Trend Breakdown: Audience-First CPG Products

Problem

Build a CPG product that resonates with customers that you know how to reach and convert.

Solution

Build an audience before CPG products.

Anecdotes

Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) = Feastables

Gary Vaynerchuk = Empathy Wines

Dave Portnoy = One Bite Frozen Pizza

Katy Hearn = Alani Nu

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson = ZOA Energy

Crucial Takeaways

1. An audience becomes the most-valuable business asset.

2. In an industry with low barriers of entry, audiences create a defensible moat.

3. Audience signals drive recommendations which greatly reduces marketing and development costs.

Predictions

The old business sequence of building products first and audiences later will become obsolete. The creators of today will become the biggest brands of tomorrow.

Opportunities

1. Get off the sidelines and into the game! Don’t focus on how many people you can reach, but the depth of relationships you build with your audience. You can make the Internet small and still create material commercial value.

2. Creators typically have the imaginative ideas, but they don’t necessarily have the business savvy and operational resources to build and scale CPG products.

3. Don’t just sell your audience products. They can be a honeypot for supply-side partners, employees, and even investors.

Additional Knowledge Bombs

• Law of Linear Commerce

• The Creator Economy 2.0

• Celebrity Talent Has Launched Their Own Media