👋 Welcome back to Growthnotes!

Welcome to the DTC Report, where we cover relevant insights for the modern marketer.

👀 In this week’s newsletter

🛒 Retail is back: The old normal is the new new normal.

🍗 The rise of the Air Fryer cult: How a rebranding of the convection oven became the leading kitchen accessory.

💥 Social wars: How TikTok is going after YouTube.

🍔 New McDonalds packaging by... Kanye West?

🍔 New McDonalds packaging by... Kanye West?

Kanye West teamed up with Naoto Fukasawa (an industrial designer) to remodel McDonald’s packaging.

People seem to be highly divided on social media. Safe to say that it’s unexpected.

🛒 Retail as a Therapy (RaaT): People are back in stores

The world is unmasking at an accelerated pace. Meanwhile, retail numbers are up 15.3% compared to pre-pandemic figures. People seem to be going to stores regardless of COVID, gas prices or general inflation.

As per eMarketer

Is Retail Therapy more effective in store? Does the delay between ordering and receiving your product tamper the rush of instant gratification? From a personal standpoint, I can attest that there is a little je ne sais quoi to IRL shopping that you just can’t find online.

🤔 What does this mean for e-commerce brands?

More e-commerce brands will fight for retail space. Retail is a viable growth channel, and is here to stay. E-commerce brands should make retail distribution a growth lever by utilizing their social klout (social media, newsletter, ambassadors, etc.) to open doors. This holds especially true when dealing with smaller retailers.

🍗 Behind the air fryer cult

How did this countertop size convection oven become a market leader in cookware?

Worth Mentioning before we start

• The hashtag #airfryer has 3.6B (3,600,000,000) views on TikTok

• The keyword Air Fryer gets 3.4 million monthly Google searches globally. Instapot gets 127,000, Crock Pot gets 450,000 (if you include Slow Cooker in the calculation).

• Brazil is where it’s at, with over 1.1 million monthly searches (Brazilians love Air frying things).

• Although Philips launched the first air fryer in 2010, Ninja is now the market leader (Philips gets 114,000 Google searches per month for Philips air fryer vs Ninja’s 534,000 Google searches per month for Ninja air fryer).

📊 Some crispy stats

Air fryer search volume:

Air Fryer vs other kitchen appliances:

📈 The Rise of the air fryer

How did this countertop size convection oven become a market leader in kitchen appliances?

📢 Identity-driven marketing

People are opinionated about the whole concept of air frying. Is it a way of life? Or is it simply a smaller, less efficient convection oven? Regardless, the air fryer has a vocal and loyal fan base.

The air fryer appeals to people who don’t like cooking, or/and have little time on their hands.

The top two recurring keywords in the Amazon reviews of the top 3 Air Fryer Amazon listings:

• Easy to use

• Easy to clean

That’s what makes the air fryer so popular. It’s easy to use, it’s easy to clean, and it makes food taste good.

Cooking creators are creating a streamline of high-quality content for parents, students and young professionals who match this profile. Crazy to think that some people are making a full-time living from creating air fryer cooking content.

The reason people get hooked is convenience.

🎅 Christmas Gifts
Because air frying enthusiasts love to share their passion with others, air fryers always spike in December (my mother gave me an air fryer for Christmas two years ago, validating this Google Trend data).

Air fryer’s secret sauce.
TikTok was a massive catalyst for this whole air fryer craziness.

For instance, #pastachips (1.1B views), a recipe that blew up on TikTok (here is the recipe), gave some serious visibility to the air fryer segment. To give some perspective, #avocadotoast garnered a mere 800m views.

At this point in time, creating content with an air fryer is a legitimate content strategy for content creators.

The hashtag #airfryer has 3.6B views, which is more than #lululemon (2.7B views).

Philips was at the forefront of popularizing air fryers and has been endorsed by multiple A-list celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay, Oprah, and Drew Barrymore.

👉 What can e-commerce brands learn from air fryers?

Fast-growing categories will facilitate fast-growing brands.
Look at what TikTok trends are blowing up, or what celebrities are currently endorsing, and use that information to expand your product catalog.

Ambassador communities are a strong precursor to success as an e-commerce brand. They can be a way to create a fan baseline. If a small group of people rave about a brand’s product, it will facilitate the creation of a flywheel effect, which will significantly push down your CAC.

Brandchamp

Brandchamp is an all-in-one brand ambassador management software helping brands build successful ambassador communities.

This Ambassador Marketing Software makes it easier to manage successful marketing campaigns, covering anything from Referral Sales, Content Creation, Loyalty Rewards.

Check out their website for more information on how Branchamp can help!

💥 Social Wars: TikTok is going after YouTube

40% of Gen Z spends more than 3 hours a day on Tiktok. The same proportion of Gen Z spends more than 3 hours with YouTube.

Here is how TikTok is going after YouTube 👇

💰 Creator fund
TikTok has released a creator fund, sharing back some of the profits with the creators. Just like YouTube, they understand that creator retention is the name of the game. Instagram is getting the message, but doesn’t seem to be taking this as seriously.

🕓 Long-form video
TikTok understands the appeal of longer form video. The platform now allows for 10-minutes videos. This upper limit will likely increase as they secure quality long-form content creators through their creator fund.

💪 Algorithmic supremacy
Their algorithm is crazy good. TikTok serves as an entertainment platform, much more than a social network in the literal sense of the word. People don’t use it to interact with friends and family.