Peer pressure to drink alcohol with your friends gets old. The slow and dreary hungover starts to the day gets old. But that’s why today’s brand of focus exists.
To help you stay healthy, nip social pressure in the bud, and give you a refreshing drink so that you can sip back and relax on this beautiful Saturday afternoon (we’re imagining it’s Saturday okay, LOL).
Let’s start the party…
Co-founded by Zayn Malik (from that one band, I forget their name though 😉), Mixoloshe was founded on the idea that you can still have fun on the weekends without zombie-like mornings.
But what I didn’t expect to discover when looking at Zayn’s brand is quite literally one of the most unique social media campaigns ever (and it has nothing to do with Zayn).
The non-alcoholic beverage industry crossed $500B in sales in recent years, companies like Athletic Brewing Co. dominate the market, and the industry is a direct competitor to one of the most cutthroat industries in the world, the alcoholic beverage industry.
It seems like there is a new drink popping up every month backed by a big name celeb like Logan Paul or Travis Scott. Mixoloshe does have the ammo of Zayn’s massive cult following on socials (90M followers across all platforms) to promote their product, but Zayn has RARELY shared the product to his socials.
Instead, Mixoloshe’s go-to-market strategy has been built entirely off the back of an “intern” named Nicole and her chaotic and relatable journey of avoiding getting fired.
It’s genius.
Check out her profile @thebestmarketingstrategyever.
The screenshot above is from when I started researching Mixoloshe and Nicole last week.
And the screenshot below is from yesterday. +50k followers in a WEEK.
Less than a month ago Nicole posted on Instagram for the first time, the video was of her taking a baseball bat to a Mixoloshe can. The video had copy over it that read “60 days remaining to prove to my boss that smashing this can is more effective than his entire Marketing strategy.”
Simple, straight to the point with it.
Since the first video, Nicole has been posting a unique video of her smashing a Mixoloshe can EVERY DAY. Irish dancing on a can, backing over a can in her car, or smashing cans to the beat of the cotton eyed joe, the account is solely dedicated to this chaotic journey of can smashing and a race against the clock.
Every video reminds viewers that Nicole has X amount of days left to prove her boss, “Mike”, wrong and if she doesn’t, SHE’S FIRED.
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All of the CTAs are direct reminders of the possibility she may get fired. What’s really cool to see here it that Nicole and Mixoloshe are not shying away from selling in their content.
They’ve earned this ability though, they aren’t just getting on social media, making a video about how tasty their products are, and telling you to buy them, you won’t see ANY traction doing that.
Instead they’ve built up a story in Nicole that viewers can relate to, which is why they’re able to sell so effectively.
Targeting a younger audience with their product, Nicole’s content focused on avoiding getting fired is something ALL new college grads and young professionals can relate to. First big job out of college or first internship, that fear of getting fired is REAL, younger audiences flock to her content.
But what tops it all is how every video feels like a school project gone right. iPhone recording, no high production, and every video is around Nicole’s house, this content is achievable for all viewers which makes it even easier to relate to.
As the tides began to turn, this persona of “Mike” came into a bigger role as a common enemy for Nicole and her audience. This rallied Nicole’s audience against Mike and his “threats”.
This was a chef’s kiss, tapping into the emotional fundamentals of humans a common enemy like Mike will drive action.
It’s the same reason why the most intense, quickest to sell out sporting events are the ones where your favorite team is playing their rival. We want to see the side we’re rooting for to overcome the enemy, and we will do everything we possibly can to help them, like buying a 12-pack of Mixoloshe and hitting the follow button.
And now Mixoloshe is building their funnel around Nicole and her antics…
When you visit their website, look at the popup that you’re hit with. 👇
This does two things:
1️⃣. Helps with attribution, quantifying the impact Nicole is having, which will help Mixoloshe efficiently spend resources moving forward.
2️⃣. Continues the Nicole buzz throughout the customer journey. Building an audience of 250K+ followers on socials, Nicole is becoming the very reason consumers are invested in Mixoloshe (see pic below) and they’re making sure to keep her top of mind for consumers. They aren’t buying Mixoloshe, they’re buying to help Nicole keep her job.
But my favorite part of all of this campaign is the flawless use of the fundamentals.
1️⃣. Leaning into fear, Nicole losing her job is consistently kept top of mind.
2️⃣. Keeping everything tied to timelines, Nicole only has until June 10th, increasing urgency.
3️⃣. Maintaining clear goals and objectives, Nicole needs to hit 500k followers to get a promotion, humans are goal-oriented.
4️⃣. Using Mike as a common enemy, consumers are initially not buying for Mixoloshe and instead to be part of proving Mike wrong, they’re all living through Nicole.
And the strategy is absolutely crushing. In less than a month Nicole has gained 250k+ followers, tripling the Mixoloshe brand account, the company just beat its previous daily sales record by 24% thanks to Nicole, and overall sales are up 83% since she began posting on socials.
