Sold out Jetlon SuperCritical , high-rebound foam . Vibram light , high-abrasion, 4 part rubber outsole Breathable ,monofilament upper with fused TPU structural support “web” 7mm Drop , 18mm forefoot and 25mm heel stack Sits low in ankle with an ultra soft tongue and interior Tarantula fits true to size
Source: Tarantula
Brandblack is one of the most confusing companies in footwear. In July, (the link above), I wrote that Brandblack’s website was once again live. I shared pictures of the footwear being released by the brand. The offerings were lifestyle models heavily influenced by performance tech. I was doing some research on performance running and website traffic and because I had been searching through a lot of brands, my social feed adjusted and delivered me ads accordingly. One of those ads was from Brandlack for their new model, the Tarantula (I hope the ad carries over from Facebook below):
The video is a stylized training video, that doesn’t really hit all of the marks I like to see in content from brands. There isn’t any talking. The electronic music feels like its meant for the runway, which would fit the aesthetics of Brandblack the last few years. Many of the items that would randomly appear on the site were fashion launches suited to compete with Kith or other streetwear brands at New York Fashion Week.
Which is why I state that the brand is confusing. Remember this is also the company that created a basketball shoe for Jamaal Crawford a few years back.
Brandblack is an excellent company to discuss a number of topics, but for the sake of brevity I’ll narrow this down to a couple of points:
- Brandblack’s performance running launch of the Tarantula makes perfect sense and is timely.
- Brandblack creates their content in Vimeo, not YouTube, but they have placed energy and marketing dollars into YouTube via two completely different influencer marketing campaigns.
Performance running interest has skyrocketed since March.
- Brooks’ website has grown in monthly traffic from 1.5 Million to a peak of 2.65 Million per month.
- Saucony’s website has grown in monthly traffic from 680,000 to 1.1 Million per month.
- ASICS’ website has grown in monthly traffic from 4.4 Million to a peak of 6.85 Million per month.
- HokaOneOne’s website has grown in monthly traffic from 1 Million to a peak of 1.5 Million per month.
- On-Running’s website has grown in monthly traffic from 1.35 Million to a peak of 2.3 Million per month.
Performance running sales growth has almost certainly coincided with this interest in running. It makes sense that Brandblack would look at this category, but footwear production isn’t something that takes place in 3 months. The timeline for production has decreased, but I’m sure the Tarantula was on the board for production last year. Which moves me towards my other point of discussion, why isn’t Brandblack generating their own content beyond the video above for their social media campaign?
The company has instead done something they’ve done consistently since they were making basketball shoes. There isn’t any way for me to quantify if this has been a success, but the YouTube channel Weartesters has been a go to for a number of brands. Almost every shoe Brandblack has made has been given to Weartesters.
It makes sense because the channel has over half a million subscribers and a website that gets 326,000 visits per month. If I applied my 10% rule to the total amount of people possibly converted by the Weartesters brand, the YouTube channel could convert 500 people and the site 326 people. These are rough numbers, but on a monthly basis Weartesters might be able to capture 800+ people that they reach. Here is the problem with this for Brandblack, those are Weartester’s fans. The conversion from the Weartester’s platform to Brandblack’s point of purchase according to my 10% strategy is barely 1 person. (In a presentation I could explain my 10% rule, but once again, I’m trying to keep this short.)
Brandblack’s marketing strategy becomes stranger when you look at the additional influencer marketing route of aligning with RoadTrailRun on YouTube. The channel only has 9,000 subscribers. The two videos couldn’t be more different. RTR gave me my first bit of information in regard to Brandblack and why they could be moving as they are. In the video below the reviewer states that Brandblack is a partner with Vibram and is functioning as their design studio 2:23. Brandblack was also assisted in being established by Skechers, but Brandblack is independent now. The two founders of Brandblack worked on the Skechers running division that produced the incredible running footwear for Skechers:
I stated that I wanted to get to two points here. The interest in running is apparent in the website growth for performance running brands. The marketing strategy for Brandblack is why I wrote this post. Brandblack doesn’t have a YouTube channel. When you create a video for YT you can generate cards. These cards allow you to link to another YT channel. This enables both parties to benefit from the video being created. While there are links in both videos to the Brandblack site, my YT as a reference shows that CTR is not very high and is about 3%. Unfortunately this 3% is broken down between about 10 different ways and the description of a video isn’t included. Also the YouTube App is growing in views on televisions and the description isn’t accessible at all. My 3% is only for me and I only have around 3000 subs, but ratios actually work.
When you combine the use of Social media ads, which aren’t that effective because of the scroll/flick factor, with the fact that the video isn’t informative at all Brandblack seems to be taking a very odd approach to the delivery of product. Could it be that the company’s status as a developer of product for Vibram is a part of the marketing strategy for Vibram?
I’d like to get your thoughts on this one.