Lauren Campbell 00:03
Actually we are also we are not on Amazon at the moment. Yeah, good for you
Andrew Maff 00:59
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the E comm show. As usual. I am your host, Andrew Maff, and today I am joined by the amazing Lauren Campbell, who is the CMO over at Firefly recovery. Lauren, how are you doing? Ready for a for good show?
Lauren Campbell 01:12
I'm doing well. I'm excited. How are you?
Andrew Maff 01:15
I'm doing good. I'm super excited to talk to you as well. I've done so much work in the fitness space, so it's always kind of fun to like, let's talk shop stuff. But everyone knows, I always start these off relatively stereotypically. I like to give you the floor and just tell us a little bit about your background, how you got started with Firefly, and then we'll take it from there.
Lauren Campbell 01:33
Great. I worked in the consumer marketing space for about 20 years for Nestle, who was located here in Burbank, California. They relocated to Arlington, Virginia, and at that point, I started my own consulting business. And at the time, I had a boyfriend who's now my husband, and he was starting to work on this business called Firefly recovery, and at the time, they were really focused on more of a B2B model selling to pro and collegiate teams. And I saw such a huge opportunity in the consumer space, and really wanting to help them blow out their consumer marketing. So I started outdoing some consulting for the business, and as we started to gain traction and see some success, I became more and more involved, until ultimately joining as a partner in the business and becoming the CMO
Andrew Maff 02:37
Awesome. That is quite, quite the timeline, quite the story. They tell us a little before we get into the business and all the fun stuff about that, tell us a little bit about the product and how it works.
Lauren Campbell 02:48
Absolutely so the product is an adapted medical device. The medical device is used to increase blood flow, and we leverage that same technology in an over the counter format that anyone can buy online and in some select retail stores. And what we do is we stimulate a nerve called the peroneal nerve to increase blood flow. And by increasing blood flow, we can help athletes and travelers feel fresher, recover faster, reduce soreness. So essentially, it's a small wearable device that does really big things
Andrew Maff 03:26
Nice. Now the recovery space is getting massive. Like, there's, I feel like there's always something new coming out. You know, saunas were cool for a while, a while ago. Then it's like, kind of now it's like cold plunges and those massive, like, they look like giant stockings. I think it's like Norma tech, and then those guys do them. And so this is like, I mean, it looks like a little wristband, almost, for the most part. And so is it comparative to those other types of larger kind of things that you people are using for recovery.
Lauren Campbell 04:00
Sure. So I mean each of those, I mean recovery is a complex space, and there's right, so like your building blocks, like just basics of sleep, nutrition, hydration, you certainly need to be doing those things to focus on your recovery. And then there's things you can add in. And I think I'll circle back to your question, but just sort of where we sit right now in the recovery space is it is clear that recovery is necessary and important. And I think as there are more and more options, consumers are starting to think like, well, I barely had time to fit my workout in. How do I then have a whole recovery routine? So I think where we're getting a lot of traction is that people can just put our product on and kind of go on with their day. They could be working or, you know, making breakfast, or whatever they need to do. In terms of the functionality of the product, we utilize electrical stem, so it is similar. You know, a lot of people say, Well, aren't you just like an E stem? Those e stem products are typically for a muscle, whereas we're stimulating a nerve. So functionally, the benefit is different, and what I mean by that is we are actually providing a systemic increase in blood flow. So functionally, it's most similar to what you were just mentioning would be like those large sequential compression boots. The difference with us is that we do move more blood. And additionally, we find that our users get a longer wear time because it is a wearable, versus having to be seated and plugged in, you know, in the boot. So that's where we're seeing really great adoption with the product.
Andrew Maff 05:34
Awesome. Obviously, you're the CMO, so easily my favorite person of any business to talk to. So I want to hear about you mentioned they were originally focused B2B, so in their scenario, especially for a product like this, like athletes, collegiate space, like people that are doing athletic things for a living, basically. And then you came in and were like, no, let's make this. Let's also make this consumer facing, which is usually a big messaging difference, because now you know you're not targeting athletes. You're targeting like people that are just kind of your average, looking for recovery. So what was that transition like to kind of adjust all that?
