Brand Awareness Is A Strategy

Hey friend! Happy Friday. We had some tech issues with yesterday’s send so we’re resending (with some updates) and it also got stuck again so it’s a later send. Love technology. Back on the good ol’ train and heading back to Connecticut for more blood work as I write this.

This week has been insane. You know when you feel your life changing in like a scary & cool kinda way? That’s how i am feeling. A braindump newsletter might have to happen.

Besides binging love island and having some Cannes FOMO, I wanted to make sure I got this newsletter out because it’s a topic I was hoping to interview some folks for, but no luck, so we move on and we do it anyway and have fun with it.

This week, we’re chatting all about how brand awareness campaigns aren’t dead. In fact, they are very much alive and the recent Kiehl’s x Life Time campaign proved that.

In this newsletter, we’re breaking down:

• What to actually have in place on social before a big launch so you’re not scrambling the night before

• The simplest KPIs to track if you’re putting together an awareness campaign

• Why building the right ecosystem around your launch from what influencers you’re working with to content and more is what takes it from “just posted” to “everyone’s talking about it”

Let’s get into it.

A Look Inside Kiehl’s Brand Awareness Campaign and How You Can Apply It To Your Brand

In May of 2024, Kiehl’s got quietly removed from Equinox gyms after 10+ years. The luxury fitness club ended their long-standing partnership in favor of Grown Alchemist, and suddenly, a brand that had been synonymous with the post-shower locker experience was just… gone. No explanation.

A break-up that no one saw coming and that Equinox die-hards couldn’t handle as seen here all over TikTok.

This June, they announced their next chapter: a new, exclusive partnership with Life Time Fitness, starting in all New York City locations. They framed it as a hard launch and had the whole campaign be built off the biggest partnership break-up the brand has ever had and what their followers have known as well.

And most importantly, they launched it with a smart, culturally aware, multi-layered influencer approach along with their own simple owned social rollout.

Let’s break down why this was more than just a new locker room play and how they made the internet talk.

Kiehl’s Social Warm-Up [Pre-Launch]

Before the announcement, like many brands should do, Kiehl’s shifted the energy on their own feed.

Products shown in locker rooms + showers. Sneakers, towels, bottles in frame in a gym setting with the location of “Glowing Up”. Creative that calls back to the concept that breakups suck, but they are on to bigger and better.

These posts instantly triggered the crowd who misses their amenities who still can’t accept that their post-workout routine changed with little to no explanation.

This is why I think teasers matter. They give you space to separate a moment. They tell your audience: something big enough is happening. They also allow enough time to lead up to that moment to garner the engagement you’ll want on launch day. You can see an example I just did for my client, D.S. & DURGA, for our colognes launch. Teasers build anticipation. They give the next thing a runway. And when it finally drops, people actually care.

👇 What you can take away from this:

• Don’t skip the lead-up. A few well-placed posts can do more than one over-explained announcement that lacks a lot of context. However, there’s a time and a place to do longer lead-ups. For example, if I have a client launching a whole new product or launching in a MASSIVE retailer, I like to invest in pre-launch creative whether it’s 1-3 posts. Once again, the cadence I would use determines what the moment is.

• Shift your visual tone first and let your audience fill in the blanks.

• Teasers create a signal. They buy you attention before the launch even hits.

• It doesn’t need to be loud. It just needs to be intentional. Simplicity can do wonders if you let it. It’s easy to feel like you always have to be doing the most, but if you know your audience and what they well to and iterate, you’ll be good.

Launch Day: The Main Event

Once the partnership was live, Kiehl’s announced it on their feed, but the impact came from the ecosystem they built around this announcement.

