How Mad Rabbit Created Their Own Holiday To Build Momentum Around BFCM #630

Speaker A: Foreign. You're listening to E Commerce Marketing School presented by Privy and Triple Whale. I'm your host, Val Geisler. All right, friends, welcome back to another episode of E Commerce Marketing School. We have a incredible guest professor for you today. I met him through another guest professor we've had Aaron Orendorf. And I heard this story and needed it to be shared on E Commerce Marketing School. School. You know, we've been talking about BFCM all season long and one of the things that I have seen brands do and wanted to talk to someone about and share with you all is the idea of creating your own holiday. Because who needs all the existing holidays when you can make one up on your own? Um, I just think it's such an incredible thing to do and uh, there is no better person than that I can think of to talk about this with then. Salaam Agbaotor. Salam. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker B: Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time.

Speaker A: So I heard this story and I want you to kind of share a little bit here because we each had what, five minutes talk time. So I'm going to give you a little bit more. We do, we do still keep it, keep it short here, but I would love for you to talk a little bit about how, uh, you approach the holidays and the evolution of this idea at, uh, Mad Rabbit. You have this Mad Mondays that you shared with us earlier. I just want the listeners today to understand what Mad Mondays is, kind of how it came about and then how it plays along with the holidays because you have a really unique positioning with that. And I just love the play on Mad Rabbit and Mad Mondays and the way you developed it. So can you give us a little bit of background on how Mad Mondays came to. Well, let's start with what it is. How about that? We'll start there.

Speaker B: Yes. So Mad Monday is a holiday that we made at Mad Rabbit. A lot of brands nowadays you see brands starting their Black Friday promotions much earlier. I feel like every single year it's a week earlier. Whereas some brands are starting their Black Friday promotions in late October and just keeping that same sale all through the end of October till Black Friday. For us, Mad Monday is just a one day event is to get people in and, and then get people out. So it's a one day. It's usually, it's always on a Monday. So it's a Monday. And a discount is sometimes higher, sometimes lower than what we do for Black Friday because no one knows what we're going to do for Black Friday in terms of people outside Mad Rabbit. So we do that sale. It's a one day sale. We usually get a spike in sales that's about double, sometimes almost triple what our usual sales are. Because people are asking like, is this going to be their only sale? Should I get in now or should I just wait till Black Friday? Get all the people that come in for Mad Monday. And then we just put everything on pause until Thanksgiving week where we run a little sale for Thanksgiving. And then we have our Black Friday sale event which is usually just one product, our bestseller. And then for Cyber Monday, which is everything except our sets.

Speaker A: Okay, so Mad Monday, when does that hit?

Speaker B: So Mad Monday is usually the uh, Monday the two weeks before. Or is it the week the two weeks before things? So on the 15th or 16th, usually a Monday. So we started Mad Monday on in 2021. So it's been three years now that we've been running it. This year though, we've done Mad Monday twice. Um, the last time we did it this year was during the Amazon prime, the second prime that we had it for Amazon. Yeah. So like we were having a lot of customers go to Amazon, but it's like let's also get some people to come shop from our D2C website because usually Amazon ends up being pretty high and then your Shopify sales suffer on those couple of days that prime is going on. So we decided that this year we also did a Mad Monday during that week on a Monday during the prime event. So that way Shopify side wouldn't suffer too much and let people know that hey, we're still here. Just come to our Shopify website.

Speaker A: That help?

Speaker B: It helped a lot. Yeah. Our Amazon year over year for that second prime event. I think this year for the second prime event was double the last prime event. But then Mad Monday also did well because it was double our normal Shopify daily sales.

Speaker A: Okay, so uh, Mad Monday originally was just this like kind of pre Black Friday in 21 and 22. But then this year you added it on with the second Amazon prime days, which, I mean Amazon prime was just one once a year and then it became twice a year. Now we kind of expect it twice a year. I wonder if next year they'll do it multiple times. But so uh, you saw good results from that. And then this leading up to Black Friday, Mad Monday happens and then you still do Black Friday deals. So it's not, you're not taking the position of this is our deal, you get it now, or there's nothing left. But More like this is a pre Black Friday deal. And uh, that if I understand it right, it's good on everything on the site, whereas your Black Friday deal is specifically on one item.

Speaker B: Yes. So the Mad Monday deal is good on everything on the site, except for sets. Cause the sets already discounted. And then the Black Friday deal, they is usually with our bestseller product. So there's a price discount on that. This year we're also tossing in a discount for our sets or an additional discount for our sets to bring in those high AOV products to increase the aov. And then our Cyber Monday is just a, uh, sale on everything excluding our sets.

