Portfolio Spotlight: Sam Kang, VP of Media & Acquisition at Sunday

From Google to Dollar Shave Club to Sunday, Sam Kang has found a niche blending marketing with brand.

Sam Kang cut his teeth on search marketing in the early part of his career, which is where he grew the direct response and performance marketing chops that led him to Google in 2013. Strangely enough, he had the exposure to grow far more than DR skills while at the search giant. “At Google, I was helping to sell YouTube, and my client at the time was Disney,” he recalls. “So, I actually learned a lot about branding while at Google.”

After a few years as a principal account manager there, the opportunity to join Dollar Shave Club presented itself. Kang says he “relishes the feeling of having to live and die by my decisions, which have a meaningful impact on the business,” making the startup environment uniquely suited to his personality. Besides, DSC was doing something interesting, Kang says, and he wanted to be a part of it. “At the time, they were trying to solve for the tension point between direct response and brand; the CMO at the time, Adam, called it ‘branded response.’”

The company’s first commercial encompassed a singular blend of both brand and direct response marketing that excited Kang. “In a meaningful way, it established what the tone of the brand was, how we talk to our customers, how we treat them, and — from a very DR perspective — drove home the point that the razors are quality, but at a very affordable price point,” he says. “That video alone really encapsulated what ‘branded response’ could be.” Obviously, the approach proved successful for the early DTC pioneer.

Kang spent four years at Dollar Shave Club. When he’d reached the point where his team was well-equipped, he wanted a new challenge. With some relevant parallels to DSC, Sunday was just that. “It was a much earlier-stage startup, but with a massive incumbent, a space that’s been ignored for a while, and a category that’s not deemed to be sexy, like apparel, beauty, or cars,” he says. “It’s fertilizer!”

When you really dig into overlooked categories, Kang says, you tend to find many avenues of potential. “I also saw and felt the passion Coulter had, and understood what he was trying to accomplish with Sunday,” he explains. “In terms of the products, there was an environmental aspect, and having become a recent father of two girls, Sunday sort of took a different flavor [than DSC].

“I don’t want my girls running around in a lawn that might have toxic chemicals in it. I want them to grow up in an environment that feels healthy and safe.”

Over the past year, Kang’s been inventive about his approach to marketing Sunday. “Sunday is unique in terms of the product; there’s nothing else like it out there,” he says of the fertilizers filled with custom, sustainable nutrients. “Just by default, we lead with innovation. What’s out there just isn’t good enough. It’s not good enough for our families, it’s not good enough for the planet, and we can do better.” In this way, Kang says, the product speaks for itself once it’s in the hands of the consumer. With a family-centric, care-driven message driving growth, he hopes Sunday will reach many more homes in the months ahead.

Learn more at getsunday.com.