Lauren Campbell 06:17
So definitely, I mean, it was started with a website refresh and a real focus on social media. And so the great thing about the previous focus on the teams and the professional collegiate athletes is we have these early adopters who are huge fans of the product, who had provided testimonials that we could leverage, as we went into, as you call it, more the general active adult, or, you know, casual runner, weekend warrior, any of those things. So I think it would sometimes be hard to maybe go the other way, because you have, you know, your grandma's using this product, and now we're going to go sell it to, you know, a pro athlete. I think the way they initiated really made a lot of sense, and at this point, we've, at the same time, been able to grow through those same tactics of just clearer messaging using broader word of mouth to create interest in the product, has helped on both sides. So we've grown with a lot of effort from our sales team in the team space, from five years ago, being in about 100 teams to now being in over 1000 teams. And then we've grown the consumer size to where this year should be, the first year that you know consumer will be the same size as the team side, if not bigger.
Andrew Maff 07:38
Nice. Okay, so you basically, that makes a lot of sense. So you were leveraging your existing customers that were basically influencers, to use their messaging to bring in that kind of the more traditional consumer, correct?
Lauren Campbell 07:53
Correct. We weren't always able to get like that recognizable athlete as a small brand. We have been fortunate along the way to hit some really lucky moments where, because of the effectiveness of our brand it, we've been mentioned in a Netflix TV show and an ESPN Game Day interview. So there's been a lot of fortuitous moments where we get that placement, but really our customer on that team side is an athletic trainer, typically. And so those athletic trainers have given us testimonials that give us a lot of validation for the effectiveness of the product.
Andrew Maff 08:29
Yeah, that's awesome. And so you also are not just targeting athletes now, I think you're also kind of bringing in more into the travel space. So you're opening up, like a whole new ICP, like, how is, how is that going to go after that market?
Lauren Campbell 08:43
It's been amazing, honestly, um, we separated out sort of our product offering so that we have special packs for travel and special packs for athletes, even though, ultimately the underlying product is the same. It's just the bundles are slightly different. It's a way for us to really track kind of the traction that we see, but the messaging really again, initiated from the consumer, the user, telling us this product is amazing for recovery. I love it the flexibility of it. But you know what else I love it during travel, because travel is a pain point for athletes and everyone, but getting the feedback from the athletes on how this made a huge differentiator for them during travel, gave us the insight of like this really what you know, everyone feels rough after travel. Your legs when you're seated for a long period of time, your legs don't feel fresh. When you have a change in altitude. It actually puts a little bit of stress on your body. So if we can utilize your sort of just increased blood flow to keep your body feeling fresher, we'll be able to support, you know, high end athletes traveling to the Olympics, which we worked with nine teams last summer, as well as just everyday executives or people going on vacation, where they know, you know. I'm going to be walking around a ton or maybe doing I'm a skier, and I'm not, you know, really ready for that hitting the mountain. There's just a lot of demands at golf weekend, etc, where we find people really enjoying utilizing the product, both for their travel, but then again, once they get there, to be able to fully enjoy what they're doing.
Andrew Maff 10:17
Yeah. So you've got almost, like three tranches of the business as well as, like, three separate types of customers. You have the B2B athlete. You have the, you know, like, kind of more the traditional, like, weekend warriors. You put it in, and then you have the travel group. Are you what channels are working the best for them? I know you mentioned that. So you went into social, pretty heavy. Like, are you kind of keeping that as like a blanket messaging across all social to target each of them, or do you have different channels that are working better for the different customers?
Lauren Campbell 10:48
So we do have our ad set split between travel and athlete, and the types of you know, ads that will run on Meta. Meta is really our biggest platform. So regardless whether it's travel, athlete, we are finding success leveraging meta in terms of talking directly to like an athletic trainer. We see some other platforms, even like LinkedIn, to work really well. So there is a little bit of a different application there, or engagement, I would say. But at the end of the day, so many of the people that are athletic trainers are also active people. They're also traveling, so there is just a lot of overlap between the communities. So we do have some specific communications, but at the same time, they'll run side by side, let's say on meta.
Andrew Maff 11:39
Yeah. So Meta is leading the way, obviously, for the D2C site. Are you selling anywhere else besides your own website or are you ventured into like marketplaces or retail or anything along those lines?
