How Yeti Gave a Brand a Soul
Yeti’s Head of Content, Scott Ballew discusses how a soul has emerged from the cooler maker's brand after years of creating story-driven films — all of which anchor some impressive brand-owned content channels and now headline an international film tour.
TRANSCRIPT
Scott Ballew:
My job was to create things that build fans and friends for life. It doesn't matter what's going to pop up in your paid Instagram feed of products, 30-second commercials, or what's on TV. We're telling the stories that, if you watch, you'll feel an emotional connection to.
Jesse Roesler:
Greetings, and welcome to "Content That Moves," the podcast from BrandStorytelling and Credo Nonfiction, where it's my distinct pleasure to interview the brightest minds in branded content creation. We’re out there telling stories that make you feel something on behalf of brands. I'm your host, Jesse Roesler, the founder of Credo Nonfiction. We partner with brands to find and tell stories that reveal brand purpose and deepen brand meaning in ways that traditional advertising just doesn't.
This podcast is co-produced by BrandStorytelling, bringing you the latest news, trends, and insights in branded content, with top industry events and in-depth coverage online. BrandStorytelling encourages a higher level of collaboration among advertisers, agencies, media partners, and creators in pursuit of a richer media environment. For more of the latest in the world of branded content, or to explore event offerings, visit brandstorytelling.tv today.
In this episode, we ask and hopefully answer the question: Can brands have souls? And if so, how are they created? I talk with Yeti Cooler's head of content, Scott Ballew, on how it feels like they've done just that after more than six years of creating story-driven films that anchor some impressive brand-owned content channels. If you've seen the films, you know they're considered a leader in this space. If you haven't, go watch a couple right away, then come back and listen to this episode. Without further ado, Scott Ballew.
Scott Ballew:
Thank you so much for having me.
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah, thanks for being here. You know, I've been personally excited about this conversation as much as I am professionally because, as someone who spends as much time as possible outdoors, I've been a Yeti fan for a long time. There's a Tundra 65 that basically just lives on our back deck as our second refrigerator. So yeah, I love the product. But what I've realized is that as great as the products are, I love the brand itself even more. I think that's a rare thing—to have that strong of an emotional connection to the brand itself. This was happening before I knew who you were; it was when I first started seeing the Yeti films. And I think it's because, through the films, you've done something very intangible or at least very hard to measure by traditional metrics. And to put it as simply as possible, and I think you've said this before, I feel like the brand has a soul, right? And not to start with the big questions first, but wow. Is that a conscious goal for you—to give the brand a soul? And if so, where did you start in order to do that when you joined six years ago?
Scott Ballew:
Yeah, start with some big questions first, right?
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah.
Scott Ballew:
I think the goal at the beginning, largely driven by Roy Seiders, the founder and CEO when I started, and Cory Maynard, who was the head of marketing, was to do a lot of films. We used the dichotomy of different worlds, characters, and stories to loosely reflect the fabric of what the brand stood for, without us having to define it. It was more like, let's establish the world that we do or could live in and the people who are doing exceptional things in that world. That was the ask of me, and then the ask I made to the filmmakers. My goal was to be a part of all of them. In the first two years, we did 60 films. It was just me and, eventually, my partner, Taylor Johns, along with a bunch of filmmakers and directors and companies shooting, editing, prepping, and doing all sorts of things at once.
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah.
Scott Ballew:
The idea was to make them as good as possible. We weren't looking at them as "What are they saying about the brand? How is this brand reflected?" We were trying to separate that and instead ask, "What is it saying about the person?" Breaking down their story and any conflicts or troubles, and thinking of it as best we could in a traditional three-act structure, in seven to 10 minutes, which is tough to do. Coming from a non-brand background, having never worked for a brand or an ad agency, I think I was seen as the outsider that they didn't quite understand—what I did, where I came from, or how the films were made. So, I think they gave me that freedom to do things that were a little purer than traditional advertising. We left the experts to be more focused on the product-driven stuff.
Jesse Roesler:
Right. And that's really interesting that it wasn't a clear mandate to say, "Here's what we stand for," but rather, "Tell real stories." I think that's kind of one of the golden rules of storytelling, right? Show, don't tell. You let your audience determine what it means for them, and they can put their own meaning onto what they're seeing and who's showing it to them, right? That's kind of well...
