ABOUT DEMERBOX
DemerBox was founded in 2014 fortuitously when James Demer fashioned an exceptionally rugged speaker while in remote locations of the world in his role as an audio field engineer for productions like “Survivor” and various productions for National Geographic. He quickly realized that the product was exceptionally unique in the marketplace and it quickly found an audience online. With a glowing endorsement and eventual partnership from award-winning musician Zac Brown, Demer built a high-tech workshop in Peachtree City, Georgia and is proudly a part of the Zac Brown Collective. An idea born out of necessity, DemerBox has quickly established itself as a market leader in the consumer electronics and audio industry. Each product is built into a crushproof military-grade Pelican™ Case, handmade in the U.S. and serviceable for the life of the product.
MISSION
While DemerBox had found an audience of loyal evangelists, it remained a largely niche product despite the use cases of the product were far-reaching to the mass market. The brand’s retail strategy centered on Amazon and it was critical to generate traffic to the both the Amazon landing page and brand website and increase the sales velocity in a highly competitive category.
Such was the challenge to the GreenRoom team that needed to begin a phased approach of generating traction on the PR side first and then social engagement and retargeting ads to follow. DemerBox had received moderate media coverage but the brand felt like it should have more visibility amongst men’s interest, women’s interest, outdoor and adventure enthusiast media. At the same time, the brand also desired additional traction within Google search and display advertising, email marketing and a mixture of paid and organic social media execution. To achieve this, the GreenRoom digital team developed an integrated marketing strategy that focused heavily on SEO, full-funnel digital advertising, follower incentive programs and aggressive inward and outward engagement tactics across the brand’s owned social media platforms.
Another critical component that needed to be made clear was even though Zac Brown had a strong interest in the product and brought the brand under the umbrella of the collective that bore his name, his busy touring schedule precluded him from being a strong component in the PR & Digital programs. The agency understood and felt that his involvement may actually work to the detriment of the brand, and it was important to establish its own unique voice and stand on its own merits rather than rely on the name association from a GRAMMY© award-winning musician.
APPROACH
Understanding Amazon sell-through was of the greatest priority, GreenRoom modeled a program that would not only saturate a variety of vertical markets for maximum exposure, but also aggressively pursued media that typically feature Amazon affiliate links in its coverage. When pitching journalists, rather than touting the features and specs, GreenRoom employed messaging that bucked conventional pitching: try to break it.., will it sink? Can your Bluetooth speaker survive in the Arctic Circle? Through this approach, the agency cut the through the noise by demonstrating confidence in the build and core value of the product, even suggesting that media members put the product though various extremes to demonstrate its claims.
Given the importance of Amazon, GreenRoom also planned to have a very strong media blitz to support Amazon Prime Day which was slated to be a strong sales driver for the brand. Taking a multi-faceted approach complete with a complimenting digital strategy with the newest product while offering competitive pricing on a legacy model, the agency had a very strong message to a myriad of vertical markets by cutting through the clutter that often fills the shopping holiday.
At the same time, it was critical to have a diverse library of assets that demonstrated the myriad of uses and environments the DemerBox could withstand. GreenRoom not only produced its own creative to support the campaigns and launches, the agency also sourced user-generated content from the brand’s fans online to pepper into the content calendar and engage with fans. This tactic proved to not only keep the production costs low but give the fans a platform to share the amazing places around the world they’ve used their DemerBox.
To further develop the brand’s core voice, the GreenRoom team saw an exceptional opportunity to mobilize their online evangelists by harnessing the user-generated #WheresYourDemerBox campaign and creating an incentive program to drive follower growth and brand awareness.
EXECUTION
Capitalizing on the pending spring season and people heading outside, the agency secured a multitude of product reviews, gift guides, and product roundup opportunities through various top buying seasons like Father’s Day, back-to-school and the holiday season. By remaining in close contact with the brand’s e-commerce team, we were able to make quick pivots on outlets that were driving the most traffic and measure the duration of sales spikes. The unique intelligence enabled the PR team to have greater insights into the markets that resonated most. For the digital team, the media hits served as credible ad content for targeted audiences and only served to augment the content they were producing.
As the product line grew to include campaign specific, limited-edition themed boxes, the GreenRoom team was uniquely poised to take advantage of the diverse South Florida landscapes and create compelling content. While the DemerBox team had a studio space that was used for the Zac Brown Band photoshoots and videos, any on-location shooting proved to be much more logistically challenging and easily solvable by the GreenRoom creative team. In a prime example, the agency coordinated a video shoot in Key Biscayne that featured the “Deep Sea Box,” floating in the bay, juxtaposed with a lighthouse and filled with shells and netting next to a staged shipwreck.
In just two days, the GreenRoom team was able to develop a creative concept, storyboard the idea, scout a prime shoot location, source production needs and produce and edit the video.
To increase sales of the limited-edition box, the visually stunning Deep Sea Box video was turned into a digital advertisement used on Facebook and Instagram platforms which favor high quality video content. With a conservative budget of $6,000 to amplify the content, the video generated 141,000 views, drove more than 14,000 users to the product’s landing page and boasted a conversion rate of 27% which is nearly triple the industry average! These metrics speak volume to our team’s ability to optimize digital ads and produce impressive results with any type of client budget.
To foster follower engagement and product awareness, the Deep Sea Box video was also leveraged as promotional content in part of the team’s ongoing incentive program. The team managed a giveaway on Instagram that increased engagement by 1,003% and increased impressions by 758% in less than 24 hours.
In a very different creative treatment, the GreenRoom creative team scouted and marked locations in Miami’s famous Wynwood Arts District for a full-day video shoot which featured a collaboration box with Atlanta’s own Hasie and the Robots brand. Both brands have a very strong identity and it was critical that the visual treatment stay true to both brands while also celebrating the limited-edition box. GreenRoom not only delivered a concept and imagery that demonstrated a mastery of this competency, the images were planned for use later when more resources would be put behind the video rather than just using the videos for organic posts.
GreenRoom worked very closely with the DemerBox team to take full advantage of seasonal holidays as well in another example of a brand victory with the launch of the “Frankenstein Box” Giveaway. The GreenRoom team developed a Halloween-themed, creative concept and worked closely with the DemerBox team to guide production remotely via their in-house studio – an example of the GreenRoom team’s unique ability to adapt and project manage under various circumstances.
With limited paid media spend to amplify the post, the digital team launched a giveaway on Instagram that resulted in the brands’ most successful social media post to-date. In less than 24 hours, the GreenRoom digital team increased followership by 140% and engagements by a whopping 1,392%!
After a full quarter of this strategy, the team learned the approach was also having a tangible effect on the brand’s efforts within Amazon’s advertising. The amount of third party traffic linking to the page was so substantial that the DemerBox’s branded search efforts were significantly impacted and the increased organic traffic made their ads exceptionally cost efficient as the combined efforts of earned marquee media, a strong digital program and dedicated spend on ads and on Amazon worked in tandem.
EXECUTION
Capitalizing on the pending spring season and people heading outside, the agency secured a multitude of product reviews, gift guides, and product roundup opportunities through various top buying seasons like Father’s Day, back-to-school and the holiday season. By remaining in close contact with the brand’s e-commerce team, we were able to make quick pivots on outlets that were driving the most traffic and measure the duration of sales spikes. The unique intelligence enabled the PR team to have greater insights into the markets that resonated most. For the digital team, the media hits served as credible ad content for targeted audiences and only served to augment the content they were producing.
As the product line grew to include campaign specific, limited-edition themed boxes, the GreenRoom team was uniquely poised to take advantage of the diverse South Florida landscapes and create compelling content. While the DemerBox team had a studio space that was used for the Zac Brown Band photoshoots and videos, any on-location shooting proved to be much more logistically challenging and easily solvable by the GreenRoom creative team. In a prime example, the agency coordinated a video shoot in Key Biscayne that featured the “Deep Sea Box,” floating in the bay, juxtaposed with a lighthouse and filled with shells and netting next to a staged shipwreck.
In just two days, the GreenRoom team was able to develop a creative concept, storyboard the idea, scout a prime shoot location, source production needs and produce and edit the video.
