How Stanley’s marketing strategy is evolving beyond viral TikTok moments

Drinkware brand Stanley garnered tens of millions of views on TikTok last year when then-President Terrence Reilly responded to a viral video of a woman whose Stanley Quencher tumbler survived a car fire by offering to cover the cost of a new vehicle. A few months later, Stanley went viral again as videos of people lining up outside of Target stores for limited-edition Valentine’s Day tumblers and swarming in-store displays swept across TikTok and generated multiple headlines. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today That moment in the viral spotlight has largely faded for Stanley. But Graham Nearn, who was named chief brand officer at Stanley six months ago, is shifting the brand’s focus from brief buzzy moments to a longer-term marketing strategy. The new approach aims to attract new audiences with a range of water bottle designs and immerse the brand in pop culture through collaborations with brands including Mattel and LoveShackFancy and celebrities such as Olivia Rodrigo. Also read: Terence Reilly departs Stanley “Social media, for sure, has been incredibly important to Stanley, and we’ve benefitted from work we’ve done proactively with social media, and organic social media moments, too,” Nearn told Ad Age. “But at the same time, I think we have an enormous opportunity to build away from social and really tell more powerful brand stories with full-funnel marketing.” Ad Age sat down with Nearn to discuss Stanley’s evolving marketing strategy and the brand’s growing focus on mediums such as experiential and out-of-home marketing. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. You’ve been in the role of chief brand officer for about six months now—what drove you to develop new Stanley products as one of your first projects in that role? Our consumers really tell us on a consistent basis that they want new things that help them live their lives in a better way. So, we focused a significant amount on product design and product innovation—and in order for us to do that, we’ve had to bring in new people from outside of Stanley who have great experience with product design and innovation. We’ve hired people from Adidas [and] we’ve hired people from Nike, and the team works extensively on designing to solve consumer problems. A good example would be the Stanley Cross Bottle. We heard from consumers who are living busy urban lifestyles that when they’re out and about, they want something they can wear rather than carry because it’ll free up a hand. Our new industrial designer Katie Mann brought this product to life for us. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stanley 1913 (@stanley_brand) With this more on-the-go type of water bottle, are you trying to reach a new audience, or just giving current Stanley fans a new option? I think we’re doing both. The current Stanley community is always looking for new ways Stanley is bringing products and services to life for them, but I also think that what product innovation does, and the stories that we can tell around product innovation does, is it invites and potentially brings new folks into the Stanley community. With the Cross Bottle, what we’ve found is it's been incredibly well-received by a new consumer who's living in urban environments because it suits their lifestyle. But we also find that the Stanley community that knows us so well through other products also likes to be given something fresh and different. Now, we also have another lifestyle that we’re also really trying to solve for, which is those who are seeking to be refueled or replenished after sports or fitness. Within that lifestyle, we have a product called the Stanley Ice Flow 2.0, which is designed to be taken to the gym or other sports environments. We even put a little hook on the handle because these [bottles] are often used in fenced-in outdoor sports environments, and the hook lets you pop it onto a chain link fence. We’re always trying to solve for the lifestyle. Social media has played a huge role in the “Stanley Renaissance,” so to speak. Is social media still part of your marketing strategy around these newer products? I think creating more emotional connections [with consumers] both in social and outside of social allows us to deepen our connection with current Stanley fans, but also bring new Stanley consumers into our tent, so to speak. I also think telling deeper and richer brand stories really allows us to create more interesting conversations about not just Stanley innovations, but also how collaborations and partnerships with people outside of Stanley can build more equity for the brand. I’ll give you a good example—our 65th anniversary of Barbie campaign. That was an amazing emotional story to tell because it was a confluence of two brands that allows us, as product innovators and storytellers, to really develop a narrative where the consumer is in the middle. I think if you can really drive a more full-funnel, deeper and richer emotional story, you give yourself a chance of obviously being relevant from a social media point of view, but beyond social, as well. @stanleybrand So many legendary decades to celebrate! 