Why this DTC nut butter brand is partnering with foodie brands, influencers to debut in the U.S.

The company has worked with brands such as Counter Culture Coffee, Milk Bar, Bobo’s and Smeg to bring limited edition flavors to market and promote their brand to a wider audience. Additionally, they sought out influencers such as Jake Cohen, YouTube personality Claire Saffitz and founder of the popular blog and social media outlet The Defined Dish, Alex Snodgrass to help promote their product by utilizing influencer marketing techniques.

Fix & Fogg is hoping its partnerships and influencer work will help it stand out in the crowded U.S. market. “Customers who pay attention to the descriptions are our key target audience,” said Roman Jewell, co-founder, Fix & Fogg, when asked about the focus on foodie influencers and brands. “But also those wanting something different to traditional nut butters who are attracted to our unique range of flavors.”

According to Jewell, as their brand grows and brand awareness increases, Fix & Fogg expects to develop more OOH marketing efforts to help round out campaigns, instead of keeping it limited to social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. It is unclear how much of Fix & Fogg’s advertising budget is allocated to influencer marketing and brand partnerships, as Jewell would not share overall budget specifics. That said, according to Jewell, 80% of the advertising work is via social media while 20% of it goes to in-store marketing at top-performing locations such as Whole Foods.

“We focus all of our digital spend on social media, specifically on Instagram and Facebook,” said Jewell. “50% of the budget is used for top of funnel awareness activity and 50% [for] driving conversions at middle [and] bottom of funnel on our online store,” said Jewell. According to the influData platform, the Instagram account of Fix & Fogg grew by 9,000 followers this year as a result of its promotional work with social media influencers. As of August 2022, there is no ad spend data available on the brand from either Kantar or Pathmatics.

According to Instacart’s purchase data, August 2021 peanut butter sales jumped nearly 10% month-over-month likely because many states across the country go back to school. Peanut butter consumption rarely fluctuated throughout the rest of the year.

Per Jewell, Fix & Fogg aims to stand out among the many nut butter offerings with “unique and innovative flavors”  such as spicy Smoke and Fire as well as Cookie Butter and  Everything Butter. 

Currently, all marketing work for Fix & Fogg is handled by the company’s in-house marketing team at its New Zealand office. A team of two marketing professionals and one in-house designer work at the brand. They handle everything from social media outreach, giveaways, collaborations, product launches, influencer outreach and more in a small office located in Wellington. They work in partnership with a digital marketing agency, called Pilot.

It isn’t just Fix & Fogg that uses influencer and brand partnerships to enhance brand awareness in the United States. As previously reported by Digiday, direct-to-consumer period care brand Viv recently took to TikTok to build community and boost brand awareness with their educational posts.

For brands like Fix & Fogg, e-commerce presents an opportunity to experiment with new products, launch innovative marketing campaigns, and test demand before investing large amounts of capital and stock into production and inventory.

“Regional and cultural differences in taste preference across geographies make it more important than ever to leverage consumer insight from reactions before making the decision to expand to new territories and the same goes for social media influencers,” said Margo Kahnrose, CMO at the omnichannel marketing platform, Skai.