Lauren Campbell 11:50
So we are in some marketplaces. We are in some resellers that are focused on the recovery space, and then initially, to test out some other markets, we were partnering with some other distributors in market. We have since launched into Canada, Australia and the UK, where consumers can now buy directly on our website, and then we have a fulfillment partner in those markets that are able to send the product out.
Andrew Maff 12:20
Oh, wow. And what's between the do you see retail taking off more so than the E commerce side right now? Are you pretty much like now we're gonna, we're gonna keep our...
Lauren Campbell 12:32
We've been approached. We've been very lucky to be approached by some big retail like big box opportunities . Just based on the fact that I had the fortune of working in retail for over 20 years in my former position, is we really need a decent amount of brand awareness to have success there. The thing about online that it allows you to educate the consumer and tell a story, and that's a little bit harder in the one second you have in retail. So we have actually turned down some bigger opportunities in retail at the moment, until we feel that we are ready to do it successfully, and where we've said yes, our smaller fitness or running stores, where they have people there that are fans of the product, that can speak to the product help. You know, if you have a runner that comes into a store and says, you know, I want to be running five, six times a week, but I, you know, I need to take these recovery days, and I'm not really hitting my goals, to have another runner that maybe works in the store be able to say, oh, I can relate to that. This product might be able to help you. Is something that's really impactful, and that's hard to do in a bigger box format.
Andrew Maff 13:45
That's a very commendable I mean, there's not a lot of people that would turn down taking on big box you know, everyone. It's always the big flashy thing, which is actually takes me to a very good segue here, and I appreciate it. The big thing that's brought up on Shark Tank A lot is that people want to go to big box stores and they want to do this. And you always hear the sharks are like, no, no, no, you don't want to do that. And so you already knew that coming out of the gate, which is fantastic. And obviously, like I mentioned, segue, you did Shark Tank. It's always something that gets brought up. We don't have to harp on it too long. Some people like talking about it. Some don't, pros and cons. Did you like it? Obviously, you got a deal, so that worked out. But what was the overall thought of doing that?
Lauren Campbell 14:24
The overall thought was, highly recommend. It is definitely a process and a lot of work to prepare for. It certainly was out of my comfort to go do something in that format, right on the big screen and a lot of attention in that moment, but the kind of results, aside from being able to get a deal, were that the awareness that we were just discussing of not having enough certainly shifted. It was enabled us to reach a whole different set that we would typically be able to reach. And so the results from that, in terms of just daily sales, have been really incredible. It was an incredibly strong weekend, and we sort of just kept watching, going like, how long is this going to last? And we are right now, over two months post Shark Tank, and we're still seeing really strong results, which is really, you know, just really exciting.
Andrew Maff 15:25
Yeah, we've, I've been lucky enough to interview, I don't even know how many people have been on Shark Tank at this point, and we always hear the same thing of, like, you know, it's, it's huge that one time. But what you don't realize is, once you start getting into the reruns, like, you get another jump every night. It's not the same, but it's still like, oh, we weren't ready for this, and you got to prep for it. So it's kind of an interesting thing to deal with, but obviously, from a direct sales perspective, it's fantastic. But post the show, with the deal and everything so far, everything seems like it's in a good spot. Everything's been going in the right direction.
Lauren Campbell 16:01
Absolutely, yes, we're super excited.
Andrew Maff 16:03
That's awesome. So with that additional brand awareness, are you now thinking like, oh, maybe we'll go back and talk to these big box retailers?
Lauren Campbell 16:12
Well, there's two factors, I guess. One other factor is margin and the investment that you need. So Right? So you have brand awareness that kind of pulls them in, and then you need some type of investment to really be able to hook them, and whether that's special, just like special offers. So really, in a new business, you're running some type of deal, you're also losing margin. So it becomes a bit of a scale game, and it's something we're certainly interested in. But right now, given that we sort of have enough demand to fuel a really good pace of growth buying direct from us, I think for us, we want to continue focusing there until we sort of feel that we're maxing out our reach to some extent, and that going into that big box really will bring us to a whole new set of consumers. So I think it's a step in the process, but I don't think we're there yet.
