0:00

The goal is to create a

0:02

standalone brand that can be purchased

0:04

by somebody in the future where

0:06

we're gaining equity value, making something

0:08

that's meaningful that can also live

0:10

outside the creator that can time. live outside

0:12

the creator after some time. Hey,

0:17

Sarah, but to the show. How are you?

0:19

I'm doing great. How are you? It's

0:21

great a lot of things have a lot of

0:23

things happening. I'm very excited about this episode. We ready.

0:25

discussed in past about, you know,

0:27

for influencers and IP and

0:29

so on. since specifically right,

0:31

focus your company on these, on these, I'm

0:33

very curious to learn more about it.

0:35

But before we get started, get started, you and

0:37

outs of today's episode today's I would

0:39

like to know a bit more about

0:41

yourself. know we use this thing called about the

0:43

map. So basically, it's the very different is the the mission, basically

0:45

to achieve with your work? with your work,

0:47

anything that you are really proud of, you

0:49

are really proud of, could be in your life,

0:51

could be your career, your both of

0:54

them. career, last one is the and the last one is

0:56

the do you do what you do? you do? Love

0:58

to hear it. Yeah, I'm happy to dive into

1:00

that. So in terms of what I aim

1:02

to achieve, I think it's something that

1:04

where I'm touching on both sides of

1:06

my brain. So I really like blending

1:08

the creative aspects and analytics into my

1:10

career. And I feel like most careers

1:12

are actually touching on one side or

1:14

the other, right? It's like touching on or

1:16

side or the other, right? analytical role. And I've

1:18

gotten happiness when blended both. So I

1:20

really want to end up actually maximizing

1:22

that when I'm like, I how do I

1:24

blend both the creative and and be. side

1:27

in terms of a of I've been a

1:29

creative early in life. I was a

1:31

magician from an early age. I became

1:33

a member. a member. There's a place called

1:35

the Magic Castle here in Hollywood

1:37

when I was 13. when I I made

1:39

a movie when I was going from

1:42

high school to college at USC. so that

1:44

that was really exercising on the creative

1:46

aspect, but always had that analytical. background too.

1:48

So to. So that's when I

1:50

kind of pivoted to professional services.

1:52

So So I was somewhat risk averse

1:54

earlier in life. in I joined in

1:56

litigation consulting, then went to UCLA

1:58

Anderson for for school school. then that's

2:00

where I was like, okay, how do I

2:03

continue to blend the creative and analytics piece?

2:05

So I joined NBC Universal for an internship

2:07

on their strategy department. That was an internship

2:09

and was a bunch of ex-consultants and they

2:11

basically said, go do a summer or something

2:14

at a management consulting company. So I joined

2:16

the Boston Consulting Group during my summer at

2:18

Anderson. and then worked my way to become

2:20

a partner at the company. I was primarily

2:22

focused on media, technology, and telecom, those three

2:25

primary industries. And we built a lot of

2:27

startups for Fortune 500 companies. So we worked

2:29

with our clients to actually build startups in

2:31

house. And then from there went from, I

2:33

love the startup side, so I joined Next

2:36

Ten Ventures. This was a fund to build

2:38

creator businesses. So it was a $50 million

2:40

fund dedicated to backing creator and influencer businesses.

2:42

And that's where I actually met the co-founders

2:44

of Warren James. So Ben and Kevin, who

2:47

were the co-founders at that time. And then

2:49

I became an advisor for the company because

2:51

they were just starting the company back in

2:53

2019 and 2020. So he joined them. And

2:56

then after that wanted to get more operational

2:58

experience. So Janu, which is a medical scrubs

3:00

brand, Figgs is kind of the big one

3:02

in the industry. Janu was kind of the

3:04

challenger player and they joined his chief growth

3:07

officer, helped to really grow the company. And

3:09

then Warren James or W.J. We got to

3:11

such a size where my background mixing both

3:13

the creative and analytical sides could really help

3:15

scale the business. And we've done just that.

