Most outdoor brands assume their biggest competitors are other outdoor brands. But in reality, they’re competing with everything that demands attention—Netflix, TikTok, viral memes, and more. In this most recent episode of the Backcountry Marketing Podcast, I sat down with Charlie Grinnell, the CEO of RightMetric, to explore how brands can navigate this hyper-competitive digital landscape. RightMetric is a data and research team that helps answer some of the foundational questions necessary to produce campaigns and video content that works. They help equip creatives and marketers with the best information, data, and insights to inform creative brainstorming.
As Charlie outlined on the show, many brands still rely on outdated assumptions about their audiences. They build one-size-fits-all customer personas and assume that traditional digital marketing tactics will keep working. But Charlie explains that today’s audiences are more fragmented, niche-driven, and selective than ever before.
"Stereotypes are kind of going out the door, and these traditional stereotypes are no longer holding true," Charlie told me. "If you look at different industries, the people driving growth might not be who you expect. Skincare, for example, is now being largely driven by men. That would have been shocking years ago."
I can't tell you how often I've asked a brand for a breakdown of their customer and they respond with generic list of attributes that don't really give us any purchase to build from. Charlie makes it clear that gut instincts alone aren’t enough and that today, the best marketers blend data-driven insights about their audience with bold creative decisions.
- Audience insights drive better brainstorming. Brands should study who their customers follow, what content they engage with, and where they spend time before making creative decisions. "Instead of just assuming what will work, we need to look at signals in the data to guide strategy," Charlie said.
- Not all content is equal. High-production videos aren’t always the best. Sometimes, authentic, raw content outperforms polished ads. "At Red Bull, we had a helicopter shot for a snowmobile double backflip, but the best-performing video was just an iPhone clip capturing the raw emotion of the moment," he recalled.
- The best content is created for the platform, not just repurposed. The way content is consumed on TikTok is different from YouTube or Instagram—brands must adapt accordingly. "You can’t just make one thing and blast it everywhere. The best-performing brands tailor their content to fit each platform’s style and audience."
I've always been one to advocate for research informed storytelling decisions. At Port Side we've spent a lot of time developing criteria to evaluate whether or not a story will have the emotional resonance we're looking for, but this conversation with Charlie has helped us realize that it's also necessary to evaluate whitespace opportunities. What whitespace opportunities are there? What are your competitors doing? What are your competitors not doing? What does your audience want to see from you but doesn't yet know it? These type of foundational questions combined with an emotional resonance checklist can help determine if a project will strike the right emotional chord and have room in the market to spread it's wings.
"We worked with a global pet food brand," Charlie shared, "and instead of just saying 'cat videos are trending,' we analyzed what specifically made those videos successful. We identified clear patterns that brands could use to make content that fit their audience's behavior."
At Port Side we’ve seen the benefit of white space thinking firsthand with our feature film, "Inches to Miles" with Athletic Brewing Company. As we started working on the film we realized that films within the world of IRONMAN and Triathlon were far less common than other endurance sports. This insight gave us additional confidence to pursue a story in this world knowing that their was likely an audience looking for it without realizing it yet. Telling a good story requires a good story—but also the space for it to exist and be discovered. This can only be determined through research or an innate understanding about a community.
Throughout Charlie's episode he shared wisdom that every creative director and marketing director should evaluate, but if there's one takeaway from this episode it's that: outdoor brands that fail to adapt will lose. The brands that win will be those that deeply understand their audience, embrace data-informed creativity, and take a strategic approach to content and distribution.
"If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you’re talking to no one," Charlie warned. "We’re past the point of just guessing in marketing. The brands that survive are the ones that listen, adapt, and create content that truly resonates."
