When’s an ideal time to pivot your business? During a world-wide pandemic, of course! Actually, it should be but let me back up.

15 years ago, this shy Mennonite from Winnipeg felt strongly (and made happen) that consumers should be able to review products online. Our revenue model at the time was banner ads and affiliate links. Thanks to Google, brands began discovering their products reviewed on ChickAdvisor and began sending me SO many products to try.

Exciting, but we were not making any money at all. That plus the fact that I hate to waste product (remember, Mennonite) led to our first pivot, the Product Review Club. I began finding people in the ChickAdvisor community who were a fit for those products so they could add the reviews and post on their social channels instead of me. This became the start of an industry, and something I’m really proud of.

11 years later we had a failed transaction, which gave me a lot to think about. I started thinking about the kind of business I wanted to be in long term. Ratings & Reviews programs had devolved into a race to be the cheapest and that is not a fun business to be in. Being the cheapest means you have to compromise on staff and your product and this is something I have never wanted to do. Also, it’s not fun, it’s not innovative and there is no loyalty.

I started thinking that Brands would benefit so much from having their own communities and collaborating directly with them instead of using third party services for everything from R&D to sampling and reviews. I knew from our own experience that being directly connected to your fans leads to better engagement, makes things easier to sell and gives you better insights into products you should launch. If you’ve ever tried to get a ticket to one of our sold-out events, you know this is true.

But, launching a new SaaS technology to essentially put your core business out of business sounds like the ravings of a lunatic and I needed my team on board with this idea. So, I booked an offsite for my team to Toronto Island (Boat ride! Views! Fun!) and trapped them there for the day until they agreed this was a good idea. They did, and I allowed them to go back home to their families. We decided to name our new technology Butterly because I like the colour yellow and the name was available, easy to spell and remember. Done.

A year and a half of development later,we launched Butterly just in time for COVID-19. The timing could not be better. The timing could not be worse. Here we had figured out a way for brands to take total ownership over their campaigns and launch them to their own fanbase, giving them all of the first party data they could ever dream of. But actually, this was just in time for brands to freeze spending while they scrambled to adjust to their new reality.

Needless to say, pitching the traditional way was not working. How do you get clients to even look at a new technology when they are busier than ever, working from home with their kids climbing all over them (assuming I’m not the only one) and have rapidly changing priorities?

Enter project Survive Covid.

Phase 1

1. Deploy a timely survey to consumers asking what kind of advertising is ok right now. Check! Over 5,600 responses (Spoiler, they are fine with it)

2. Share this compelling data with clients and wait for the sales to roll in.

Wrong! Fail!

Phase 2

1. Use the insights from our survey to launch our own store selling useful items to consumers at a heavily discounted price, including refunds on The Year 2020 - get yours! Consumers are worried about their finances and some brands have product that isn’t moving or isn't being promoted. Perfect.

Not bad, aside from our store crashing when 1,100 people tried to buy at once. (Brag)

Phase 3

1. a client survey to gather insights on where they are at right now, what pain points we can solve for them right now and offer that solution via Butterly.>

The insights from that survey were interesting. Ratings & reviews, consumer insights and 1st party data are still at the top of brands' wish-lists, but every single respondent said they were busier now than they were before. This explains the fear to try a new solution that they perceive will be more work (it actually isn't).

Launching Butterly was the best decision for our brand and the most beneficial solution we have developed for the brands that we work with. Only time will tell if they agree. As scary as a pivot sounds right now, it sure is fun trying!