The theme? Breakups. They compensated influencers who were known to go through some of the most public break-ups such as Brittany Cartwright from Vanderpump Rules or Olivia Galli, a NYC-based photographer who went through an insane break-up publicly on TikTok with her crazy ex. From there, the connected everything to the point of self-care with the help of Kiehl’s, which then led into the new announcement of the latest partnership. To appeal to the masses as well, they had popular meme accounts like Nolita Dirtbag, Dewy Dudes, The Fake Rothko create hilarious content made it feel culturally relevant, appeal to a new demo, and gain great distribution given the easily shareable content. All of it worked together to get the word out fast and sustain it.

This was a brand awareness campaign at its core. The goal here was visibility + reach. Getting people to notice the new partnership and start associating Kiehl’s with a new gym context without needing to explain why they left Equinox.

Incase you’re wondering, some of the key performance indicators for brand awareness may include:

• Impressions & reach across owned + influencer channels

• Engagement rate: comments, shares, saves, which as we know, are signals of interest. Please stop thinking “likes” determine success.

• Search volume, site traffic, and/or branded keyword lift. Are more people Googling you after or was there an uptick to the site through your social (since you should be tracking platforms with UTM links)?

• Mentions/tags from unprompted users: A signal the campaign hit beyond your immediate push or those involved.

• Earned media: Did meme accounts, media, or users post about it on their own?Did press outlets write it up out of the blue?

This campaign wasn’t meant to drive site traffic (but they probably got some anyway). It was meant to make noise and continue and hit on a brand moment and integration that so many loved as part of their daily routine. And it did.

👇 What you can take away from this:

• If you’re launching into a new retail or physical space, awareness is the first hurdle. You can’t convert people who don’t even know you’re there yet.

• Use your own channels to lead, but let creators help carry it further especially those who can introduce the moment to different pockets of the internet.

• DTC isn’t always the goal. Sometimes the job is just to get as many eyes and impressions as possible and that’s okay.

• Awareness still needs structure. Even if the goal is visibility, you need the right mix of content, timing, and distribution to actually land.

Making the Moment Bigger

Whether or not every creator in this campaign was paid, seeded to, or activated directly by Kiehl’s the takeaway is clear: influencers help scale brand moments.

Not every brand has the budget for big paid posts, but you can still build an awareness engine by looping in creators the right way. Here’s a few ways:

• Product seeding: An easy way to drive awareness is by getting product into the right hands thoughtfully. You can’t be Oprah with “You get product!” and “You get product!”. No asks. No contracts. Just thoughtful gifting and no strings attached.

  • For example, Kiehl’s and Life Time should be sending kits to trainers, instructors, and creators who are already in the space as many gyms lately have ambassador programs. Easy way to get distribution in the hands of the right people.
    

• Paid creator content: Sometimes you need paid support to get the reach or to help your paid media team get some whitelisted content. Please don’t pay anyone to hold the product and pleasure remember that just because they might have a following doesn’t mean it’ll blow up. Pay people who can build context around your launch. That’s what made Brittany Cartwright and Olivia Galli feel aligned. It wasn’t just about the product, it was about how Kiehl’s took what some of these women were known for online publicly and connecting a similar moment to it.
  

• Host something big or small: Events can be low-lift, but high-impact. In this case, a class with a few creators with a post-workout cool down. No need to drop 50K for a 3 hour soiree.

👇 What you can take away from this:

• Influencer support needs to be intentional.

• Seeding is still one of the best ways to drive organic awareness when done right.

• Events don’t have to be huge. They just need the right people and a reason to share. Plus, an easy way to gain distribution.

• Repetition matters. It’s not about going viral. It’s about staying visible by doing the above.

Ok, well, that’s the end of my first kind of case study/breakdown newsletter? I want to do more of these, but let me know how I can better position them for you guys or if you even want these!

If there’s one thing you take away from today’s newsletter, it’s this: brand awareness will take you further than you think. And probably further than most marketers are willing to admit.

Getting eyes on your brand is one of those things that seems simple in theory. In reality, it’s one of the hardest things to actually nail, but it doesn’t have to be.

There’s one tool that’s helped me crack it for brands I worked on like Graza or brands that are rapidly exploding like OLIPOP or Sweet Loren’s. It’s called AdFairy, my secret weapon for getting people to say: “Wait. Why do I feel like I’m seeing this brand everywhere?”

