Marketing Happy Hour - Chatting Sustainability, Marketing Career, Hard Kombucha, and…Diplo?! | Annie Atwell of JuneShine

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where each week we're learning career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Let's dive in. Grab a drink and join your your hosts Cassie and Erica for this week's episode. Hey everyone, welcome back to Marketing Happy Hour. We're so excited to kick off a new season with all of you. This week we're chatting with Annie Atwell, Director of Marketing at Juneshine, a hard kombucha and canned cocktail brand based out of San Diego, California.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Annie shares an inside look at Juneshine's company-wide commitment to sustainability, how to showcase company values in your marketing strategy, a peek behind the curtain at their recent collaboration with Diplo, and so much more. If you've been listening for a while, you know that Cassie and I both are huge fans of fun food and beverage brands, so it was definitely a treat to catch up with Annie. Go ahead and grab your favorite drink and listen in. Hey, Annie, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys doing? Doing great. We are so excited to be speaking with you about all things sustainability and how it blends in with marketing. But before we jump in, we have to ask you a question that we ask all of our guests.

Starting point is 00:01:39 And I have a feeling we're really going to like your answer, but what is in your glass this evening? It is June shine. Awesome. Yeah. So I have our, um, one of our newer flavors, it's called pog, which stands for passion through orange guava. Um, it's our collab with Evan mock. Um, it's like a model skateboarder actor. Um, and, uh, yeah, it's one of my favorite flavors, um, of hard kombucha. So

Starting point is 00:02:06 sounds so good. Wow. I love that. I am very familiar with pog juice. I think it's a big thing in Hawaii. I'm pretty sure. So I've heard, I've heard the term quite a bit. Um, and it's very good from what I've had. So I'm excited to try that flavor. I unfortunately only have water this evening. It's becoming a trend, which is good because you know, stay healthy, but I'm excited to try that flavor. I unfortunately only have water this evening. It's becoming a trend, which is good because you know, healthy, but I'm a little bit boring tonight. What about you, Erica? I just made myself a little cocktail, just whatever I had in my bar area. I was like, Oh, I need to get rid of some of this.

Starting point is 00:02:39 Oh, I need to get rid of some of this. So just threw it in a glass and it's pretty good. I feel like I'm a seasoned bartender at this point in my marketing happy hour career. I've had to be creative for every episode, but yeah. So I'd love to just hear a little bit, Annie, about your background. Can you tell us how your journey led you to Juneshine? Yeah, yeah, for sure. It definitely was kind of a winding road. So I did study marketing in school. I went to school in Virginia, but didn't really like wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to do. I actually thought I was going to be a graphic designer or an architect. But the thing that all of those have in common is they really are at the intersection of analytical thinking

Starting point is 00:03:25 and creative thinking, right? So that was kind of the commonality between all of my career ideas. So after school, I graduated in the recession in 2010. So obviously jobs were, you couldn't find, it was so hard to find jobs, especially in marketing, right? Like marketing is always kind of the first thing to get cut. So I ended up going into management consulting and was just happy to have a job, honestly. So I did that for a while and it ended up being, I think, a really great first job. I learned so much just about general project management and problem solving and just about the business world, right? Because like as a a college student you really don't get a taste for that um so learned a lot there but knew I wanted to do something more creative um so ended up getting a job at a brand strategy agency in New York um and that's really

Starting point is 00:04:17 where I built my brand knowledge I feel like I got a bachelor's in branding uh you know in the three years that I worked there. So learned kind of everything there from like corporate strategy to like brand structure and architecture. And even the design side as well, like worked alongside designers every day. It was an awesome job, but I did start to miss nature, right? I was living in Manhattan, you know, and kind of wanted a little bit more balance in my life and had always wanted to work on farms. I grew up on a horse ranch in Florida and had always wanted to dig into organic farming to learn a little bit more about it. And I actually, when I was working in management consulting, did a lot of work for the USDA organic program. So I kind of had these two, at least what seemed like at the time, very different interests, right? Like farming

Starting point is 00:05:10 and being outdoors and then also like marketing and graphic design. And I was always trying to figure out how I could combine them, which back then was really was really hard. And, and I couldn't really connect those dots then. Um, so I left the agency that I was working at, went to go farm for about six months, um, had an awesome time doing that and knew I wasn't like, I didn't get into it to be a farmer. Um, I already knew that that wasn't where my strengths were, right? Like I'm not the best farmer. I'm a way better marketer. Um, so at the end of it though, um, I ended up getting a job at imperfect produce, which is now imperfect foods, um, working, uh, on brand for them. So I built their brand team. Um, so I think it's a really cool story. Like, obviously it makes so much more sense now that I'm telling it in retrospect, right. Um, but I was able to combine the two things that I love the most. Um, and then that also

