The Girl Scouts Have a Unicorn?

THE SPREAD
Morning Marketers!

Reddit shakes hands with Google. Ridge Wallet’s new board member. The Girl Scouts have a Unicorn? SEO snacks.

STARTER
To whet your appetite:

• Reddit and Google have struck a deal (worth about $60 million) that will allow Google to use Reddit’s data, mainly user generated posts, to train Google’s AI models. Besides cash, Reddit gets access to Google’s AI models for the purpose of improving features on its site.

  Why should we care?

  • The deal helps Google train its AI models on human-written content, often in a question-and-answer format, which would help the AI model provide more relevant and helpful answers (in theory).

  • For Reddit, the deal is significant because the company has announced plans to IPO, under the ticker RDDT, and having a new revenue stream might help the stock look more appetizing to investors.

  • We’ll likely see more deals for AI training data in the near future, especially if a company has a repository of user generated content (think Quora or Nextdoor). The ability of AI models to deliver better results may help marketers (like me) generate content faster, allowing one person to do the work of three or more, but it will also help spammers. Double-edged sword.

MAIN
Food for Thought:

• Ridge Wallet is adding a YouTuber to its board. Marques Brownlee one of YouTube’s most recognizable tech reviewers, is joining Ridge Wallet as an Executive Board Member, Equity Investor, and Chief Creative Partner.

• Before we get into why having Marques on the board is significant, let me give you some history on Ridge Wallet.

  • Ridge started out as a Kickstarter idea. Daniel and Paul Kane, a father and son team, realized that overstuffed wallets were a pain point, and developed a wallet made from aluminum, carbon fiber, and titanium. The wallet only weighed 2 ounces. They launched their Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and by 2020 were on track to do $50 million in revenue.

  Why should we care?

  

  • Ridge Wallet is a fascinating company because they created a new category within wallets. The Company describes their wallets as “slim, minimalist, RFID-blocking, and made with premium materials.” They hold 1-12 credit cards and have a “clever” thumb slot that lets you get the cards out more easily.

  • Ridge Wallet positions itself as the alternative to the bulky, receipt and cash stuffed wallets that our dads carried in 1995 (and still do).

  • Their minimalist ethos is encapsulated by the tagline, “Carry Less, Live More.”

  • Ridge Wallet’s design forces you to pare down what you carry to only the most essential cards, and a few bills. This minimalist approach likely benefitted from the ubiquity of smartphones, which give users options like Apple Pay, making a wallet more of an accessory than a necessity. And, Ridge Wallet leans into that by offering a range of designs, including team logos.

    

  • Back to Ridge Wallet adding Marques Brownlee to its board.

    • Brownlee’s relationship with Ridge actually began in 2020 when he started working with the brand and vocalized his love of the wallet.

    • Last I checked, Marques Brownlee has 18.5 million subscribers on YouTube and over 4 billion views on his videos. Adding him as a board member, and giving him equity in Ridge, opens the door for more collaborations with Brownlee, who will almost certainly develop limited edition products for the brand that he will put in front of his massive audience.

    Takeaway: Who could you partner with to drive awareness for your product or service? Massive accounts like Brownlee’s are out of reach for smaller businesses, but YouTubers with 1,000-10,000 subscribers are eager to collaborate. Consider reaching out to the ones that match your brand ethos.

DESSERT
Best for last:

• The Girl Scouts built a unicorn. But, it took a really long time. The first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917.

• Girl Scouts sells about 200 million boxes of cookies a year, and is projected to generate $1.2 billion in revenue for 2024.

• But, not all of that money goes to the girls peddling boxes of Thin Mints on the corner.

• The Girl Scouts are composed of three tiers:

  1. the national headquarters

  2. the regional councils

  3. the troops of scouts

• So, if you buy a box of the most popular cookie, Thin Mints, for $5, about $1.50 of that goes to the bakery that makes the cookies, and the other $3.50 is split between the regional council and the troop you purchased the cookies from. Check out this Freakonomics episode if you want to learn more about cookie economics.

  Fun fact: Girl Scouts has evolved the way they sell cookies and now use digital marketing and e-commerce to reach a larger market. Check out the marketing advice being given to the young entrepreneurs:

  

  Why should we care?

  • Girl Scouts offers a masterclass in marketing and sales. A few takeaways for marketers are:

    • Building Demand: Cookies are only available for sale about four months a year. This creates a sense of urgency in the consumer to buy additional boxes of cookies before they disappear.

    • Quality Product: The cookies taste good; I’m not even a cookie person and I look forward to getting a box of Thin Mints every year. Other brands have attempted to make knockoffs, but the Girl Scouts organization continues to do product research and ensure a high standard of quality, making their cookies hard to dethrone.

    • The Sales People: The girls selling the cookies are backed by enthusiastic moms and grandmas, making it hard to walk by a table without picking up a few boxes. Knowing that each sale benefits the troop, and the causes they support, is also a compelling reason for many to buy the cookies.

  Takeaway: Enlist your children to sell your products. Think of ways to build demand for your product. Can you create limited editions or releases that are only available for a few months? Having a top-notch product is also critical, people love telling others about stuff that delighted them, if your product or service doesn’t make someone smile, figure out how to make it do that.

SEO Snacks

• How Google Crawls Web Pages (Video):

• Gary Illyes explains what Googlebot is and how crawling works.

• Will Search Traffic Drop 25% by 2026?:

  Gartner, a consulting firm, believes AI answers engines will steal traffic from Google search.

• 50 Site Case Study on Google Updates: 
  Which factors correlated with gains and declines in traffic?