PODCAST: Creating Buzz for CPG Brands with TaleSplash's Amy Jackson

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Amy: I think differentiation is going to continue to be the primary value of PR because there are so many new brands launching every day. It's not just about what you put on your social media or what videos you crank out on social media. It's really what consumers find when they go looking for the best kind of product in your category. And they trust journalists to do that kind of fact checking and legwork to bubble up. What are the best products out there? You're listening to CPG launch leaders, the show where we interview new product trailblazers. Get ready for inspiration and secrets from the front lines of CPG innovation. Now here are our hosts, Darcy Rambler and Alan Peretz.

Darcy: Welcome to CPG launch leaders. I'm Darcy Ramler. Today we're thrilled to chat with Amy Jackson, the founder and CEO of Tailsplash. Tailsplash is a boutique PR agency that has been helping create brand buzz in the industry for over 20 years. Today, she'll be sharing her insights on how PR can be a game changer for CPG brands looking to launch new products and connect with their audience in a meaningful way. Amy, welcome to the show.

Amy: Thank you, Darcy.

Darcy: We're beyond excited to hear about some of your most memorable campaigns and to get your take on how PR efforts play into successful product and brand launches. Before we dive in, I love to start each episode with one particular question. Currently, what new product has caught your attention in the marketplace?

Amy: I am a big fan of all things beauty that a busy mom like myself can use after the kids go to bed. So, like, give me a great product in the shower or after the shower. And m one of my favorite brands right now is Motif, which has a really elegant product that you put on your face. You can leave it there for a few minutes and just kind of chill out.

Darcy: I love it. Well, as a mom of two, I am definitely going to need to try that out because I am the same way. It's like it's either right before bedtime or it has to be in my shower and easy for me, accessible and can't last longer than ten minutes. Cause we know we get no time without mom. Mom.

Amy: Right, exactly.

Darcy: So, as we mentioned when we kinda introduced you, you've had an extensive career in PR, starting in the food industry, correct?

Amy: Right.

Darcy: Yeah.

Amy: Um, one of my first clients where I got to do some very exciting projects was the us potato board. And this was during the Atkins era, where potatoes were getting a bad rap. And so I was part of a team that helped educate consumers about the nutritional benefits of potatoes. When prepared in a healthier way. And it took us all the way to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade where we had a balloon that was healthy Mister Potato head, and we did a pop up store in Chelsea market called Healthy Mister Potato headquarters, naturally. So it was a really fun way to start my career, and I still love telling the story to this day.

Darcy: That's amazing. I always say PR, there's two things that come out of a challenge within PR. You get the opportunity to really have an amazing campaign and make a difference, and then it challenges you to really think outside the box. And as you said, who were to think potatoes were going to have a bad rap? But as diet changes and as trends happen, there's a lot that you have to consider from a PR standpoint.

Amy: Absolutely. And that really is something that holds true to this day, because there's a lot of challenges going on with the climate and with AI regulation and with health, and there's amazing innovative companies out there. And those are some of our favorite clients to work with because there's a lot of educational opportunities working side by side with the media.

Darcy: Well, as we kind of discussed, you went from the food industry to now, eventually really founding your own agency, which is a remarkable path. And I'm always a big fan of women leaders and paving way there. But as we kind of talk and going into now, your true life as a founder, when it comes to launching a new product, what is the most effective PR strategies that you've seen for CPG brands?

Amy: So time is the most important element in the world of PR, and that plays out in a few different ways. So if you have a new product that you're thinking about launching, you don't want to wait until the last minute to get PR support for your brand. You really have one shot at launching as far as the media is concerned. And they want to hear from you weeks in advance. They want to be offered a preview under embargo, which means they're agreeing not to publish a story until the day and time of the launch. And that means you need to work with your PR agency or your PR team to have a, uh, press release that you can share with them weeks in advance of that launch day. And in order to get to a place where that press release or that announcement is crafted and really shows how you're differentiated as a product, that work needs to start a couple months out. And to get that work started a couple months out, you really have to think about optimal times of the year to begin working together. So we love when brands come to, uh, us with a launch in mind for three months from now. And, you know, we always say there's windows in the world of PR because reporters, fortunately, finally take time off in the month of December. But they're, they're filing stories, especially if it's related to, like, holiday gift guides. They're filing those stories anytime between August and October. So, you know, just thinking early in terms of planning a PR strategy is critical, and then give it time, because even after launch, there's a lot of opportunities to get coverage. So things like being part of a best of list or being featured as part of a gift guide throughout the year that's not tied to the typical holiday season, those are things that take time and will give you more opportunities beyond your launch as well.

