Episode 219: Unpacking the UPS Be Unstoppable Shop

Welcome to Skucast, the podcast for entrepreneurs in the promotional products industry. Skucast shines a light on our industry's best work, features maverick personalities, and discusses what's really involved in running a modern promotional products business. SkewCast is the official podcast of Common Skew.

Hey friends, let me pose a shop project to you. UPS, a 115-year-old logistics brand, a brand known more for its utility than its creativity, approaches you and asks, you know, we want to sponsor the world's most exclusive event in fashion, New New York Fashion Week. Not only that, we want to launch our own merch collection at New York Fashion Week. How can you help us make that impact? Now, you might think that no one would ever match New York Fashion Week and UPS as brands who could partner together in a way that would create magic, but that type of stereotyping with brands, merch, and experiences is what prevents us from thinking critically and creatively. Because UPS did exactly that. They partnered with notable names in fashion and up-and-coming designers to create an exclusive collection of merch and streetwear. But they didn't just stop at merchandise. The entire campaign, from the design to the product to the on-site experience, all aligned with their ultimate intent, which was to support, showcase, and celebrate emerging Black fashion brands and their unstoppable spirit. Hi friends, I'm Bobby Lee Hu, Comiskey's Chief Content Officer, joined by Mark Graham, Comiskey's President and Chief Brand Officer. Today on the SkewCast, we unpack—pun intended, so sorry—we unpack UPS's beunstoppableshop.com, one of the most creative and compelling shops that I've seen in a while, and the lessons that we can apply from their experience to our clients. But before we get to that episode, we have a very special webinar experience coming up. It's a conversation with David Luba, co-founder of TenTree, on how to build a high-impact brand on Wednesday, April 20th from 12 to 1 PM ET. In 2011, David Luba, Derek Emsley, and Kalen Emsley were inspired to start a clothing brand that gave back to the earth and formed the company TenTree with a simple mission: for every garment sold, they would plant 10 trees. Their revenue and their mission skyrocketed to over $65 million in sales, and by 2020, they surpassed 50 million trees planted. In 2021, PCNA's Trimark partnered with TenTree to make TenTree apparel available to the industry, and in our interview with co-founder David Luba, we will talk about the critical thresholds they crossed while building a high-impact brand and how to build both mission and profit into a unifying vision. Join us as we celebrate Earth Day in the month of April with our special guest, David Luba. Our interview will be followed by a 20-minute networking session to help put into practice what we've learned as we strive to make every day Earth Day in 2022. You can register at commonscue.com/pcnawebinar. Now here's my chat with Mark as we explore The Be Unstoppable Shop.

As an official partner of New York Fashion Week, this is what UPS had to say. They released their first ever limited edition collection. They made their debut at the show. Their design was inspired by small businesses and their drive to be unstoppable. 100% of the proceeds are donated to In The Black, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Black designers build solidarity and economic independence in the global fashion industry. Mark, this is probably one of the best shops I have seen launched in a very long time, so I'm excited to talk about it.

Absolutely, absolutely.

The first thing I want to mention is the inspiration about this. The collection— this is according to UPS— was inspired by SMBs, small businesses' unstoppable spirit, and the creativity of Black artists, designers, and musicians. It pays homage to barrier-breaking Black designers and creatives like Virgil Abloh, André Leon Talley, Olivier Rousteing, And they also sponsored New York Fashion Week, Mark, which is what I find kind of interesting. Which, before we go any further, UPS serves as the official shipping partner of NYFW, which is what everybody calls New York Fashion Week, right? Yep. Now that means, before we get to the shop, that means they paid to be a part of that experience. But something you would love is they didn't phone in their sponsorship.

