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July 21, 2025

How a Jimmy Joy Summer Birthday Sale Outperformed Black Friday

We helped Jimmy Joy turn a summer birthday promotion into their highest-performing sale of the year, beating Black Friday metrics on both engagement and revenue. Here’s how clear segmentation, campaign planning, and timing helped us outperform the biggest eCommerce event of the year.

FACTS

Client: Jimmy Joy

Industry: Food Tech / DTC Meal Replacements

List Size: 75k+

ESP: Klaviyo.

Focus Areas: High-impact promotional strategy outside of peak season

Obstacle

RESULTS

  1. Click rate was 2x higher than Black Friday, driven by better segmentation and campaign buildup.
  2. The early bird phase generated 16% more revenue than Black Friday’s early access period, despite a shorter run.
  3. Returning customer count increased by 18.5% during the campaign month.

Client Insights

Jimmy Joy is a cult-favorite food tech brand known for its nutritionally complete meal replacements that are fast, convenient, and made with sustainability in mind. From powdered meals to ready-to-drink shakes and bars, the brand serves busy professionals, health-conscious consumers, and anyone looking to simplify nutrition without sacrificing quality.

With a dedicated audience across Europe and a strong DTC model, Jimmy Joy thrives on consistency, clarity, and smart communication. Their community is passionate, loyal, and always up for a well-timed deal, which made their birthday campaign the perfect opportunity to reward that loyalty and re-engage lapsed customers with energy, relevance, and results.

The Challenge

Summer is notoriously slow for e-commerce. People are away, inboxes are ignored, and campaigns tend to underperform. Jimmy Joy wanted to break that trend with their 11th birthday sale, but the question was: could we match or even beat Black Friday results in a low-spend season?

YOCTO partnered with Jimmy Joy to craft a high-performing, short-run campaign designed to drive engagement, reward loyalty, and bring back customers, without relying on steep discounts or long timelines.

Our process

1. Audience-Specific Offers

We split the campaign logic between subscribers and non-subscribers:

  • Subscribers got a discount on their upcoming renewal
  • Non-subscribers received a one-time discount on their next order

This meant each audience received a benefit tailored to their lifecycle stage, rather than a one-size-fits-all offer.

2. Early Access for Signups

We launched an early access phase for people who signed up in advance. The offer was the same as Black Friday’s, but with a much shorter lead time. The results? Early bird revenue was 16% higher than Black Friday’s early access.

3. Clean, Targeted Campaigns

Email messaging was sharp and segmented:

  • Buyers and signups were excluded from follow-ups.
  • Every send had a clear goal: drive urgency, reward loyalty, or close the loop.

This helped avoid over-emailing and kept engagement metrics strong.

4. Smarter Timing

The Dutch market typically receives a yearly bonus in late May. That extra liquidity aligned perfectly with our early bird phase. By timing the launch just right, we gave our audience a compelling reason to shop.

5. Full-Funnel Consistency

We maintained campaign momentum across the entire funnel:

  • Smart reminders
  • Scarcity messaging
  • A clear wrap-up to bring the campaign home

The entire push lasted just over a week, but the results were anything but average.

      The Results 

      Highlights

      2X higher click rates than Black Friday

      Thanks to stronger segmentation and campaign buildup.

      18.5% increase in returning customers during the campaign month

      Showing stronger customer loyalty and brand affinity

      Stronger Results in a Slower Season
      The early bird phase alone made up more than a third of total Black Friday revenue during a time of year when people typically spend less.

      16% more revenue during early access than BF’s equivalent phase

      Despite a much shorter run time

      No special bonuses or bundles required

      Public sale used lighter offers than BF, but still converted at a higher rate

      WHAT WE LEARNED

      Start Paid Retargeting Earlier

      We synced unsubscribed email profiles to Facebook mid-campaign and saw strong results; however, starting earlier could have driven an even better ROI. This will be part of our next campaign playbook.

      Rethink Subscriber Offers

      Some subscribers canceled just to access the main site-wide deal, even though they had an exclusive renewal offer. It taught us something key:

      Even loyal subscribers want flexibility and maximum value.

      Next time, we’ll test how to make subscriber offers feel both exclusive and rewarding, without cannibalizing the program.

      Client Quote

      “Most of you know I am not a fan of the agency model. But there is one agency I keep coming back to: YOCTO. What makes them better than the rest? They actually have senior, data-driven lifecycle strategists leading the team. And it’s not just a fancy title slapped on for a nice mark-up; these people know their sh*t.”
      Otto Mouton, CMO @ Jimmy Joy

      WHERE TO FROM HERE?

      Jimmy Joy’s summer campaign didn’t just outperform Black Friday, it reframed how we approach seasonal planning altogether. We’re taking what we learned and applying it to every new seasonal sale, with a renewed focus on segmentation, timing, and channel alignment.

      Up next:

      • Refined subscriber value communication
      • Earlier paid syncs for campaign signups
      • More testing around perceived value and flexibility

      WANT TO BE NEXT?

      If your “quiet seasons” aren’t delivering, it’s not the season, it’s the strategy.

      Let’s talk about how YOCTO can turn your next off-peak campaign into your best-performing one yet.

      Book a 30-minute Socratic Interview with our team to get started.

      Let’s talk. Trust us. We can likely help.

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