Consumer brands are adopting a new retail playbook that uses chaotic, cringe-inducing in-store short-form videos to drive shelf discovery and attention. Founders are creating performative in-store stunts that produce embarrassment and noise to overcome rising digital marketing costs and attention scarcity. Algorithms reward irreverent, short-form content, enabling rapid organic reach and measurable retail lift. BelliWelli applied the tactic to achieve over a billion views and a 405 percent revenue increase year-over-year. Other brands, like Blueland, have used playful in-store activations and employees in unexpected roles to capitalize on platform dynamics and consumer curiosity.
It's all part of a new retail playbook that an increasing number of consumer brands are embracing. As founders scale into new retailers, they are reminding customers where to find their products on shelves by pushing heavy doses of chaotic and even cringe-worthy content into their feeds. As digital marketing costs keep climbing and the fight for consumers' attention has become even more fraught, founders say they are finding success by creating in-store havoc and prompting feelings of second-hand embarrassment.
BelliWelli, a fiber supplement brand which landed on this year's Inc. 5000 at No. 180, harnessed the approach into more than a billion views and a 405 percent jump in annual revenue from 2023 to 2024. "We've seen a lot of people jump on the cringe marketing trend," says BelliWelli co-founder and CEO Katie Wilson, who started creating this brand of grimace-inducing videos, stealing fiber from customers' carts behind their backs and trying to buy entire end cap displays, about two years ago.
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