“You’re not a dish, you’re a man.”
That’s the opening line of an ad for Dr. Squatch Soap Company that was named the top-performing direct-response ad on YouTube this year. Raindrop, a local advertising company, played a key role in writing, filming and editing the ad, with the Dr. Squatch team collaborating and helping with the final edits. Raindrop CEO and Coronado resident Jacques Spitzer described his initial reaction when he found out about the YouTube award.
“It was like an out-of-body experience because, number one was the ad we helped create,” Spitzer said. “To know every brand on the list, and have ours be the top performing ad of the year was just something I had never experienced.”
Spitzer says the ad is unique because it’s a five minute compilation of several years of videos. Many of the clips are actually moments that didn’t make it into previous ads. He says this strategy in combination with punchy, attention grabbing soundbites, made the ad so compelling.
“You have no time to waste in grabbing people’s attention and that’s what I think this ad does well,” Spitzer said. “So many people are so much more concerned about what they want to say, that they’re not worried about delivering an entertainment value to people on the other end. You have to keep giving them amazing stuff that’s better than what they’re about to watch, especially when it comes to YouTube.”
The ad has now amassed more than 100 million views since April.
“When you get done watching it, most people were like ‘That was great, thank you,’” Spitzer said. “I mean who thanks you for an ad.”
This achievement is underscored by the unusual climate that the pandemic has brought about.
“The thing I’m most blown away by with this particular list, which is hard to take in because it’s so crazy, is that this year e-commerce sales are at an all-time record, not by a little bit,” Spitzer said. “The pandemic forced this record. And to be the top-performing ad during the top-performing time for e-commerce in history makes it, essentially the best ad ever, in terms of algorithmic performance. The results for our client have been game-changing.”
Spitzer and his team use a big-picture approach to creating ads.
“I always say about Dr. Squatch, we’re not selling soap,” Spitzer said. “Really, we’re selling a smile. It’s great soap, it smells great, it feels great. But when you use it in the shower every morning, it just makes your morning a little better. And there’s not that many products that do that. You’re not gonna feel that way with Irish Spring, Dove or Dial Soap.”
Spitzer says another key part of this ad’s success is that it is made with YouTube viewers in mind.
“I always think like, aw it’s so cute when people think they can make ads, like they would ten years ago, for the television and it’ll work for the internet,” Spitzer. “Go to the YouTube top ten, and it’s like kpop, it’s makeup tutorials, it’s cat videos, it’s prank videos. If you can make content like those things, it performs well, that’s why people are there in the first place.”
Spitzer credits his team for consistently doing good work. It’s been ten years since he started the company and Raindrop has now grown to 50 employees.
“I’ve really been fortunate to have unbelievable people in my life,” Spitzer said. “Yes, we won this award, but we also helped, like, five businesses grow by more than 500 percent so far this year. It’s not a one-off victory, our team just does great work.”
Michael Langsdale, one of the actors in the ads, graduated Coronado High School in 2004 with Spitzer. He ended up in the commercials after they randomly met in a restaurant after having not seen each other in over a decade.
Spitzer and his team are now applying their approach to a new product, a direct-consumer wine brand.
“We are going to be working with Quigley Fine Wines and we’re going to be able to deliver what would be a $40 bottle of wine for about $18,” Spitzer said. “In the sparkling wine space, we started asking people, ‘What’s your favorite brand between $10 to $20?’ I would say 49 out of 50 people did not have an answer. How is it that this is the worst advertised wine when it should be obvious that you don’t even need to pop the bottle to feel amazing?”
Watch Raindrop’s ad for Dr. Squatch Soap here:
