A love of nature is a great complement to business leadership — and no one knows this better than Parks Project. It’s a “park brand with a purpose: to leave it better than we found it.”
Founded in 2014, Parks Project celebrates America’s national parks by selling unique apparel and gear that raises funds to protect and preserve parklands.
With eAccountable’s help, Parks Project was able to marry their media coverage with a strong affiliate program to increase sales and fund more vital park projects.
The Challenge
The Parks Project team has contributed over $2.5 million to date to U.S. national parks, but naturally they want to do even more.
As of mid-2022, the brand’s affiliate sales were flat, and fell short of goals and their potential. They brought eAccountable in to help in July 2022, when they began suspecting that brand recognition was an issue.
Parks Project wanted to complement stronger media coverage with a stronger affiliate program that built awareness of their brand and improved sales.
Our Solution
It was important to match our approach to the spirit of Parks Project’s work, including their emphasis on sustainability and their passion for the great outdoors.
- Create partnerships based on similar goals
- Break Parks Project’s audience into segments and target each separately
- Pitch VIP content publishers with tailored incentives
In order to strengthen Parks Project’s affiliate program with media coverage, we needed to ensure that publishers highlighted the good work that Parks Project is doing while featuring their apparel in relevant gift guides.
Read on to find out how this resulted in an overall 267% increase of affiliate sales between the first and second half of 2022.
Building Partnerships that Matter…
As a baseline, eAccountable pursued partnerships with publishers with similar goals. First, we leveraged CouponCause to do trademark plus bidding.
We also identified different segments of Parks Project’s audience. This included publishers focused on:
- Eco-friendly and sustainable brands, like Ethos and Well+Good
- Nature and outdoor gear, like OutdoorLife and Gear Patrol
- Gifting articles and listicles, like Thrillist and RetailMeNot
- Philanthropic gifting inclusions, like Forbes and Business Insider
But it’s not enough just to send a good pitch when the goal is to build true brand affinity with publishers.
…And Getting Results that Count
We decided to send product samples to editors at major publications. As soon as they had it in their hands, they were obsessed!
This helped us achieve a windfall of placements for Parks Project in multiple news publications perfect for their target audience, from Forbes, The Strategist, Well + Good, and Oprah Daily.
We’ve continued pitching product launching and sharing exclusive discounts with the VIP content publishers most aligned with the Parks Project mission and brand.
When comparing the first half of 2022, when Parks Project was struggling, to the second, when eAccountable stepped in, we can observe a 267% increase in affiliate sales for the nature-loving brand.
Their brand exposure is way up — which means their contributions to parklands around the U.S. is too.
Need Help Building an Affiliate Program?
Our affiliate marketing experts have secured placements in the world’s top publications, affiliate networks, influencer blogs, and more. Contact us today for a free chat about your affiliate goals—and how the team at eAccountable can make them a reality.