No, no, not at all. I mean, it wouldn't be surprising at all If UPS was the official shipping partner for New York Fashion Week, they, in that particular case, I could see them putting their logo up front and being prominent about it. They could send out some social media communication suggesting they're proud of their partnership. And then of course they would ship a whole bunch of packages back and forth to make sure that everything arrived on time at the event. But what I think is so amazing and so unexpected about this is that UPS produced a fashion-worthy line featuring this incredible branded merchandise for retail sale. And UPS is probably one of the last brands that I would ever think would be able to pull something like this off, which is what I think makes it so incredible, right?

Because it's so unexpected.

If it was a brand that you would normally associate with New York Fashion Week, like let's say Supreme as an example, and I'm sure Supreme would do an incredible job, but the thing is, is that it wouldn't be unexpected at all. You would expect that affiliation. UPS, way out in left field, comes in and produces this incredible campaign that I think really turns a lot of heads.

Yeah, not only that, but the idea of them sponsoring it, and deciding that we don't want to just put our logo over everything and get the credit for— they didn't create an ad. What they created was sort of an immersive collaborative experience that everyone could be a part of. I'm looking out my window right now, UPS truck is sitting right there, and I think of how ubiquitous that brand has been forever and how sort of commonplace UPS is, and they knew they had to make this massive splash. Let's talk a little bit about the merchandise because every piece was designed fairly uniquely. They did very little just logo drops. They took each piece on its own merit. It's beautifully designed in a way that sort of matches that aesthetic. And so I was really impressed with how they got away from the big brown, you know, UPS is a logistics shipping business. It's interesting that they—

Not exciting at all in that respect. It's exciting to some people, but not to most. Right.

And so they took their brand and they were able to play with that in a way that showcased, I think, some individual talents of the creative people they worked with, which we'll get into in a minute, as well as the star of the show, I think, the merchandise. Yep. Yep.

Absolutely. And I was going to think that, and I wasn't at New York Fashion Week, so what I'm about to say, I could be wrong, but it's not as though UPS showed up as a sponsor with a bunch of tote bags that were being distributed on everyone's seat as they arrived for the main event. Which of course you and I haven't been to many conferences, promo and non-promo conferences. That's usually what happens. You show up and there's a t-shirt that's a size extra large, which isn't your size, that is folded up on the chair. And there's sort of a lame tote bag that has been printed on there as well. And most people leave them. UPS didn't do that. UPS created this emotional experience, this retail experience by creating this incredible online shop. So like that, that was the part that I, again, using my word unexpected, unexpected. It's almost a bit subversive too, in terms of it's subverting what you would come to expect from a brand like this.

Yeah, a couple of things worth noting that they did extremely well that for us we can duplicate. It doesn't really— there's no technology requirement with some of these things. It's just how they position the marketing and the branding. First, they created a micro sort of branding in the URL, the Unstoppable Shop. They limited— they did a limited launch when they opened it first with just 14 pieces, which I thought was brilliant because then they created couple of things. They, they said you can sign up for future drops, so they immediately created scarcity. They immediately created this exclusive opportunity, get them now, and they created anticipation, all built into this unique experience. And so those were 3 things that I think they built into the merch with just 14 pieces. The design and imagery though was stunning. So according to WWD, UPS tapped photographer Christian Cody to shoot the collection and stylist Hugo Mosey to create the look. Now Hugo is an LA-based activist and designer. He has held lectures and spoken at length on cultural diversity and business of fashion at Oxford, Harvard, Columbia. This is something for us to consider too, and that is collaborations for our shops. Would you do that type of work, that type of elevated experience for every brand? No, but everybody has 2 or 3 key brands that would fit kind of the model and what they did. Because again, what they did, they created a microbranding URL, microbranding experience And then they partnered with the right people that would not only help elevate the experience, but that would also help spread the word.

Well, and not only are they partnering with the right people, what they're also doing— and people in our industry will, will certainly be very quick to realize this— they also partnered with brands that we're familiar with. So you take a look at some notable retail brands that are on their site, Yeti being one of them. Yeah, MIR is another one. Yep. Of course, there are there are other products that they've done that are completely white-labeled and private-labeled to them, like the t-shirts and the caps. But just this notion of looking at how they can collaborate across people, across designers, and also across brand, I think is really interesting, but also something that's right out of the promotional products playbook. So very, very translatable to other people that are looking at this. Yeah.

