DIP 009: Building a digital playground
PLUS: Everlane's Rothy's, Glossier builds a "New Business Team," and Ikea meets Memphis Milano
đ Hi. Welcome to June. This oral history of Bennington College during the â80s from Esquire is phenomenal. RIYL: The Secret History, Bret Easton Ellis, liberal arts college drama, and/or performative personas. It all seems destined to be made into an HBO miniseries. As always, reply with questions, comments, or additional thoughts about anything you read here.
The Chips đ
Sweetgreenâs first national ad campaign seems to take a cue from Entireworldâs look and feel.
Everlane made Rothyâs and is expanding upon its ReNew concept with both ReKnit and ReCotton textiles.
Flat-pack furniture company Floyd is launching drawers that slide under its signature low-profile bed.
Great Jones launched a recipe recommendation hotline. Text 1-814-BISCUIT on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4â8pm EST for dinner inspo and cooking tips.
Birchbox Man is now Birchbox Grooming. Related: Goop now has a menâs vertical.
Glossier is building out a New Business team to set it up for future growth.
The brilliant Leah Fessler spoke with Ethels Club founder Naj Austin and advisor Roxane Gay about the new spaceâs mission to combat erasure and fill voids created by gentrification.
High-end Ikea hack company Reform has a new Memphis Milano-inspired design.
Interactive home gym Mirror is about to close a round of funding that will value it at $300M.
The Dip đŠ
In an attempt to wean themselves from ad dollars, media brands have found ways to diversifying revenue streams. Theyâll host ticketed events, put up paywalls, white-label products for outside retailers, and may launch commerce platforms of their own.
DIP 006 mentioned Man Repellerâs forthcoming shop. It launched this morning, and I was able to chat with their team to learn more about how it all came to be.
Forks In The Road
The symbiosis of content and commerce has been touted as a solution to mediaâs woes. Affiliate programs, which allow media outlets to earn a cut of sales attributed to their content, have proven successful (the NYTimes purchased Wirecutter for $30M in 2016 and began seeing returns almost immediately), but itâs owned commerce that Iâm more interested in. Seventy percent of Goopâs revenue comes from product, and more than two-thirds of Food52âs revenue comes from its shop.
More often than not, when a media brand launches a shop, it functions as a marketplace. It sells product from other brands and often relies on drop-shipping to fulfill orders. Some, like Goop, Food52, and Hodinkee, have launched high-margin private label collections. High Snobiety has taken a different route, stepping into commerce with high-profile, content-backed collaborations, like its recent Prada Linea Rossa capsule.
When done well, commerce operations not only provide media brands with additional revenue but also build community.
Meet Repeller
âRepeller is an experimental extension of Man Repeller in the form of cheerful accessories,â explained Dasha Faires, the brandâs director of product development.
Itâs six months in the making and grew out of an even more experimental project: Man Repellerâs Holiday Buffet. The brand is now looking to expand upon its learnings (and success) with another round of small, irreverent accessories.
Repeller will be releasing product in waves throughout the summer. The collection is meant to be viewed as one, Faires explained, but drops will be staggered so that accessories can be merchandised around editorial themes. Man Repeller will also publish content in tandem with each release.
Your Digital Playground
Repellerâs site experience immediately sets it apart from any other commerce operation, media-run or otherwise. Users land on a splash page with two choices â Play or Shop. Faires called it an A/B test: âWe get to see what percentage of people want to have a regular shopping experience, and what percentage of our community really wants to dive in and do this weird, digital playground experience.â
Itâs undeniably fun, with interactive, parallax elements similar to those employed by Recess and Magic Spoon. Itâs a site that rewards clicking, exploring, and engaging. While Repeller exists to sell you something, nothing about the experience is overtly transactional. As Faires explained:
I always get this feeling of sameness when Iâm seeing what brands are doing and putting out there. I'm really drawn to anyone who has a really interesting look and feel, but still in that, I'm just like, well, there's so much sameness in the world. Why don't we mix it up a little bit and try to break the internet, if you will, and innovate? ⊠So, what does it look like to reskin the ecommerce site and give the consumer a new experience?
Take It Offline
For the Holiday Buffet, the Man Repeller team hosted a pop-up with vegan bakery Sweets by CHLOE. This time around, itâs partnering with Morgensternâs, one of New Yorkâs best ice cream spots. Leandra Medine (founder of Man Repeller) and Nick Morgenstern (owner of Morgensternâs) crafted five ice cream bars whose flavors correspond to Repellerâs merchandised releases.
When Glossier launched its flavored Balm Dotcoms in 2016, it partnered with Morgensternâs to create push-pops whose flavors aligned with the new products. In both instances, the partnership celebrates a launch and fosters community engagement.
Man Repeller and Glossier (more specifically, Into The Gloss) have a lot in common. They launched at around the same time, they lead with content, and theyâve built hyper-engaged communities. Yet Man Repellerâs approach to commerce seems far more intertwined with its content than Glossierâs ever was.Â
Repeller is a direct extension of Man Repellerâs point of view, whereas Glossier has always been able to stand on its own. In this regard, Repeller feels wholly community-driven, made for those who would sooner choose Play than Shop. It doesnât scream commerce, yet thatâs exactly what makes it so successful.
Still Hungry?
Each Holiday Buffet purchase came with a Man Repeller-branded chip clip. Customers were so smitten with it that the team chose to package each Repeller item in a useful, kitchen-related tool (think: a hot handle holder as a sunglass case, and earrings and barrettes in food storage containers).
Real Dip đș
Start with two cups of unsalted cashews. Boil some water and put the cashews in a heatproof bowl. When the water is boiling, pour it over the cashews. Cover the bowl with a large plate or lid â something to prevent too much steam from escaping. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then strain the cashews and save the liquid â youâll need it in a minute.
Put the cashews in a blender along with several handfuls of herbs (basil, parsley, mint â do what feels right), a big glug of white wine vinegar (white vinegar or rice vinegar work, too), a three-finger pinch of salt, and a cup of the soaking liquid (told you youâd need it).
Blend, pausing to scrape down the sides and add splashes of liquid as needed, until the dip is smooth. Plays well with grilled things, like asparagus, corn, and peppers.
Thanks for snacking,
â Emily đ¶