To increase sales of the limited-edition box, the visually stunning Deep Sea Box video was turned into a digital advertisement used on Facebook and Instagram platforms which favor high quality video content. With a conservative budget of $6,000 to amplify the content, the video generated 141,000 views, drove more than 14,000 users to the product’s landing page and boasted a conversion rate of 27% which is nearly triple the industry average! These metrics speak volume to our team’s ability to optimize digital ads and produce impressive results with any type of client budget.
To foster follower engagement and product awareness, the Deep Sea Box video was also leveraged as promotional content in part of the team’s ongoing incentive program. The team managed a giveaway on Instagram that increased engagement by 1,003% and increased impressions by 758% in less than 24 hours.
In a very different creative treatment, the GreenRoom creative team scouted and marked locations in Miami’s famous Wynwood Arts District for a full-day video shoot which featured a collaboration box with Atlanta’s own Hasie and the Robots brand. Both brands have a very strong identity and it was critical that the visual treatment stay true to both brands while also celebrating the limited-edition box. GreenRoom not only delivered a concept and imagery that demonstrated a mastery of this competency, the images were planned for use later when more resources would be put behind the video rather than just using the videos for organic posts.
GreenRoom worked very closely with the DemerBox team to take full advantage of seasonal holidays as well in another example of a brand victory with the launch of the “Frankenstein Box” Giveaway. The GreenRoom team developed a Halloween-themed, creative concept and worked closely with the DemerBox team to guide production remotely via their in-house studio – an example of the GreenRoom team’s unique ability to adapt and project manage under various circumstances.
With limited paid media spend to amplify the post, the Digital team launched a giveaway on Instagram that resulted in the brands’ most successful social media post to-date. In less than 24 hours, the GreenRoom digital team increased followership by 140% and engagements by a whopping 1,392%!
After a full quarter of this strategy, the team learned the approach was also having a tangible effect on the brand’s efforts within Amazon’s advertising. The amount of third party traffic linking to the page was so substantial that the DemerBox’s branded search efforts were significantly impacted and the increased organic traffic made their ads exceptionally cost efficient as the combined efforts of earned marquee media, a strong digital program and dedicated spend on ads and on Amazon worked in tandem.
RESULTS
With an exceptionally successful spring season of product coverage, the brand was uniquely poised for the ensuing holiday gifting season. With major coverage in a diverse range of media that included Rolling Stone, Popular Science, Heavy, Engadget, PCMag, Outside Magazine, Daily Beast and Esquire, GreenRoom demonstrated it was not only up to the task of generating exposure in a multitude of vertical markets, the agency proved that a coordinated effort between earned media and paid digital resulted in a measurable and sustained sales lift. For example, a notable distinction as one of Engadget’s “Best of” products not only drove a significant amount of traffic to our Amazon landing page which resulted in a measurable sales spike, but Amazon pulled in the editorial coverage on the product page as further validation leading to additional sales for those that landed on the page simply by searching “best Bluetooth speaker” within Amazon’s platform. As such, the paid budget was able to go so much further as the brand gained more mainstream recognition leading to an increase in organic search.
Notable PR success metrics include:
- 80,285,825 total impressions in the first month of partnership.
- 2,331,093,814 total impressions in a nine-month timespan
- 7,946,522 total print circulation in a nine-month time span
- 655,696,160 total impressions from Amazon Prime Day
- In just under one-year DemerBox garnered more than $600,000 in comparative ad value
Paid & Organic social media success metrics
- Drove more than 800,000 users to the DemerBox.com website in a five-month timespan
- 67,641,602 total impressions in a five-month timespan
- 23,830 website conversions in a five-month timespan with an average CPCon (cost per conversion) of $6.29
- $237,339 total revenue from social media & Google Ads in a five-month timespan (+58% ROI)
- Maintained an ultra cost-efficient average CPC of $0.13
- 80,000 total engagements in a five-month timespan
Interested in learning more about how GreenRoom can help your company meet and exceed your business goals? Contact us so we can talk shop. Contact info: Email: [email protected]; phone: (305) 347-1787.
