotta mask your questions as authoritive statements
if i make a guide about something specific that makes 0 sense...
i will have 20 experts flaming me in the replies & pointing out what's wrong
they get an ego boost, i get the sauce
— EP (@apollonator3000)
4:24 PM • Sep 5, 2024
Cunningham's Law states that "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."
2/
The older I get, the more time I spend—as a percentage of each day—on crafting better questions. In my experience, going from 1x to 10x, from 10x to 100x, and from 100x to (when Lady Luck really smiles) 1000x returns in various areas has been a product of better questions. John… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Tim Ferriss (@tferriss)
3:16 PM • Oct 16, 2023
The secret to get great answers is to ask great questions.
The best podcasts to listen to are the ones with hosts who know how to ask great questions.
3/
Even the best athletes lose their magic without pressure and practice.
Same is true for best talent at work.
Excellence is a rent paid everyday. Not an asset that you own forever.
— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11)
8:39 AM • Aug 25, 2024
The default human state is being lazy. Its evolutionary to save energy.
So if you are a manager, you need to go hard on your employees so they deliver.
There are far few people who are self-motivated.
Rabbit Holes
Lenny Rachitsky: The Man Who Built His Email List to Over 377k - Lenny's best move was going all in on Substack. The easiest way to blow up is to produce good content on a new platform. If the platform succeeds, you will too.
ShipFast's awesome landing page explained - Shipfast is a great landing page to copy. Its built with a lot of best practices in mind.
17 Questions That Changed My Life - "Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask." ~ Tim Ferriss. A problem is half-solved when it can be put into words.
Until next time,
Your Spells Master!
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