Real Big Things
“Real Big Things is a series of short lectures designed to inspire and educate marketers about all things Digital. Each session includes three 30 minute presentations about how different trends and technologies are changing the way we behave. We also provide freshly roasted coffee, Danish pastries and delicious fruit cups.”
This wasn’t the first time Will ‘Booze’ Batrouney and I had been to a Real Big Things event. We both were aware of how it all worked:
Step 1: Walk up the stairs.
Step 2: Scan ticketed barcode on phone.
Step 3: Receive a notepad and pen.
Step 4: Order a free coffee.
Step 5: Whilst waiting for coffee, make way to the pasty table and load up on delicious treats.
Step 6: Receive latte from barista.
Step 7: Find a seat close to the front so you’re apart of all the action.
Step 8 (final step): Wait in anticipation for the first of three surprise guest speakers to kick off proceedings…
That’s how it usually plays out anyway. Things didn’t quite go our way on this particular morning.
Sure step one and two went according to plan, but everything took a turn for the worst by step three. Our problems that fine Friday morning were caffeine related. You see the coffee machine had crumbled under the pressure of a whopping 70 orders. This was going to be a slight issue as both Booze and I were in dire need of a hit. It wasn’t all panic stations though. In his calm state Booze went and asked Liz (a good friend who’d organised the tickets for us) how long it would be before the talks got under way. We were given a ten minute reprieve in which we could frantically find a coffee shop. Two strong lattes later from down the road and we were back in the Real Big Things studio ready to get the show on the road. We skipped straight to step eight and eagerly awaited the first speaker.
Bree Johnson, Founder of Frank Body.
Let’s be frank, Bree Johnson and her business partners are doing some impressive things with eCommerce and coffee grounds. Yep, we’ve all seen the Frank Body #letsbefrank hashtag on Instagram attached to pictures of boys and girls from around the globe covered in coffee coloured muck and beaming into their camera lenses in various states of undress. Who would have thought that smushing coffee onto your semi showered self could be so beneficial for your skin?
At first Bree wasn’t convinced it could be that beneficial either. It all started when Steve (Bree’s boyfriend) came home from working in his cafe. He told Bree that a lady had come up and asked if she could have all the used ground coffee (that would normally be placed in the bin). Bree, puzzled, asked Steve why? Steve explained that it had something to do with the ground coffee being good for the skin. Bree, intrigued, looked in to whether this woman was loony or she was actually on to a good thing.
Turns out the latter was the case. What the lady in the cafe didn’t realise is that excess ground-up coffee is much more beneficial for the body when it hasn’t been through the coffee machine- something to do with the caffeine still being in the coffee. And the purpose of the product? To target dry skin, stretch marks, cellulite, eczema, psoriasis, varicose veins, acne and scarring. Who wouldn’t want to use this product? It’s a no brainer. Completely animal cruelty free with a huge audience just ready and waiting. Bree decided to give it a shot, and so Frank Body was born.
“Coffee based skin care that rubs you the right way.”
Bree knew immediately she had created something pretty special. The first batch of Frank sold out on the first day. However, it was a time consuming procedure as Bree and the team at her other business Willow & Blake were individually packaging the compact brown bags themselves for shipment. The demand for Frank was rapidly growing and couldn’t be satisfied by Bree and her friends. As a sign of true supply and demand, Bree created a production office where Frank could be manufactured at a fast pace and sent out to their beloved ‘Frankfurts’.
“Get naked. Get dirty. Get rough. Get clean.”
In a world that’s heavily involved in social media platforms, Bree cracked into the market, almost as fast her product was selling. Losing control over their Instrgram account was a significant achievement. Calling on their ‘Frankfurts’ to post photos of themselves covered in their product with the hashtag #letsbefrank soon became a worldwide phenomenon and generated a huge amount of sales. As it stands there are over 612,000 followers of the Frank Body Instagram account. This number is rising every day due to the way in which Bree and her team specifically target each social media platform. From what appears to be pure chance, is actually a calculated marketing method. However, like any startup business, there have been times when a strategy has not necessarily worked. For example Bree paid Instagram (and butt) sensation Jen Selter a nice little sum to post a photo of herself in the shower covered in Frank. The sum was never matched from sales after the post went up. It didn’t get Bree down though, as it was seen as a learning curve of what marketing concepts work and what doesn’t.
If the lady had never enquired with Steve about used ground coffee that day, who knows if Frank would have been created. The point is that the lady did walk in, she did ask Steve, he then shared the encounter with Bree, they went and researched it, and eventually threw themselves in the deep end to sell this product, successfully. This is just one of many startup stories that echo and sense of ‘random chance’ but also involve a great deal of hard work behind the scenes. Bree has exceptional eCommerce and Marketing skills. Having the product last on the list of her KPI’s is proof of this…
- Create a platform: Targeting Instagram was the first step in establishing a solid foundation for Frank. Allowing for everyday-people to use Frank and upload a photo of themselves created a lot of hype and conversation.
- Give Frank a personality: The cheeky edge that surrounds Frank is a strategic move that separates the product from the norm. “So, shall we go back to yours?” Is a (seductive) example of what you read at the last stage of purchasing their product online.
- The product: Frank Body. Combine steps 1 and 2 successfully and the product will sell. Which it does. All the time.
Behind all the beautiful people that use Frank is an extremely successful business that sells a bag of coffee scrub every fifty seconds. An idea not acted upon is just an idea. It’s those who choose to give it a real crack that turns an idea into a reality. Bree has done just that with enormous success. Oh and her presentation at Real Big Things was awesome.
The Real Big Things event is not like your average (boring) seminar. Nope. These guys make it fun, fresh and vibrant for all invited. The choice of keeping the speakers anonymous until the day of, is a strategy that permeates excitement throughout the studio minutes before commencement. Focused on all things creative, I’d highly recommend anyone interested in awesome people with awesome stories, to head to the Real Big Things website and grab a ticket before they sell out. I know Booze and I will definitely be attending the next one!
A huge thanks to Liz from Hardhat Digital for hooking us up with the tickets ☺
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