Is there a place for TV Advertising in today's internet-first economy? Is it still justifiable to launch national TV campaigns when you can reach millions of people for a fraction of the cost on Facebook? For today's guest, the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
That guest is Nikko Reger, Marketing and Sales Director for Flip Lok, the most secure and simplest-to-install door lock in the country. He joins us to share how the company's decision to scale their Facebook advertising efforts to a full-fledged national TV campaign skyrocketed their business. Listen to the episode now to find out if this process can work for your business too.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
Benefits of TV Ads in a digital-first economy.
How to take digital ad campaigns to TV.
Boosting B2B sales by increasing product awareness among B2C buyers.
A daily habit and mindset guaranteed to help you become a better product marketer.
And so much more!
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you choose to listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Are you sick of deadbolts? Then visit FlipLok.com to learn more about the essential safety lock that's ten times stronger.
Also, click here to learn the unique story and vision behind Flip Lok from Founder Anna Reger. It's all in an earlier episode on the show.
To learn more about Flip Lok’s marketing success, read their case study on our blog here.
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands that now total over $2 billion in revenues? Set up a free consultation with us today!
Prefer reading instead of listening? Read the full transcript here!
Jon LaClare: Today's guest shares how they grew their business from spending $100 a day on Facebook to a full-fledged national TV marketing campaign that has skyrocketed their business. It's a process we've led many clients through over the years, and it may work very well for your business.
Speaker 2: Are you looking for new ways to make your sales grow, you've tried other podcasts, but they don't seem to know. Harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we share stories and strategies that'll make your competitors nervous. Now here's the host of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare.
Jon: Welcome back to the show. I'm so excited today to have Nikko Reger from FlipLok on. Now, if you're a longtime listener, you've heard of FlipLok before, where I interviewed Anna Reger several months ago and shared their story as they were starting a new marketing campaign that was already working well. I'm excited to bring Nikko back on to continue that journey and share some of their recent successes. We'll dive into the details in a minute and see what they've added that really has helped to boost their revenues, boost their company, and grow, really, their overall sales, but first of all, Nikko, welcome to the show.
Nikko Reger: Hey, thank you so much, Jon, so excited to be here.
Jon: Before we jump into FlipLok, I got to talk about your background because I think it's super cool. I think our audience will as well. Before you started working with FlipLok, you used to race cars. What types of cars did you race?
Nikko: Oh, yes, I have raced just about anything with four wheels. I started way back when I was a kid. My older brother and I were super competitive, and our father is just a gearhead. One thing led to the next. We were suddenly in go-karts. We were winning races. Just at 13, I was in a full-sized car. Kept winning more championships and scaling upward. In the last couple of years, I've raced anything from an LMP3 prototype to a Lamborghini Super Trofeo. Pretty much all over the continental US, some in Canada, and just last year went to Portugal to go race those Lamborghinis. Yes, long history of driving things fast, and that's kind of a passion of mine. Definitely hope to be back in a race car soon.
Jon: That's awesome. Do you have any favorite memories from your car racing days?
Nikko: Yes, definitely. I think one of the biggest ones was winning a championship with Mazda in 2018. With that, they gave me a scholarship to go race professionally, and that's what put me into these crazy prototype cars. They hardly look like a road-going car. You're doing 185 miles an hour on the banks of Daytona, and you feel this sense of "Okay, we've accomplished something, we've made it, let's go win some more races." That's definitely one of the highlights of my career.
Then the other one has to be racing Lamborghinis in Portugal. I think that's one of those pinch-me moments where it's like, "Am I really doing this?" I think the team and the people that are around me that supported me to that journey was amazing. It all amalgamated into some wins. We always love when we take home the gold and some bubbly champagne.
Jon: Nice. Well, that's awesome. I'd love to chat more about that, we'll do that maybe offline, and jump into the business side for our audience, obviously looking to hear more about the story of FlipLok and the success you've had. For those that don't know, can you describe what is the FlipLok?
Nikko: Yes, absolutely. Founded and really started becoming a business within the last two years. The FlipLok was made to be a secondary lock originally for schools. We wanted something that's fast and easy for students to use to secure a classroom in the case of an emergency. Then it has grown and changed and we developed the product to not only be in the schools and the classrooms but also to bring it home. Add an additional level of security to anybody's home, apartment, dorm, all of the above.
The best thing about it is it's just such a simple and easy product to use. It's adding security at the end of the day, which really helps bring some peace of mind home, trusting that we have a solid plan and a device that can help secure your family, your items, yourself. It's all very important.
Jon: I'm going to show for our audience that's watching in video, and for those of you listening in audio, don't worry, the audio does a good job explaining as well, but the TV spot that is currently running, it'll give you more of a flavor for what the product is but also see the work that Nikko and his team have put together. We were lucky enough to be involved in this as well in the production of the actual video, but it's been really fun to be part of. Before I say anything further, let me show this video to our audience.