Scott Ballew:
Yeah, I think that. And the way I look at it, you're providing a reflection or a story that someone can reexamine or find their own soul. Not the soul of the company—we're not telling you what the soul of Yeti is. It's more like, "Go find your own soul, and however you interpret that, that will determine how you interact with..." It wasn't even necessarily to interact with the product but to interact with nature. Go and push yourself. Go do something you've always been afraid to do. Spend more time with your family. Whatever these little subtle messages or stories were happening in the films, I think they were more of a reflection of the people watching them than of the brand.
Scott Ballew:
I trusted that the people making the products and on the important business side of things were making good stuff, and that I would have no problem marketing. We weren't hawking some product that didn't work. Therefore, it allowed us to be a little freer with the storytelling and let people come to their own conclusions. Because I think, like you said, with your Tundra on your back porch, if you have a product that works or something that has gotten you through an experience that was surprising— For instance, I had a lot of calls when the big freeze happened this year in Austin, or in Texas.
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah.
Scott Ballew:
And everyone's power went out, and they had to scramble and get their fridge. People lived out of a Yeti for a week. There are all kinds of stories like that. I think that is a more powerful testimonial than any sort of film. It's just these experiences. Once you've had one of those personally, you tell your friends about it, and you're kind of a fan for life.
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah. And it's the difference between their products, which I purchase, own, and love, and when I look at them, I think, "That thing is great. It works every time, and it works like I want it to." But then, when I see the Yeti mark somewhere, I have a feeling attached to it too. It goes beyond just thinking, "Hey, that thing does what it's supposed to." It works. So, I think through this body of work, dozens or even hundreds of films, a soul of sorts starts to emerge. Maybe it means something a little different to everybody, which makes it even more powerful. When a fly fisherman is wearing a Yeti hat, it means something more than just, "Hey, this is a product I own." There's a culture or something more there. So, I mean, I think you don't see that as much, and maybe it is because you've been so free to allow people to attribute their own meaning to these sorts of content. But I know there's something that you're looking for, right? Not even necessarily in the stories but in the fact that they're all very character-driven, which makes them feel so authentic. It doesn't seem like there's any agenda other than, "Let's do the best job we can telling this true, real, authentic story of this person," that for some reason, you and your team said, "Yeah, this would make a great Yeti story." I'm curious, you know, I know a lot of it can be really intuitive, but are there traits you're looking for in the stories or the people you're featuring in these stories? Is there anything that you could point to and say, "We love looking for this"? Are there things that you go out and consciously seek, like, "Okay, this would be great"?
Scott Ballew:
Honestly, not really. I think you kind of nailed it. It's a bit of a mysterious, intuitive process. I think there are a few broader things that I like to factor in. One thing that was important at the beginning, just because no one knew what Yeti was, was establishing credibility in the outdoors. For example, if we weren't telling stories only about ambassadors, whatever this person was doing—whether it was fly fishing, photography, mountain climbing, or surfing—they had to do it at a level or with a commitment or as a life choice where they would be respected by that community, if that makes sense.
Jesse Roesler:
Yep, definitely.
Scott Ballew:
They didn't have to be at the top of that pyramid, but whatever they're doing, they had to be respected by people at the top of the pyramid. One of my favorite films, maybe because it's close to me, is a film we did that probably a lot of brands would not do, about sandlot baseball. There's an architect and artist in Austin named Jack Sanders, who had an incredible experience in graduate school in rural Alabama. He came across this all African-American sandlot baseball team that had this secret little league that played on Sundays. There were barbecues, music—it was a whole community event. Over two years, he slowly earned their trust and became the only white person on the team. They've remained friends for life. He moved to Austin and wanted to recreate that community, that culture, and the excitement of older, non-athletic people playing fast-pitch baseball. So, he built a field, like "Field of Dreams" style, out of bales of hay, chicken coops, and old oil pipes in his office outside of Austin, creating a funny little misfit sandlot baseball league. The connection to your question is that no one on that team is really good at baseball, but I think if someone like Madison Bumgarner or whoever saw this story, they'd be inspired and respect the dedication to the sport, the creativity, and the spirit of why it started. Those were the things I was like, "Alright, it doesn't have to be the best, but is this story or these actions respected by the best?"
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah. Or is there a lot of passion there? Because clearly, someone who's doing something like that really cares about what they're doing.
Scott Ballew:
Totally. Another thing, I've always seen Yeti as kind of an understated and humble brand. Less is more. We don't necessarily beat our chests a lot about the product quality. So, I think, and this might have been a personal thing, I don't remember it being part of any sort of deck, but I was always drawn to people who were humble in whatever they were pursuing or had achieved. I gravitated toward people who weren't actively seeking the spotlight. I get emails all the time saying, "Hey, do a story about me. I'm doing awesome stuff." I kind of liked the people who were maybe a little resistant to doing a film because they didn't have to say anything. They were just doing it.
Jesse Roesler:
That sounds like the antidote to influencer culture, actually. It's really refreshing.
Scott Ballew:
Yeah.
Jesse Roesler:
That's awesome. One of the things I also wanted to ask about, especially now that people and brands are getting brave enough to say, "Okay, we can do things with a longer runtime because we know it's going to be more meaningful, and if the content's great, people are going to watch." When you started doing these longer films in the context of web films and marketing, longer than a lot of what was out there, the decision to make five-minute and longer films in the early 2010s, when a lot of people were saying, "Keep your videos under three minutes online, or you're going to lose your audience," what made you decide, "We can do this," when building the platform out? What do you think is the power of a longer runtime, and what would you tell other brands considering doing more long-form storytelling about it?
Scott Ballew:
I would tell them there is no answer. We're in the same boat as anyone else. My job was to create things that build fans and friends for life. It doesn't matter what's going to pop up in your paid Instagram feed of products, 30-second commercials, or what's on TV. We're telling stories that, if you watch, you'll feel an emotional connection to this thing. It's hard—the attention span, the amount of stuff that's out there. It's intangible, like you said, this whole thing is a bit of a fairy dust situation where it's intangible with no real metrics. I think once you're in it, you can feel it. You know, every airport I've ever been in, if I'm holding a Yeti or wearing a Yeti hat or whatever, strangers will pull me aside and say, "Oh my gosh, did you see that film about the dog?" or "I saw this April Fool's film," or "I saw that film about J.T. Van Zandt and his dad." Pretty much 100 percent of the people who are inspired enough to pull you aside when they find out you're with Yeti, it's these things they're talking about. It's not, "Oh my gosh, I saw that animated video of a new cup being broken out of a rock. What is that made out of?" So, there's no number behind that. It's just a thing that happens. It's like proving if God exists—you just have to believe that it is based on your interactions with people in the real world. It's a slow play. You're investing for the next 20 years when you're telling these stories. You're not in it for the short term. When I started, Yeti had somehow already been established as kind of a cult brand without really any external efforts in making that happen. I think it happened by word of mouth, by being the first in a category of making exceptional products. When you had something that cost what it did and worked the way it did, people were telling their friends about it, and they were being forced to justify why they paid $200 or $400 for a cooler. They were proud about it once it worked. So, I felt like my job was to not damage what was naturally happening with the brand. I felt like in-your-face, finger-pointing, flashy short-form commercials and advertising would have damaged something that organically had grown just from the two brothers and the products working. I would say to a brand debating whether to tell these stories, you have to have faith that if you tell the right stories and tell them well, it will resonate with people and be a good long-term investment. But you're not going to see an overnight return from those or have any sort of analytics to provide to a board, the public, or the CEO. I think it's necessary to counter that with some vegetables, like doing a more pointed job of at least explaining what your products are. But that's where we're at today—trying to find that balance of storytelling, but also, you know, we have so many different products and SKUs. We have to inform people what is out there somehow because if you watch a film, you'll notice there are pretty much no products in there.
Jesse Roesler:
Right. And that's an important point too. It's like, oftentimes, there are separate entities within a company doing those different things. It sounds like that's what you've got going on there too. So, do you have colleagues working on content that's more about product awareness, and that sits separately, and then you're just trying to balance the two of them? Is that how it functions?
Scott Ballew:
Exactly.
