Case Study
Johnny Slicks
Who is Johnny Slicks?
Johnny Slicks was born from one man’s desire to save his hair. John Raushi took an interest in hair products and styling while serving in the military, and when a company reached out to him to model some of their product, he jumped at the chance. Over the next few months, he applied product into his hair seven or eight times a day to be ready for photoshoots. Everything was great, up until one morning when it wasn’t.
John looked in the mirror and could see more of his scalp than ever before. He realized his beautiful hair was thinning. Looking at the label for the product he had been using more closely, he saw plastic, formaldehyde, and a number of artificial preservatives. So he turned to organic products, but seeing that these cost around $40 per bottle, the question became “If it’s organic, what’s to stop me from making some myself?”
He set out to learn everything he could about making soaps and shampoos until he had made his first bottle of the Perfect Recipe Pomade. As this pomade became popular, he teamed up with Nick Koumalatsos, and they started to truly build the Johnny Slicks brand and its community of “Slicksters”. Johnny Slicks now offers a variety of grooming products, from pomades to beard oils and creams, even body wash. And all of it is still made organically, by hand.
What did they want to achieve with Wallaroo?
Johnny Slicks and Wallaroo partnered up in March 2020, united on raising Johnny Slicks’s FB/IG ROAS to their target number, then stably scaling upwards while keeping returns level. Growth was the game, but it needed to happen sustainably. Like crafting an organic pomade by hand, John and Nick knew that a steady, deliberate approach may not be the easiest or flashiest, but it’s hard to argue with the results when it’s done right. (Seriously. Have you seen the hair on those guys?)
What steps were taken with their business?
Wallaroo started with managing Facebook and Instagram ad accounts for Johnny Slicks, as well as building ad creatives and helping with SEO and email marketing. Using CRM data from their Shopify account, we prospected new audiences and found ways to retain both current and past purchasers, using split testing to ensure that the right ad units, audiences, and bidding methods were being used across the board.
One of the unique wrinkles of Johnny Slicks is the inclusion of limited-time seasonal products. Whether it’s a pumpkin spice body wash or an apple pie pomade, these products pop up seasonally and a strategy needs to be developed and monitored in a much shorter window than the standard projects, and this was a challenge that we welcomed.
These strategies saw quick results as March’s ROAS was above the target number, prompting a bump in spend for Q2. With 50% more spend in these months, the ROAS dipped slightly, but stayed above the target number in each month.
FB/IG Ad by Wallaroo Media
Come July, Wallaroo and Johnny Slicks added Google Ads to the marketing plan, and quickly scaled this platform’s budget to comprise over 15% of total advertising spend, building on the growth seen earlier in the year.
Johnny Slicks and Wallaroo took what they had learned from their efforts from February to September, and used October as a preparation period for November, Black Friday, and the Holiday shopping season.
November 2020 was Johnny Slick’s strongest month to date. Total sales were up 54% from October, and up 323% from November 2019. This was powered by a Black Friday that brought in 24% of the month’s total sales, a day which our team and the team at Johnny Slicks had spent weeks preparing for.
Our most recent endeavor with Johnny Slicks has been to establish a presence on Snapchat, and tap into the potential new audiences on that platform. We are optimistic that this will quickly turn into another successful channel for Johnny Slicks, and are excited to continue our partnership with them.
What results did they see?
So far, the story of Wallaroo and Johnny Slicks has been a tale of threes. The aforementioned target ROAS of 3X was reached early and has been maintained throughout the partnership. The company’s total sales increased by 389% from 2019 to 2020, and they were able to spend 385% more across all platforms in the year as well. And those are just three of the KPI’s with strong results. (Looks like three really is a magic number. So here’s to three more years, right Johnny?)
Johnny Slicks is an example of a brand with a unique product and a definite demand that just needed a way to connect these two dots. We are thrilled to be a part of their journey and are proud of the work we have been able to do for them so far.
Ready to take your brand to the next level with Wallaroo Media?