Also, the design of this was really bold and audacious, particularly on some of the apparel pieces, and the long-sleeve apparel pieces had a very streetwear look with the design, old copy, simple actual designs, but the placement was unique. It was just— I thought it was really elegantly done. Yeah, you could tell they knew their audience very, very well. Um, the other thing they did incredibly well was the give-back component. So proceeds of this collection will go to In The Black, I-N-T-H-E-B-L-K, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting emerging Black fashion brands. UPS will also donate $50,000 to support Black entrepreneurs. So they're supporting Black-owned businesses by donating collection sales and giving grants to supporting emerging Black fashion designers. Here's another, which again, Mark, is something we can all do. Like, we could all partner. Think of how many corporate clients used to get this call, Mark. I did too, back in the day, where you were working with a corporate client and they would say, hey, we have our, our official charity that we would really like your involvement with. And, and sometimes, let's be honest, sometimes some folks would take that call and go, oh no, I gotta like, we have our thing, we're doing our thing, and we need to do this, and we can't say no. You know, there's that attitude. Instead, turn that added to one's head and said, how can we make this really special for their church? Like, how can we create exclusive experience for them and not treat it as a Columbo, like an, oh, by the way, we could do that too, or just pay for an ad, but actually invest? And we are sitting on a great opportunity to do that with.

Right, right. Yeah, I 100% agree. And so Bobby, I've got a question for you. So of course, in your older days in the industry, when you were a junior professional, I suppose you could call you, When you were at Robin, one area of expertise for you was in producing company stores, both retail company stores as well as B2B company stores for a lot of traditional Fortune 500 companies in your local market. So they would include oil companies or financial services companies, maybe even some logistics companies. And the reason I focus in on those sectors is that those are end clients that are not necessarily known for cutting-edge design when it comes to products or even design or even store design. And so the reason I ask you this is that it's not inconceivable that Robin could have worked with a UPS-style company in producing promotional products. Putting your old Robin hat on, Is this the kind of thing that, uh, you might have produced back in the day, um, or is there something unique about what's happening right now in 2022 that is making it possible for these more traditional companies to come out with these more retail, um, forward programs?

There's a receptive audience and an expectation today that we didn't have back then.

I'll give you an example.

We had one of the one of the 100 largest private banks. Very, very conservative. When you say conservative, they were conservative inside the financial institution conservative area, like one of the most conservative banks. Reach out to us and new creative director said, hey, for our executives this year for launching our apparel line, why don't we do a fashion show? And when he mentioned it to me, I was like, this is a brilliant idea, but also crazy. Like we're really gonna have all these boring bank execs sit next to a runway and watch my, and sure enough, We did it, we pulled it off. We actually did spec samples on everything. We had— we hired models, we had the whole bit, and, uh, we had food served, drinks. It was fun. And what it did— we had it hosted right near their headquarters so that folks could just take off, hop over there. And what it did, they allowed to contribute their opinion to everything. So I think of back then, I think that was weird, right? Even everybody on our team was kind of like, okay, let's go see how this is going to work. Um, but the creative director very forward-thinking, said this can work. And I was sort of, you know, we were partners with it and we learned a lot about it and we brought a lot of the showcasing element to it because we had done so many shows. But what we didn't have was a receptive audience to where they would go, this is so exciting. And now people would be talking about it at the event. I mean, this was a private event. It was a private party, right? At the event, there were so many things we just didn't have the receptive audience. So we had potential players involved. We had potential experiences going back even before pre-internet. Talk about my junior days. Yeah, you know, we did actual shoots with photographers and models on, on apparel to put them in catalogs. So there are components mechanically that fit everything about the UPS Store. And the reason why I love it is because the receptivity today that we just didn't have back then, right? Every brand.