Starting point is 00:06:05 led me to June shine, um, because we did a partnership with June shine and gave them some imperfect apples for a flavor they were doing. So, um, so it all, it all came together in the end. Um, but, but yeah, I think in terms of like interests, um, it's like the, I love the analytics part of marketing. I love the creative part of marketing and then to be able to do it for a cause that I care about, um, is kind of the, the trifecta. Awesome. And I told you this before when we chatted the first time, Annie, but I love the tie-in with everything with farming and stuff that you did. I lived in Kentucky for over a year on a 14 acre farm, which was so fun. So got to live that

Starting point is 00:06:45 lifestyle, which is very different from New York city, which is where I lived before, but it's a nice little balance for life. Um, but June shine. So sustainability is big for you all. And sustainability is such a big buzzword for a lot of companies nowadays. Um, what can brands do through their marketing and business efforts to not just talk about the topic, but actually act upon sustainability in all aspects of their company? Yeah, it's a great question. Um, one of my pet peeves is when sustainability only lives with the marketing team. Like I just am like, Oh gosh, it's such a mistake. Um, because then it's just part of your

Starting point is 00:07:26 storytelling. It's not really part of the fabric of your business. And it's a good starting point. Don't get me wrong. And you know, if the marketing person is the only one really influencing the company in that way, and that's all you got, go for it. But I think it's so much better to have someone on the ops team, or in our case, we have someone on the brew team who works with the entire brewery team to make sure that everything that we do within the brewery, right, which is the majority of our businesses, that's where the majority of our resources are. Like he's there making sure we're composting correctly, making sure all of our waste stream is baled and organized correctly so that it gets picked up and not put into the landfill, right? So it gets diverted. So I really love our approach, right? You have me on the

Starting point is 00:08:11 storytelling side and I kind of work with the nonprofits that we use. And then we have someone on the brew team that's really kind of in the thick of it thinking about like, how can we change our actual business processes, right? And then I'm kind of helping him tell that story. So I think it's really, really important for companies to walk the walk because talking the talk is so much easier. But having those proof points of like, here's what we're actually doing to be sustainable, not just like we donated some money and donating is great. Right. But I think at this point, a lot of people donate. So it's like, what more can you do? Yeah, absolutely. I love that you touch on that about how it's, you know, more than just marketing. It's a multiple aspects of your company need to be reflecting your, your values and your

Starting point is 00:08:58 policy around sustainability. And I think that's so when everything works together, it's so magical. So I love that. It makes the marketing easier. Yeah, no, absolutely. I totally agree. And what are some of the efforts that June shine has going on right now around sustainability? I know we just recently had Earth Day and you guys did an activation. But I'm sure you guys are constantly doing things. We'd love to hear a little behind the scenes. Yeah, yeah. Super macro. We are always donating 1% of sales to 1% for the planet, which I think is really important.

Starting point is 00:09:34 So always supporting nonprofits that are doing really important work to prevent climate change. Secondly, we are carbon neutral now. So we've been carbon neutral for two years now through a nonprofit called Climate Neutral. So we've been carbon neutral for two years now through a nonprofit called Climate Neutral. So we have no carbon footprint. And then more on like the brewery and business process side of things. We're actually a hub in San Diego called for the San Diego Brew Cycling Co-op. So we actually have gotten so good at separating and organizing and

Starting point is 00:10:09 bailing our own waste. So things like cardboard, you know, stuff that you can actually recycle and divert from the landfill. Like we are actually a hub for other breweries. They will bring those materials to us and we will do that for them so Um, so that even other people's waste isn't going to the landfill, it's being recycled or disposed of correctly. Um, which I love, I love that story. And as a marketer, you're like, this is gold. Um, and as a sustainability person, you know, this is like awesome. Um, we also use renewable solar, um, to power our brewery. Um, we compost at work. So, So, you know, even just like everything from lunches to like green tea that we use for our, you know, our hard kombucha is composted. So we