Darcy: I love that. And when people kind of start to think about, really, PR and the strategy behind it, I mean, it can be overwhelming, right? Like you say, time and being able to play through it and not expecting that there's so much that goes on behind the scenes that most people aren't privy to or see within that. Um, but speaking of time m and what it takes to this launch, earned media can be so valuable for creating authentic buzz, right? You always want it. You don't want it to seem manufactured. You want it to seem authentic to who's receiving it. Um, how do you help secure that all important media coverage? You know, as we said, it could be overwhelming to one person. And what role does it play in a successful product launch?

Amy: So there's a lot of different ways to engage with journalists. One of my favorite ways is to respond to their requests. So if they're looking for new products to review, that's the best case scenario for actually getting coverage. What pains me is when I see really beautiful CPG brands shipping boxes without asking ahead of time if, like, an influencer or journalist wants to review it. And then I go on TikTok and see these videos where influencers are sitting in front of, like, towers of boxes and they're like, ha ha, I haven't even opened these. So that is my message to CPG brands. Do not just ship your product willy nilly to influencers and hope that that turns into something. Work with a PR team to help you respond to journalists that are asking for your product, or influencers that are asking for your product that are genuinely interested, and then that's gonna lead to some potential coverage, the other element. So that's sort of the inbound requests. You're responding to a need, then there's being proactive. And that's where something like a press release can come in handy. If you're launching, especially press releases create a lot of confusion in the industry because a lot of times founders come to us and think, oh, I just do a press release once. Uh, and that's how all the coverage appears. And it's, it's just a tool in the toolbox. It's something that helps a reporter get to the meat of what you're announcing and how you're different, but it's also something that has some built in SEO value. So it, uh, think of it as like a discoverable piece of information about you. So that's really what a press release is for. But what ultimately leads to coverage is having a team that's doing the work to reach out to journalists on a regular basis. Sometimes that's once a month or more. And so the work doesn't stop leading up to the launch. And at the launch, the work continues to, you know, be creative about different seasonal angles that are a, uh, fit for your brand. That makes sense because the journalist is thinking about the same angle too.

Darcy: Absolutely. And I think you brought up a really good point about being searchable and having really, that press release out there. I think so many people think press releases a little bit more in a traditional space always. And as the world has become more digital than it ever has. Right. We always talk about 80% of consumers engage with a new brand in the first time in the digital space. Being able to search and know, like that initial press release or that launch is the first thing that's coming up to a consumer or a buyer, you know, on the other side of things, and then also connecting. There's so many different points from that press release that needs to be connected. Do you show up on the website, on the homepage, when a launch happens? Are you entering that in from a blog standpoint, like, different ways that you can really navigate that? Speaking of digital, you brought up and you started to talk a little bit about influencers. I would love to hear a little bit more about how you see social media and influencer marketing complementing traditional pr efforts, especially for CPG brands these days.

Amy: Yeah, they absolutely complement and they overlap. So for starters, once you get media coverage, you want to share that in your social channels, because not everybody is monitoring the media outlets websites looking for articles and stumbling across your brand. Right? So it's really important, once you get coverage, to feature it both in your social media feed, but also make sure even in your profile that you say as featured in on your homepage of your website as featured in, and put those really well known trusted media logos, because it adds that third party validation when a consumer is doing their due diligence on YouTube. And then as far as influencers go, there are certainly ways to engage with influencers directly. But what I like to remind people is that many journalists are also influencers themselves. And so we think about influencers in a very similar way that we do. Freelance writers. Freelance writers can be a gateway to many different lifestyle publications with one contact. And a lot of times they're working in a similar way to influencers in that they're interested in having a product shipped to them to play around with themselves. And then they might end up using that, uh, in an article, or they might end up featuring it on their social media profiles and they have a big following because they contribute to these publications that are well known. So you really want to think about lifestyle media in a very similar way to influencers.