And here's the key.

Every brand now wants to be a lifestyle brand, and that's what they expect. Right.

And that's the unexpected subversive component, right? Is that some brands like Supreme, as I mentioned before, are classic lifestyle brands because that is their business model. UPS, the exact opposite. And the fact that they've been able to bridge that gap is really interesting to me. Another question for you, Bobby, is Do you think that this approach, this unexpected approach as I've been referring to it, of a traditional brand leaping into the lifestyle merchandise game, is there a risk that that'll get tired? I mean, UPS right now is being lauded and celebrated for doing this because it is unexpected. But what happens if next year we see FedEx and DHL and Purellator and ExxonMobil and Citibank creating their own exciting retail lifestyle lines, are people going to start to roll their eyes and go, okay, enough. I don't care about wearing a Citibank shirt. That's not cool. Even if they do a collaboration with Supreme, enough is enough. So is there a risk to our industry that this may get too overblown, or is there still a ton of runway here? I'm of two minds.

One is you could look at it as an aggregate and say it's already there, that there's just some ridiculous amount of merchandising collaborating going on right now. So you could say that, but it's too easy to pick apart the aggregate. What I think instead is that people will never stop wanting to invest in the brands that they love. And so you can sort of pick it apart generally, but specifically, I still want to fly the colors of the brands that I love. The most. And so that's the part that won't ever stop. Now folks will come in, they'll duplicate UPS's experience, they'll duplicate— there'll be a lot of repetitive things out there. We've already seen it with the fast food industry. Um, but where the difference is, if I'm a Dunkin' Donuts fan and the way I show my love for Dunkin' is by wearing the gear and sharing with my friends on social and they get a kick out of it too, that's not going to go away. That little magical component's not going to go away, right?

Another question for you. Is there a risk to UPS in this particular case that the people who are buying this are not necessarily brand champions or advocates for UPS? I'm quite certain they've all heard of UPS. Yeah. But they may not care about UPS. They may not be customers of UPS. They may never be customers of UPS. What they're buying it for is because it's affiliated with New York Fashion Week, so ergo it's cool and it's unique. People are talking about it. And there may also be hints of irony when they're walking around wearing a UPS shirt. And it could be a traditional UPS shirt, or it could be one that is nicely designed from the shop. So in that particular case, does that hurt UPS, or is that a case where any advertising is good advertising regardless of its someone who will never, ever, ever be someone who will set up an account with UPS or even talk about the brand from a shipping perspective. They may talk about it like, hey, look at this cool shirt, but maybe completely disassociated with the actual business of UPS. Is that a risk or does it matter?

I'm gonna answer that question with a question to you. And this is about, so I'm gonna, what do you call it? Pickleball this back to you. So do you—

Pickleball, how Florida have you become? Here we go, yeah.

I think it's a question about intent. Like, what was the intent of this program? Or what was the intent? If the intent was— this is what you hear a lot with corporate clients especially— hey, we want to do a shop because everybody loves us and everybody's going to want to buy our stuff. Even people that don't know us, they're going to want to buy our stuff. And of course, back in the day, you'd kind of help politely reel that in a little bit and go, well, the truth is, you know, Sue, they're not all really going to be rushing to buy your stuff, right? All of it has to do the way they built this experience. And I think their intent was to support Black-owned businesses, to invest in and give back components, to invest in the community. And no doubt about it, number one was how do we sponsor New York Fashion Week in a unique way? I'll bet anything that the folks involved in creating this had a pretty measured idea of its impact. I mean, it probably exceeded their expectations, but in terms of measured impact, I don't think they were going to make 'Create an emerging fashion trend with this,' and everybody was suddenly going to be like, 'That's a dream. Could you wish for that?' Sure. But their intent, what would you say is their intent?