Starting point is 00:10:53 really try to do as much as we can to, again, like not just donate, but incorporate sustainability into our everyday lives. Oh, I love that. I love when the company's values are really trickled down, like everybody's embracing them and really living them out on a day-to-day basis. I think that's amazing. I do have a follow-up question there. So how does Juneshine's emphasis on sustainability impact which brand ambassadors that you bring on or who you collaborate with? Yeah, it's a good question. And I think it can be said for ambassadors and brands, right? I think a lot of people might think that we only work with folks who are interested in sustainability or like diehard sustainability advocates. And I used to think that way too, but we really don't want to be exclusive, right? Like I think sustainability advocates can, like there is sometimes some exclusivity be exclusive, right? Like I think sustainability advocates can, like there is sometimes some exclusivity to that, right? Just like there isn't any community and we really want

Starting point is 00:11:51 to avoid that. So I think it's important to be open-minded and even if someone isn't necessarily shouting, you know, from the rooftops about sustainability, but you still need to incorporate them into the community. You know, maybe there's an opportunity for them to learn or for you to learn from their opinion. So, you know, we do, I think a lot of our ambassadors obviously are interested in sustainability and are advocates for it. But it's to varying degrees, right? They're not all going to be talking about sustainability all the time. We do want some diversity in all of our ambassadors and our brand partners. Yeah. Because ultimately it's all driving awareness and you will then be able to do more sustainability efforts when more people know about them. So totally. That's awesome. Yeah. And to that point, you all just recently

Starting point is 00:12:41 launched a collaboration with Diplo, which is really cool. So first of all, why Diplo? What was the choice there? How did that come about? And then what did the creative development phase for that collaboration look like for you guys? Yeah. So why Diplo? So most of our ambassadors, I don't know if people know this, but we actually connect with them on like Instagram, you know, or other social media platforms. Like someone will tag us or someone will send in, you know, someone's story and say, oh my gosh, did you see like Diplo was drinking Juneshine this weekend? Um, and that's how it started. We literally just DM'd him and we're like, Hey, do you want to like hop on the phone? Like, love that you love Juneshine. We'll send you some six packs. Like let's, you know, let's

Starting point is 00:13:23 have a chat. Um, so that's really how it started it started. And then he ended up being an investor and then we ended up making a flavor with him. So I love that about our relationships with our ambassadors. Like they really have a part in the business. They actually really like Juneshine as opposed to us going out and saying like, you know, who would we want to be a dream ambassador, even if they don't like hard kombucha, you know, and then you end up with someone who is just being paid to talk about your product. And like, if you're just being paid to talk about a product, usually you're not as enthusiastic about it. So pretty much all of our ambassadors we've worked with in that way. And then in terms of the creative process, Diplo was super hands-on. So we had him to the tasting room. We had him try different flavors. Like he kind of, you know, gave us a

Starting point is 00:14:11 feeling for what he, what kind of flavor he wanted, you know, like he is like kind of a tropical guy. So I wanted the flavor to be tropical, coconut, pineapple, that kind of thing um so we had a tasting we had like three options right because you want to give them some options but not all of our options because that can be overwhelming so um so yeah he tasted all the flavors um you know that we created uh and even worked with the artist on the can art so he really was like kind of start to finish involved in pretty much everything and then we just had his launch party in Malibu, I think two days ago. So involved in every aspect of it. He's been awesome. That is so cool. And I love how you mentioned how you just reach out to the people via Instagram.

Starting point is 00:14:56 It's so great that you already have that foundation of such an authentic interaction with the brand. Cause I know a lot of times you see these brands and we've even talked to people where there's this big ordeal with reaching out and maybe that person hasn't already interacted with the brand. So to already just have that natural organic, uh, promotional relationship where they're already talking about you or using you without you reaching out is so great. It's awesome. Um, so do you have any insight with that collaboration with Diplo and the other ones that you've done any insight for us on brands looking to partner with celebrity talent? What does that look like and how should brands approach

Starting point is 00:15:36 the approach those kinds of partnerships? Yeah, I think, um, like really starting to define like who your fan bases and who your ambassadors might be. Um, you know, first I think like really starting to define like who your fan base is and who your ambassadors might be, you know, first, I think starting out like we did and just searching for folks that already use your product and are already fans of it, right? That's the great thing about social media is that you can easily find those people. So I think that's step one. And then, you know, if for whatever reason that isn't happening, just thinking about which ambassadors really align with your values as a company and which, you know, might have followers that also align with your product and your company. So

Starting point is 00:16:16 that's kind of how I think about it. Right. And then just like reaching out genuinely, I think is always the best, the best way to do it. You know, and if they've never heard of the product, like obviously offering them the product to try. Um, but I think starting out, you know, trying to make as authentic a connection as possible. Um, because like I said, if you're just like paying someone to promote your product, it never ends up being as great as you want it to be as a marketer. Absolutely. And I don't even think we, we asked this question. What is the flavor with Diplo called? Permanent vacation. Permanent vacation. That's so fun. That's amazing. That's so awesome. Well, let's talk social for just a minute. You guys do an amazing job at ensuring that every