Andrew Maff 17:04
Yeah, what's the game plan going forward to kind of keep scaling that out and bringing out more brand awareness as well as the actual product line?
Lauren Campbell 17:14
So definitely want to continue to focus on the travel segment. We see that as bringing in a lot of new consumers, continuing with really exciting partnerships. We'll be at the X Games this year, as well as partnering with some of the Winter Olympic teams. So excited about that. And then additionally, looking at new markets. So as I mentioned, Australia is off to a really great start. I think our product aligns really well. It's a, you know, nice weather, active community in general. So far, seeing a lot of interest there, and then we are receiving outreach from a huge number of markets right now, so just kind of pacing it out. Next for us on the list is looking at the EU hopefully later this year.
Andrew Maff 18:01
Yeah, and what about the product line? Is the thought to expand it at all? Is there? I know with recovery, it's always kind of interesting, because some people get into like creating content and doing classes and things like that. Others stay into the product side, and they kind of expand on the recovery element. What's the thought and expansion?
Lauren Campbell 18:20
I think for us, in terms of expansion, is really understanding the connection of our product with some of the data trackers. So you see, there's so many users right of whoop and aura, and we're casually told often that people see a huge result in their recovery metrics through those data trackers or wearables. And we'd love to understand more about that, because I think that there's, it's natural to be skeptic. There's so many products pitched to all of us saying, you know, I promise you this, and I promise you that, and the fact that the feedback we have on our product is amazing, but when people can really visually see it, I think that that is really convincing, and so in the shorter term, that's something we'd really like to understand more and reaching out to those companies and understanding that interconnection there.And then longer term is this idea our product is reusable, but it is not rechargeable at the current moment because of the limited life of our electrodes. So it's not a battery issue. It's really just that the electrodes can only last so long. So even in a rechargeable capacity, we would still need to be able to swap out the electrodes, which ultimately isn't providing a real value proposition at the moment. So I think that's where we need to look at, do we incorporate that into a smart device? Does that device connect to other devices? So it's a once we go down that path, it opens a lot of different options and opportunities.
Andrew Maff 19:52
Oh, that's very interesting. Yeah, I could see how it's ideal from a business perspective, because you kind of have a consumable however, from the consumers perspective, I could see how you might actually want to solve the problem. So it becomes very interesting, and I would be very cool to be able to start to leverage a lot of that data, because that would be amazing with how many of those things are taken off right now too. You mentioned that you're also available in marketplaces and stuff. So I imagine the big guy, Amazon being one of them.
Lauren Campbell 20:21
Actually, we are also, we are not on Amazon at the moment.
Andrew Maff 20:24
Yeah, good for you.
Lauren Campbell 20:27
It is, I will say it's something we're considering. I think, like anyone, probably, that you've spoken to, there's a real reason to be there, and there's some challenges. And so we are really trying to understand that we are looking to kind of expand our Tiktok shop at the moment and looking at some other opportunities near term. I do think longer term Amazon may become an interesting play for us, but for the moment, we're really primarily D2C from our site.
Andrew Maff 20:58
That's awesome. I'm a huge fan of not being reliant on Amazon. So seeing being able to talk to you and learn a lot about the business and hear that you're not using it at all is just that much more of a strategy that I know people should lean in on, because they rob you blind of so much. But Lauren, this was awesome. I really appreciate all the time you spent with me today, I would love to, obviously, make sure you have plenty of time back in your day. I'd like to give you the floor tell people where they can find out more about you and more about Firefly.
Lauren Campbell 21:30
Absolutely. So first of all, I'd like to have anyone that wants to learn more to come to our website, which is Firefly recovery.com, you can also look us up on almost any social platform, @Fireflyrecovery, so check us out. We do answer questions as much as we can, and continue to if you DM us on Instagram, we're pretty responsive. So if you have a question about the product or anything you know, I advise you to go there and reach out to us.
Andrew Maff 22:02
Beautiful Lauren, thank you so much for being on the show. Everyone who tuned in, same thing. Thank you for tuning in as usual. Rate review, subscribe all that fun stuff, on whichever podcast platform you prefer, or head over to the Ecomm show.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, thank you all for joining us. See you all next time, have a good one.
Narrator 22:20
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