I think that that's a really good question. I mean, I can't imagine there is necessarily a link between this and the new accounts signup department at UPS. Maybe there is, but my guess is that that's not the direct link. I mean, that may be more indirect, and that's also very, very important for us as distributors to understand, is understanding where ROI comes in, understanding how a client is going to measure success. Of course, many people listening to this or watching this already know that, but I think it's a really great reminder to always be making sure that your client has a path to ROI. But as you say, I think that the success here was in creating buzz, was supporting New York Fashion Week, was obviously supporting Black-owned businesses and small businesses within local communities. Extremely important because UPS is known for this sort of global logistics business, but at the end of the day, they're also known as this community supporter. You think about the relationship that you and I, back in our distributor days, had with our UPS driver. When in our case, we had a gentleman by the name of Bruce. He came came in for 10+ years at Right Sleeve, and he was like family to us. He was the person who was saving our butts. Right. And I know you shipped way more packages than we were, than we did, but he came in and he'd come in for a cup of coffee if he had time. And he was such a great person. And he was the face of UPS. It wasn't that faceless person that we were calling when we couldn't find our package. He was the person that really represented whether we we were going to ship or not, because it meant that we could see him. So I think at the end of the day, it is being measured through its positive impact on the community. But if that does have an indirect path to new signups and retention, then hey, I suppose that's gravy.

Yeah. Also, the other subversive quality that's happening here, or I should say the subversive intent, was that used to FedEx, outshone UPS in the branding game. FedEx used to be the sleeker, faster, and I think they took branding a lot more seriously. And when you look at who UPS competes against, it's probably Amazon delivery, it's FedEx. And you look— and now I think some of these brands they compete with sort of caught on their back heels a little bit. They're like, what? So you look at what UPS has done actually with their branding. In fact, Mark, this is the point I was going to bring up, is that another lesson I learned was in digging further, this whole idea of being unstoppable. This is a campaign they launched back in the pandemic. They launched during the pandemic that recognized diverse-owned small businesses that were disproportionately hard-hit by the pandemic. Stories included Black-owned businesses, LGBTQ-owned businesses, and more. And so they featured stories that were under the moniker of Proudly Unstoppable. So my lesson from them is twofold. Number one, they really did outshine the competition in terms of of brand engagement with this campaign. And number 2, what's new is not the right question. Maybe something old needs to be really or newly imagined, because that's what they did. They took the Proudly Unstoppable campaign, which they had boxes for this brand, they had a whole brand rollout for that. And then they said, you know what, let's continue on this theme and create the Be Unstoppable shop experience.

So I just love how they evolved on it. What I love about this is that This is a story of brand. It's a story of storytelling. It's a story of design. It's a story of collaboration. And all those things are the results of a traditional advertising agency. Traditional advertising agency excels at creating all of those things. But what is the real star of the show here is the merchandise. The merchandise is what's front and center. The merchandise that is produced by the promotional products industry is the star of the show here. And the key is that it works in lockstep with the brand, with the storytelling, with the collaboration, with, with all of that other stuff that we just talked about. But it's not like, it's not like the products are playing second fiddle to those things. The product is the star of the show here. And I think that where the product becomes almost like the laughingstock is when you have those bland tote bags that are just carpet bombed across the, across the, the main auditorium where everyone sits down and goes, well, I didn't want this, that this is in my way, so I'm going to leave it. Yeah. Or the, the size extra large or the double extra large or the size small, whatever size it is, usually 75% of the time it doesn't fit the person who is who is sitting there, and it becomes, it becomes brand fill at that point. In this case, there's no brand fill. It's completely intentional, done very, very well in this online shop. And these are all tools that are available and are very natural to us in the promotional products industry, which is why we wanted to celebrate this campaign, because it truly shows the genius and the potential of what our industry can do. Offer. That's right.

Well said, my friend. All right, till next time.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of SKU Cast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SKU Cast on iTunes or to our blog at community.comandsku.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much for listening.

Mm-hmm.