Starting point is 00:16:57 piece of content is on brand. What is the social media planning process look like for you and your team? Yeah, it's so funny. You know, we have, we have a process. We have monthly meetings where we talk about content as a whole, but social is really so fluid that we try not to actually pin it down as much as other channels, right? Luckily, we have a super talented social manager, content manager. So he knows our look and feel. It also just starts with getting really good content. Right. Like we just make sure our photo and video is really on point so that there's not even a chance of grabbing something that might not perform that well from our digital asset manager. So. So, yeah, I think it's I mean, the greatest part about social is that it

Starting point is 00:17:48 is fluid, right? So I think if you have someone who can move on the fly and move things around and know that like, okay, this thing actually happened today, we need to move today's post to two days from now and address this other really important issue that people are talking about. That's really how we, how we roll with social, you know, and all of it's kind of done over Slack. Yeah. And how do you utilize social to communicate the sustainability efforts that you guys have going on? Yeah, we kind of just pepper it throughout. Um, you know, we haven't, we've, we've done some full-blown campaigns on sustainability, but we really want it to be more than just a campaign. So it's kind of woven throughout everything that we do on social, you know, just bringing it up wherever, wherever we can. So nothing too specific

Starting point is 00:18:37 there, but. Awesome. Is there anything too within sustainability that's kind of on the rise right now? Something that people don't really have on their radar currently, but something that you all are working towards or working to implement into your business? Yeah. I've noticed a lot of people, like I think 1% for the planet was like the first certification for brands in terms of like sustainability. And now so many people have it, which is awesome. And now I think it's the climate neutral certification. Like so many brands I've seen now have climate neutral, um, for us, like we would love to like climate neutral. They do work

Starting point is 00:19:17 to help you, uh, reduce emissions, uh, and then also to offset via carbon credits, right? So you're, you're supporting projects. You're getting money to projects that offset via carbon credits, right? So you're supporting projects, you're getting money to projects that offset carbon. What we would love to do is just not have those carbon emissions in the first place, right? That's kind of the next step to being sustainable. So having renewable energy on site at our brewery

Starting point is 00:19:40 is the next step for us to be as sustainable as we can be. And it's a big one, it's an expensive one, but it's really important to us. So it's something that we are working on right now. That is awesome. We're excited to keep up with you guys and see as you implement those new initiatives on your end, but going into career a little bit. So you talked about your background quite a bit with us earlier, but looking at your portfolio, you have had some amazing positions in the past. You've done a corporate and brand strategy, brand positioning and architecture development to creative direction as well. So how do you feel all of those individual experiences that you've had in the past have

Starting point is 00:20:21 really led you to where you are today? Yeah. Yeah. Great question. Um, it's funny. I feel like I use almost everything that I learned in each of those jobs. Right. And part of it too, um, I think in my twenties, um, you know, I was really, really career focused. And I think when you don't know what you want to do, right. Like you have that motivation to move closer each day towards what you want to do so that you can finally like, quote unquote, get there, which irrelevant to what I wanted to do, right? If you can find one thing where you're like, this is useful, I can learn this. And I know I can use it in my next job, like as a stepping stone. I think that's so, so important for people who are just starting out because it can be so frustrating otherwise, right? If you're in a job where you're like, I don't like 90% of what I do. So trying to keep that attitude, you know, even like throughout your career, right.

Starting point is 00:21:28 And I think I also got lucky in that a lot of my early career, I was working with decision makers. So I had exposure to what the leadership team was thinking. I wasn't just necessarily on the ground floor. So naturally naturally then when I was in these leadership roles, you know, as a director of brand, as director of marketing, I kind of knew the questions to ask and what I would be looking for and how to structure programs and campaigns in a way that built equity and value into a brand just because I was exposed to that early on rather than, you know, maybe just responsible for one small area of marketing. So I feel really lucky there. Um, and I think, you know, for anyone starting out in their career, if you can start, um, you know, agency side or consulting side,

Starting point is 00:22:14 it can be really helpful. It's super overwhelming at first, but it can be really useful because you get exposed to such a variety of things. Yeah, absolutely. That actually reminds me of last season. We had Liz on our podcast and she works at Golan. I think that's how you pronounce it, right? Yeah. PR. And she said the same thing. Agency can be, you know, one of the best places to learn the most skills and those most skills will really help you as you move on in your career. So I totally agree with that. And, um, is there one area or focus area of marketing that you would recommend somebody study or look into as we look ahead to the future of marketing as a whole? Yeah. Um, it's funny. TikTok is so top of mind for me right now. Um, and there are no books on TikTok

Starting point is 00:23:05 yet. Right. That I know of at least. Um, I think it's just like marketing is so much about, um, I think there's like two components of it, right? Like you need to understand, um, just like general, like theory behind marketing, right? Like there are structures, there are numbers, there are like reasons we do what we do. Um, so I think it's helpful to, there are like a few really great books out there. Like I, I love branding in particular, right. And like, um, folks that talk about how brands have to tell a story, like consistently tell a story and tell it, um, throughout all of their channels. So I think branding books are really helpful. Um, and consumer behavior, right. It's like kind of another aspect of that. Um, and then brushing up on any, any of the analytics side of things,

Starting point is 00:23:51 right. Because that's kind of the other side of the coin is like, you have to tell this really great story, but you also have to do it in a way that is going to make money. Right. Um, that's an important part of the equation. Um, so brushing up there and then also just keeping in touch with like all of the technology that's changing literally every single day. And that's what makes marketing so exciting. So, you know, I follow a few different newsletters, you know, that will like outline TikTok trends for me, outline how Instagram is changing, outline, you know, what prices are on Facebook right now for acquisition. So I think just trying to stay ahead of that stuff is really what makes you a great marketer, right? Because then you're ahead of the curve. Yeah, absolutely. And I don't mean to put you on the spot here,

Starting point is 00:24:35 but do you have the names of those newsletters or those books that you would recommend? I can send them. I can send them. Okay, we'll put them in the show notes. We'll get her recommendations. Perfect. I can definitely do that. Awesome. I was going to ask the same thing. I was like, I need to know. Yeah. Amazing. Well, we're reaching the end of our interview here. I can't even believe it. And we love to ask this question on marketing happy hour. Is there anything that you know now that you wish you

Starting point is 00:25:04 knew when you started your career already than everything that you've already shared? Yeah, I think, um, it's probably just to relax, relax a little bit. Honestly, I feel like all of us, especially in marketing, right? Like we're so goal oriented, like it's, you're always kind of thinking about the next thing. So I think it's probably just to relax a little bit and trust the process. Um, like, especially when you're building your career, you don't really know where it's heading necessarily. Right. And in marketing, I mean, there are always going to be positions that didn't exist two, four, six years ago, right? Like a Facebook marketer didn't really exist 10 years ago. So that is a totally new role. You know, and I'm sure like we're hiring for TikTok right now. And in four

Starting point is 00:25:43 years, we're going to have TikTok content managers, right. That are specialized in that. So, um, I think it's, it's trusting yourself and just knowing that it's okay to know, to only know the next step that you're going to take, not necessarily the 10th step that you're going to take. Um, just keep building your portfolio skills and it's eventually going to lead you where you're meant to go. Just enjoy the ride. Absolutely. I totally agree with that. And where can everyone find you and June shine and follow along with your journey? Yeah. Um, I'm mostly on Instagram

Starting point is 00:26:19 trying to start Tik TOK obviously. Um, but my Instagram is also known as Annie and then, um, definitely follow June shine as well. They obviously have more content than I do and update more regularly. Um, but June shines is at June shine co. Okay. Awesome. And visit their, uh, June shine ranch in San Diego, right? Yep. And then we also have a tasting room in Santa Monica as well. So those awesome places to check out. That is so, so awesome. And also you recently got engaged. So we wanted to give you a little shout out. Congratulations. So exciting. Follow along with you there. And thank you just so much for being on today. You had some incredible insight. I know our listeners will love hearing from you. So thank you.

Starting point is 00:27:08 Amazing. Thanks for having me guys. Thanks, Annie. That's it for this week's episode. Thank you so, so much for tuning in and thank you again, Annie, for joining us. If you enjoyed this conversation, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And as always, follow us on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR. I know our typical outro ends right there, but I have a little surprise for you if you've made it this far in the episode.

Starting point is 00:27:41 We want to slide into your DMs. Well, more like your inbox. If you want to keep up with all things Marketing Happy Hour and get the inside scoop, join our email list. You can find the link to join in our Instagram bio.

Marketing Happy Hour - Chatting Sustainability, Marketing Career, Hard Kombucha, and…Diplo?! | Annie Atwell of JuneShine

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