Short King Dating
You know those stories marketers tell you about that one time their boss told them to come up with ideas to make them go viral? Yeah, this is one of those stories.
Backstory:
Ash & Erie is a menswear brand for men 5'8" and under. The fashion industry is notoriously non-inclusive. Standard sizing never accounts for smaller proportions. For shorter men, this can lead us to shop in the kids section! The company was started to solve the utility of clothes fitting shorter men, but the brand represents much more than that. Ash & Erie wants to instill confidence and acceptance in shorter men—no man should feel less than because they're short. This is the overarching idea I used to help grow the brand. I worked on and managed a bevy of our marketing strategy, but since this post is about Short King Dating, I'll get into that later :)
The Story:
"How can we go viral?" Our CEO asked us. As the growth lead (and only one on the team with some semblance of viral marketing experience), I first cringed. How cliché?! This was my instinct at first. And rightfully so. Yet another startup CEO wanting to go viral. We've heard it all before. But after a few months of kicking the can down the road, I all of a sudden felt motivated to make this happen. Not really sure why, but hey what can I tell you.
In the middle of the night, I opened up Carrd and Adobe Illustrator and got to work. By the next morning, I had a fully functional landing page to collect emails via ConvertKit as well as legit-looking app mockups. I then presented the page at the next standup and quickly got buy-in.
The pitch was simple: Short King Dating, a dating app where only men 5'8" and under (and those who want to date them) are allowed.
Backstory:
Ash & Erie is a menswear brand for men 5'8" and under. The fashion industry is notoriously non-inclusive. Standard sizing never accounts for smaller proportions. For shorter men, this can lead us to shop in the kids section! The company was started to solve the utility of clothes fitting shorter men, but the brand represents much more than that. Ash & Erie wants to instill confidence and acceptance in shorter men—no man should feel less than because they're short. This is the overarching idea I used to help grow the brand. I worked on and managed a bevy of our marketing strategy, but since this post is about Short King Dating, I'll get into that later :)
The Story:
"How can we go viral?" Our CEO asked us. As the growth lead (and only one on the team with some semblance of viral marketing experience), I first cringed. How cliché?! This was my instinct at first. And rightfully so. Yet another startup CEO wanting to go viral. We've heard it all before. But after a few months of kicking the can down the road, I all of a sudden felt motivated to make this happen. Not really sure why, but hey what can I tell you.
In the middle of the night, I opened up Carrd and Adobe Illustrator and got to work. By the next morning, I had a fully functional landing page to collect emails via ConvertKit as well as legit-looking app mockups. I then presented the page at the next standup and quickly got buy-in.
The pitch was simple: Short King Dating, a dating app where only men 5'8" and under (and those who want to date them) are allowed.
"Tall, dark, and handsome" is outdated, and kings are in short supply. Don't let height get in the way of true love.
From there, I just followed the strategy I used when I launched Polar Vortex. Build a list of PR contacts, get influencers to post about the launch, etc. Except this time, I had an already well-known brand to work with and a small team of influencers I had previously recruited to be our ambassadors. Smooth(er) sailing.
Results:
- 1k+ emails collected
- Multiple press features, social mentions, organic news picked it up
- Influencer shoutouts
Press Features:
