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This one right here, this is why you signed up …
🤑 The Operation
Exclusive lessons on HexClad’s $100M investment by Fox and Gordon Ramsay from Jason Panzer.
🔥 The Spotlight
Behind-the-scenes, five-step creative breakdown of the brand’s production flywheel by Connor Rolain.
📈 The Addendum
Applications on the most important thing DTCs “don’t realize they’re doing” via Connor MacDonald.
Plus other stuff — like trends, resources (landers + funnels), Prime Day numbers (flexes), and more.
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THE SPOTLIGHT
Connor Rolain
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How HexClad Runs Its Creative Production Flywheel
We recently revamped our creative-testing process, resulting in a 60% increase in top-of-funnel spend.
Here’s a breakdown of the five-step process. 1️⃣ Initial testing
New creative assets are placed into ad rotation for 14 days.
2️⃣ Performance reporting
After those two weeks, a performance report identifies the winning creatives using Motion’s analytics.
3️⃣ Momentum analysis
We recirculate winning creatives for another two weeks to analyze momentum; during that same period, the team also reviews underperforming assets.
4️⃣ Aggregate reporting
After ~30 days, an aggregate performance report evaluates the impact of all creatives.
5️⃣ Scaling ad spend
Winners that maintain momentum receive increased ad spend, and underperforming assets are iterated for improvement.
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Our Head of Advertising (Cam Bush) and Sr. Growth Manager (London Spilker) dove deep into this process …
Including how they identify winning creatives and compare performance across different formats.
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THE OPERATION
Jason Panzer
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It was a big week for HexClad.
We announced a strategic investment from Fox Entertainment and Gordon Ramsay at a unicorn-level valuation.
$100M in cash + media commitments. Having done over 100 corporate transactions in my career as a banker and lawyer, it’s even more satisfying as an operator.
That said, all those years of deal experience really, really helped get this one done.
More on that in a minute.
But first, why would a media company like Fox want to invest in a product company like HexClad?
With the widespread adoption of the internet, media companies continue to need innovative growth strategies that leverage their core competency — content creation.
The marriage of cooking content and cooking products makes logical sense.
Fox’s TV business crushes cooking shows, sports, and news.
Still, it took visionary thinking at the highest level for them to go all in and execute.
The Fox team is making this partnership a huge priority throughout the organization. Excitement on both sides here is simply awesome.
The transaction process reminded me of some key Panzerisms.
- Know your numbers
- Time kills all deals
- And especially …
Negotiate from strength by being prepared to walk away from the table.
The deal process is never easy. In our case, the conversations started like 18 months before closing.
Perhaps the most important takeaway is that strong business performance creates great strategic options.
Building a sustainable, profitable business that delivers value to customers will lead to a much better outcome than a short-term cash grab.
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Capital, Investment & Politics
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Breaking Down Twitter’s Hot Takes!
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Need to Find a Landing Page Expert?
Connor Rolain, Head of Growth HexClad
It’s not free, but I’ve been using Replo’s marketplace to quickly design + develop landing pages I have inspiration or briefs for. Not enough people know about it — even though it’s right inside the app.
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Need (Way Too Many) Funnel Resources?
Cody Plofker, CMO Jones Road Beauty
This one’s free, but it’s not quick. At least not after you grab all of its downloads. There’s a PDF guide, Notion database, and retention playbook. Solid stuff from Aaron Orendorff and a couple of his friends.
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THE ADDENDUM
Connor MacDonald
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From E013: Former CMO at The Oodie on Merchandising, Top of Funnel Tactics & More
A few weeks ago, we had Tyson Drake discuss the most important thing DTC brands don’t realize they’re doing … merchandising.
The episode has been called “the best so far, not even close,” which — considering we are currently 16-for-16 on banger episodes (source: unverified) — is high praise.
Having Tyson on was a no-brainer for me because he’s been sharing the most well-informed and thoughtful content on marketing and merchandising in DTC.
In this thread, Tyson revealed the “DTC Merchandising Dashboard” he developed at The Oodie and deployed for True Classic.
As we’ve gone 0-to-1 on more strategic merchandising at Ridge, we’ve found value in creating a clear product hierarchy.
For us, it looks something like …
- General Category: EDC (Everyday Carry)
- Product Category: Wallet
- Silhouette: Classic Ridge Wallet
- Colorway: Carbon Fiber 3k
Simple stuff, really.
But standardizing it across the org has benefited channels and workflows I hadn’t anticipated …
- Data: Enriching SKU-level revenue reporting with product information for granular trend analysis
- Site: Nested site menus, creating cleaner & more dynamic collections, product templates, etc.
- Paid: Using category, silhouette & colorway in ad names to analyze performance across dimensions
- SEM: Shopping feed rules (structured data between Shopify + Google) and campaign segmentation
Even SKU building because much of this info is coded all the way into the SKU itself.
Honestly, the list goes on and on.
It’s stuff we’ve always done but haven’t recognized or formalized the underlying structure.
The toolset to discuss, analyze, and action around product data will pay dividends over time. What’s the biggest benefit?
The simple, methodical, and sushi chef-like approach that I strive for at Ridge.
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This week’s top-five trending news stories, curated by the editor of CPG Wire
1. Amazon Delivers Record Sales on Prime Day: TechCrunch
US consumers spent $14.2B at Amazon on July 16–17. This figure represents an 11% increase over last year’s $12.7B. Interestingly, (1) AOV was up slightly, (2) average selling price was also up, and (3) so were discounts.
Naturally, over on Simple Modern’s Twitter accounts ↓ flex, flex & humble brag.
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2. Bloom Nutrition Launches Energy Drink Range: PR Newswire
Supplement brand Bloom Nutrition expanded into the ultra-competitive energy drink category with Bloom Sparkling Energy, available exclusively at Target. This move shouldn’t come as a major surprise — Nutrabolt, the owner of C4 Energy, acquired a 20% stake in Bloom earlier this year.
3. VF Corp Bails on Streetwear: Business of Fashion
VF Corp, the owner of Vans and The North Face, sold streetwear icon Supreme for $1.5B in cash. The buyer is eyewear giant Essilor Luxottica. VF Corp acquired Supreme in 2020 for $2.1B but failed to nurture and grow the brand.
4. Challenger Brand Sauz Closes $4.7M Funding Round: Twitter
Coefficient Capital led a $4.7M funding round in the pasta sauce brand Sauz. Strand Equity and Palm Tree Crew also participated in the round. Sauz launched in 2023 and quickly became a top performer at a number of retailers.
5. HexClad Grabs $100M from Studio Ramsay Global: Bloomberg
Last but not least … check out the full (public) story on HexClad securing that $100M investment from Studio Ramsay Global, a joint venture between chef Gordon Ramsay and Fox Entertainment.
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We’ve got a ton of responses from the few sends! Big thanks for all the support, kind words, and (especially) the feedback.
Have a question or a topic you’d love us to cover?
Got suggestions on how we can improve?
Or, just want to say something nice? Please, hit reply … we can’t wait to help even more!
Until next time,
The Operators
PS: Special thanks to Motion for backing us as a sponsor even before day one.
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