Podcast
Bonus: How Huckberry Could Podcast
Listen to a complete strategy breakdown of how Huckberry (or any D2C clothing company) could use podcasting to grow their brand.
Featuring
Listen to a complete strategy breakdown of how Huckberry (or any D2C clothing company) could use podcasting to grow their brand.
Listen in as we do a complete breakdown of all the ways Huckberry could use podcasting to inspire more active, adventurous, and stylish lives. Follow along as we create a strategy for them to get featured on other shows, and build their own branded podcast. If you’re a D2C clothing brand, we hope this sparks some ideas you can go and use at your own company.
Huckberry was founded in 2011 by Richard Greiner and Andy Forch. They’re bootstrapped, profitable (in the tens-of-millions- range) and proudly running the best online store to find durable, timeless clothing, along with some of the coolest gear you’ve never heard of.
Their goal is to inspire more active, adventurous, and stylish lives. Ultimately, they want to build a community of like-minded brands, blogs, and people.
While they’ve used a number of marketing channels, their primary seems to be written content. Simply put, they’re killing it.
They have a wildly successful newsletter and online journal, filled with gear reviews, interviews, national park guides, and more.
We explored how podcasting could help Huckberry achieve its goal of inspiring more active, adventurous and stylish lives. Each strategy is designed to help them build brand awareness, trust and loyalty, and ultimately - be the brand people think of when they think “adventure”, “community”, and “fashion”.
Goal: get members of the Huckberry team booked as guests on shows their audience already listens to, in order to raise brand awareness & promote their branded podcast.
Rich and Andy have actually already been on a number of podcasts, including:
There are a variety of show types they’d be a good fit for:
E-commerce shows
Here they can talk about growing a successful, bootstrapped e-commerce store on shows like:
Startup, side-hustle, or bootstrapped business shows
Here they can share how they started Huckberry, struggles they overcame, and advice for other founders on shows like:
Adventure or outdoor shows
Here the team can talk about how they themselves were weekend warriors, how they partner with outdoor ambassadors (surfers, climbers, etc), and the story of their love of adventure was woven into their business.
Men’s shows
These would be podcasts specifically geared towards men, men’s fashion, and the like.
And finally, fashion shows
Any podcasts that discuss high quality clothing, new gear, etc. would be a great place where Andy, Rich or team members could share the behind the scenes of what makes a good clothing brand, how they choose what they want to feature on Huckberry, etc.
Goal: build their own show(s) to grow their audience, and build brand trust and loyalty, and to associate the values of craftsmanship, fashion and adventure more closely with their brand.
Huckberry has one advantage many companies starting a podcast don’t - a loyal, raving fan base. Their newsletter and online journal are already wildly popular. So they’d likely have an easy time promoting a branded podcast and scaling it quickly.
Idea #1: The Journal
Episodic podcast
An audio experience of their popular online articles.
This is the obvious starting point. Maybe a little too obvious, but it’s worth considering.
Each episode would feature something different: a new founder story, gear review or adventure story that would be highly produced.
Example: they could turn their written interview with Kelly Slater into an audio narrative of that road trip so the audience could follow along. Or, highlight the story of Smithey Ironware: an interview of the founder, interspersed with clips from the Smithey team, that highlights how they started, obstacles they faced and overcame, and where they want to go in the future.
Idea #2: Adventure (by Huckberry)
Serial podcast
A podcast telling the story of modern adventurers as they explore their sport, their world, and ultimately themselves.
This would be a series of 5-10 episodes, following the story of 1 person (perhaps an Ambassador like Mikey DeTemple or Nick LaVecchia).
Its purpose is to be incredibly inspiring and gripping. It should probe each listener’s heart, leaving them feeling an itch to go on an adventure.
It would be as much about the human spirit’s desire for adventure as it would be about the adventure itself.
Example: Nick does a tour of the northeast (or just Maine), and each episode tells the story of that adventure: from planning the trip, to what he’s hoping to get out of it, to the people he meets along the way, to the things he discovers about himself at the end.
Every season could chronicle a new adventurer, ranging from surfing, to climbing, photography and more.
Idea #3 - 5 Minute Gear Reviews or a Brand Breakdown
Episodic podcast
In the first example, someone from the team could give a 3-5 minute breakdown of a specific piece of gear or clothing, why they love it, what makes it special, and why they chose it for the store.
They could link to this audio review on the product page, or even in an abandoned cart email.
In the latter example, they could simply produce a 30 minute episode telling the story of each brand they feature. They could add this episode to each brand’s profile page on their site.
Idea #4 - Timeless (by Huckberry)
Serial podcast
Stories of modern brands building timeless gear.
The idea here is to tell a story as crafted and compelling as the clothing brand it’s about. It would highlight brands that are making new things the old-fashioned way: quality clothing, hand-made leather goods, etc.
It would be highly produced (music, sound effects, multiple voices from the brand), and chronicle the story of how the brand got started, the adversity they faced, how they overcame and grew, and where they’re headed in the future.
Example: how Flint and Tinder went from being a small startup to joining the Huckberry team.
Each season would be highlight a new company.
Goal: launch an audio experience for employees or subscribers.