Speaker A: So will Cyber Monday be a Mad Monday?

Speaker B: Again, it's a different sale. So the discount is not the same. So it's, I would say, I guess, yeah, it's a sale, but the discount percentage. Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay. So you kind of created your own little branded holiday. I feel like this is something that pretty much any brand can do, whether, you know, you have the perfect name with Mad Rabbit for Mad Monday. And it kind of just like works out really well that way. But I feel like you can get creative, come up with a name for your own little holiday. And to your point, you can even run it really close to other sales and other opportunities. I mean, even, you know, we're trying. Like this is finish line here, right. For Black Friday. And so thinking, uh, through like, what are the things that people can do right now that can change the game for them over the next six weeks? And maybe it's inventing your own holiday. Because between Black Friday and actual holidays, yeah, sure. We have things like shipping cutoff days and uh, lots of other stuff we can message. And we'll probably still run deals maybe not as good as Black Friday, but coming up with your own little holiday and putting that out there can be a little burst in, in revenue.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's a nice burst. I've seen some do it as like anniversary sales. So like, they take the day that they launched a company, and every single year after that, on that day, they do an anniversary sale. So I would say this is maybe our spin on an anniversary. So. Except we're not calling anniversary sale because by Rabbit launched in January, um, we're not doing deals in January. Usually that month is dead for us in deals because, like, we've had deals in November. We'd have some in December when I take our foot off the gas and deals because we don't want to train our customers to just sit there waiting for the next discount. So like, when the new year starts. It's like a one or two months hiatus of no deals. Everyone wraps their regular shopping. Everyone's paying full price if on a discount, buy a set or just subscribe to Madrabbit.

Speaker A: Yeah, so subscription is the only way you really get any kind of quote deal after like that heavy deal period. Yeah, I think that that's smart because we do. I think it's a big concern for a lot of brand operators. Is training your customers for like kind of bad behavior great for them. Bad for the business though, uh, to wait for a deal. It's the whole thing that happened during the pandemic of the like there was this kind of abandoned cart phenomenon happening where everyone was like abandoning carts, hoping for a discount code and then be able to use it because everyone was shopping online. So people who had never done that before figured it out and started, you know, kind of wildly abandoning carts left and right.

Speaker B: I was gonna say I'm guilty of that because like, I know how most e commerce owner's work. So like, if I really want something, I'm just gonna put in my cart and just leave it and just wait a week or two for that discount and I'll go shop. And it's something that I feel like people are slowly starting to catch on and brands need to take, I guess, control back and start doing less discounts. Or if they are, they are doing discounts, making sure it's a smaller percentage.

Speaker A: Yeah. Do you celebrate any other holidays at Mad Rabbit? So talked to last season, we talked to our friend Taylor at Outway Socks and they do a lot of messaging around, like, hey, it's National Best Day, get your best friend a pair of socks. Or you know, those kinds of things. Do you lean into any of these other, like there's a, uh, five or six holidays every day of the year, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah, so we do lean into other holidays. Um, those come with promotions. But then there's also some holidays where instead of us giving out a discount, we ask people to like share their stories and send us content. So like for like Veterans Day, we'll ask people to send like their tattoos that help them remember that. Or like for Mother's Day, like send tattoos that help them remember their mothers. Or like if it's a dog or like cat day, we have people send pictures like their dog or cat tattooed. And we use postscript for all of this because they have a feature where like our customers that were texted text, texting can also text us back those images and then we can publish on Social media. So like some of those holidays, instead of us like giving out coupon codes, we used to get content from our customers. So that way we can share that content on social media and get them

Speaker A: shout outs and some people like that more than a 20, uh, percent discount or um, just as much, maybe not more, but maybe just as much. People love attention and so if you can give them that through shout outs from your brand, you also conveniently end up with some UGC from that, you know, you are creating this natural like referral, um, inherent referral network of you post their stuff so then they're going to reshare it and then all their friends see that, that maybe they just sent it to you, they texted it to you, they didn't necessarily post it on their social in that moment, but then you posted on social so then they reshare it and now everyone's seeing it and so then they come and shop with you. I think it's like this really incredible. I mean it's creating virality around the picture that they just took to go and share it then on social on your end. That's really cool to think through. Like how can you incentivize people other than discounts and maybe just showing them off is the incentive.

Speaker B: Yeah, you'd be surprised sometimes. Like we got thousands of responses depending on what we're asking for. But the first time we did it I was shocked. I was not expecting number of responses that came through and ended up being like maybe close to a thousand. I was like, wow, like this is a lot of content. Like this community is really engaged. There's some people that probably aren't going to use a coupon code to end up purchasing but they're going to share their story because that story is important to them.