3:18

We've grown over 50% over my time of

3:20

CEO and we really support the biggest and

3:22

best creators here too. fantastic you know you

3:24

know first of all congrats on these and

3:26

quite a quite a journey right you went

3:29

through different phases right and different industries so

3:31

it's quite interesting to see also how you

3:33

right used the artistic part the the creative

3:35

part right there together with the analytics one

3:37

right that we're gonna go I think more

3:40

in detail especially when it comes to analytics

3:42

and also creative aspects of course and before

3:44

we can continue like is there also anything

3:46

else on the on the purpose of why

3:49

you what doing? doing. I

3:51

think the purpose purpose Warren

3:53

James and myself kind

3:55

of blend together. of blend

3:57

Warren James, we're professionals

4:00

in diversifying a creator's

4:02

revenue outside of just

4:04

content. of just And I

4:06

And I like to think

4:08

about whether it's an

4:11

entrepreneur or a business

4:13

or a how do you

4:15

expand do you My career

4:17

at BCG was was

4:19

growth, right? How do you actually develop strategies

4:21

that are around growth? around Same thing

4:23

with the with revenue. And

4:26

a lot of the work that

4:28

I did within that I did BCG

4:30

and at BCG and extending IP to physical

4:32

products. So apparel, toys, comics like we do here at we

4:34

do here at also thinking but it's also

4:36

thinking about how do you take intellectual

4:38

property and expand it beyond is is just

4:40

content. of the lot of I do at BCG

4:42

has really how we're how we're thinking about

4:45

stuff at Warren James as well. perfect

4:47

And before like, you know, getting into into

4:49

know, the you know P and strategies and

4:51

so on. on Can you give us, you

4:53

know, a little elevator pitch about Warren

4:55

James just for people that might not

4:57

know the company? Yeah. I mean, we

4:59

develop the brands premium merchandise for the

5:02

world's biggest creator. creator. So worked with Good

5:04

Mythical Morning, Hasan Morning, Hassan Piker, Brittany

5:06

Broski, Pay Money Wubby, Crew District, Call Me many,

5:08

many others. many And we

5:10

are an end -to -end servicing

5:12

platform. So So do everything from

5:14

designing the product, developing the

5:16

product, using our team that

5:18

has boots on the ground

5:20

in Asia to actually work

5:22

with vendors to manufacture. We We

5:24

have in -house website design,

5:26

design, We marketing. We

5:29

basically want to build the

5:31

biggest and best premium merchandise. for the

5:33

world's world's biggest content creators. Fantastic.

5:36

So let's more about more about the strategy. So said to

5:38

end, end So to A to Z. I would

5:40

like to Z. bit more, to how does

5:42

it work a bit more. How Is it from day one? Is

5:44

it these conduct creators to you, be like, hey,

5:46

I have these at the to you owe me?

5:49

A, I have this you go to them? So

5:51

let's say, do you go to see there is a say

5:53

talking about, a you know. talking about, you

5:55

coffee or beauty products and you go to them and

5:57

be like you know what we have an idea know,

5:59

you it a know, you know, it's both you know, you looking

6:01

at scouting and also come to you what

6:03

is the is the usually the ratio there?

6:05

It's exactly that. And we've shifted

6:07

over time. of how terms of

6:09

how we usually work with how

6:11

how we get deals, it went

6:13

from very much we would

6:15

be approaching with with primarily the

6:17

big agencies as well as the

6:19

digital first agencies on, hey, we want

6:22

we want to work with so

6:24

and so creator. Here's an idea.

