"If you love going to Costco, but hate going to Costco..."

Had I heard of Boxed? Sure. I'm a suburban mom who is also a heavy online shopper; if I hadn't heard of them, it would mean that something was seriously wrong with their audience targeting.

But had I purchased from Boxed? No. But I'm going to now.

From the talk description, I thought Boxed CMO Jackson Jeyanayagam might be giving tips on how to create interesting, "sexy" marketing content for a potentially bland category:

“Disrupting an utterly boring category: A look into how Boxed is changing the way toilet paper is bought
Jackson Jeyanayagam, CMO Boxed

CPG and grocery shopping online has had a slow adoption rate despite the surge of higher-consideration categories like cars, diamonds and real estate. For whatever reason, consumers have been reluctant to buy paper towels and cereal online...but that’s changing...and at a rapid pace. Boxed, an e-commerce wholesale club has become a popular alternative to Costco and Sam’s and their CMO, Jackson Jeyanayagam, will discuss how they have disrupted a stale category and why their approach has made such a significant impact. From customer experience to CSR to technology innovation, Jackson will highlight why they believe Boxed is the new bulk.”

Jeyanayagam's presentation was less about content (though he did show some ads I found greatly amusing!) and more about creating a point of difference - an important lesson for anyone doing anything, no matter what you're trying to sell. It was a great insight into how a new startup company can create sufficient disruption in an existing category to become an industry leader. It was also a lesson on how your most important point of difference can be your company's heart, soul, and values. I learned from this presentation as a business owner, a marketer, and a shopper (brb, ordering 10,000 rolls toilet paper right now!).

My favorite insights from #SMDay

I was all psyched to celebrate #SocialMediaDay (yes, internet holidays always get a hashtag) this year - and was shocked to discover only ONE #SMDay meetup planned for NYC! The Content Funnel is primarily real-estate based, so I wasn't sure if this particular event would be super-relevant to me... but with speakers from Seamless/Grubhub, Boxed, Comedy Central & more, I decided to go for it. I had a phenomenal time, learned a ton, and even got to record a surprise pop-up episode of Social with the CEO of The Content Funnel, Michael Beckerman!

As usual, I Tweeted... as usual, I'll be sharing my Storify threads in blog posts all week. Check out my episode of Social here, and see below for a collection of my favorite random tweets. Threads of the full presentations will be released one per day throughout the week.

7/3: Be Like Zack Morris: Using the power of storytelling to sell via social media

7/4: Disrupting an utterly boring category: A look into how Boxed is changing the way toilet paper is bought

7/5: Planning for change. Why the “annual” plan needs to be interrupted

7/6: Integrating online customer feedback with offline customer experiences

Posting 7/7: Getting Smarter On Social: A “how-to” for social media analytics & insights

*Kate McKnight's presentation was great, but a) it was more of a journey through a process her company went through than something specifically relevant to my business, and b) I was super-distracted at that time since I was busily posting & promoting the livestream I had just recorded... but don't worry, you'll see way more of her insights on Thursday when I share my tweets from the whole presentation!