1 more day until the Barbie™ x Stanley Dream Quencher collection is available to purchase as a set, exclusively via EQL. Click the link in our bio to get notified! ♬ original sound - Stanley 1913 Did you leverage any marketing strategies aside from social media for the Barbie collab? We did a lot of outdoor storytelling, and what we also did to complement the outdoor storytelling was our “Barbie Legends” tour. We went to four cities around the world and we built a 65th Barbie anniversary experience, and they were built around the four or five different eras that consumers know Barbie the most from. In Los Angeles, we created this amazing consumer experience at a 1950s-style motel where we celebrated Barbie’s original iteration with her iconic black-and-white chevron swimsuit with a 1950s-style pool party. We invited Stanley consumers to that event, and we had an amazing turnout—lines around the block. We also brought the “Legends” tour to Houston, New York and London, as well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stanley 1913 (@stanley_brand) Stanley has also done some collabs recently with Olivia Rodrigo and LoveShackFancy—what’s your strategy behind deciding which brands and celebrities to work with? With Olivia Rodrigo, we know she’s a phenomenal human being and artist, and we also know Olivia was—and is—a Stanley fan. She authentically is connected to our brand. So, when you bring that all together, and you also have her help you design the actual color and graphic and how she wants the product to come to life, you have just this powerful coming together of like minds, and I think the consumer recognizes and understands that. And Olivia also allowed Stanley to come into her world and be part of her audience, and we got to know her audience much more. She was on tour during the launch, and she and her team allowed Stanley to be part of one of her concerts in Berlin where Olivia, who always hydrates from her Stanley, shared that moment with us as part of the activation. We broadcast that on our social—it was such a powerful thing for the brand—one of the coolest, most culturally connected moments we’ve ever had. @stanleybrand Stanley x Olivia Rodrigo it’s a b̶a̶d̶ good idea, right? Coming July 9 only on stanley1913.com ♬ original sound - Stanley 1913 What LoveShackFancy helped us to do was really understand how to connect with style and fashion—that’s another new field of play for us. And what we were able to do with LoveShack was diversify the product portfolio in the collection, so you could, obviously, get the Stanley Quencher, but you could also get the All Day Slim bottle. And we were able to bring that to life in Vogue magazine, which was also a cultural turning point, I think, for our brand, where we were part of the most aspirational style and fashion on the planet. As part of that partnership, LoveShackFancy’s house in the Hamptons for a period of time became a “LoveShackStanley” house in the Hamptons. We invited a number of influencers into that home for a weekend, and we had the home furnished and equipped in a “LoveShackStanley” way, like with an ice cream pop-up van. @katebartlett the real life barbie dream house 😭🎀 @LoveShackFancy ♬ Wes Anderson-esque Cute Acoustic - Kenji Ueda Water bottles have become almost a new kind of accessory at this point—how is Stanley leaning into that trend? One of the things that we're driving on is that through product innovation, design and sustainability, we’re choosing to live at the intersection of performance, style and culture. And, if we continue to do that, we will become part of the “uniform of youth.” If you do that, you will be an accessory—that person will choose their water bottle with the same discernment as their sneakers, their dress or their top. That’s what we’re really striving for at Stanley, and in order to do that, you focus relentlessly on the consumer and solve for them. The rise of the Stanley Quencher was driven by influencers and creators. Is influencer marketing still part of your strategy for these newer Stanley products? Absolutely. I think we have an astonishing opportunity to partner with influencers and creators across different fields of play that help us understand how, first and foremost, to design better for their lifestyles. They help us show off the richer consumer insights that we design around, and they also provide us with inspiration—and I think the consumer is inspired as well. And then, if [an influencer] shares values that we can also talk about, we're really there. There are a lot of rival water bottle brands competing for Gen Z’s attention, like Owala. What is Stanley doing to stand out from these competitors? We’re really proud of the originality of our brand and we're really proud of the relevancy of our brand. We are doubling down on product innovation. We're doubling down on product design. We're doubling down on our color, material and finish design, and we're doubling down on our sustainability. That's where we're focused. Stanley isn’t just a trendy water bottle—it's a really thoughtful, functional piece of everyday equipment.

How Stanley’s marketing strategy is evolving beyond viral TikTok moments

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