We have an update on the Snoop Dogg viral ad from earlier this year.
Fresh off his Olympic hosting duties, Snoop Dogg has reunited with Solo Brands for a new campaign called Blunt Marketing. (See what they did there? In case you didn’t know, Snoop is the world’s most famous marijuana aficionado.)
Is this campaign different than the one that influenced the CEO’s departure in 2024? Yes, it is.
Solo says it’s learned its lesson and is focused on the right thing — sales.
But has Solo really turned over a new leaf?
We asked CMI’s chief strategy advisor, Robert Rose, what he thinks and how you can learn from these bookended campaigns when constructing your next marketing initiatives. Watch or read on for his take.
Great campaign influences CEO departure
In January, I opened my video on Snoop Dogg and Solo with a quote from my good friend Michael Brenner: “Behind every piece of bad content is an executive who asked for it.”
Of course, the opposite is largely true, too.
The executives seem to have asked for the right piece of content this time around (well, at least they feel better about it).
But I’m getting ahead of myself. To get you back up to speed, let me explain the first campaign. Late last year, Solo Brands launched an influencer campaign with Snoop Dogg. It started with a tweet from Snoop Dogg that read, “After much consideration and conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.”
That was followed by a viral brand awareness campaign for Solo’s new smokeless stove. In the explainer video, Snoop says he’s tired of coughing and his clothes smelling bad. The camera pans wider to reveal him sitting in front of a smokeless Solo Stove fire pit.
Cool, right? What an incredible influencer and brand awareness campaign. It amassed 30 million likes, comments, and shares on social media. Ad Age ranked it 18th in the 40 best ads of 2023.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, when the CEO departed, Solo indicated in the announcement release that one of the reasons for his dismissal was the Snoop Dogg campaign.
In my opinion, Solo is saying, with a straight face, that the brand awareness campaign it started in November 2023 failed because it didn’t provide a revenue lift within six weeks. Six. Weeks. Solo probably hadn’t even paid the agency’s bill yet.
Solo brings back Snoop Dogg
Cut to August 2024, and the Martin Agency has launched a new Snoop Dogg promotion — Blunt Marketing — with a completely different take.
Arguably pulling a page from the Ryan Reynolds brand of creativity, the new Snoop spot is a straightforward ad. Snoop, quite literally, says this is an ad for Solo stoves, you should purchase one, and the reason he’s doing it is because he’s an influencer.
Get it? That’s blunt marketing.
It’s a funny spot. Will it go viral like the last one that hid the product and focused on the humorous bit? Almost certainly not. Will it make Ad Age’s top spot list? That remains to be seen. Will it help move product, unlike the viral spot cited in the CEO’s departure? That’s the most important thing for Solo Brands.
Interestingly, part of that last question is no longer correct. Solo Brands now says something to the effect of, “Well, we actually misspoke in our press release. We did see a sales lift from the viral Snoop ad.” But, they said, “Maybe it wasn’t as intentional as it could have been.”
Solo lesson for all marketers
What can you learn from this Snoop-Solo Brands marketing?
In January, I said Solo Brands had a brilliant concept and an amazing, differentiating story told by an exceptional influencer connected to nothing in the customer’s journey. Yet all the links in the campaign took viewers to Solo Brands’ boring e-commerce storefront. It worked well if you wanted to buy a stove, but not so well for understanding why you might want to buy a stove. I lamented the company had removed Snoop Dogg from the rest of the story to foster a connected experience.
Of course, they didn’t listen to me; it was just good sense from the beginning. But now they seem to have done it.
The new video’s call to action goes to a specially designed part of Solo Brands’ website that pulls the creative, the tone, and everything else to motivate sales. They even created the Snoop edition fire pit.
The best part? The first thing that appears is a sign-up form to get more information by email.
It’s like I said earlier this year. What’s the next best action you want the customer to take once you’ve gotten their attention through an ad, social media post, video, etc.? I don’t mean “next-best,” as in not as good, but rather, the best experience you want a person to have next. Then, you must connect that to your content. After all, you have the audience in your theater; you should hold them there.
Solo Brands addressed this in its new campaign. Hindsight being 20/20, it would have been amazing to directly connect the innovative viral campaign from Snoop to a “best next” action, such as a “stay-tuned-for-the-next-episode” campaign like this one.
But overall, let me be blunt: Solo Brands seems to finally be on fire with its marketing.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute