CHRISTINA TOSI: The beauty of digital advertising, for us--
specifically through the pandemic--
is in the flexibility of when we can pivot.
SELIN SONG: On this episode of "The Update",
we talk to Christina Tosi from Milk Bar on how
their digital transformation has led to sustainable growth.
Tell us a little bit about yourself
and the story behind Milk Bar.
CHRISTINA TOSI: So I grew up in the Midwest
and went to college for electrical engineering
and applied mathematics.
And I ended up somehow moving to New York City
to go to culinary school and work my way up
in fine dining restaurants.
And along the way, I realized that my love of baking cookies
and being a formally trained pastry chef
that there was still a lot of gray area in between.
And so I decided to create my own destiny.
And I opened Milk Bar in November of 2008.
And my vision was to create a quirky American style
bakery that served cookies, cakes, pies, and ice cream
where we could just show up in the world
and show up in people's lives on our terms.
SELIN SONG: So prior to the pandemic,
what was your company strategy and goals for 2020?
CHRISTINA TOSI: Prior to the pandemic,
our goals, from a company standpoint,
were to continue to think about Milk Bar as the three channels
that we exist as revenue streams.
One is our brick and mortar channel,
which is the channel that I originally
opened Milk Bar with.
It was with 18 storefronts across the United States.
It was continuing to invest in our online or e-comm business,
which I call our care package business,
and to launch and grow into grocery through our consumer
packaged goods line.
SELIN SONG: So tell us more about those differences
after COVID-19 hit.
CHRISTINA TOSI: When the pandemic hit in the US,
it very much gave us an invitation
into the more intimate part of people's lives,
because people were trying to find
ways to celebrate from home.
Employers were trying to find ways to show up
for their employees to say thank you
for showing up to work today.
People were trying to figure out how to engage with one another
even though they couldn't celebrate or share
that moment together.
We became the conduit for that online, which became a really
interesting opportunity.
SELIN SONG: How has your shift to e-commerce
changed the revenue makeup of your business?
CHRISTINA TOSI: It's interesting.
Because of the pandemic, we have less stores
open and, therefore, less opportunity
to garner the revenue that we're accustomed
coming in from brick and mortar, which means that we're
naturally making a shift.
And we're pivoting to more sales online.
And that is challenging us to look
at the ways in which our business interacts
from operations and fulfillment on down.
SELIN SONG: With the majority of your bakeries
closed during the pandemic, how has digital
been an area of growth for your business?
CHRISTINA TOSI: What we've actually done
is taken some of the resource that we would put into stores,
from an advertising in real life standpoint,
and we've pivoted them online.
So we have more ads that exist online.
And we have a keener eye and a deeper focus
to the customization of those ads
online to educate our customers about how and when we can show
up for them in real life, how and when they can get
their strawberry shortcake cake in time
for their given celebration, and so on and so forth.
We've actually doubled or tripled
down on our online ad space because of our limitations
at our closed stores and so on.
SELIN SONG: What role did digital advertising and Google
in particular play as you made the shift?
CHRISTINA TOSI: We use a lot of Google Analytics
to look and understand, what are search terms
that people are looking for from a flavor standpoint?
What are search terms that people
are looking for from an occasion standpoint?
When people come to our site, when and where
are they spending the most time?
When do we lose them, if we lose them?
Are they looking for recipes?
Is it about the rainbow sprinkle image?
It's everything visual and language and product
that we're studying across the board.
SELIN SONG: Can you share a little more
about how you use digital advertising for you
to customize your experiences with your consumers?
CHRISTINA TOSI: What's really, really, really powerful for us
from a digital advertising customization standpoint
is we are able to create and craft
multiple different ads in the landscape
to see which one actually lands.
Which one is gaining the most momentum?
Which one is converting in the most powerful way?
And you're able to constantly improve and pivot and customize
from there until you've landed on places where you're actually
getting the most return possible--
larger and more productive than your wildest dreams.
SELIN SONG: What advice would you give business
owners who are just starting in their digital advertising
or e-commerce journey?
CHRISTINA TOSI: There is so much opportunity
and so much continued untapped opportunity online.
And the value of continuing to double and triple down
on our ad space and the flexibility with which we can
shape our ads and the performance of the ads
is all the more powerful.
We're seeing record CACs beyond our wildest imagination because
of our ability to be on tone and to constantly
be shaping our message through ads and the continued reality
that our community and our customers
are spending their time online.
How will that look and change through the remainder
of this year?
We're not sure.
But we're really, really, really excited
about the insane progress that we're
seeing in the digital space.
SELIN SONG: What's next for Milk Bar?
And will that change as your stores reopen?
CHRISTINA TOSI: Oh, Selin, if I had a crystal ball.
We went into the pandemic with 18 stores, five of them
have remained open through the pandemic.
We've grown our digital footprint
in a really, really, really exciting and energizing way.
And we've launched into retail through grocery stores.
We will continue to ask ourselves
the question on a daily basis--
how can we and how do we show up in people's lives?
My sense is that that will continue to be incredibly
powerful in the digital space.
As it relates to stores and in grocery,
we're going to show up every day and figure it out.
It's not for the faint of heart.
But nothing worth doing in life that really matters is easy.
And so we're here for the challenge.