6:26

Now Warren James name has really become

6:28

synonymous with premium merchandising and and So

6:30

a lot of the deals do come

6:32

more inbound where creators are are to

6:34

actually work with us with us that's very

6:36

humbling especially over the last like two

6:38

to three years years. in terms of both

6:40

both, do the ideas come from? from? We're

6:42

usually the ones that really try to

6:44

take ideas to the to the creator. So come

6:46

in with something that is like especially

6:48

on the merchandising side with day one

6:50

around here Your content looks like this like

6:52

this. let's now form or designs that can look that

6:54

can look like this, or your content

6:56

has this of, of, at these aspects, let's

6:58

develop a so and so products. I can

7:00

get into a couple of examples that

7:02

we can talk about in a second in a

7:05

second here too. So we'd try to come in with

7:07

the ideas. in Sometimes like we did with

7:09

like we did they said we want to create

7:11

a to brand, right? And they thought about

7:13

with Ret and the two flavors that we originally

7:15

came out with out very much much for

7:17

their childhood. We'll talk about that in a

7:19

second as well. Sometimes they do come

7:21

in with a pretty baked idea and then we'll

7:23

help them develop it, craft it, a

7:25

create a brand around it, and then

7:27

take it to market. Interesting. And so how does it

7:29

work does it work IP component

7:32

there? Is component a partnership? Do you sort

7:34

of partnership. Do you share it

7:36

know, with the with the Is it mostly

7:38

it mostly like licensing use you

7:40

can use me a bit like me

7:42

a bit more about behind the CNN

7:44

business models there. Yeah, it's it's both. the

7:46

So on the traditional merchandising

7:48

side, it'll largely be a licensing

7:51

share or profit profit share model. a

7:53

So that is a majority of

7:55

the business that we for for

7:57

our traditional apparel products, plushies, and other

7:59

other merchandise. we're actually creating

8:01

a new product, we'll usually go

8:03

into a joint venture with a company.

8:05

So as an example with Be

8:07

Good Bakery, this Bakery, was a, this

8:09

is a protein and supplements line that

8:11

we created with Will Tennyson, who's

8:13

a fitness creator, has a massive audience,

8:15

really has phenomenally hilarious content that

8:17

he plugs into with his audience around

8:19

fitness. And so it's not that

8:21

like, you know, big, bulky, like strong

8:23

guy kind of thing. It's just

8:25

like, here's how to make fitness in

8:27

a much more approachable way. And

8:29

so we created this brand Be Good

8:31

Bakery and formed a joint venture

8:33

where we're partners with them in the

8:35

business. And that one, again, the

8:38

goal is to create a standalone brand

8:40

that can be purchased by somebody

8:42

in the future, where we're gaining equity

8:44

value, making something that's meaningful, that

8:46

can also live outside the creator after

8:48

some time. Gauri, yeah, because also

8:50

there is another challenge, right? If the

8:52

brand is very related to the

8:54

creator, it's a pro and a con,

8:56

right? All the time because you're

8:58

using the image of the influencer, but

9:00

at the same time, then if

9:02

you want to either buy it out,

9:04

or if you want to, or

9:06

if there is any scandal right around

9:08

the influencer, these days, right? It's

9:10

so easy to get in order to

9:12

surface a tweet of, you know,

9:14

20 years ago or so, right? Basically.

9:16

And then there is a scandal,

9:18

if it's like very associated to the

9:20

face of an influencer, then it's

9:22

a bit problematic to detach it, right,

9:24

as a brand. So that's also

9:26

what was one of my questions. Are

9:28

you saying more, like, you know,

9:30

again, standalone products that are basically promoted

9:32

by the influencer, but are potentially

9:34

then either run by your team or

9:36

the team of the influencer? And

9:38

how difficult it is then to, again,

9:40

having these products alone, detached after

9:42

some time from the influencer? If it

9:44

is even possible? Yeah, we see

9:46

both. So is on the, again, on

9:48

the core merchandising side, it's usually attached

9:50

to the creator. We have had

9:52

pretty good situations where, for something like

9:54

for Call Me Chris, for instance,

9:56

so for Call Me Chris, she's big,

9:58

both on TikTok and on YouTube.

10:00

And what we were hoping to do,

10:02

do, we crawl, walk, run run into something that

10:05

can live outside of So, for So,

10:07

so for instance, like I think we

10:09

started with a brand called auto,

10:11

it's named after her grandmother. And we

10:13

have it as Auto by for now, now.

10:15

And our goal is a mix

10:17

of pieces that have the actual brand

10:19

name likeness and likeness and phrases, but

10:21

it also incorporates other models and so that

10:23

that it's not just Chris right

10:25

now, she's primarily the person that's

10:27

on the website. But our goal

10:29

is to make this something that can live a

10:31

little bit outside of her, so that

10:33

she can push it when she needs

10:35

to, to, but others would potentially recognize it.

10:37

And that's our goal, is just there's something

10:39

where, even if it's not necessarily necessarily like an

10:42

old surfacing, but if the creator decides

10:44

to not make as much content much time

10:46

or decides to take a break for

10:48

for months or something like that, we

10:50

want the brand to be able to

10:52

live, so that's how we're trying to

10:54

approach it. it. I I would say plus percent

10:56

of it is going to be directly

10:58

attached to the to the creator, on the merchandising

11:01

side, but for any joint ventures,

11:03

we're really trying to make sure

11:05

that it stays separate from them.