Jesse Roesler:
Okay, cool. And that's, I think, when you run into content that doesn't land like people were hoping is when they try to combine those two things, right? And put so much of the product in what was supposed to be a pure story.
Scott Ballew:
Yeah, it's a really tricky thing. Even currently, we've made an effort over the last year and a half or two to grow our internal advertising department so we have more control over the quality and volume of these more specific product short-form campaigns. The separation of church and state is tricky. You want everything to be run through the lens of the films, which we know people like and feel connected to and are pure. But there's also a certain quality of commercials that work and reasons why they work, and how long you have on the screen before you lose someone's attention and tell them something. I don't think we're unique in trying to find that right balance of meat and potatoes and dessert.
Jesse Roesler:
Right. And you mentioned the idea of the separation of church and state. I'm curious how that plays out in the distribution of your different types of content. Once you have a new class of Yeti story, what are the different places you're releasing it? I know over the years you've built a channel where people know they can come and see these, but what's your distribution approach once you have a new showcase film?
Scott Ballew:
You know, that's been a work in progress this whole time. Some of them take on a life of their own. Some of them feel like a tree falling in the woods. Sometimes we've had some luck partnering with other publications like Vice or Rolling Stone to help get the word out. The one thing that's been happening in the last year or two is taking it into our own hands and doing a film tour. In the spirit of traveling mountain film or fly-fishing film tours, we've been releasing all of our new films live in theaters once a year, rather than one film a month. This year, there'll be an international tour where we have thousand-person theaters showing two hours of these short films, which haven't been seen before in the theater. Then we'll release them on YouTube, our website, and with some other partners. The frustrating part for us and probably for a lot of people is finding that premium viewing and distribution option. The way these stories and characters are shot, the cinematography and all that, it doesn't do them justice watching on your phone. There's just so much noise out there with films, commercials, Instagram, influencers, and blah blah blah. It's really tough to break through all that. My hope and naive belief is we just have to make them better and better. The good stories are the only chance you have of breaking through without paying millions of dollars for some Times Square billboard. It's just to make them good. I don't know. I'm excited about the film tour. There are some other things we're working on, more premium distribution options, but we're in this time where people are looking differently at short-form films, branded films, and whether brands can tell real films and real stories. Is that advertising? Do you have to pay for people to see that? Do people just want to see it and forget a brand is making it? Do they care that a brand is making it? More questions have arisen than answers in doing all this.
Jesse Roesler:
Absolutely. And you're seeing that a lot, especially in the outdoor category. Obviously, there are a lot of beautiful cinematic stories to be told in that space. REI Co-op just announced the launch of Co-op Studios, and other brands have been doing this beautifully for a while too. It's a time where you're seeing more of that, especially in longer form and even feature-length films. It will be really interesting to see where things head in the next few years as we finally get answers to those questions about whether people care if this is funded in that way. I mean, what's the difference, right? At some point, as long as the messaging isn't skewed or you don't have to see 20 product placements, what's the difference if it's a studio or a brand studio funding it?
Scott Ballew:
Totally.
Jesse Roesler:
Well, one thing I wanted to touch on is, first of all, I'm curious about your content goals. I've read that at some points you were doing up to 50 films a year, and lately, you've pared that down and gone deep on quality. What are you looking at now, and what's informing your strategy regarding the scope and scale of the film content you're doing?
Scott Ballew:
I feel like we're in a bit of a reset mode, not necessarily a reset but just reevaluating what is that threshold? What kind of investment can we make? How much appetite do people have? Is it more impactful to watch five really good films a year or one mediocre film a week? I don't know if we have the answers to that. Currently, with the creation and success of these film tours, we've started thinking about them as, "Let's just do enough films a year to fill out two hours of the film tour." If something exceptional comes in beyond that, we'll figure it out. A lot of my time has shifted over the last year or two to kind of what we were talking about earlier—how do we apply the soul of this storytelling and the quality and kind of intangible and arbitrary magic that those possess and how it relates to brand to some more of the nitty-gritty, less glamorous aspects of marketing? I feel like it's been a little bit of my responsibility to help oversee and help them understand what is Yeti and what's not Yeti. Does this serve the purpose of what this piece of content is for? Is it that removed and disconnected from what the films stand for? Does it matter? There are a lot of things we're figuring out, like how to do various versions of the films, knowing that not everyone has time to watch a 10- to 20-minute film. But a two-minute film that's a little more lighthearted or funny, that still has the components of a Yeti Presents but maybe has a little more marketing oomph behind it—is that a good compromise some of the time? We're figuring it out like everyone else. I think the films and storytelling and just creating your own voice and soul is the best chance to make a dent because it's such a fickle, rotating cast of what works.
