Dr. Squatch Knows Natural

How a soap brand drove brand love through unique partnerships

Author

Ali Kaltman
October 06, 2024

Brand: Dr. Squatch

Campaign: Partnerships

Read time: 5 minutes

💬 Overview 💬

This week, Dr. Squatch revealed their Sydney Sweeney Body Wash Genie soap campaign, and it was pure genius.

If you haven’t seen it, check it out on Instagram here.

I’ve always been impressed by Dr. Squatch’s partnership strategy, but this week, they truly knocked it out of the park.

Talk about a brand that knows what it stands for and gets clever about how it brings that to life.

So, in honor of this campaign, I want to do a deep-dive into their partnership strategy and why I think it’s been so successful…

Let’s get into it.

💙 The Branded Moment 💙

Dr. Squatch is the first men’s natural soap brand.

They’ve become the #1 brand in their category, amassing millions of followers across their social platforms… a soap brand.

From what I’ve seen, here are 3 components to their success:

  1. Social listening & speaking colloquially to their audience.

Dr. Squatch knows its audience inside and out, and they speak their language. They’ve even created their own language with their audience referring to a new limited edition soap as a “drop” and calling their bars of soap “briccs”.

They also have an inside joke with their consumers about eating the soap. On any post where there’s a drop, you can almost guarantee that there will be 10s of comments about eating soap because the new flavors are that good.

  1. Culturally-relevant partnership drops

They’ve mastered limited-edition soap drops, collaborating with beloved brands (like Star Wars & the Ford Bronco) that resonate with their target demographic. This keeps their brand fresh and in touch with pop culture.

  1. Celebrity endorsements that just make sense

Instead of forcing celebrity partnerships, they choose influencers and ambassadors who naturally fit with their messaging—authenticity being key to their success.

Dr. Squatch has built the right recipe for blending creativity, culture, and connection to build a soap empire…

💡 Results 💡

The Sydney Sweeney reel from this week got over 633K shares on Instagram alone.

Between TikTok, YouTube, and IG, it probably got over 1 million SHARES. Not views. Shares.

If you want to be a culturally-relevant brand, shares should be your #1 goal.

From a financial perspective, there aren’t a ton of metrics that are public given that the company is still private BUT the company was exploring a $2B sale last year.

It’s clear this strategy of brining in relevancy at every touchpoint has contributed to the brand’s success.

🎬 Take Action 🎬

If you are in a commoditized business, how do you set yourself apart? What are the different levers you can pull to differentiate?

Know your target audience and give them exactly what they want.

In the case of Dr. Squatch, 30yo men want to be understood and entertained.

How can you lean into your target audience’s pain points through marketing to differentiate yourself?

What’s New This Week

One new product I tried this week 👉 Purely Elizabeth Cookie Granola is so good. Healthy ingredients but tastes like a cookie.

One new campaign I’m loving 👉 If not Dr. Squatch’s Sydney Sweeney ad, I’ll go with SpongeBob x Wendy’s launching an actual Krabby Patty.

One piece of content to watch/listen/read 👉 How Brands Grow I talk a lot about mart

Brandkeeping

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it on to 3 marketers you know!

And if you have a brand or campaign you want to spotlight, please reply directly to this newsletter.

Let’s chat!

See ya!

Ali

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