Cart.com distinguishes itself around a passion for brands. It gets that they have different needs depending on whether they are start-ups, powerhouses, or edgy innovators. They are a technology company that wants to “put big tools in the hands of big dreamers.”
Their love of brands is meant to be loud. We came up with the idea of Cart.com writing love letters to the brands with whom they want to work. By bravely wearing their heart on their sleeve, Cart.com would grab the brand owner’s attention and a chance to demonstrate their ecommerce prowess.
We call the campaign Dearest. We use consumer-facing tactics for the purposes of B2B marketing in a ground-breaking way. Something like posting a note of admiration to a fellow employee on the break room bulletin board. Or like holding a boombox outside your crush’s second story window. We're spreading the #brandlove.
Dearest works like this: Poster-sized love letters are plastered in high traffic public areas (starting in Austin, TX and LA). These oversized letters were addressed to brands like Liquid Death, the canned water company that promises to “murder your thirst.” The full brand list included 36 brands in LA like BeautyCounter, Toms, and Liquid Death.
By using the brand voice of Cart.com to gush about another brand, the letter shows that Cart.com speaks the language of brands. It subtly communicates the lengths that Cart.com will go and how much they understand what a brand needs to do to stand out and sell – no matter the channel.
Brand love via direct mail
To play up the courtship concept, we followed up the public-facing letters with care packages sent to the directors and merchandisers of the targeted brands. We partnered with a high-end candle maker to design custom brand-connected scents, which were then packaged with a letter explaining how the scent and story came together.