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah. Well, that certainly keeps it interesting, right? There's such a constant evolution in the way we're consuming content and how certain things make you feel or don't make you feel. And all we can really do, that's what this podcast is about, is point to things and say, "Wow, we can all feel that they're doing something right here." I think a lot of other brands and marketers are at least aware of your film program and have probably been trying to do some storytelling that isn't purely product-driven content but instead focuses on story. I know a lot of times it can be a game of convincing the right people with a more traditional mindset to do something like this. I'm wondering if you have any parting advice as we wrap up. Are there a couple of tangible things someone who's early on in this journey, either building something from scratch or trying to transition from more product-driven to story-driven content, might find helpful?
Scott Ballew:
I would say throw anything tangible out the window. I see all kinds of filmmakers or people who work at other brands or directors I've worked with calling back, saying, "We're looking for a Yeti-style film" or "We want our version of a Yeti film." And let me say, first off, we were not the first to do branded films at all, and I'm not saying we do them the best or the most. There were a lot of great brands before us doing them, and they're still doing them. What I'm seeing now is that a lot more are doing them. There's a lot of, you know, kids or younger folks who have access to cameras and equipment and are kind of one-stop shops that made things possible that weren't possible when I started in the film business. What happens when you try to replicate a certain style of another brand's film is that it becomes very generic and watered down, and you see a bunch of drone shots and slick camera moves. If I had anything going for me going into it, it was being naive about marketing and just trying to tell a story about people with visuals and music that made me feel something. That's probably the most important advice I could give someone, whether it's making films, marketing, or doing music: You have to be your own audience and create your own intangible goosebump checks to make something stand out, be unique, or represent something outside of all the other noise. If you start chasing things or shots, all of our films are made with such a specific combination of people that the parts add up to something you couldn't replicate. That's true for the musicians we use, the cinematographers, the directors, and our internal team.
The short version is you just have to come up with your own North Star, disregard everything out there, disregard other brands, disregard what you think is marketing, and tell something that makes you feel something. That's the only shot you have of making anything feel unique or resonate with someone else—if it resonates with you first. I've always believed the more people touch it, the less chance you have of accomplishing that. That's why commercials were always such a frustrating process. You'd have a brand giving a brief to an ad agency, and then 20 people at the ad agency fumbling around and mixing it into a script that then goes to a production company where a 75-person crew has one day to get it all together. There's a 25-person video village with people arguing about what color shirt the talent is wearing. By the end of it, you're like, "What the hell? Where did this even start?" and "Who's making the calls?" The fun part of being so light and nimble at the beginning, with just me and Taylor and our trusted partners, was that we were our own gut checks. Matt Reintjes, our CEO, and everyone from Cory Maynard to Bill Neff to Paulie Dery, our current head of marketing, have been hands-off in the process to the point where they're not giving any detailed notes about the product. They do one round of notes based on the story and what they think is right for the brand if there are any callouts. But in terms of the instinctive heart and soul of the story, it's boiled down to just a couple of people. Whether you're making music, painting, or building a house, there's got to be that magic person calling the shots who has an instinct separate from all the other noise in order for it to go through. I'm not saying that's my instinct; it's just general advice: Don't try to copy someone else's stuff. Find something that speaks to you and make it in a vacuum.
Jesse Roesler:
Yeah. It's the opposite of focus-grouping something to death, right? It's looking inward and trusting that instinct, then making it. It reminds me of a quote from Ira Glass. When he talks about storytelling, he says, "Amuse yourself first." Because if you're part of the audience and this is getting you excited, it's going to get other people excited too. That's so cool. I've definitely seen both sides of the spectrum, so it's interesting to hear you say that, and I think it's really valuable advice to wrap up on. Thank you. Thank you for being here today and offering all the insight.
Scott Ballew:
For sure. Thanks, Jesse, for having me.