11:07

it stays takes about a year to

11:09

18 months for that separation to

11:11

really occur. That's why we do

11:13

that kind of kind of crawl It's

11:15

like, run approach. the likeness. likeness. create enough

11:17

of a brand identity that lives outside

11:19

the the then eventually you can say,

11:21

can here we'll go ahead and go ahead

11:23

and separate Once we have a big enough email

11:25

a serve, do we have enough of an

11:27

audience? Does it work for us to actually

11:29

put paid ads against it? it? And then we

11:31

can work with the the creators to actually launch

11:33

it too. it too. Hello! Is your brand is

11:36

your brand ready to amplify the

11:38

reach? Well, the influencer marketing is

11:40

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11:42

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11:44

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11:46

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11:52

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12:03

yours measure success transforming impressions into actionable conversions. You

12:05

can find us at the Influencer Marketing factory.com or

12:07

just search the Influencer Marketing Factory on Google. make

12:09

sense, thank you for answering that. I'm also curious

12:12

to go a bit more in detail about type

12:14

of products, right? Because back in the day, the

12:16

majority of things, because it was a bit difficult

12:18

to make them, right? It was his shirts, mags,

12:20

with typical merchandise, right? And then now you have

12:23

like influencers that are doing something. something a bit

12:25

more niche, less in certain verticals, could be food

12:27

and beve, could be beauty, right, is the majority

12:29

of them. Then there are a few of them

12:31

that are doing something completely crazy, there is like

12:34

one of a kind type of thing that could

12:36

be a hit or miss. Are you noticing any

12:38

patterns? like are they influencers, conduct leaders still trying

12:40

to stay on the, I would say, safest side,

12:42

right, where there's something that, okay, it's a t-shirt,

12:45

it's a hoodie, of course they're gonna buy it,

12:47

or are you noticing them to go to something

12:49

that is a bit more unique to find a

12:51

sort of, you know, blue ocean, right, for them?

12:53

So are you noticing anything there? I don't think

12:56

it's as much creator driven. Creators definitely get a

12:58

little tired and bored sometimes if you're just trying

13:00

to push t-shirts on them. But we really pride

13:02

ourselves around product innovation. Like it's critical to draw

13:04

in fans throughout the year. So we actually use

13:07

a strategy, even if it's core merchandise related. We

13:09

want to make sure that each collection has at

13:11

least one unique piece or the entire collection can

13:13

be something unique too. So we launched moomos with

13:15

Brittany Brooski's. These are nightgames, right? So it's not

13:18

something that most people wear, but these were a

13:20

phenomenal hit. Like I doubt most of our audience

13:22

wore a moomu. But she really helped to create

13:24

the demand. And this was something where she came

13:26

in with the idea where she was like, hey,

13:29

my grandma used to wear this. I kind of

13:31

wear this around the house when I don't have

13:33

anything going on. She brought something that was like

13:35

over 40 years old in a bunch of colors

13:37

and then we. to take a

13:40

spin on it, it made

13:42

it unique. And so

13:44

that's where we really pride

13:46

ourselves around a product

13:48

innovation point, where if a

13:51

creator can bring us

13:53

any idea, awesome. And then

13:55

we're usually part of

13:57

that as well. So we've

13:59

done of you know, as well.

14:01

balls that you done like, you

14:04

little answer comes out.

14:06

So we've done stuff like

14:08

that we've done little and

14:10

more. So well, yeah,

14:12

we do have we do

14:15

sell a lot of

14:17

hoodies, we do sell a

14:19

lot of we but we

14:21

really make sure that

14:23

there's some level of innovation

14:26

in there. t- And then

14:28

we also have have other divisions. have

14:30

bad egg publishing, which is

14:32

our comic book book division. So or it's

14:34

broadly say so that we do

14:36

comic books, we've done graphic novels,

14:38

we're doing we're doing a we're doing a

14:40

bunch of different aspects that are related

14:42

to publishing because that's, again, an

14:44

extension of the IP of the another format.

14:46

Food and beverage, same thing. Pointed

14:48

out a couple of examples, out a couple of

14:51

Your specific mishmash be good is there

14:53

any trend around a specific category?

14:55

Not really, any see around across,

14:57

we see interest across the board.