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Speaker 4 (Video): It's never been easier to fully secure your home, office, or other spaces than with the patented FlipLok. Simply flip, drop, and lock to secure your doors. Unlike deadbolts with just 1 inch of protection, FlipLok is just as strong as your door frame. Our mechanism is made of highly durable and strong aircraft aluminum, secured with 4-inch screws, able to withstand up to 1300 pounds of force, FlipLok is the ideal first line of defense against potential intruders.
Speaker 5 (Video): In law enforcement, you hear too many stories of break-ins occurring due to a faulty lock or an unlocked door. I recommend FlipLok for every single home.
Speaker 4 (Video): Change the security of your home by installing FlipLok on exterior or interior doors.
?Speaker (Video): It gives me peace of mind knowing that my family has a FlipLok to protect them at all times.
Speaker 4 (Video): Go to fliplok.com. That's F-L-I-P-L-O-K and for a limited time, save 25% with promo code TV25. Order now at fliplok.com.
Jon: Well, Nikko, that was a really fun video to be part of, but more fun is the results to see. We love being in the video production business, but as you know, a big chunk of our business is the marketing side, so doing something with that video, turning it into sales. Now that you're on national TV, let's talk about that journey. What's happened to your business? Really I guess the question is how has TV specifically helped your business to grow?
Nikko: Yes. I think the investment in TV was awesome. It really just brought so many eyes to the company and so much awareness. I think one of the hardest things as a new company is just getting in front of people. We got a great product, a great brand, and all of these things, but if nobody sees it, nobody is going to buy it. When that TV spot went live and we really started to see the results of it, it was pretty amazing how quickly we took the company from 0 to 100.
These sales really picked up almost instantaneously because of these TV spots. Just watching the results of it is awesome. I think as we continue to optimize and change things, we're going to continue to see the fruits of the labor that we've put into these.
Jon: Yes, absolutely. One of the things I'll note with your brand, which is really a trend of today versus 15, 20 years ago, it used to be the case before all these digital marketing channels existed, you put something on TV, and they maybe go to your website when that existed or call into a phone number, which back in the day, half the people would even order over the phone, but it was very different where today it's more about being an all-around approach, making sure that digital is part of that. One of the reasons I think that FlipLok was so quickly successful on TV is because we took the time with you to really grow the digital side of the business, get all those learnings.
By the time we reached TV, we knew the audience. We knew the core message, and we had a website that was working. I preach this all day long as we talk to people who are just starting out, but it's great to see an example where that has really come to fruition through your business. I'd love to chat about now that we have launched TV, we had those learnings, there was a quick success there, how has that impacted your digital campaigns as well?
Nikko: Yes. No, I think, like you said, they go hand in hand, really, in today's world. It's been amazing to, one, I think the founders of the company did such a good job building a great brand. The moment you get to the website, there's a cohesive message that's being put across and then setting those foundations for the digital things. When we run those TV spots, we can continue to follow up and do all of these things to make sure that it's as efficient as possible, but yes, the changes and how they kind of work hand in hand has been really amazing.
I think any sort of awareness that brings you to the website and allows us to retarget and bring even more and more of those eyes to the same place and to really sell the company has been amazing.
Jon: I think one of the reasons you guys have been so successful, you probably won't toot your own horn, but I will, is the fact that you've been willing to be the face in many ways of the brand, which is important in digital. Right? It may or may not, depending on the business, make sense on TV, although Anna is of course the expert testimony as the original inventor in the national TV spot which we just watched, but now in the digital space, you've done a great job of really showcasing your business, kind of the behind-the-scenes stuff, your energy, and some fun ones as well.
We're going to show a couple of videos here that are currently running on Facebook. You'll recognize Nikko in some of the footage, but you can see some of the things that are working well for the business now on the organic side, as well as paid digital media, and we'll come back and talk about these and maybe why they're working and good learnings.
Again, if you're listening, they've got some audio with them, so you'll be able to hear, but I encourage you to check out the YouTube video of this podcast, or you can always go to YouTube and search FlipLok. We'll have some links included in the show notes [unintelligible 00:09:37] you can find these videos, but here, let me tee up the first couple of videos.
Nikko (Video): Your lock sucks, and that's why we invented the FlipLok, the world's strongest, fastest, and easiest lock. Our patented design is good for up to 1,300 pounds. This old piece [beep], 75. We believe in the FlipLok so much, each of these ships with a lifetime warranty. The FlipLok is actually so easy to use, even my cameraman can do it. This is your home with the FlipLok. Even if somebody has your keys, your passwords, rest assured when that thing is locked, nobody is getting through this door. If you're ready to get serious about your safety, you already know what to do.
