Why All Brands Should Study Stanley Cup CEO Terence Reilly's Marketing Masterclass

Forbes

Every so often, product marketing creates such a frenzy it becomes its own cultural moment - think Adidas Stan Smiths, Old Spice and Pokémon Go. The Stanley Cup phenomenon definitely fits the bill and is a masterclass in the power of well timed marketing and brand hype. This case study centers on one man, Terence Reilly, who was also responsible for turning Crocs into must have footwear. In this video, Forbes spoke with a number of product marketing experts to dissect what made the Stanley Cup a must have.  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Imagine going back to 1994 and asking people what a hot product would look like in 2024.

00:06 Chances are, it wouldn't resemble a Stanley Cup.

00:10 Yet, here we are.

00:12 The reusable water bottles are one of the most sought-after forms of beverage containment.

00:17 Largely thanks to TikTok,

00:19 Stanley's revenue jumped from $74 million in 2019 to $750 million in 2023.

00:27 But look behind the massive sales,

00:30 and there's a deeper case study in effective product marketing and leveraging cultural momentum.

00:35 I think with the Stanley Cup brand, you're not really buying into Stanley.

00:40 You're buying into the community of all the other girls who have one in their hand.

00:45 And it's very similar, in my opinion, to Jolie, the showerhead company,

00:51 that's gotten pretty popular through customers who post about it.

00:55 And on one hand, it's something to brag about, right?

00:59 You have this amazing piece of hardware in your home.

01:02 It's that with the Stanley Cups as well, but it's also, it's this sense of community.

01:07 Like everybody's got their Stanley Cup, you know, everybody's staying hydrated.

01:11 It's something that signals, you know, only good things.

01:16 Stanley Cup's marketing has been successful in the diversity by which it's gone to market.

01:25 So, I mean, Stanley Cup is a 110-year-old company, right?

01:29 And the products aren't terribly novel since its conception 110 years ago.

01:36 Like the only new product it's had, as far as a new actual product,

01:40 was I think in 2016, 2017, the Quencher Tumbler, right?

01:43 They have different colorways since, but the product has been by and large very much the same.

01:48 But the marketing savviness of Stanley Cup is its ability to not only do the traditional marketing means,

01:55 but also leverage other vehicles by which the message is not only reaching new people,

02:02 but done in new contexts, right?

02:04 This diversity of communication, derivative works,

02:10 provides new opportunities to bring new people into the brand, into the idea.

02:15 So they've partnered with content creators throughout TikTok that have taken the brand,

02:21 taken its products and reworked it through their own cultural frames

02:25 for people who self-identify or subscribe to a similar culture as that creator.

02:32 The success of Stanley's marketing is mainly credited to its company's president, Terrence Riley.

02:37 This is the same man who made Crocs cool during his five-year stint

02:41 as the footwear company's chief marketing officer.

02:44 After Riley saw the now-famous TikTok of a woman's Stanley Cup surviving a car fire and still containing ice,

02:51 he said it showed the product is "built for life" and offered the woman free Stanleys and a new car.

02:58 When I saw that he was at the helm of all this, you go, "Oh, of course."

03:05 Because it is a very similar playbook, not in its executions, but in its ethos,

03:12 in that brands are not owned by the company.

03:17 They are stewarded by the company, but they are co-created.

03:20 Their meanings are co-created by the people.

03:25 And if you invite people in to co-create value, to co-author the narrative,

03:33 to share the pen with these people, to be a part of the mythology and the folklore,

03:39 they'll do things that you could never do.

03:41 They'll take you in places that you can never be.

03:43 They'll provide a level of media creeds that you can never buy.

03:48 Because people trust people more than any form of marketing communications.

03:52 Stanley, the tough, all-steel thermos bottle that's completely dependable.

03:58 Stanley has always been kind of a blue-collar, utilitarian, masculine product, right?

04:04 It had an efficacy, it had a utility.

04:06 And not unlike what Yeti has done with coolers and probably their own tumblers

04:12 and a portfolio of things, they've really found a way to expand appeal,

04:16 to invite new users in, to capture a higher margin by redefining the brand

04:21 for a new generation and new audiences.

04:23 But it's all rooted in the product quality.

04:26 We see the absolute power of scarcity, the absolute appeal of limited editions.

04:33 And importantly, what we also see is desire and demand on full display, right?

04:39 Social commerce hasn't just kind of catalyzed this, it's created community around it,

04:46 which is yet another thing we see here, which is the power of community and ultimately identity.

04:51 Naturally, Stanley's warp speed rise in popularity has not been obstacle-free.

04:57 There were the uncivilized situations at Target,

05:00 the woman who was arrested for allegedly stealing $2,500 worth of cups,

05:04 and customer concerns over potential lead content.

05:08 The company responded to the concerns, saying it does use lead-containing sealing material

05:13 during the manufacturing process, but that the lead-containing parts are covered with stainless steel,

05:19 making the cups safe.

05:21 That prompted competitors like Hydroflask and Ouala to take shots at Stanley in social media posts

05:26 and promote the safety of their own products.

05:29 But none of this appears to be slowing Stanley down.

05:32 They have a much better grasp on who their customer is and who's buying and why they're buying

05:37 than probably most of the players in their category that sell through retail.

05:42 If you look at Stanley as a company, it's not a company that was venture-backed

05:46 and forced to grow over a couple years after launch.

05:50 It's a brand that took its time to grow and mature and build brand affinity.

05:54 And I think that's a great lesson because a lot of people who start a brand today,

05:58 they want it to blow up tomorrow.

06:00 And they want millions of fans who are diehard fans of their brand to be really excited about what they're doing.

06:06 But that takes a lot of time and consistency and continuity over the years.

06:12 The other one, I think, is figuring out how you turn your brand or your marketing engine into,

06:18 you know, instead of a megaphone, more sort of a pure marketing engine.

06:23 I mean, it's interesting because Yeti, Hydroflask, like, these folks were sort of mainstays in the category.

06:31 And again, I've never seen an ad for Hydroflask.

06:35 You know, I've only seen content for Yeti, particularly around the coolers online, but never seen an ad for it.

06:41 But it's the cultural contagion of Stanley that has created such a gravitational pull.

06:50 And I haven't seen the other brands sort of been able to leverage its power in this way,

06:59 which says to me, there's probably a lot of folks looking at this case study,

07:04 their competitors saying, how do we, if not do our version of this,

07:09 but how do we, in a more savvy way of looking at it,

07:13 how do we ignite our own version of cultural contagion in ways that are very unique to us and the people who know us and love us?

07:20 There's no question this isn't just net positive.

07:23 It's net incredibly positive.

07:25 Right. And, you know, mayhem at Target, which is what we saw when they released a limited edition color.

07:31 Right. You know, first of all, people are going to people and that's not Stanley's fault.

07:35 That's not Target's fault. Right.

07:37 You know, idiots are going to be idiots.

07:39 But again, what it does is it shows it shows demand.

07:43 It illustrates desire, puts it on full display.

07:46 We are all desperate, right, to connect, to belong, to express who we are,

07:51 to have a means of identification that is culturally relevant.

07:55 And that's just that's just humans being humans.

07:58 Like we were the same way when we were in the capes.

08:00 The architecture of our brains is unchanged.

08:03 And I don't think it's that bad to have what is a relatively affordable, quote unquote, luxury,

08:08 an accessible, aspirational vehicle.

08:11 You know, if it makes you happy, do it, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

08:14 [MUSIC]

08:24 (upbeat music)

08:27 (upbeat music)

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