Darcy: Bring up a really valid point is influencers used to mean something, then we go into micro influencers. If you ask my twelve year old, she would say, probably her and her friends are all influencers. At the same token, they want to be exactly, exactly in their minds, they're influencers. But I think to your point is, always making sure you're looking at every point of contact is a potential opportunity to play that role within that.

Amy: Yeah, I think it's tempting for CPG brands to look at like TikTok or other platforms where the younger generation are spending their time, even YouTube, and maybe forego traditional media, but they really work hand in hand and it's an important part of the market that still trusts and pays attention to traditional media outlets as well.

Darcy: Yeah, I think your word you use is like they complement and they overlap. And I think people that can really see that connectivity are the ones that are having the best results when utilizing it. Well, if you don't mind, could you share maybe a success story where social media played a pivotal role in amplifying those pr, uh, efforts for a product launch?

Amy: Yeah, so one of our favorite clients has an accessory line for women with curly hair. So she has silk scrunchies and headbands and bows and lots of fun things. And basically she built her following on Instagram and TikTok before launching the brand, and later decided to weave in a pr strategy and brought us on board. And what was so interesting in working with her is we first started pitching holiday gift guide editors. But what we found is that other types of business publications and more mainstream news. Was fascinated with her rise as an influencer before she launched her own brand. And so that became a story in itself. And we've also allowed her to become, um, more visible through industry awards. She actually just won two self healthy beauty awards.

Darcy: That's amazing. And I do think, you know, it's interesting, we've had a few guests on that their products or their brand started from COVID happening, them going to social media, doing certain things within, um, social media. And then it kind of the reverse happened. The PR then started to come in. But as you said, really can be a complementary feature of, uh, when those two connect, it's a very, very powerful opportunity. So PR often needs to move at the speed of news cycle, right. But as we know, and I can attest to this, working with large CPG brands, they can be a little bit slower to react. You've got legal, you've got a lot of things you've got to go through in order not only to get to a launch, but claims what can be said and so forth. How do you navigate these challenges and what advice do you have for brands looking to be more agile?

Amy: So there are typical scenarios that we see play out over and over within certain industries where journalists are looking for responses to a certain set of questions and we see kind of patterns where we'll start to notice the same questions are asked over and over again when journalists are asking for, you know, to review a product. We see this, the same seasonality each year. You know, things around like summer travel or, you know, back to school or heading into the holiday season, healthy resolutions in the new year, Valentine's Day. There's a lot of seasonality to consumer media that you can predict and plan for. So if you're in a situation where you have to really prepare and get those messages and campaign materials approved, you kind of can work through that seasonality well in advance and then also pay attention to what are the kinds of requests we're getting from journalists that are more evergreen? What are those best of lists focused on? And get that set of answers kind of pre approved so that when you see a, uh, request pop up where a reporter's on deadline, you're ready to respond with something that's already been approved.

Darcy: Hey, CBG leaders. For decades, product launches have relied too heavily on what consumers say they'll do rather than what they actually do. The result, 70% of new products fail within the first two years. Needless to say, it's a tough market out there. But don't worry bold labs can help. We use transactional shopper data to help you better gauge size of the prize market, viability and consumer perception, all before your new product ever hits the shelves. How? By combining the best traditional and digital testing methods to engage with shoppers already in the buying mindset. These real world interactions yield actionable data. Thats right. No more guessing, no more surprises, and most importantly, no more costly innovation fails. Bold Labs has saved brands millions by optimizing, optimizing every stage of the product lifecycle. So are you ready to de risk your next launch? Make your innovation decisions with confidence. Reach out for your custom learning plan at ah boldlabs.com dot. You've worked with both large enterprise brands and scrappy startups. What do you think are the biggest differences in how they approach pr and what lessons can they possibly learn from each other? And I have to say, like, I've worked on both sides, so I definitely can. It takes being able to be nimble and flexible on both. Is they both have challenges and advantages for sure?

Amy: Absolutely. And this is a great question because I have had experiences in big companies and work with a lot of startups now at Tailsplash. And one of the reasons we love startups is because they're so innovative, they're bringing something to market that's new and that is a natural opportunity for journalists to feature those products because there's novelty, there's differentiation that they can, you know, bring into the coverage. The challenge, of course, comes down to resources, and that could mean time because a founder is wearing many hats or it can mean budget. And sometimes they have to make trade offs with how they're spending their marketing dollars, whereas a larger company has more of a predictable, you know, annual budget to work with. And so you can really plan for, you know, months ahead what kinds of campaigns you want to do together. The challenge with bigger companies is that journalists want access to the source. And so if you have to work through a lot of layers of spokespeople, for example, it might be tricky to be in a position to respond to a journalist on short notice.

Darcy: Absolutely. And I think you hit it the nail on the head when you talk about it's amazing to work with the scrappy startups because they are quick and they're nimble and it is easy to, you know, they can be a little bit more provocative in what they say or the chances that they take within there. But time and budget is limited as well. So you almost have to in turn be scrappy with what they're working with and then on the other side of working with large brands, you can have a lot bigger budget and a farther reach, and you a lot of times have brand recognition and it's easier on that, but you are a lot more confined and limited about how creative you can be at the end of the day.

Amy: Yeah, absolutely. I think there's something really exciting about being in a position to respond to breaking news if it's relevant for your industry. And we've seen that work really well for our clients that are smaller.

Darcy: That's amazing. So in our ever evolving PR landscape, what new trends or tools are you most excited about that can really help brand stand out?

Amy: So we have a full tech stack, and I come from the world of technology, so I'm a big fan of like, efficiency and, you know, finding your audience where your audience congregates. And so there's a lot of platforms now where journalists go to request products and services to review or to connect with an expert for a story that we're working on. So we've really managed to assemble a whole system of places and channels to go to know what journalists are looking for. Uh, many of them, freelance writers in particular, are good about publishing their own sub stack newsletters, looking for sources, and then there's really great tools for actually pitching journalists and knowing what they're writing about in real time. So, you know, if what you're pitching them still makes sense or if they've moved to a different beat. So technology is really helping make us better at our job, and then on the podcast side of things, it's helping us find great podcasts to work with because it's a newer, such an emerging field and technology is now making it easier for us to find each other.

Darcy: Yeah, and as you kind of move into using different tools and what does measurement look like as you look at what's a successful campaign, how are you measuring that for your brands?

Amy: So it really depends on the brand. Some newer brands just want that baseline of coverage and trusted publications, and that's going to help them really show their legitimacy as a new product to purchase. For our more sophisticated PR programs, we are connecting data from different places. So if we're able to see referring traffic to Google Analytics, we can look at if, uh, an article actually includes a backlink, which many do not. So that's just, you have to work within the system.

Darcy: Is that referring all of our SEO people? It would hurt their heart to hear that most don't have a backlink.

Amy: It's really tricky. So you have to place value on what makes sense for a given piece of coverage? If there's a backlink, fantastic. It might be a no follow link, but we'll live with it. And then if it doesn't have a backlink, you can still use it to market your reach on social media and in newsletters and in other marketing channels. Or it might still help SEO. Right? So there's like different kind of metrics that you can place on coverage. It could be more at the top of the funnel as like a brand awareness play. It could be more further down the funnel and actually sending you traffic. What I, uh, am always preaching about is the PR industry has a hard time with measurement and always has. And I'm hopeful that with all this new technology, including AI, that measurement will get easier. But it's still much more manual than you would expect in 2024.

Darcy: You know, there's a lot of parts and pieces that still exists. I, um, think retail media, you know, sitting on that side of the fence is we still have that. It's measuring attribution. What is it influencing in store? There's so many great tools that are out there and existing, but like you said, it is tying all those measurements together to get that impact. And as people, as I think brands are requiring more and more data and more metrics, is tools are going to be forced to be, have to show some of those in order for them to really believe in the investments that they're making. Without a doubt. So to switch gears a little bit, um, just talking founder and obviously going through, starting your pr journey, as we kind of talked in the food service side of things, can you talk a little bit about that adventure as a founder? Lessons learned. I always like to say lessons learned. The good, the bad, the ugly. You know, there's always things that I think people listen and kind of that are looking to take a leap of faith sometimes. You know, they come from a lot of big organizations and then want to take that step out on their own. Love to hear any advice that you have on that side of things.