Nikko (Video): Hey there. I'm Nikko with FlipLok, and I want to show you how I'm using the FlipLok to up the security in my home. The first and most obvious place is our front door. More than a third of break-ins actually occur right here. We lock this one down immediately, so it's important to consider any points of entry. This is the door to our backyard. Have one right there.
Finally, we have it up in our bedroom. The great thing about the FlipLok is it's easy to install anywhere, so you could turn your bedroom, your closet, your bathroom, whatever it is, into the last-minute safe room. Most people don't even consider their current safety measures. I can rest easy knowing that I have the FlipLok in my home. Get yours today.
Jon: All right. Those are really fun, but again, just like our TV spot, it's really about results. It's been fun to watch your engagement really grow, and of course, sales along with it. One thing it comes back to, I think a lot of people are going to watch or listen to these videos and think, "Well, that's great. Nikko is good on camera, he can figure these things out, but it's not for me," or whatever.
It's not that we all need to be the face of our videos, but it does show that we can even do fairly simple videos. You've got some good production value in there that you guys shot on your own, but even that level is not necessary for every business, but it's about getting in front of your audience and connecting with them as part of that. I'd love to ask you the question, since you've been so involved, especially on the digital side with these content ideas or these videos, do you have a process you use, or how have you come up with such creative video ideas?
Nikko: I guess back to the first part of that statement that you had made is, it's just really important to put a face and connect with your audience. That's such a big thing. I'm a little bit younger. I've grown up around social media at this point [chuckles] and have seen a lot of things, I've been sold on the Instagram ads and things like that, so I have a lot of backlog of information and inspiration there, but there's not too much of a process.
I think the great thing is that I have great people around me, the videographers, the audio people, even the founders, all constantly throwing ideas back and forth and want to see different things from the channels. It's just about taking some of those ideas and making them work into whether that's a short-form or a long-form content. When it comes down to actually making the thing, I think it's more important to just start than it is to come up with this perfect plan of how we're going to shoot everything and figuring it all out beforehand, because sometimes that just bogs you down and you never actually get the video out there.
Yes, when it comes to just being creative, I think it's about action. I think you find a lot of creativity and inspiration from doing. If I just sit down and put the phone on in front of me and start filming a video of what I think it should be, I'm suddenly going to have some more ideas of, "Oh, maybe we should tweak this" or "this other scene should really be including more of this and that," you are kind of being creative on the fly with action.
Jon: That's so well said and astute of you to say. I think it comes down to just starting. Again, we talked to so many of our clients that are hesitant to do it because they look at the videos that are working well from our stuff, yours, and other things they see out there, they don't realize oftentimes that's not the first one. Even when you are a professional videographer, video marketer, it is a learning process because every brand is different. It may look pretty in the beginning, but it's about getting the messaging just right. It really is a process to walk through with your brand, but that comes with quality too.
The nice thing is, in a digital marketing space and Facebook, Instagram, et cetera, is the viewers are forgiving. They're so used to now seeing less professional videos that are more realistic or more believable, that they're forgiving of that. Then, so you're okay starting off with, I would say, lower quality in the beginning, and then you learn and get better as you go but also that messaging piece, and you guys have done an artful job of that.
I do, again, encourage the audience, you've seen a couple of videos here, you can go follow FlipLok on Facebook, Instagram, and other marketing channels, social media channels, and see some other videos that they've done. Check out the website, of course, which is just fliplok.com. It's L-O-K. I believe it's L-O-C-K, that also works, it redirects you to FlipLok, spelled with a C as well, but FlipLok without the C is the correct way to spell it.
Nikko: Yes.
Jon: Nikko, you mentioned you started off as a business just a couple years ago in the B2B space, specifically selling to schools. Let's talk a little bit more about that. I want to intersect the two in a second. Just tell us more what that means, so how are you guys selling currently in the B2B space?
Nikko: I think the biggest challenge with the B2B space and especially our context, is that we're trying to sell to schools. With any school, and rightfully so, there's quite a bit of process and approvals and things that we have to get through to eventually sell to these schools, and there's a lot more steps and things involved with the lock itself. At home, these are really simple, straightforward locks, but at schools, we have to account for fire marshals and administrators and all of these things.
There's a lot of steps involved, and we're really working hard with schools and with the government to at least start the conversations, understand why these schools haven't done something like a FlipLok in the past and then really helping to meet their needs. I think any sales process at the end of the day is a conversation. There's some things that you're weighing on both sides and trying to meet in the middle there. With the schools, it's a big long process, and we're starting to see the fruits of that labor as well in the next couple of months.
Jon: As your awareness has grown for FlipLok in general with the consumer marketing you've done, how has that marketing or awareness helped your B2B side?