Speaker A: Yeah. And if you aren't constantly running deals, then you're getting in new customers who come in with the full price orders with the, without that expectation of deals. Unlike customers who come in, um, if you're constantly running a deal, we all know those brands who are always running a deal and you know the, oh, surprise. The sales extended. Well, uh, salesman extended for a year and a half now. So I don't think it's going anywhere.

Speaker B: It's easy to spot like which brands are going to do like Black Friday has been extended every Black Friday. It's always upwards. It's gone so well. We're expensive sending in an extra day.

Speaker A: Oh yeah, it's gone amazingly well. We're so surprised. Um, and like the emails are always you know, we got to the office this morning and we decided to extend the offers, and it's you. And I know that's not true. But you know what? It works for a lot of people. It does. You know, the average non marketer makes people feel special. So. Yeah. Okay. Mad Monday, like, kind of coming up with your own holiday is obviously a high leverage tool. It's something you can do any time of the year. So, you know, whether you kind of slide that into your holiday plans in December or if you, um, want to, like, put it in your idea parking lot for your team for early next year, coming up with your own branded holiday and then also thinking about other holidays you can lean into. Not just kind of the national holidays, like, you know, fourth of July and those traditional days that all the big box stores are doing deals and discounts, but then also those other days, like, what are. What are the random. You know, if you're an ice cream brand, I'm pretty sure there's a national ice cream day or, you know, those kinds of things that, like, align to your brand and pretty. There's like a dozen websites that list all these national Day of whatever. Um, so you can go and kind of look through and think about what days might be important to our brand and to our customers or what can we attach ourselves to. Maybe you don't sell ice cream, but maybe you sell cookies and that you can make an ice cream sandwich with cookies. You know, there's kind of those, like, adjacent things, so. And then seasonality, right? So there's, uh. I heard recently that somebody said it's tattoo season, and I was like, oh, it is for me, because I always get all my tattoos in the fall and winter. You can't swim with a new tattoo, so. And you don't want to be in the sun with a new tattoo, so. So I tend to not get new tattoos spring, summer. So considering, like, seasonality of what your customers, how they might think about leveraging your product and, you know, leaning into holidays during that, that appropriate time period too, I think is important.

Speaker B: Yeah. So the funny thing about running a business in tattoo is our, um, peak season is late Q1, all of Q2 and early Q3, and it, uh, actually starts to slow down end of Q3 and all of Q4, which is why, like, the second prime event helps having a mad Monday helps having Black Friday house, because things start to slow down. The majority of people are not getting tattoos in the fall and winter. And also they're wearing sleeves, so they're not showing off Their tattoos, especially depending on, like, what the weather is, where they're at. So for a lot of those people, like, they're not buying tattoo balm, they're not buying sunscreen, they're not buying suiting jar, not getting brand new tattoos. And I'm like, what? Mad Monday and like Black Friday, the second premier event does. It's like, hey, even though, like, you're all covered up and it's cool outside and it's not hot, you start to take care, uh, of your tattoos.

Speaker A: Yeah. So thinking through, like, looking back, I mean, this is the time of year to look back at the year behind you and say, where were the ebbs and flows in the business? Um, understanding, you know, maybe you sell tea and you tend to have more business in Q4, Q1 in the winter than you do in the summer. And looking for those lulls and then building in those branded holidays, extra holidays sales during that time period. It just happens to be Black Friday is like that time period for you. But, um, you know, thinking through, like, the cyclical nature of, I feel like every product has some kind of cycle to it. So, you know, look back at your historicals and say, when did we have a lull? And can we create a holiday? Create a day, brand it and put it out there. If Amazon can do it, the rest of us can too. Uh, and you're like such a perfect example of making a branded holiday work. So thanks for walking us through that.

Speaker B: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker A: Salaam. So, uh, you are a smart guy. We have a lot to learn from you besides branded holidays. Where can people find you, ask questions, learn more from you, follow you.

Speaker B: So I'm on all the social media platforms. I would say a good way to reach M me is Obviously email me salamadrabbituh.com or send me a LinkedIn message and I'll get back to you. Or if that doesn't work, then you can just send me a message on Instagram or on Twitter and I'll follow back up with you.

Speaker A: Salam. Um, thank you so much for sharing just a little bit of the immense knowledge that you have with us. Definitely going to have to have you back to talk some more about all the other things that you're an expert in so we can continue to teach our students here at E Commerce Marketing School. Thanks for being here.

Speaker B: Thank you. I appreciate it. Really appreciate that. Time.

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