Snoop x Solo Stove: The Marketing Magic Behind the Marshmallow

As the CEO of Solo Brands, my team and I were responsible for executing the Snoop X Solo Stove campaign that blazed trails across the Web before Black Friday, reaching almost 7 billion impressions across all media. To say the world was fired up by the collaboration would be an understatement. It was, in the lexicon of the Zoomers: lit.

Now that Snoop has been revealed as the Official Smokesman for Solo Stove, I can finally exhale and share some of the marketing magic behind that smoke(less) event that captured the hearts of the Internet and left us breathless for a moment.

For marketers and business leaders, I thought it would be especially helpful to spell out our decision-making framework, which I believe can help you to create your own brand spark.

But first, ICYMI, check out the original teaser and the campaign finale below:

I’m not going to lie. It all started with a problem: We’ve been around for over a decade and have amassed thousands of loyal customers, but many people still don’t recognize the Solo Stove brand when they hear it. 

We want more people to know who we are and get a taste of what they’re missing. So, we hired an outside marketing team, The Martin Agency, to help us brainstorm ideas to increase brand awareness. The goal: to expand the circle of potential customers who know about us. The laws of supply and demand work a whole lot better that way. 

We weren’t satisfied with our street cred – we call that “unaided brand awareness” in the business world – so, for the first time in our company’s history, we set out to hire a Smokesperson.

We wanted to share the joy of being “smokeless” with everyone – even the last person you'd expect.

Cue: the Doggfather.

Strike Up a Conversation

What we loved about the campaign we came up with was the twist, and Snoop was the perfect Ambassador. Nobody could better encapsulate the plot twist than the Doggfather of smoke giving up the thing he's best known for. The double entendre of going “smokeless” felt fresh and unique to us, but I needed a second opinion from trusted advisors.

I started by checking in with some family and friends (and my own core values) as an internal gauge of what would be appropriate. Keeping your values in check is critical when you’re making important decisions.

This was Solo Stove’s first high-profile collaboration, and I didn’t want to offend our treasured customer base by coming out of the gate guns blazing. I expected my family and friends to err on the side of caution.

When I presented the concept to my wife and son and a couple of friends, they loved it and saw it as an ingenious, unsuspecting campaign and perfect for Snoop, the family-man and proud father and grandfather: “If you pull this off, it will be incredible,” they said.

Having passed the first test, it was time to make the pitch. The only problem: Nobody knew how to get in contact with Snoop, and we had to strike fast if we were going to do it.

Keep Your Mind on Your Money

We are a profit-minded business. I felt comfortable investing some of our hard-earned cash, but we remain convicted in the importance of return on invested capital (ROIC), so there was no wasting time.^[1] From the moment we came up with the idea, it was eight weeks to Black Friday, so the clock was ticking to contact Snoop’s team, sell him on the concept, coordinate production, and release the “teaser” announcement (the setup for the punchline).

If we missed the holiday surge, I felt we were less likely to gain the exposure a campaign like this had the potential to create. Plus, cooler weather creates the best environment for Solo Stove, sales-wise. I knew we had to drop it like it’s hot.

Believe me when I say it’s not easy finding contact information for a high-profile celebrity – at least it wasn’t for us.^[2] Plus, celebrities receive countless sponsorship and collaboration opportunities. If I was going to “sell” Snoop on the idea, I wanted to sell it to him myself.

Luckily, out of the blue our General Counsel at Solo Brands casually mentioned that he knew somebody that might know somebody that might know Snoop. I seized on the possibility and asked him to put me on a group text so I could try to track him down. I quickly had a name and number but even then, I didn’t hear back for almost two weeks. By now, the team is losing hope and shifting to other ideas. After a lot of persistence, I finally got a call. I was standing in the middle of a field at my son’s flag football practice when I saw the agent’s name, picked up the call, and pitched the idea.  

“Just get this in front of Snoop,” I pleaded, confident because the idea was so good. “If he sees it, he’ll love it.” I hung up the phone not knowing if this idea would go anywhere. Keep in mind, we’re now 6 weeks from Black Friday.

A week later, the phone rings, I pick up, and Snoop’s on the other end of the phone: “I hear you have an idea. So, tell me what you’re thinking. What you got?” 

“It’s simple, Snoop. You’re the Doggfather of Smoke. We created smokeless fire. And we want you to give up smoke.”

He was on board in minutes.

I kept my mind on our money (and time), and I kept Snoop Dogg’s money (and time) on my mind. We both knew this was more than a transaction; it was based on mutual appreciation of smoke – or lack thereof – and the harmony we felt transcended the business deal we were making.

Make it Sizzle

It took another two weeks to negotiate and sign the paperwork, which left a two-week window in which to coordinate a production schedule with his team. We were on it.

We knew we had to execute at the highest level – and with precision. We had to make it sizzle. We had one chance to make it work, and no room for error.

Snoop’s team suggested LA as the best option to make it happen in time, so we figured out how to transform a parking lot into a studio space. The production team worked overtime to build a professional set on short notice, so the shot looked like he was sitting in his own backyard. They executed beautifully.

We had a short window in which to film, and the team was firing on all cylinders. Snoop had a script, but in true form, he started riffing. A lot of it was just Snoop speaking off the cuff. The original copy read: “I'm done smelling funky.” But on the very first cut, Snoop made it into his own signature style: “I'm done with the coughing, and my clothes smelling all sticky-icky.”

The whole set erupted in laughter when the director yelled “cut.” We knew immediately we had more than a marketing campaign. We had Internet gold – the kind that money can’t buy.

The Joy of Going Smokeless

Being in the presence of greatness and witnessing him in his element was such a surreal experience. But my favorite moment by far was watching Snoop, up close, with childlike wonder and giddiness in his eyes. In the Snooper Reel, you can hear his authentic reaction to roasting a marshmallow for the very first time at 52 years old. We had no idea this was his first time roasting a marshmallow, much less making a s’more. This is a man who’s no stranger to fire, yet he’s never had the opportunity to roast a marshmallow over an open fire – something that people growing up in a different environment might take for granted.

In a way, Snoop’s experience wasn’t any different than what we see and hear from our customers every day. So many of our customers report back with amazing stories from their own experiences. It’s virtually impossible to quantify the number of inbound reviews and referrals and emails and comments we've gotten from customers all over the globe, who – for the first time or the 500^th time – are gathering around a campfire and creating core memories (the ones that your mind goes to whenever it immediately wants to think of the happiest moments in your life).

There's something indescribable and gratifying knowing that there are more generations being introduced to these moments – these core memories – because of the ingenuity and beauty and accessibility of Solo Stove.

In just being himself, Snoop gave us something special. He embodied the essence of our brand: the childlike wonder, the thrill of heat, and the joy of a smokeless fire. Snoop gave us a chance to fulfill our mission to share good moments with people who have never had the chance to experience it quite like this before. And in the course of a few days, he did it again and again, billions of times over.

Thanks for reading!

^[1] Considering ROIC is so critical when making investments. Too often, teams lose focus of this important metric when executing exciting marketing campaigns.

^[2] Even with the help of our marketing agency, we struggled to get in front of Snoop himself.

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