Nikko: I think the great part is that this also works hand in hand. Anytime a school administrator sees one of our direct-to-consumer ads, they think and understand, "Hey, wait, that's kind of interesting," and maybe they visit the website and see that there's a specific version of it for school safety, but plenty of people have commented and seen and shared in ways that are like, "We need these in schools." That's just from the home version.
Yes, matching those and making sure that we're following up on these customers and really pushing that messaging because it's a great product for at home and at school. Yes, just making sure that we're pushing that on both ends. When we actually get into these meetings with all of these officials for schools and whatnot, they have seen some of the ads, they have seen it around, they've seen the website, and they're like, "Wow, this is really interesting. I actually already purchased one for my home" and things like that. It just ties all of it together.
Jon: For any listeners that are thinking, "Well, hey, my product is not a B2B product," I think the same question really applies if you think about selling to retailers. Right? If you've got a consumer product going into retail, you're ultimately selling to businesses, it's a business-to-business conversation, even though consumers are the end buyer. This reminds me, back in my early days, of consumer marketing with OxiClean many years ago. One of the first retailers that took on the product in a big way was Sam's Club, actually before Walmart.
As the story goes, it really is true. It was a wife of a buyer that worked over Sam's Club that had seen the videos on TV infomercials back in the day and loved the product, became a user, and encouraged your husband, "Hey, why don't you reach out to these guys?" That's kind of the low or the behind it, but the real story is pretty close to that. It comes back to, again, the business-to-business customers, whether they're schools, whether they're retailers, or whatever they might be, they're consumers at the end of the day as well, so they're going to come across this content. As your awareness grows with consumers, it'll grow with them as well, so they do really walk hand in hand, as you said.
Nikko: Yes, absolutely. Anytime that we can get the product in front of people, I think people instantly see the value of it, and that's kind of the amazing part of creating a great product and a great brand behind it. The foundation is already there, it's just getting in front of the people and they want to know more, which is awesome.
Jon: Absolutely. Let me ask you, are there any resources that have been helpful on your journey as you've been marketing this in your career in total, but what's really been helpful for you personally?
Nikko: Yes, definitely. I think one of the biggest resources and something that I actually probably spent too much time is actually just going onto social media and looking for some sort of creative inspiration. Anytime you see an interesting ad, even if it's something that I'm not particularly interested in but the ad caught my attention, I love just clicking through it, seeing how their experience is and what's going on in their website, what's the post-click experience if I put my email in, what's happening afterward. All of these things are great places to learn from.
I mean, some companies, you don't have to reinvent the wheel in sort of a sense, where it's like, "These companies are doing so well and they've done so well, why don't we learn from them, understand their processes and try and build off of that?" That's one of my biggest ones, but personally, right now, I'm reading a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Really interesting book. I think there's a lot to learn from it, but yes.
Jon: I'm glad you mentioned looking up whether they're competitors or could be completely different industries, but looking and seeing what other companies are doing. I had an old manager many years ago in an old career that used the term "borrow with pride," so it's not about copying, but it's about learning from them. See what types of, as you mentioned, sales flows or creative ideas or ad copy, or-- Yes, I hadn't thought about trying it this way.
Especially from other industries or products that aren't even direct competitors to ours, we can learn from those, and we can't develop everything on their own. Einstein is famous for talking about how he never created anything from scratch, after thousands of inventions we still use every day. It was about improving on other ideas, right? Starting with something else and making it better. That's really the part of the journey. When it comes to marketing, it's very similar there as well. Well, Nikko, is there anything I didn't ask you that you think would be helpful for our audience?
Nikko: No. I think the biggest thing that I'm really passionate about right now is really enhancing our message, getting out to more people. I think a lot of people want virality tomorrow, and that's probably not the best way to look at it. You can't make a video viral. The best thing that you can do is try. Try, try, try, and try again. You never know which one is actually going to explode and really put your name out there. The great thing that we've just been doing is just staying consistent, try new things, and the successes and the benefits from that are coming to fruition now, and it's really amazing to see.
Jon: Absolutely. That's all great advice. Well, Nikko, this has been a really fun interview. I do encourage our audience, please go check out fliplok.com to see Nikko's product, but follow them on social media channels as well to see some of the cool content that they've got going on there and learn from what they're doing because it's working really well. Nikko, thanks again for your time.
Nikko: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jon. Appreciate it.
Jon: Go to fliplok.com, F-L-I-P-L-O-K.com to learn more about this great product and to see some of the work that Nikko and his team have done. Also be sure to check out harvestgrowth.com to see other episodes we've recorded. If you like this episode, you want to learn more about how you can profitably grow your own consumer product business, please subscribe to our show. You can set up an appointment right from our website, harvestgrowth.com, to speak directly with a member of the Harvest Growth team in a free consultation to learn the process that's worked for hundreds of businesses since 2007.
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