EPISODE SUMMARY

Kasey Stewart is the co-founder and CEO of Suckerz, a better-for-you lollipop. Before starting his own CPG company, Stewart spent many years working on the agency side at companies like SapientRazorFish where he led creative direction. In 2017, Stewart decided to venture out on his own and start a creative & production agency called StewHouse where he worked with celebrities like Zac Efron and Kate Upton. In 2020 he decided to pivot to work on the brand side and launch his own CPG startup, Suckerz.

EPISODE NOTES

In this episode of DTC Pod, Kasey discusses the art of storytelling on social media platforms, specifically TikTok. We talk about what makes a great TikTok video, a great TikTok hook, and why voiceovers are more important than visuals. Kasey also explains how he’s used TikTok  to create brand awareness, attract Shark Tank casting directors, and create retail opportunities -  without spending a penny.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

The Vacation That Changed His Life Forever
3:45 - 4:04
So when I went to go do this travel part of what I wanted to do, instead of it just being like, Hey, let’s go do this for fun. I wanted to come back with a skill set. And that skill set was to be able to shoot and to edit. So I bought my first camera. And for the first 100 days I shot every day, I edited a video, and I uploaded it to YouTube documenting my travel.

This Brand Got 300M Views, Without Spending A Dollar
18:29 - 19:01
We did finally, I think crack the code of TikTok to what people connect with. And that was what enabled us to grow so fast, so quick. And yeah, it’s been our biggest. Especially now like you’re talking about the troubles that are happening in paid social, like everybody cutting budgets and the CAC to get people now  is so high, but we haven’t had to do any paid so far. And so our CAC is like zero, and TikTok  has been driven everything from Shark Tank reaching out within the first five days wanting us to come on the show to retailers reaching out.

The Framework for Building Viral Organic Content
23:26 - 24:09
It’s all about there’s this formula. You have a hook. I mean, you have 2 to 3 seconds to get somebody to stay there. You have a hook. You have a conflict that happens. And then you have a resolution or a call to action to that. And so every single video since then has been some sort of a hook. “This is how we failed.” “17 minutes to know if our product was going to make it or not” “The worst phone call since we started our business.” All these things.  Not  that they’re  all bad. But to be honest, some of the negative ones are the ones that seem to perform the best. And then you just talk about that conflict, what happened.  Boxes came and we had an a ship but lollipops were broken. And this is the resolution, we stayed up all night, we checked one by one every single lollipop and threw away their broken ones. And we’re going to be able to make it to launch.

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