14:59

see interest terms of see to get to

15:02

market the there is a level of

15:04

like of timeline food and beverage takes 18

15:06

to 24 months minimum to get to So

15:08

strong market. 18 we can spin around

15:10

very quickly get to then what we usually

15:12

try to do is we work 9

15:14

to 12 months in advance for these

15:16

kinds of quickly. cool and different products that

15:18

we really wanna launch market, it just

15:21

takes time for development too. Very

15:23

interesting. You already You already one example, know,

15:25

the example, you know, the mishmash, right, by, So link.

15:27

that in our blog our blog poll. I know

15:29

that. Thank you. know that. of course,

15:31

you know, because we know, doing a

15:33

lot of blog posts about the top

15:35

about the top 10 influencer funded. something something brand. So

15:38

we did it for for food, did it

15:40

for beverage, we did it beauty, we

15:42

did it for fitness. We're doing

15:44

a few others, few we're gonna do we're

15:46

going to do something for like on. and so on. The

15:48

looking pretty well on and I noticed that more and

15:50

and more people are looking for that.

15:52

It could be reporters that want to cover

15:54

it or or I think other competitors, other

15:57

creators they want to see, okay, what else

15:59

is out there? So let's take this one

16:01

specifically. It's very interesting. It's like no nostalgic

16:03

serial, right? Tell me a bit more again.

16:05

Like I'm very curious to know. Is it

16:07

something that they were talking about it on

16:10

their videos and there was like already their

16:12

audiences saying something about it like, oh, I

16:14

would love to see them or like, I

16:16

would like to understand a bit like. Did

16:18

they leave hints here in their videos? Is

16:20

it like communication? Like for instance, I know

16:23

that some contractors have this core channel, right,

16:25

where they can talk more privately, right, with

16:27

their strongest communities that can tell them like,

16:29

what if we did this? Would you buy

16:31

it? How much would you spend for it?

16:34

So tell me a bit like if you

16:36

can about, again, the process behind that the

16:38

behind the scene from ideation to understanding, is

16:40

it something that the audience is going to

16:42

buy? At what price? How many? items should

16:44

we even produce, right? Because then it's another

16:47

question I have later for you is about

16:49

DTC to retail. We're going to get there

16:51

in a second, but in a certain way,

16:53

maybe more specific for these case studies, how

16:55

did the approach it? It's a great question,

16:57

especially with background research, and there's always a

17:00

blend of how do you get enough research

17:02

so that you can make sure you're making

17:04

informed decisions without having it leaked to the

17:06

audience, because that ends up being something that

17:08

creators want to hold to hold to. This

17:11

one was a two-year path where they came

17:13

to us saying they're synonymous with two things.

17:15

Good mythical morning is synonymous for a morning

17:17

show and food. And so they're like, what's

17:19

the best thing to do? Breakfast. And then

17:21

within breakfast, they are really thinking about within

17:24

cereal. That was not really in terms of

17:26

a ton of like, oh, let's go and

17:28

survey the audience, but we did. a couple

17:30

of things. The first was from terms of

17:32

flavor development, actual flavors that came from their

17:34

childhood. So sweet mac and mellow and peanut

17:37

butter and honey sandwich were things that Ret

17:39

and Link kind of like made as part

17:41

of their childhood. So they were particular about

17:43

how do we make this happen? So sweet

17:45

mac and mellow, as they came to us

17:48

with the idea, we said how do we

17:50

create a macaroni shape that has never been

17:52

done before in cereal. And that way, what

17:54

we wanted to do, the brand concept was

17:56

both nostalgic, but also think of

17:58

it almost like the

18:01

like the Ben and of of So

18:03

So a really indulgent brand, something that

18:05

can be very unique in terms of

18:07

what you see. And that's where

18:10

we got a little bit more into

18:12

the research side with with typical food

18:14

and beverage research. So let's create

18:16

the shape, let's create the flavors, let's

18:18

test different ways on how it's

18:20

potentially looking. We definitely talked to a

18:22

few to a few like big audience members that

18:24

have watched the show for a

18:26

while, but not in something that was,

18:29

I would say. way that I way that

18:31

I would normally do surveyed research. We

18:33

actually do a lot of a research with

18:35

our creators. can talk about that in

18:37

a second. I But with this one,

18:39

this one was a very much on instinct

18:41

one will work and it did. So

18:43

in terms of once we got to

18:45

the flavor profile of and beverage, we purchased

18:48

what is basically the minimum and beverage, we

18:50

we sold out in basically the better

18:52

part of a month. So it moved

18:54

very fast. Now because the better the product

18:56

was like So it moved very fast. it really really

18:58

expensive to make it and why why we

19:00

did have to sell it at a pretty

19:02

high price. And we saw some backlash, rightfully so. It was

19:04

a $10 It was a right? So hey, right? $10 a

19:07

hey, it's Yeah, there's some Yeah, there's some other

19:09

cereal brands that are potentially priced there,

19:11

but there, but that's kind of expensive expensive right?

