Julia Perez is CMO of OWYN, a plant-based nutrition company that specializes in top-eight allergy-free ready-to-drink protein shakes available online and at major retailers including Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Publix, Kroger and more. Julia got her start as a Red Bull girl in college, before working at a boutique digital agency and joining Core Water as their first digital hire. After a successful exit from Core Water, she consulted for other food and beverage brands before eventually joining OWYN. Julia is an expert in field marketing, promotional marketing, working with influencers, and creating brand alignment between CPG products & consumers.
On this episode of DTC Pod, CMO Julia Perez chats with Blaine about everything related to OmniChannel growth. They talk about the importance of understanding the customer on a deeper level, the attention to detail of the Red Bull team, and the need for solid processes. They also cover topics like content marketing, retail strategy, unified brand messaging, field marketing, positioning, creator briefs, finding ad arbitrages, building new product lines, and more.
[00:01:00] Plant-based nutrition company, known for ready-to-drink protein shakes, top 8-allergy free, mission to clean up protein space, transparency and healthier products.
[00:04:10] Addressing medical needs and cultural space simultaneously with cool, delicious flavors.
[00:07:17] Career journey in beverage, CPG, digital, wellness, and fitness marketing, culminating in successful business exit.
[00:12:41] Have a team that understands the brand. Stay focused and understand your customer. Building team and understanding brand, customer, and strengths; focus and not adapting to competitors.
[00:21:37] Focus on brand mission, understand customer needs and habits, invest in retail and train sales associates.
[00:26:26] Red Bull gear was restricted to Wings team members and education pamphlets were required with every can. Two team members were required on a mission and gifts had to be given with one hand in the pamphlet and one hand in the bottle.
[00:34:18] Testing field marketing programs in New York and South Florida.
[00:38:38] Switch influencer budget to TikTok for more impressions and reach right customer with right message.
[00:43:13] Approved by registered dietitian; empowering consumers; unified messaging.
[00:47:49] Innovating new product line, investing in medical marketing and retail, growing subscription base.
Building Something from Nothing:
"Creating a brand and a personality out of this beautiful water bottle and telling a story"— Julia Perez 00:07:17
Team and Understanding Are Paramount:
"Right away I'm thinking about the team. It's really all about the team and understanding. It's really important to have someone in the content position who deeply understands the brand and the lifestyle you're trying to convey. Know your strengths as a CMO and build a team that can fill the things you're not so good at. Focus on your own brand and how your customers use it, rather than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole."— Julia Perez 00:12:41
Staying Focused on Your Brand:
"Going back to staying focused on what your brand is delivering and what your brand's mission and purpose is, because it's really easy to see what other peers are doing in the space that might be more D to C or might be more Amazon, and you might want to try things and test things out. But again, going back to the customer's position is that we are not a deed to C exclusive brand, and nor is that where the majority of our growth is coming from. So while it might be fun to do all these fun D to See tech implementations all the time, it's not necessarily what Owen needs to be doing. So, again, like, staying focused on what's driving your business and not getting distracted with what competitors are doing is key."— Julia Perez 00:21:37
Data-Driven Field Marketing:
"We're very data driven. We're still a startup, so we're not just going to build out a whole field marketing team and go from there. We have a DTC business, we have an Amazon business. We have so many other focuses we need to focus on. So we're going to be doing testing over time."— Julia Perez 00:34:18
Leveraging Nano Influencers on TikTok:
"We decided, well, I looked at it. I said, let's just switch all of our influencer budget to TikTok, everything, and let's just spend there and we can get a lot more for our money. And we can work with Nano influencers and have you know, for an example, instead of having three influencers talk about you for the month of February, you could have 30 for the same price and you still have the same number of impressions. Make more impressions."— Julia Perez 00:38:38
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Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.
Additional episodes you might like:
• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth
• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content
• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views
• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands
• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook
• #243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands
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Julia Perez - CMO of OWYN
Ramon Berrios - CEO of Trend.io
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated