- Campaign Name: Automatic Apparel Store
- Timeframe: 2020-Present
- Core Strategy: Transform digital loyalty into physical brand advocacy through retail-quality, publicly accessible merch
Challenge:
Zapier automates workflows for 3 million businesses but exists entirely online. No offices, 800+ employees across 40 countries, everything digital. That's efficient until you realize your most loyal users have never touched anything with your logo on it.
How do you reward power users and build tangible loyalty when your entire relationship is screen-based? Generic vendor catalogs felt cheap. Drop-shipping random items felt thoughtless. And doing nothing meant missing a chance to turn digital evangelists into walking billboards.
Response:
Zapier launched a curated collection that didn't look like corporate merch called the "Automatic Apparel Store." Premium brands only: Comfort Colors, LA Apparel, Baggu, Frank Green. They shot it like a retail brand, not a tech company giving away freebies. Clean photography. On-brand aesthetics. Items people would actually buy.
The store wasn't employee-exclusive. They made it public, accessible to superfans who wanted in on the club.
Result:
Orders from 20 states and 16 countries. Strategically perfect. These were brand ambassadors who chose to wear the merch. That's the difference between gifting and earning.
The lesson: Remote-first doesn't mean brand-less. Physical products matter more when everything else is digital.
