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What is Sol de Janeiro’s ceiling?
Close-up on the newest poster child of Organic social media
Rethink x Insights
June 03, 2024
Sol de Janeiro’s CEO confirmed what Google Trends and website traffic data have been telling us for a while: the brand is on a tear, grew 174% in the 6 months to Sep. 30 ‘23. In fact, search growth accelerated since, putting the brand on pace to achieve est. annual sales over $2B in 2024.
SDJ revenues in 2024 may surpass $2B, double that of L’Occitane, whose “mother” Groupe acquired SDJ in 2021
Likewise, site traffic grew another 30% since December ⬇️. This is impressive for a heavily gifted brand, but this sustained growth pattern is common among brands with strong organic earned — why?
SDJ’s social-led purchases one quarter lead to more UGC content the next
A consumer’s Nov-Dec purchases become the raw material for their Jan-Feb UGC, more so if they were themselves influenced to buy by organic earned posts. 🌀
UGC & the comments it elicits are what brings consumers closer together…and to the brand. On top, surveys show these UGC posts overcome the #1 barrier to purchase because they are “independent”:
Paid Earned is less impactful today, while demand for “independent” earned is on the rise: it comes in the form of posts and comments
In line with our analyses, SDJ’s CEO confirmed that 90% of their growth had come from social media, and that it had been organic:
Dec 19 2023 — The article doesn’t go into the how, which is where this newsletter comes in.
Case studies dissecting the dynamics behind success stories like SDJ or Jean Paul Gaultier are surprisingly rare given how powerful and cost effective they are. Maybe it’s because many stakeholders would lose out if more brands experimented and succeeded with a more organic model…
So what is it that SDJ gets right? (from least to most important)
👯 Made-for-Gen Z line-ups of products (colourful, affordable, nice packaging etc.) grow odds of success on TikTok*
📦 Frequent product news multiply UGC opportunities (hauls, unboxings, collections, reviews, layering ideas, etc.)
✅ A creative owned content strategy places SDJ in the top 1% of brands — on both TikTok and Instagram
🎊 Off-social activities multiply opportunities for UGC: all this UGC helps nudge considerers close to purchase (if so many people post about the brand, it must be worthwhile…).
Off-social activities done right feed the organic Earned cycles
🌀The above powers more organic earned, adding fuel to the virtuous cycles