Parallelogram: Edition 4

Hi there 👋🏽!

We talk a lot about brand-building at Parallel, so it was on my mind when, on a recent trip to Ireland, I spent a free afternoon taking a tour of Avoca, the country’s oldest working woolen mill. Avoca products are sold across the world, but every single piece is still created in this little town mill by third-generation weavers—and though the looms have been upgraded to more efficient machinery to meet Avoca’s profit targets, they’re still operated and monitored by hand.

Each and every person on the tour (including me) ended up making a purchase, and as we lined up to pay, I thought about why I felt utterly compelled to buy this (quite pricey) blanket. I knew I could go online and find a blanket of similar quality, more specific to my style, and undoubtedly cheaper (🥴), but it wasn’t just a blanket—it was a piece of history, crafted by human hands with practices passed on from three generations. I was buying a story, and a set of values that I’d be proud to show off in my house. Would I be as proud to flaunt a trendy-but-basic throw blanket I was served through an Instagram ad? I’m guessing no. Side note: if you thought after all this I wouldn’t show off my “Donegal” blanket to you too, you’d be wrong (not sponsored, it’s just so good!!).

This month’s newsletter dives into the role of performance marketing vs. brand-building. As you read, think about other brands you know that strike that same balance—achieving sales goals while staying true to the stories, values, and connections that make them stand out.

In the oft murky worlds of entertainment and venture, we pride ourselves on giving straightforward takes on thorny issues. Here’s our POV:

A race isn’t always a sprint: balancing performance marketing and brand-building

Data and analytics advancements have removed a lot of guesswork from what gets customers to make the coveted “add to cart” decision. It’s great for marketing teams, who can show solid conversion and ROI. And by this logic, they might as well pour their entire budget into performance marketing and spend the rest of the day scrolling through cucumber videos on TikTok… right? Not quite.

Consider this scenario: I’m a runner looking for shoes to give me better arch support. On Running’s SEO and retargeting strategy goes to work: they come up first in my Google search, then I’m served an Instagram ad (because naturally Meta’s tracking my every move), and suddenly, those sneakers are in my cart. Performance marketing for the win.

Now let’s consider the scenario where I’m not actively in the market for new running shoes. I’m browsing a fashion magazine and I see an article about FKA twigs’ making her creative directorial debut for On Running at London Fashion Week. I’ve never bought anything from On, but I like twigs, so I click-out to view their site—sure enough, it’s pretty cool. Six months later, my running shoes have worn out, and suddenly, someone who comes from what my mother proudly proclaims as a “Nike household” is about to press purchase on her first pair of On shoes.

To stick with the running theme: performance marketing is a race to the bottom of the funnel, but the most culture-defining brands are preparing for a marathon, not a sprint. By pairing performance marketing with more thoughtful, innovative, and creative approaches to top of funnel brand awareness efforts, these companies drive sales, while also building beloved culture-defining brands.

We’re serving up data, hot n’ fresh ♨️.

Harvard Business Review carried out a three year study modeling the positive ROI of brand-building and the investment required to hit target growth levels. Check out their takeaways below:

A quick perspective from smart people we know.

This month, we spoke with Brian Rappaport, founder and CEO of Quan Media Group, an independent OOH concierge agency. We’re lucky to have him—he’s worked in OOH for over 15 years, and has created campaigns for several celebrity brands like SKIMS, Lemme, and Four Walls Whiskey. Brian was a mensch and shared some wisdom with us below.

With marketers looking to track every cent of ROI on media spend, how do you help brands think about the ROI of OOH? (Asking since we face the same challenge of attributing sales directly to talent partnerships.)
First off you can’t look at OOH as apples to apples when compared to other offline channels. It’s not the right way to look at the medium. You need to understand that, yes, this is an awareness play, but what type of learning agenda do you want to build to understand effectiveness? Perhaps incorporating a Brij code to understand interaction/scans/conversions—or simply focusing on top of funnel and running a brand lift study. Go into OOH with an open mind. Don’t overspend, test, utilize social amplification and work with a true specialist to maximize your spend.

The definition of OOH is so broad—from NYC subway placements, to gas station screens, to traditional billboards. When you’re working on ads featuring talent, do you suggest one format vs. the other? 
I want big, splashy, bold, and attention getting. It obviously needs to make sense. For Four Walls Whiskey—they started selling at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philly—so a massive billboard on I-95 outside the stadium was a no brainer. When Lemme launched, a massive board on Sunset was truly in line with the brand and announcing their launch. Jake Paul launched “W” and him on a jetski out next to the digital floating boat in Miami was so perfect. You can’t mail it in and just toss a brand on a screen in Times Square.

OOH is constantly evolving—any new trends we should be aware of?
Airports shouldn’t be overlooked. So much space, so many unique formats and ways to reach an audience when air travel is higher than it’s ever been. Event-based OOH is also a smart play. You don’t need to run for 1-3 months. You can conquer Las Vegas for one week during CES. You can own Austin for two weeks during SXSW. You can run on every street level digital screen in Manhattan JUST on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Be surgical, smart, strategic and work with a real OOH specialist—not just an ad tech platform.

Welcome to The Brain 🧠, a playground where our team comes up with fantasy talent partnerships for brands we admire.

This month, we dreamt up a partnership for Cotopaxi 💭 (If you know anyone on the marketing/brand team, feel free to send ‘em our way 😉.)

Brand: Cotopaxi

Partner: The Black Girl Social Club

Brand Vision: “To create responsibly made outdoor gear that brings performance, color, and joy to all, and helps us build a movement to support communities around the world.”

Our assumptions: As Cotopaxi becomes a more established brand, they're focusing more on unexpected partnerships (so says their Chief Brand Officer) with the goal of exposing their brand to audiences that don’t typically consider themselves "outdoor people."

Why the Black Girl Social Club: People of color are majorly underrepresented in outdoor recreation spaces in the United States—in fact, 95.2% of US National Park visitors between 2016-2020 were white, a phenomenon referred to as the “Adventure Gap”. The Black Girl Social Club was created to offer a safe space for black women to connect and build in-person relationships with each other “steering clear of the digital realm”, and there’s no better place to disconnect than in the great outdoors!

Campaign Idea: Cotopaxi launches an ongoing partnership with The Black Girl Social Club to sponsor free monthly outdoor events for their members. They also work with BGSC to kick off the partnership and spread greater brand awareness for both groups by sponsoring public one-off events like hiking, camping, and birding in partnership with the Atlanta, Richmond, New York, and LA chapters. They film content of participants sporting Cotopaxi gear on their adventures and talking about the role they’d like nature to play in their lives.

Shoot us any brands you’d like us to cover next—we’re happy to put our brains to work 🫱🏻‍🫲🏽.

Here’s what we’re paying attention to 🔎:

We can’t get Post’s Poppi jingle out of our heads 💀

Issa Rae’s getting Cast as Chief Storyteller.

Kacey’s leaning into Ballerina Farm-core.

At last–a Lunchables competitor…but not who we imagined.

That’s a wrap. See you next month!