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Bonjour Millionaire, 

Salt & Stone was featured in Amazon's Off to College shop. As Chief Growth Officer who owns Amazon (and DTC), I very much impartially 😉 can't think of a better body wash or deodorant to power the next generation through rush and classes and dorm life.

Also, on the subject of dorm life, did you know I lived in a dorm 3 separate times FML LOL. Maybe I'll tell you about it at the end if you're good.

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Before we begin, I want to share Elevar's BFCM readiness guide.
Sharing because 40% of brands say their "best BFCM ever" also delivered garbage profits.

Makes sense, sadly. The customer who shows up for the deepest discounts is typically a very different animal than the 1 paying full price on subscription in March.

So, we must ask...can you trust your conversion/spend data, while traffic is still surging & spend is live? Will you make good decisions?

Grab the readiness guide and decode your server-side tracking situation, so you're ready to adjust in real time during the biggest weekend of the year. Instead of picking up the pieces, after.

GET THE BFCM READINESS GUIDE

ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS 

As mentioned in the subject line of today's email to you, I'm sitting out Labor Day. Would you like to know why?

Thank you for asking! It's because simply, I’m not willing to spend the whole weekend running a lame promo that's not actually good enough to compete. I'm just going to talk about my core messages. By a lame promo I mean that I don't work for a promotional brand. We don't just go on sale when the wind blows. We are premium and we pick our moments to strike, and Labor Day is not a tentpole moment for us in any way.

SPIN

So what I could do is spin an offer that is acceptable and run that as a message for the weekend. Like choose to highlight our GWP or choose to talk about subscribe and save or lean into something else as a core, promotional message.

Except, I don't think that's smart. If you can't participate with force, then I prefer not to. I've learned that along the way and I've also lived through many a holiday weekend so far this year and in year's past.

So have you.

By Labor Day we've gone through all of the usual not-that-heavy-hitters-unless-you-go-for-blood-and-run-a-big-big-sale.

-Valentine's Day (typically weak)
--Mother's Day (can be great, miss this sale from my cookware days)
---Father's Day (can be great, miss this sale from my red light hat days. Imagine working with a brand that sells something that helps prevent hairloss. Like a red light hat. That's a SHOW over Father's Day weekend let me tell you).

LABOR DAY YAY OR NAY

And, then of course the really comparable to Labor Day sales:
-Memorial Day (usually sets the record for YTD, 1st big sale moment if you participate and go for blood on your promo)
-- July 4th (has to be bigger than Memorial Day or you're fucked, again if you participated in a big way).

Memorial Day is only allowed to be bigger if you're a sunscreen brand or an electrolyte brand or the type. The get-ready-for summer brands.

But back to me LOL.

I don't work at a sunscreen brand. Nor an electrolyte brand, anymore. Throughout my career though I've worked with Liquid I.V., Taste Salud, Promix, and Electrolit - all of which sell electrolytes. That was always fun during a summer sale moment. Does well in the heat.

But again, back to now. I work at a brand that does have a product that is perfectly suited for summer (deodorant), but again is not promotional.

So, instead of leaning into Labor Day messaging and getting thrashed this weekend by spending up and not having a sale that actually can hang, we're going to play it evergreen and we're going to let the market market us for the messages that we do fit into very well.

THANK YOU, AMAZON

Like Amazon (thank you!) choosing us in their College storefront. That was great and a perfect message that we're very grateful to be a part of. It's not promotional, it's back to school. It's September. It's fall vibes. It's not we're on sale vibes, it's we're perfectly perfect for this change in your life and go for it and splurge on us at full price vibes.

We will ride that wave all day. We have new products to talk about on DTC. We will support those new categories and stand strong in evergreen but not chase down promo-level #s and instead watch CPMs and buying behavior this week. And we'll totally send an extra email to take advantage of the extra time that everyone has on their hands.

Again, it's back to school. Not everyone is having some crazy summer weekend. I'm not. I'm shopping. I just bought something IN PERSON at full price from Leset because again, I've got time.

I may buy something on sale today though, online. Depends on who emails me. 🙂

Back to back to school for a second.

Did I tell you about the time I worked with a clothing brand that had a really strong fleet of ad creatives that we produced and designed that we then set live and media bought against? That absolutely RIPPED and succeeded? That then did so well for all of September that our client told us to turn them off on October 1st because it wasn't 'Back to School' season anymore?

Did I tell you about how I fought that choice and then was overruled? Did I tell you about the time that we did turn off all of those back to school ads because the client INSISTED, only for the account to FALL OFF A CLIFF PERFORMANCE-WISE and for us to have to turn the back to school ads back on on a Sunday night at 11pm?

The market said it was back to school season, still. And, that's good enough for me.

The way Starbucks said it's pumpkin season. The way Labor Day lasts for 3 weeks if you sell cars or furniture. But for 3 days if you don't so I'm skipping it.

Do you see what I'm saying, dear sweet Millionaire?

MARKET WITH THE MARKET

The market decides what we participate in, to an extent, and when it's over.

Back to school is a great example of that. We sell on a marketplace, called Amazon. 😉 So Amazon decided that it's Back to School season for our brand. And, I'm lucky that they did. If you sell anywhere outside of your DTC, you do not control every message your storefronts communicate. That's totally good. Those marketplaces use their data to decide who to include. If they include you, it's a good sign that you can try that message so long as it's not weird.

Back to school is not weird, to me. I want to launch lo-fi creatives of our products in dorms around the country. At rush in our minis in someone's purse. In the classroom of a teacher's cute little set up.

It's all available. It's not promotional, it's storytelling.

I encourage you to sit out of the moments that are bad for your brand or bad for performance. AND, INSTEAD, TO LEAN IN TO THE MOMENTS THAT BREAK PATTERNS AND THAT THE MARKET WANTS YOU TO BE A PART OF.

Go for it. And, do link me your promo if you are on promo this weekend. I don't judge, and I am sure that your category makes sense to be on promo right now. And, I have a case of the shoppies so I really might pull trig and buy.

Happy Back to school season. Happy Labor Day season. Happy Fall. Michigan game was wild last night. Football angle? Should we all try it? I will and I'll report back. GO BEARCATS!

Sponsored by Billo

New video ad benchmarks just dropped, did you see??
326K+ ads and 13+ verticals analyzed, organized by ROAS, CTR, & hook rate.
Frankly, required reading if you touch paid social.

What I've learned inside about 2026:
✹ Category mattered more than timing for ROAS (jealous of you, Baby & Toddler)
✹ The #1 hook rate category had the 3rd-worst ROAS. 
✹ MY category has the highest average hook rate (!)

These benchmarks change quickly. Keep yours up to date, OK?

UPDATE YOUR VIDEO AD BENCHMARKS

As promised, recounting my door experience(s).

#1 University of Wisconsin, Madison dorm era (most fun)
#2 UC Santa Barbara dorm era (bottom bunk, worst)
#3 UCDC dorm era (almost most fun, pictured)

Happy back to school season,
Ari 

P.S. Speaking of a change of seasons, I've decided to pick back up my abandoned instagram and to pop off on stories with the type of things I used to post before I got shy. My real life, if you will. Would love to see you there. Don't worry, I won't post on my grid so you don't have to like anything.