AdFairy helps you get reach, impressions, and views through top talent on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube without the stress of having to find more time in your day to source creators, send products, brief them, review content, and make sure it went live while on your budget.

If you are:

• Low on bandwidth, but have the inventory to get product out your door
  

• Trying to support retail launches (new doors, new regions, Whole Foods/Target/Costco moments) or have a brand new product that you want everyone trying
  

• Wanting to find up-and-coming creators across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and get them before others do
  

• Looking for a scalable influencer marketing solution that won’t break the bank

This is for you.

The best part? You can actually move fast:

• You tell the AdFairy team what you’re looking for (key goals, CPM, verticals and the types of creators you want, budget you want to invest)

• They send back creator recommendations that actually make sense for you and your brand

• You give feedback on content, approve it, and track content from draft to live all in a central location 

• You get to see what’s performing across TikTok, IG, YouTube Shorts and bring the best folks back for round 2

You can click to see some examples for OLIPOP, Graza, and Sweet Loren’s.

If you want to get seen more, show up in more carts, or just finally build that everywhere feeling, this is the tool I’d recommend after using it for 2 years. Click HERE to book a demo, tell them I sent you, and they’ll make sure you’re taken care of.

It’s time for Ahead of the Trend. A quick, snappy ode to the fun things I’m seeing online across creators, social, and brands. Sometimes, it’s a trend. Sometimes, it’s just a tip I want to share about marketing. Sometimes, it’s about snacks. TL;DR: just cool things I’m loving right now or things you should know.

In no particular order, let’s dive in:

• Eating: The new Fruit Riot Spicy Mango Chili Lime is to die for. Also, it’s perfect for this upcoming NYC heatwave we’re about to have.

• Drinking: I finally found the new Poppi Punch Pop and it reminded me of the days in camp when they would serve us cups of “Bug Juice” with lunch. It’s perfectly sweet and refreshing and this can was designed by Matthew Langile, a very talented designer who has helped bring visions to life for brands like Kith, Grillo’s and more.

• Influencer of the Week: PaperEats (@papereatsss)is a creative food-and-craft content account that focuses on making playful food art. She literally just recreated a sushi dinner out of PAPER as seen here. IDK how I just found her, but brands like Verizon are on top of it and are giving her her bag (as they should).

• Product Launch of the Week: I love how more and more brands are starting to have customers create their own version of a brand’s product through arts and crafts. Fishwife just launched their Summertime Art Box, which is a bundle that allows you to snack + sketch. Easy distribution for social with something like this.

• News You Should Know About:

  • Capcut is allowed to use your content however they want and you probably didn’t even realize it. Screw Big Tech. Read more here.

  • TikTok ban has been extended again. Shocker? Not at all. The date that this decision has been extended to is September 17th, 2025.

  • The ability to rearrange your Instagram grid is getting closer and i’m 99.9% sure that no one asked for this feature via Techcrunch.

  • Tiktok and Amazon Prime Days are about to go head to head. If you’re a brand who knows you would do well on TTS, here’s your reminder to get that set-up as soon as you can. TikTok is doing deals from the 7th to 19th.

• Social Tip Of The Week: Stuck in a content rut or just don’t have the resources to product a ton of original content, especially on TikTok? Leverage reply Videos!!!!!! Your content is literally in your comments. I wrote a whole post here. 

THAT’S A WRAP

Alright, alright, alright. That’s it for this week.

As always, thank you for taking a few minutes from your day and spending it with me.

If you know anyone who you think would enjoy this newsletter, it would mean so much if you could send them this link or forward this this edition: https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Want to catch up on past editions of No Filter? Read them all for free right here.

See you next week. If there’s any burning questions that you want to ask that you want to see a deep dive on, you know where to find me.

Peace, love, and KPIs,

-KD

This edition of No Filter is brought to you by AdFairy