This is how an outlandish costume clothing company managed to hit 8 figures in revenue by scaling attention on social media through eye-popping video and video content.

Shinesty creates costumes and vintage clothing for events and in the process have embedded their brand into fond memories of their customers.

Shinesty was founded just in 2014 and has been scaling by 2X year-on-year. They are now a $10M+ 8-figure in revenue company. They utilize pattern interrupt visual and video content to evoke emotions and feelings of humour and anger with their snarky and sometimes sarcastic videos.

They have seen huge success with amplifying this content using paid social advertising on Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat.

I interviewed their founder, Chris White on this episode.

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Year one for the company

Shinesty started off as a brand that made the founders’ family and people laugh. They wanted to be authentic and create content that reminded people of the good times. They took an editorial first approach but still remained commercially savvy. Their aim was to entertain first and sell afterwards.

How they get their products

When they started out, they sourced everything from vintage product suppliers as they were testing the waters. They realized that it was not easy to scale the business by relying on vintage supplies and started creating their own costumes. They currently still source from trusted brands but also make their own unique designs.

The First Ad

Facebook has been a huge part of their strategy. They started with a budget of $20 a day that rewarded them with 2000 clicks and views. Through focusing on Facebook Ads, they ended up increasing their brand awareness and generating organic traffic for their website.

Resources and Content

They started out as a team of 3 working from a garage. Chris’ partner had photography experience and was in charge of taking photos and videos. Eventually, they got some more friends to help produce better content and even hired some interns.

Lessons learned from year one

When they formed the business, they did not anticipate the fast growth. When the business grew, the systems they had in place could not handle the immediate growth they experienced. Eventually, they learned the importance of putting their systems in place even if they did not need it at that moment. They also got to hire experts who helped them handle any issues as they scaled.

How they used PR to their advantage

Shinesty has never had a PR strategy. Their Facebook ads started going viral and bloggers started writing about them. They got the attention of mainstream mead and now have an MTV reality show.

Creative

Compared to when they started out, Shinesty is producing higher quality videos and photos with experts on board. They still however maintain their voice. They are also exploring new channels and playing with new ideas.

Thoughts on video

Videos are hard to produce. There is a high probability that the future of marketing lies in video advertising for the next five years. This will create a barrier in the marketing field as it cannot be used by everyone.

Through video, people get to see cool things happening in real life. It also makes it easier for people to put their products in different forms.

Instagram vs Snapchat

Instagram is a simple platform to use. It gives you a quick view where you can see different things in one swipe. Their story feature is also easy to use and it can accommodate a wide age group.

When it comes to Snapchat, there is a lower age gap. It mainly works well with raw content because of its live video format. The content they put on both sites is similar and they have their individual strengths.

2018 Plans

They plan on expanding the product category, themes and events they cover.

Lightning Round

How do you hire people?

Look for culture first and find out if the person can fit in their project. The person has to be a bit weird and creative.

What are your 3 indispensable tools?

Slack, Streak CRM, Old school flip phone

What has been your ‘best’ mistake to date? i.e. a set-back that has given your the biggest feedback

Not having systems in place. It helped them get all other systems in place even before they needed them.

If you could choose a single book or resource that has made the highest impact on how you view building a business and growth which would it be? Quora

How can people get in touch with you?

Contact

email Chris on chris@shinesty.com

TIMESTAMPS

07.37   Year one for the company

11.45   How they get their products

13.03   The First Ad

14.17   Resources and content

15.45   Lessons learned from year one

19.45   How they used PR to their advantage

22.20   How their creative side looks like

24.10   Thoughts on Video

27.00   Instagram vs Snapchat

32.40   2018 Plans

34.00   Lightning round