Amy: Yeah, I have really had a different experience every year of the business. And I would say if you have a great network and you connect with people over the course of your career, that network is going to come in handy if you launch your own business. And so I encourage everybody to, like, keep those connections, stay connected, because those were my first clients. It was all people I had previously worked with or new personally. And then as the years went on, that started to shift and I tried out more marketing channels myself as a founder and in response to that, I started to build out my team, and with that comes the challenge of, uh, balancing the growth of the team with the growth of the business. And so I'm in a very different place now, looking at profitability and things that I never had experience doing when I was working in corporate or for agencies in my past life. So, absolutely.

Darcy: When you are a founder, you find hats you didn't even know you knew how to wear.

Amy: That's right, that's right. But it's part of the fun. It's why I love it. I love problem solving and puzzles and it's fascinating.

Darcy: So you have to be. I think one of the things I always say is you have to be able to look at the deck of cards, shuffle it, lay it out a million different ways, reshuffle. Like you said, it's the problem solving aspect of it to really be humble enough to say you're always learning. Right? And there's always something more to learn, something new to figure out, is, I think, always the key to pushing forward and finding more success within, you know, being a founder, being a CEO of that nature, you have to be inquisitive and want to be able to learn every day.

Amy: Yeah. And incredibly persistent. And you just keep going, no matter what. Just keep going.

Darcy: Absolutely. And as you said, it's the power of referral, too, it seems CPG, or even just in the industry of brands, it seems like such a large world, but it's also such a small world. And obviously, LinkedIn continues to show that every day when you connect with someone new and then you guys have mutual connections, but it is a very small world and it's very powerful what people say and willing to refer. And that testimonial goes a long way as you're building your business.

Amy: Absolutely. And one of my favorite groups to stay connected to is fellow female agency owners, because we really help each other out and those, uh, referrals can, can mean everything. So 100%.

Darcy: So, finally, as we're looking ahead, how do you really see the role of PR evolving for CPG brands?

Amy: I think differentiation is going to continue to be the primary value of PR because there are so many new brands launching every day. It's not just about what you put on your social media or what videos you crank out on social media. It's really what consumers find when they go looking for the best kind of product in your category, and they trust journalists to do that kind of fact checking and legwork to bubble up. What are the best products out there?

Darcy: Is there any other advice you would give to brands that are trying to focus on staying ahead of the curve. Curve and it's constantly changing. But any other advice that you may have to share?

Amy: I would say give it time. PR is not the same pace of testing and learning as other marketing channels. So you really have to see it through and it starts to accrue and build over time. So the more coverage that you get, the more coverage becomes available to you. And I love the interplay of being featured on a podcast and then being in an article and, like, how those can also help complement one another, too. So don't assume it's going to be the same as spending on advertising, for example. It's not that direct relationship between time and results. It really takes a concerted effort. And the best brands that we've worked with in terms of getting media coverage, we've been working with for at least two years, if not longer. So it just takes time.

Darcy: Absolutely. And even on the digital agency side of things, I mean, the stat now is it usually takes three or four touches of a consumer before you convert them. So imagine upper funnel, what you're looking at of really, I think a lot of times the consumers now it gets into, wait, I've seen that. I've seen it again. Now I'm starting to peak interest. Let's go ahead and kind of discover that before they even enter in that discovery phase.

Amy: Yeah. And brands that have, like, a viral moment, I always like to remind people, like, for every viral moment, there's hundreds of moments that did not go viral. So, you know, you have to tell millions.

Darcy: Exactly. Exactly. Uh, I know everybody always. Well, and I always say the other interesting thing, to your point of the viral moment, people will always define it as, oh, my gosh, this new brand that had this viral moment, when you actually look into the poppies of the world or the different people, like the different brands that are out there, a lot of them have been around for eight years, ten years. They are not this new brand to the CPG world. They've actually been just clawing their way up and then maybe had their moment in the spotlight, which is amazing. And then you have to capitalize on it. But most of them are not just, we launched six months ago, had this moment and they're. And now we're in this explosive brand.

Amy: Exactly. There's really no such thing as an overnight success.

Darcy: Exactly. So. Well, Amy, thank you so much for sharing your insights into the power of PR with us today. Stories like yours remind us to keep innovating, stay inspired, and let's continue to redefine the world of CPG innovation. Thank you so much.

Amy: Thank you for having me. This is so much fun.

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