Welcome to Earned, an influencer marketing podcast by Tribe Dynamics. In this series, Tribe Dynamics co-founder Conor Begley sits down with esteemed industry leaders, exploring the minds—and marketing strategies—behind the most successful beauty and fashion brands in earned media.
In Episode 9 of Earned, Conor chats with Aurelian Lis, CEO of influencer-favorite skincare brand Dermalogica. Aurelian shares the post-COVID pivots that Dermalogica has made, including the brand’s new Clean Touch Certification program. Aurelian talks about why he believes product along with service leads to consumer loyalty, and finally, we discuss the brand’s education-focused approach to influencer marketing.
Savannah Sachs, CEO of rapidly growing, probiotic-powered skincare line Tula, joins Conor for our eighth episode of Earned. We dive into Savannah’s leadership philosophy, and she reveals why cultivating a “happy, high-performing team” is the key to business success—and her first priority at Tula. We also learn how Tula adapted its marketing and retail strategies in response to COVID-19 to power record sales in April and May. Savannah gives generous insight into Tula’s influencer program, and emphasizes the importance of “high-touch” relationships between brand teams and their influencer partners.
For Episode 7 of Earned, Conor sits down with Jamie Starr, Global Director of Sports Marketing at The North Face. Jamie starts off by sharing where his love of the outdoors originated, growing up in Crested Butte, a small, close-knit community in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. We learn more about Jamie’s role at The North Face, and how the brand is staying connected with, and supportive of, its team of athlete ambassadors in the face of a pandemic and cultural revolution. To end the episode, Jamie emphasizes how The North Face is using its platform to fight for racial justice and promote more diversity in mountain sports.
In our sixth Earned episode and second virtual interview, Conor chats with Divya Gugnani, co-founder and CEO of Wander Beauty, a digitally native beauty brand launched in 2015. Divya earned a B.S. at Cornell and an M.B.A. at Harvard, but claims her “hardest degree” was from the French Culinary Institute—though these reflect just a few of the serial entrepreneur’s many impressive endeavors. We dive into Divya’s “accidental” journey to entrepreneurship and the valuable lessons she’s learned along the way, before hearing how a chance encounter with Lindsay Ellingson (Wander Beauty’s co-founder and creative director) at a party led to the brand’s conception. Divya reveals how COVID-19 has forced a shake-up in the Wander Beauty’s “on-the-go” messaging and marketing strategies, and emphasizes the importance of listening to your community in difficult times. And of course, we also get to hear Wander Beauty’s approach to building long-lasting influencer relationships.
In Earned’s first remote episode, Conor (virtually) sits down with Sarah Lee and Christine Chang, co-founders of cult-favorite skincare brand Glow Recipe. We dive into Sarah and Christine’s unique backgrounds, as they unpack what they learned growing up across different countries and cultures. Christine and Sarah detail their close-knit co-founder dynamic, and share their 360-degree approach to brand marketing, their personalized and authentic influencer outreach strategy, and their journey to building the Real Glow Gang, a passionate and highly engaged community of skincare—and Glow Recipe—enthusiasts.
In Earned Episode 4, Conor interviews Mehdi Mehdi, chief digital officer at Selena Gomez’s highly anticipated beauty line Rare Beauty, and former VP of Digital at NYX Professional Makeup. Mehdi talks about the importance of understanding your consumer’s perspective and leveraging your influencer community, and shares his most-used marketing strategies, including a thoughtful approach to building long-term influencer relationships.
In episode 3 of Earned, Conor sits down with Evelyn Wang, CMO of cult-favorite masstige cosmetics brand Milani. We dive into Evelyn’s unexpected path to the beauty industry, beginning with a degree in Psychoanalytic Thought from a Toronto university, to a business degree at USC (with her sights set on the entertainment industry), before an internship at L'Oréal Paris eventually led her to senior leadership positions at major beauty corporations like Estée Lauder and Johnson & Johnson. Evelyn unpacks the transition from working at these large, publicly traded companies, to leading the marketing departments of smaller, independent brands like Wet n Wild, and, since 2018, Milani. We find out her core marketing philosophies, including the importance of a compelling brand story and the necessity of details, plus her thoughts on the influencer marketing space and Milani’s personalized approach to working with content creators.
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In Episode 2 of Earned, Tribe Dynamics co-founder Conor Begley chats with Jordynn Wynn, co-founder of rising hair extensions brand Insert Name Here (yes, that’s the name!) and marketing director at ColourPop. Raised in a small Montana town, Jordynn reveals how she wound up becoming the first official hire at ColourPop at age 21, and pulls back the curtain on the brand’s humble beginnings. Jordynn also shares why she, alongside former Pepperdine classmate and ColourPop colleague Sharon Pak and entrepreneur Kevin Gould, decided to enter the hair space and found wig, ponytail, and extensions brand Insert Name Here. We unpack how Jordynn’s learnings from ColourPop inform INH’s marketing strategy, and discuss the active role social media influencers have played in the hair brand’s initial success.
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In Episode 1 of Earned, Tribe Dynamics co-founder Conor Begley sits down with Ashton Wall, director of performance marketing at ColourPop, one of today’s hottest beauty brands in earned media. Ashton shares how she landed her “dream job” at ColourPop, revealing her career role models and ride-or-die marketing philosophies. Conor and Ashton also dive into the evolution of brand-consumer relationships in the social media era and the importance of social listening, before Ashton divulges a few of the strategies that rocketed ColourPop to stardom.
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