The end of the year is quickly approaching and it’s time to close those final ad sales.
Some of the best opportunities can be found in young consumer brands.
This is why we’ve analyzed the ad spending of some of the top performing startup brands from this year. These brands were first identified based on LinkedIn’s Top Startups in 2021.
We sifted through the consumer brands and identified those that had the best quarter-over-quarter outlooks.
Here is a quick snapshot of advertising profiles of the top four performing brands.
1. Brooklinen
Brooklinen is a direct-to-consumer bedding and home essentials line. By selling directly to customers, Brooklinen sells luxury linens at affordable prices.
Brooklinen’s advertising spend remains relatively stable year-over-year.
Their spend in Q3 was $1.3 million, up just 2% over Q3 in 2020. We can expect slightly more spending in Q4, but they do tend to maintain a consistent investment level between Q3 and Q4.
Though their spend is stable, their expansion into digital formats other than display (online video, native, podcasting) has increased to make up 34% of their ad spend in Q3. Their presence in television now makes up 36% of their ad spend, where it had only 8% of dedicated spend in Q2.
With the upcoming holiday season, we expect TV spend from Brooklinen to grow.
2. Daily Harvest
Daily Harvest is a subscription-model, plant-based meal delivery service. Offering a variety of smoothies, ‘forage bowls,’ soups, flatbreads and more, Daily Harvest makes eating healthier easier for customers.
Last year, Daily Harvest increased their ad spend by 30% from Q3 to Q4 (2020). With an ad spend of $8.5 million in Q3 2021, a modest 20% increase from this past quarter would lead to an ad spend of $11 million in Q4.
Daily Harvest has invested at least 85% of their spend in television each quarter since Q3 of 2019 and invested the rest into digital spend (Facebook, OTT, online video, podcasting and display.)
3. Therabody
Therabody is a health and wellness tech company, best known for its “theragun.” The theragun is a percussive therapy device designed to help people manage physical pain or recover from intense training. The company also promotes health education and training through its Therabody University and app.
Therabody increased its spend to $4.7 million in Q4 of 2020 up from $1 million in Q3. This is the largest leap in advertising spend we’ve seen from this relatively young company. Their print spend remained the same, while their digital spend grew exponentially. At the same time, their format portfolio expanded to include TV.
In Q3 of 2021, their ad spend grew to $5.7 million, up 14% from the previous quarter (Q2 2021). Print remains a small percentage of their spending. TV and digital continue to grow. If they maintained their growth rate, a 14% increase in ad spend through Q4 of 2021 would position them to spend $6.5 million.
We expect to see growth from Therabody in the upcoming months.
4. Better Mortgage Corporation
It goes without saying the real estate market went berserk this year, which is why we saw Better Mortgage Corporation perform exceptionally well. Better.com makes the process of applying for a mortgage or refinancing simple.
The parent company of better.com invested $6.2 million into digital advertising in Q3 2021. This is up 170% from Q2 when they spent $2.3 million.
With plans to go public later this year, and a hot real estate market, we expect them to follow trends we’ve observed from other pre-IPO companies: exceeding growth expectations quarter-over-quarter.
Considering their pre-IPO status and their significant jump between Q2 and Q3, a modest 85% boost to their ad spend would bring their investment to $11.4 million in Q4.
As holidays roll around and the demand for housing stays high, we’ll likely see ad spend increase across high performing startups. Keep your eyes on these brands to see if there’s room to make your pitch.
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