When Noelle Sadler took over as Lulu’s chief marketing officer in September 2020 after five years at the company, she moved fast to make an impact.
It was about a year before the brand’s IPO, in November of 2021. At the time, Lulus had an extremely loyal customer base, but it was much smaller than it had the potential to be, Sadler said. Roughly two thirds of sales in the 12 months ending in September 2021 came from repeat customers.
“We hadn’t turned on the spigot, so to speak,” Sadler said. “The people who shopped Lulus loved Lulus, but now the focus was really going to be on growing awareness of the brand.”
Under Sadler, the Lulus marketing team has been aggressively testing new marketing channels, branching into YouTube and Tinder, as well as connected TV for the brand’s fall campaign. In May, the brand went all-in on TikTok. That included producing an original song with music-focused creative agency Song Candy for a campaign targeting college students. The campaign was viewed more than 15 million times, according to Lulus. A second campaign in the fall generated 14 million views and more than 238 original TikToks from the Lulus audience.
“Sometimes your customer isn’t using a certain channel, and sometimes the platform itself just isn’t ready for you,” Sadler said. “So a channel doesn’t always work right away. You just [have to] sit back and then test it again, after some time has passed.”
Sadler’s strategy has paid off. Lulus made a strong recovery from the pandemic lows of 2020. Revenue, which fell to under $249 million in 2020, was at $279 million year to date 2021, as of the end of their third quarter. The company owes much of that to smart marketing decisions and a growing customer base.
With Lulus now a publicly-traded company Sadler said her plan is to maintain its growth, including acquiring more customers, and turn Lulus into a household name.
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