So we caught up with this next guest just about one year ago, just as he and his team are embracing traditional TV advertising for the first time. He's a great voice for us on the retail seeing e commerce, fitness at leisure world. Uh so much. Great to be talking again with Brian Burger. He's founder and CEO of mac Weldon, the digital retailer, not just digital though, because they've got a store. I've been to it. He's on the phone in New York City. Um, Brian, good to
have you back with us. How are you. It's great to talk to you, Carol, it's been too long. I agree, I agree, So what go ahead? And always I always follow the era space. Why is that? Well, listen, what I love about what I do is that I get to talk to people from all different worlds, and if I added up together, I get a clearer picture of what's going on in our world. So help me out here.
What are you guys seeing? You're so tapped into the consumer. Yeah, it's um, you know, consumer consumer appetites has been really strong. I mean we talked last as we were kind of getting into the you know, to the to the pandemic and the quarantine, and we weren't really sure how that
was going to impact our business. For a lot of reasons, we're fortunate and that we were kind of in the right product category with the right business model to sort of beat the customer where they were at the time, which was really all about comfort and loungeware and sweats and many of the products that we sell and you know, and and and similar the leads. We kind of come out of this and people guys specifically start thinking about
you know, you know, getting back to you know, normal life. Um, you know, we're seeing similar levels of enthusiasm you know, with our our product line, which really cover runs the gamut. I mean, we like to um say that we're not a lifestyle brand, where where a brand for life, and so you really have products that run across the gamut
of a guy's wardrobe. And so we're seeing a lot of enthusiasm from customers around categories like chinos and and and and and outerware and and things of that nature, in addition to all of our or you know, underwear socks. Well, having said that, Brian like, great, we all had to pivot, and I know you guys did too. During the pandemic. I think for most retailers, initially it was like, oh my god, what's going to happen the world? You know,
what a crisis. We're still in this crisis. It's obviously a different place as we work our way through it. But you know, companies, retailers, everybody adapted. You guys did as well. What have you learned over the past year. Well, we learned that we were able to get a lot done, um with minimal resources and and sort of not being together um. And we learned something that we I think we already knew on sub level, but really that you know, we had to be as dialed in as possible to
our customer. That is something that you know, we practice, you know, all the time, but it was a time when, um, it was really really important to be very plugged into customer needs. Um, you know, at a time where people were feeling really unst and about a lot of things. And so that has been something that we relied upon in good times and certainly as we navigated the last year and a half and has been something that has guided us, um, you know, through that period and into
into where we are now. Well, so let me ask you about those tv as. So how did that play out? Was it productive for you? For you all? Yeah, well, you know, we launched television advertising during the pandemic with basically no new no new creative capabilities. We've recycled existing creative that we had, um and we were able to test the channel during a time when all of our other advertising was performing really well um and and we
really proved it out. And so more recently, uh you know, uh, actually last week we launched our kind of second iteration of television advertising, and it's really a completely different approach where we are looking at television as more of a top of funnel marketing brand awareness driver help hopefully uh for uh you know, better better awareness and better conversion across all of the type of market all the marketing touchpoints that we have. So this is a bit of
a pivot off of that. Right, the television ads we did during the pandemic, we're very similar to the ad that we run on like Facebook, which is really like by this product that's really awesome. And then this is why the campaigner running now is called by some time and it really taps into the customer mindset of our guy, which is one where they really value time, they really value efficiency, they really value anything that enables them to
make their life more productive. And we found that a lot of guys love our brand because we enable that. I think, you know what they're going to get when they come to us. So, Brian, you were talking about, you know, the second iteration of TV ads for you and it is a very different type of campaign. And I have to say I was talking with the Belvedere Vodka CEO earlier today and they too. You go back a few years, it was a very kind of sexy campaign with the vodka and now it's all about their
natural and organic ingredients. It's all about going back to nature and and it's what consumers wanted to know, like what is what is your brand stand for? And it sounds like you two are kind of like, Hey, this
is what we're all about. Yeah, it's all about time and efficiency and this concept of you know, leading you know, our guys, It's been a lot of time trying to understand our customers during the months you know, of of of of quarantine, and one of the things that really, you know, bubbled up to the top of that these guys are real efficiency seekers across all aspects of their life, this notion of leading a well designed life, and so for us, that really felt like a really good way
for us to distinguish ourselves, you know, and our products and how we deliver them to our consumers. Um, you know, in a world where there's an ever growing sea of europure you know, competitors and so in similar types of value proposition. So it's early days, but we're very optimistic about you know, about about the campaign and what we'll do for the brand. And I was just thinking, like, how's it working, and I'm like, they just rolled it out.
It's yeah. I mean, early signs are positive, you know. You know, one of the nice things about a business like ours is you know, the data is really very much at our fingertips, so we're able to look at you know, search volume, traffic to the side, you know, conversion rates, performance of other types of digital marketing campaigns. So early signs are positive. The other big shift for us Carrol campaign is um, you know, relates to how
we're merchandizing products. Um, we're positioning all of our products, you know, as we've migrated from just purely underwear and replenishment basics and socks to more of a full uh you know, broader collection of of of apparel. UM. It's this idea that our products are all part of a system, and so anything that you buy from us is designed to go with other products. And so we're making it really easy for consumer is to UM not only find what they like, but to understand how that product fits
in with other things that we make. And the idea there is again just to make it really easy for them to shop. And also, you know, for digital brand, it's important that we're able to tell a bigger story than just one product. Different if you have stores people can walk in and have a full, commersive experience online it's different. You know, Brian, I really think you're hit on something. I I own some of your things, have
warned them UM. And you know what's interesting is the pandemic To me, I have looked at my wardrobe personally and been like, I don't need all this stuff, Like I need a simpler world and I want things that I really love, that are comfortable, that our quality UM. And it's interesting and I feel like you're seeing that I'm hearing and having those conversations with a lot of individuals who are just like I had too much stuff, A lot of it I don't need, and I want
to simplify my world. And I think that's the approach that you guys are your tapping into something that's going on in a bigger way. It's just concept of fewer, better things. Yeah, So I like my mother is speaking to me, Less is more exactly, you know again for us, you know again, our our customer behaves a certain way and we're trying to play, you know, cater to that. Hey one thing, you know, you share some notes with us about the director consumer playbook being broken. Privacy policies
are dampening at efficiency. Unpack that a little bit for me. Yeah, I mean, you know, everybody, you know, with the new iOS released, I mean, every single app that you open is now asking you whether or not you want to give that app permission to track you wherever you go, whatever you do. And I would say the majority of people are saying absolutely not. Until with that, Spacebook and Google are losing. Namely, Facebook is losing its ability to track you as you you know, go about your you know,
your digital life. And you know, part of the reason why facebooks have been so successful because they have so much data on us and they know where we've been, and they're able to target ads based upon that in real time, and so that goes away, and it really significantly changes the ability to target advertising through digital channels. And so it's forcing all e commerce companies to kind
of rethink how they go to market. And for us, it was all pretty timely anyway, because we were a diversifying our marketing mixed channels that aren't necessarily has impacted, like television and radio and other places, but also distribution channels like retail. And in our case, you know, we've done very little wholesale, but we're also making a you know, a bigger push there as well, just again to just cast a wider net. So I got asked about the
store and Hutton Yards here in New York City. I've been been there. It opened back, I believe you, right in March of nineteen. Um, how's that going. What's the thoughts about retail expansion, you know, brick and mortar. Yeah, we're very enthusiastic about retail expansion, and you can expect to hear a lot more from us. Perhaps next time we talk, we'll have a lot more to talk about
with respect to that. Um, Hutton Yards was uniquely impacted at an endemic because the traffic there is almost exclusively commercial office workers and tourists. UM. And so obviously we were closed for a while. We opened back up in September.
It's been it's been slowly climbing, and we are believers that, you know, if anyone's going to get it right, it's you know, it's a team there, and the team are related, and we're obviously very supportive, supportive, and very committed to being a part of the rebound which we expect will be you know, from labor day forward, after labor day forward, which it seems like at least from a commercial office perspective in New York, that's when everybody is really going
to be enacting there, you know, their go forward plan with respect to hybrid work or whatever whatever the case may be. Hey just got about a minute left here, UM. Two quick things. Workers can get the workers you need? Or are you having to pay more wages? And is your supply chain is that all working? UM interest. So so, with respect to workers and the team, our issue is not related to UM you know, the issues that our
early workers are facing. It's more just the general talent competition, really high demand for for high quality talent where you know we're part of that, and you know, so we're competing hard to get the best people in here. And
the release of the supply chain. Um. Interestingly, we didn't have a ton of impact throughout this period, but we are starting to see now there's some impacts in Southeast Asia and some of the places where reproduced, like Vietnam and Thailand where they're having some COVID outbreaks that are impacting certain deliveries. And then of course shipping galaze everywhere, and costs uh, you know of importation uh, and logistics
are going through the roof for everyone. Listen, like I said in the lead in we learned so much uh and you really we just cover a lot of ground. So so great to have you here. Come back soon. Brian brien Berger, founder and CEO of mack Weld and joining us on the phone in New York City,