Overview:

August is a sustainable Gen-Z period care brand focused on making hypoallergenic, non-toxic, and fragrance-free products that prioritize comfort and sustainability. Since their inception, August has focused on building a brand that helps de-shame and de-stigmatize periods.

Challenge:

Due to the nature of their product category, the August team knew it was unlikely they'd be able to grow through word-of-mouth and virality alone. Consumers tend to be quiet about their experience with feminine care products. 

While they initially focused on building their direct-to-consumer business, in early 2023, their team made their first bet on retail. When building out their short—and long-term retail strategy, their team needed a platform that could easily integrate different types of incentive programs into their existing marketing channels to drive new user trial; while minimizing the impact on their direct-to-consumer and subscription sales. 

“We heard great things from some of our founder friends and decided to give it [Aisle] a try. It’s been amazing—they are constantly improving their product and are hyper responsive. Honestly they feel like an extension of our team!” - Erin Burk, VP of Business Development

Strategy:

August was able to onboard Aisle within a few days and noted, “like all things with Aisle, the team was very attentive, thorough, and accessible, making onboarding easy."

Their team kicked off their Aisle program with a “tampon tax” campaign, along with partner brands Cora, DIVA, Here We Flo, LOLA, Saalt, Rael, and Rif. This campaign reimbursed the sales tax on purchases of any August product at any retailer and was set up to counteract an unjust sales tax. As an ongoing effort, this has proven to be an excellent way for August to bring awareness to their product line while solving a unique consumer pain point that can only be accomplished with a cashback program. 

Their team continued with a free unit, $3 and $5 cashback campaigns, promoted primarily through organic social content and geo-targeted social ads, building on their focus on increased brand awareness and new user acquisition in key regions. Their $5 off program included a built-in loyalty program, offering their consumers $2 off each additional purchase of August products. 

In addition to running targeted cashback incentives for key retailers, August leveraged Aisle’s giveaway functionality—offering tickets to a Taylor Swift concert—to bolster their email and SMS marketing lists while driving unit velocities. They incentivized retail purchases by giving consumers additional giveaway entries for each additional purchase.

Leveraging Aisle’s built-in embedded form builder and close integration with Shopify, August also converts organic site traffic from their store locator page to trackable in-store sales.

Results:

August has continued to find unique ways to approach using Aisle to bolster retail sales, with programs such as the tampon tax reimbursement and their recent Taylor Swift giveaway, to increase retail brand awareness and supplement their DTC community new retail shoppers.

Their giveaway campaign generated over 12,000 new contacts and over 1,000 unique retail purchases, with consumers purchasing an average of 4 additional August products during the eligible period.

Over the last year, August has added over 48,000 new contacts to it's CRM with Aisle, attributing over 8,000 retail conversions to Aisle with an 18% conversion rate. Their one free unit campaign has helped their team drive a 10% uplift in retail sales at their largest retailer since the beginning of 2024.