COHLEY

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Ethos, a human performance company that specializes in health and wellness supplements. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with COHLEY?

Many content pieces were typically studio-generated, but we needed real-world content. COHLEY helped us generate user-generated and influencer content. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

COHLEY had a directory of people who specialized in promoting products, taking photos, and working with brands, and they connected us with micro- and macro-influencers. We initially signed an incremental six-month contract with them, and we did a certain number of campaigns during that time. We signed onto their platform, created an account, and built out a project brief. Their account manager was heavily involved in this process.

Within their database, COHLEY would mark people who would work well with our brand. Then, they would open the platform up so influencers could apply for our project. The COHLEY team would help us hire influencers and select products to ship to them. If the project was a service, we didn’t send any product to the influencers. The influencers would then generate content for us to review, and we either approved or rejected them. Once we approved the assets, the content was ours and we had to pay the influencers. If we rejected the material, COHLEY would work with the influencers for them to better understand our needs.

COHLEY also collected all of the assets that the influencers produced. They would put them in a library where we could either download the entire catalog or individual images. After that, we’d finish up the project, and they’d do a post-op brief. The account manager would sit down with us and review the project, our thoughts on each influencer, and the content they produced. Then, we’d start rolling out the next project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with the account manager, who was our main point of contact. Then, after telling them about an integration that would help my business, their CEO emailed me. I collaborated with him to get that integration. At one point, their head of partnerships was also involved. 

In other words, they didn’t provide a built-out team for the project; they brought people in based on my needs as a customer. 

How did you come to work with COHLEY?

I found them via an ad on Instagram, and I felt intrigued so I reached out. After an introductory call, I decided to give them a go. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $6,000 for their services, and that was spread out over each month of our engagement. Then, the payments for influencers were scaled based on the number of followers they had. We paid around $100 or less to micro-influencers and $100–$300 to macro-influencers.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from October 2019–October 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The content pieces were created quickly, and we could use them for whatever purpose we wanted. I had over 300 user-generated images for one product, and I was able to acquire them in 3–4 weeks. I’d have taken over a year or so to do that by myself. In terms of overall production, we had a 99% success rate, and only one out of 25–30 influencers struggled. Overall, we had great success in content creation. 

In terms of what we were able to achieve, we doubled our return on ad spend (ROAS) after switching to the influencers’ content. We also produced thousands of ad variations from the images generated from the project, and that was essential for us to scale and grow. Essentially, their deliverables had a ripple effect. We used their content for blog posts and marketing materials, and our ad variations allowed us to learn our audience’s likes and dislikes. That in turn allowed us to refine our requests in subsequent projects. In the end, COHLEY produced highly adaptable content for us, which was deeply valuable for our brand. 

Unfortunately, our business was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, so we ended up stopping the engagement. We told them that we could pay them, but we'd have to let some of our own people go. They said that if we couldn’t pay them and had to keep our people, then we should do that; we kept our people. They were completely understanding, so I respected them immensely. I had unbelievable respect for their CEO. To pay that forward, I introduced them to six of my friends, and they were all happy with the results of their engagement with COHLEY.

How did COHLEY perform from a project management standpoint?

COHLEY was always on time. If anybody was a bottleneck, it would be me. Their account manager was incredible, and the CEO was always on top of everything. If I forgot to do something, they took care of it. Overall, we paid them not only for using their platform but also for their great assistance. 

In terms of communication and management, we’d have weekly phone calls and go through competitor accounts to take note of what we like and dislike. We’d send those notes as part of our brief when we post the project. Furthermore, I had the final say in hiring the influencers. COHLEY provided recommendations for each of the content creators. They’d tell us if they’d worked with that person in the past or if their work matched our brand guidelines, but I was the final decision-maker. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were adaptable, and that distinguished them from other providers. They were growing unbelievably quickly. They could have had plenty of growing pains, and their customers could have suffered — but they never allowed that to happen. They were highly agile and adaptable, and they definitely put their customers first. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

COHLEY didn’t have a platform with multiple subscriptions. They could introduce multiple tiers of access to the platform, and that could open up more markets for them. In fact, we wouldn’t have canceled our engagement if they had a lower-tier offer even if we lost certain elements of the platform. Bootstrap businesses would start without a lot of funding, and investing $6,000 right away wouldn’t be sustainable for such brands. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set up a phone call with COHLEY and understand the benefits of their platform and services. Make sure that you can afford them should something crazy happen such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, their services are expensive for smaller brands, but they’re totally worth it. Do your research and due diligence, but give them a chance if you want to make a smart investment.