This week Trends sent out this article: How Dylan Jacob Scaled BrüMate to $100m+ in 5 Years. It just so happens that I have been tracking BruMate for a couple of months. Here is what I am seeing on their DTC (direct to consumer) side of their business.
The Numbers:
In the past 52 days, BruMate processed just over 135,000 orders. I estimate their average order value to be about $40 dollars. This gives them approximately $5.4M in revenue on their DTC channel for this time period.
How does this compare?
I have also been tracking S’well. Over the same time period, S’well processed 48,718 orders. I estimate their average order value to be about $35. This gives them approximately $1.7M in revenue on their DTC channel for this time period.
BruMate is processing almost 3x as many orders as S’well on their website.
Facebook Advertising
Currently, BruMate has 500 active ads on Facebook. The vast majority of these ads have photos for their creatives rather than videos.
As a comparison, S’well only has 13 active ads on Facebook
Google Search Advertising
These are the top 5 Paid Keywords for BruMate:
- brumate
- rum punch
- sphere ice molds
- brumate coupon
- wine tumbler
I found the rum punch keyword to be fascinating as it is such a general term. BruMate has a blog titled: “The Best Rum Punch Recipes to Get Your Party Started“. This page serves as good content to get traffic to their website, only at the very bottom do they mention their BruMate products.
These are the top 5 paid Keywords for S’well:
- swell
- swell bottle
- swell water bottle
- swell water bottles
- s’well water bottle
It is common that a brand’s top keyword is their brand name, but it is nice to see with BruMate that they are able to drive traffic from non-branded keywords. It appears S’well does not try to compete on non-branded keywords.
BruMate (@bru.mate) has 418K followers on Instagram. In the month of September, they posted 25 times. And in the past 7 days, they were tagged 92 times in posts.
S’well (@swellbottle) has 272K followers on Instagram. In the month of September, they posted 14 times. And in the the past 7 days, they were tagged 50 times in posts.
Audience Demographics
BruMate:



S’Well:



Both brands have extremely similar audience demographics.
Beyond DTC
The Trends article showed the revenue channels for BruMate, DTC, Amazon, and wholesale. It also mentioned they are doing about $100M+ in annual revenue. My best guess is they BruMate will do about $20M-25M through their DTC channel. That means Amazon and wholesale pick up the other $75M-$80M of yearly revenue.
S’well also has surpassed $100M in total annual revenue. My best guess is they will generate about $20M through their DTC channel. S’well has a large wholesale business, including a large promotional product/customization business.
Both of these companies have done a great job building their brand. And once that brand was established, it opened up doors for wholesale and customization.
Start with DTC, build the brand, then expand to wholesale and partnerships.