19:13

At the end of the day. at But

19:15

even there, we saw it more of as

19:17

a collectible. of as Now, as we talk

19:19

more to the retail path, which is exactly

19:22

what we're exploring right now, we're we're determining how

19:24

do do we change up the product enough

19:26

it can that it can be retail ready that

19:28

something that people to to see. shelves at

19:30

a price point that's much more approachable too.

19:32

too. Yeah, just like I mentioned before it

19:34

would be very interesting for me to see

19:36

very of all, when is the right moment?

19:38

of all, when is the go from DC

19:40

to to first of all, because it's

19:43

not to retail, You need all, need

19:45

to right? You need mass, you need to, you need to

19:47

accept you retail to accept you of

19:49

other products thousand day are trying to

19:51

get into retail that first of all are trying

19:53

you into retail. there a formula that you

19:56

are you, are like okay is there a is a

19:58

tipping point in our google sheets that, you

20:00

sell this by that, you know, in this

20:02

capacity, in this industry, the other, you know,

20:04

there is a sort of formula that tells

20:06

us like, okay, it's ready, or not. And

20:08

then once you get in retail, again, are

20:10

you able to lower the price there, first

20:12

of all, and then the last question on

20:14

this is, if you go from DTC to

20:16

retail, are you seeing, you know, because authenticity,

20:18

reliability and everything, it's huge, right, when it

20:20

comes to the creators. So if it's the

20:22

creators selling directly, right, it's something like, oh,

20:24

okay, you know, it's not mass produced, it's

20:26

just for the community at the Yada, what

20:28

happens if they go to retail? Is it

20:30

seeing like, as a bad thing, is your

20:32

nail trailer? So again, I know there is

20:34

a bunch of a bunch of questions about

20:36

a bunch of questions about, but quite a

20:38

bunch of questions, but quite, but quite, but

20:40

quite, fascinated by all about, fascinated by all

20:42

about, fascinated by all about, fascinated by all

20:44

about all of question about, about, about, about,

20:46

about, about, about, about, about, about, about, about,

20:48

about, about, about, about, about, about, about, about,

20:50

about, about, about, about, about, about, about, about,

20:52

about, about to retail. You can start from

20:55

whatever questions are you on, indeed, this one.

20:57

It's good, and they're all very connected. So

20:59

we have to weigh all three based on

21:01

both, basically, are we able to produce it

21:03

at a price point that makes sense so

21:05

that it can sell into retail? Do customers

21:07

actually want it? And will it be viable

21:09

enough where we can actually, everybody can end

21:11

up making money? So all three pieces are

21:13

connected. We usually work with creators that are

21:15

fairly big. So we're looking for creators that

21:17

can sell about a million dollars in merchandise

21:19

per year or more. That's what we're usually

21:21

trying to target. That being said, when we're

21:23

already working with the biggest careers, it's usually

21:25

that there is going to be a path

21:27

to retail. I'll separate food versus apparel. On

21:29

the food side, this one is, it has

21:31

been a conversation with, I would say, two

21:33

big pieces. Number one is, can we get

21:35

the product to a price point that makes

21:37

sense to be on shelf? And that is

21:39

a long drawn out process where we're trying

21:41

to say, what kind of flavors can we

21:43

do? How can we look at the formulation?

21:45

Does it work on a cost basis if

21:47

we want to sell it for something like

21:49

$6.7 for a box of cereal? So that

21:51

part is kind of the supply and cost

21:53

piece of it. Second, both on the demand.

