Another TikTok-fuelled growth spurt: Lemme vitamins

Kourtney Kardashian’s vitamin brand, Lemme gummies launched in Sep. 2022 and suddenly took off in spring 2024: searches and organic search-led site traffic surged, likely grabbing buyers from Unilever’s Olly. Was that a one-off or can we expect sustained growth?

Given the brand is displaying impressive TikTok skills, our take is that it’s likely to continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Here are some of the big moments and skillful moves the brand team has made:

1. Strong FUNdamentals: Their range of distinctively named, beautifully packaged products can aspire to broad consumer relevance (sleep, energy, de-bloat, de-stress, focus etc.). The line-up gives brand converts many reasons to experiment with other products and share reviews on social, whether humorous or serious:

   

   Tackling a serious topic (health) in a light-hearted way: a delicate balancing act that Lemme is getting mostly right so far

2. A strong owned playbook: the brand dominates all other peers on Owned TikTok, regularly achieving virality & showcasing fluency with content best practices.

   

   Lemme leads on attention and engagement, tough it does rely on media boosts for some posts

3. Savvy use of ‘less aggressive’ Earned tactics (samples, PR packages) and lower reliance on #ads, #sponsored, or #[brand]partner posts, which our performance data suggests consumers tolerate less. Costing less, sample-led outreach (“no obligation to review!”) allows for broad distribution, more posts, growing the odds that some of them go viral (recommended viewing: 12m engagement once likes-on-comments are included).

4. Agile community management that comments on top posts, and builds owned content on top of existing UGC or creator content (stitch, duet etc.).

   

5. Strengthens its social footprint by investing in off-social activities that fans will be keen to post about, e.g., launched its apparel shop

   

   Merch more important than ever in our age where community-led organic earned often outweighs the footprint from paid influencers

The combination of the above is key to initiate growing waves of organic Earned posts from small consumer accounts, which in the long-term make up the bedrock of sustained growth. (see our case studies on Dr. Pepper and Sol de Janeiro)

On top of creating more UGC posts, the community plays a key role convincing others in the comments section. One of the reasons TikTok has been so good at nudging purchase intent is that commenters (contrary to influencer- and brand- posts) are always trusted:

Lemme’s social approach is well-rounded, plays on a wide range of vectors of social-led growth, and even if the products are getting some negative reviews, we suspect the quality of their TikTok playbook will sustain their growth for some time to come.

About the author: 20+ years experience in insights & marketing mix at P&G, marketing & media consultancy at McKinsey, head of Europe at L2, co-founder at eBench and Rethink x Social. Have worked with over 250 clients teams across 100+ companies in a dozen categories.

About Rethink x Social: we’re a boutique marketing consultancy, backed by our proprietary tool that tracks and analyses hundreds of thousands of accounts, surfacing insights on trends, best practices, category leaders, and content excellence. We help clients on everything from investment priorities, to social strategies. Our most recent R&D emphasis has been on video content codes, tackling tone of voice, storytelling/editing/pacing principles, the roles of subtext, sounds, protagonists, content big ideas.