Building venture firm, @DaybreakVCP. Previous to this was at the well known, @IndexVentures. Rex is an avid writer about how technology & people intersect at http://digitalnative.tech.
Guest Author: Rex Woordbury
Stanley is a 110-year-old brand, but saw its sales grow 10x from $70M in 2019 to $750M (!) in 2023.
Its water bottle has become Gen Z’s most-coveted product.
What happened?
The rise of Stanley embodies savvy modern marketing.
Three things they did well:
1) Influencers
A few years back, Stanley’s Quencher water bottle caught the attention of a group of mom bloggers in Utah known as “The Buy Guide.”
The women sent a Quencher to Emily Maynard, from The Bachelor, who shared it online. The moms then bought 5,000 Quenchers themselves, set up a Shopify store, and began promoting the product.
The Quencher quickly sold out. To Stanley’s credit, the company took notice and began to invest in online influencers. They even turned to The Buy Guide for product feedback…
2) Product Feedback
Stanley hired its new President, Terence Reilly, from Crocs, which had enjoyed its own viral growth during the late 2010s. Reilly listened to The Buy Guide on their requests for more pastel colors, marketing The Quencher to women as accessories rather than to men for camping / outdoor activities.
In 2021, The Quencher launched over 10 new colors. Sales more than doubled that year to $194M.
3) TikTok & Embracing Viral Moments
Stanley began to invest heavily in social media marketing, even hiring its own TikTok agency. The #StanleyCup hashtag has 6.9B views.
When a woman’s car burned down last fall, her Stanley Quencher survived—and even still had ice in it. A brand couldn’t ask for a better viral moment. Stanley moved quickly.
The next day (unheard of in marketing) Stanley announced it was gifting the women a brand new car.
Its TikTok video about the gift has 54M views. — Stanley did other things right. They constrained supply, treating each new product launch like a sneaker drop. This generated hype.
They designed partnerships with brands like Olay and Starbucks (another page from the Crocs playbook).
Any modern company can learn from Stanley—tapping its community for feedback, investing heavily in social, and moving quickly to capture viral moments.
They’ve turned an unsexy product (a water bottle) into one of the most sought-after and talked-about products of the year.
Check out the original tweet here.