21:55

is like as far as

21:57

the tipping point that

21:59

you're talking about. For

22:01

food and beverage we

22:03

want to make sure

22:05

that that at At minimum co-manufactures that we

22:07

work with, it it gets to a scale

22:09

that they can actually produce it, which

22:11

means a means a lot of boxes. And

22:13

when they're saying a lot of boxes,

22:15

it needs to make sure that we

22:18

have agreements with multiple retailers that can

22:20

get through a lot of doors. So

22:22

that's where we start the demand generation

22:24

in terms of working with of to

22:26

say, are you interested in these products?

22:28

Here's the price point that we're thinking

22:30

about. How do you actually look at

22:32

it? So we're having meetings look at it? So we're

22:34

having see how many doors see we probably

22:36

get into. probably then those two things

22:38

have to two things the cost side are

22:40

at the demand generation and the

22:42

order and the that we're considering we're considering. And

22:44

then the final point around, around like, it

22:46

work or do the customers kind

22:49

of want it? Absolutely the case. It

22:51

is such a new piece where

22:53

we've seen, especially after the pandemic, the

22:55

pendulum sort of shifting back onto

22:57

having physical experiences and being in retail.

22:59

much So that to much people want

23:01

to see it on the We've done

23:04

the product placement, especially for the apparel

23:06

side our some of our creators already.

23:08

And we're going to continue to

23:10

do so so with pay money wubby, we We have

23:12

this collaboration between Nights and Fridays and Hex that we're

23:14

to place globally as well. so

23:16

it is both a, let's have have the

23:18

conversation with the retailer or or a distributor,

23:20

sure that there's enough of a a PO

23:22

place. And then do we look

23:24

at our existing product? Or do we

23:26

create something that would be brand

23:28

new that would be specific to a

23:30

retailer? So it is a lot of

23:32

push pull because, we actually just hired

23:34

somebody on the retail front, primarily

23:36

for the apparel side. the He's a He's

23:38

a stone numbing. He's a who's been in the

23:41

industry for quite some time. some And

23:43

he's going to help us to help us

23:45

more doors into more on the on

23:47

retail side for both specialty and mass

23:49

stores too. and mass stores, too. know know, back

23:51

from retail to DTC for a second and

23:53

also like channels to use to use, you

23:55

know another one that I saw I

23:57

saw, you have is the the little beans to

24:00

quite unique as a product as well.

24:02

And I'm crucial. Since that is the

24:04

typical, like, it's very difficult that someone

24:06

look for that product, right? Like, unless

24:09

you already know about it, right? It's

24:11

not like, let me look for, you

24:13

know, lipsticks or shoes or whatever, right?

24:15

In the case, I guess it's a

24:17

lot of, like, you know, push, right?

24:19

So it's like, you know, Are you

24:22

using primarily their main channel or are

24:24

they also using like Tiktok Shop and

24:26

other places to help, right? To get

24:28

their products out. Do you prefer to

24:30

send them all to your proprietary storefronts?

24:32

Are you trying different things? Tell me

24:35

more like when it comes to also

24:37

logistics how it works. Yes, so Little

24:39

Beans, the goal with Little Beans was

24:41

create intellectual property based on sketches that

24:43

Lily Pichu has done for her creator

24:46

friend. So the goal is to create

24:48

a different plushy character based on each

24:50

of the sketches that she has for

24:52

like, call it 50 creators that she

24:54

has in mind. So she came to

24:56

us with these sketches and then we

24:59

went through. I don't know, like 44

25:01

different versions of a plushie that we

25:03

wanted to see, like, does this actually

25:05

fulfill the vision that she has? So

25:07

we started with little beings, the ones

25:09

that are, is going to be more

25:12

dedicated to her, and then we've launched

25:14

new creators that are with associated with

25:16

each actual creator. And then we have,

25:18

like, maybe another view that are also

25:20

coming along. So right now we just

25:23

launched Sprout by Sykuno. So that is

25:25

another one that just that just came

25:27

out. So our goal there is. almost

25:29

create a brand like Little Beans and

25:31

create a world where you have these

25:33

characters that are based on creators that

25:36

can kind of interact, join each other.

25:38

It's a lot of fun that we've

25:40

had with this to actually build something

25:42

that is a bit of a world.

25:44

And then there right now we're primarily

25:47

focused on the DDC site, but we're

25:49

experimenting. We have meetings with TikTok this

25:51

week. We are looking at also retail

25:53

placement from a distribution standpoint. We haven't

25:55

toyed around as much with Amazon. we're

25:57

also looking at

26:00

that to see like, can

26:02

that be that be as a discovery

26:04

as well? Yeah, yeah, exactly, because right, it's

26:06

a, I mean, I know I know that the

26:08

power of with this they can push

26:10

to an audience, existing audience, right? right?

26:12

sometimes you might also want to

26:14

explore to explore discoverability it doesn't reach, you

26:16

know, their audience, audience, but it could also

26:19

be, right, like, especially things I you know,

26:21

know. food and thinking about all the, you know, protein

26:23

protein products that are coming up these

26:25

days, the the beverage you know, you caffeine

26:27

so on. And that is something that you

26:29

can easily look for, right? I need

26:31

something to focus to focus you're gonna get

26:33

a bunch of like, you know, products

26:35

around around that. Last question for you today,

26:37

it's something that I always I our asked to

26:39

our specifically for your industry, your there anything

26:41

that you're very excited to see happening,

26:44

or is or something that is missing

26:46

right now now you would like to see

26:48

to next feature? The thing that we pride

26:50

ourselves on is that we have the

26:52

best brand best brand managers, product creative designers creative

26:54

the industry. We've got an got an

26:56

marketing team, an amazing site

26:58

team. site they're all coming together

27:00

with like some of the biggest

27:02

creators that we have that we

27:04

over the next year. the So next

27:06

have So we Boss. of a of

27:08

a Boss is an animated show

27:10

that is on YouTube right

27:13

now. And we're launching a real

27:15

real forward line it's crazy insane show. each

27:17

Each episode gets over 50,

27:19

60 million views on it's right

27:21

now. an animated an animated property. something that's

27:23

called it of the traditional creator realm realm

27:25

it's almost like traditional IP IP where

27:27

we can actually create characters or

27:29

build merchandise around the the IP

27:31

that they Pay Money Wubby is a is a

27:34

creator a Twitter. This one will be a This

27:36

one will be a very provocative

27:38

collection, I would say, coming out

27:40

in about a month. So it's got remnants

27:42

of how he he thinks about his

27:44

content. It's got some funny nods

27:46

that we'll see that we that we haven't

27:49

actually done before. So I'm really excited

27:51

about that. that. Hasan Piper is a

27:53

is a political commentator a a Twitch

27:55

streamer. He's gonna have an election -themed collection

27:57

of course because it fit into his

27:59

content content. jacksepticeye is a big big YouTube

28:01

creator and he'll course be featured too. And I

28:03

I think that's where I'm excited because

28:05

we're always trying to push push it a little

28:07

it a little bit beyond the mugs

28:09

mugs, like you talked about at the

28:12

top. We saw that has gone at

28:14

the window. How can we actually

28:16

make something that is going to go

28:18

for our fans? Halovabas to us, they

28:20

have existing potential merch providers, but they

28:22

came to us for saying, for saying

28:24

the edge on product, let us us make

28:26

a fashion line. We We want people to

28:28

wear the product and it almost

28:30

comes together like an outfit that they

28:32

can wear to or to go out or or

28:34

to go out as something like that

28:36

as well. I That's what I think

28:38

is missing in the piece where it's piece

28:40

where it's like, and it on the

28:42

sweatshirt and it's still a majority

28:44

of it to be people But people

28:46

come to Warren James to say, gonna

28:48

you're going to push the envelope, you're

28:50

going to you're actually do product innovation

28:52

and make something that's way more interesting

28:54

for my fans my fans too. amazing, Very

28:56

curious to see the future of see the

28:59

I could talk about these for talk

29:01

but these for hours, but you know, at the

29:03

end of the episode today, at the you

29:05

so much for joining me today but

29:07

sort of journey so far, quite fascinating. me

29:09

today, all these, all again, industry that

29:11

is not new, but somehow it's new,

29:13

right? Because these, just said, it's still

29:15

at the beginning. not sort of like

29:17

somehow it's new, certain direction. as you just I the

29:19

wanted to thank you for joining

29:21

me today to sharing everything with curving, right

29:23

to a being a great guest. Absolutely.

29:25

Thank you. I today really I it. was

29:27

a great conversation. was a intricate, linked intricate,

29:29

linked questions Thank you for that. And you

29:31

for you everyone for listening. This was

29:33

the for listening. This was Marketing Factory. And

29:35

I'll see you next week. Marketing Factory. And I'll

29:37

see you next week.