Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How REI Turned Black Friday into a Marketing Funnel
Transcript
- Lucas: So it's July 23, 2026. Black Friday is months away, but I want to talk about a marketing move that changed how a lot of retailers think about that day — and it started with a company deciding to do absolutely nothing. Luna: You're talking about REI's #OptOutside. Lucas: Exactly. In 2015, REI closed all 143 of its stores on Black Friday and told its 12,000 employees to go outside. No sales. No doorbusters. No revenue that day. Luna: And they paid their employees to do it. That part always stood out to me — it wasn't just a PR stunt, they actually gave people a paid day off. Lucas: Right. The cost was around 10 to 12 million dollars in lost Black Friday sales, plus the payroll. But let's look at what happened through the lens of the marketing funnel — awareness, interest, decision, action — because it's a masterclass. Luna: Start with awareness. How did anyone even hear about this? Lucas: They put out a single blog post and a short video. That's it. No paid media. But the message — 'We believe that time spent outside is more valuable than time spent in a store' — it was so counterintuitive that the media picked it up everywhere. Over a billion earned media impressions in the first year. Luna: A billion. That's the kind of number you can't buy. Lucas: And that's the awareness stage done. But the real funnel magic is how they moved people from 'that's interesting' to 'I want to be part of this.' Luna: Interest stage — what drove it? Lucas: Two things. First, the authenticity. REI is a co-op, so it's member-owned. They weren't a public company trying to virtue-signal; they were actually answering to their membership. Second, they made it participatory. They created a website where anyone could pledge to opt outside, share photos, track their outdoor time. Suddenly it wasn't just a corporate decision, it was a movement. Luna: So interest turned into engagement. That's the step a lot of campaigns miss — they get attention but no participation. Lucas: Exactly. And that engagement fed directly into the decision stage. REI's business model depends on membership. You pay a one-time $20 fee, and then you get access to co-op dividends, exclusive sales, classes. In the month after the first #OptOutside, they added 1.4 million new members. That's a 27 percent increase in membership. Luna: One point four million people decided to join a co-op because a company told them not to shop. Lucas: Which sounds paradoxical until you realize that the decision to join wasn't about a transaction; it was about values alignment. People wanted to vote with their wallet for a company that put people and planet ahead of profit. And $20 is a low barrier to express that identity. Luna: Then the action stage — what did those members actually do? Lucas: REI tracked that members spend on average 2.5 times more than non-members. They also have higher retention — members renew at around 70 percent year over year. So the funnel doesn't end with the membership card. It loops back: members buy gear, take classes, go on trips, share photos, and that becomes awareness for the next cycle. Luna: It's a virtuous loop. But I want to push back a little — wasn't there criticism that after the first year, the campaign became predictable? That the surprise wore off? Lucas: That's a fair point. In year two, earned media dropped. Some outlets said 'we've seen this before.' But REI didn't just repeat the same play. They added partners — they got other brands like Subaru and Google to join. They expanded the narrative beyond Black Friday to the whole year. So the awareness stage had to evolve. Luna: And did it work long-term? We're now in 2026, so it's been over a decade. Lucas: Last year, REI reported 24 million members. That's up from about 5 million in 2014, before the campaign. Revenue has grown from about $2 billion to over $3.5 billion. So yes, the funnel has sustained. But here's the nuance: the campaign works because it's not just a campaign. It's a reflection of the co-op's actual business structure. The marketing funnel and the business model are the same thing. Luna: That's the real lesson. A lot of brands try to copy the stunt — close your store for a day, put out a values-driven ad — but if the rest of the business doesn't match, it feels hollow. Lucas: And that's where the marketing funnel breaks. If you get a million people interested but your product is mediocre or your supply chain is exploitative, interest evaporates. REI's funnel works because every stage reinforces the same truth: we are a co-op that cares about the outdoors. Luna: Let's talk about the decision stage more concretely. Once someone is interested, what actually pushes them to become a member? Lucas: There's a specific moment. When you go to REI's website or a store, you see the membership offer everywhere — $20 lifetime. But it's not just the price. It's the narrative: 'Join the 24 million people who have chosen to own their outdoor experience.' Social proof is huge. And they use the dividend as a rational justification: you get 10 percent back on most purchases. So the decision is both emotional — 'I belong to this tribe' — and rational — 'I'll save money.' Luna: And that dual appeal is why the conversion rate is so high. It's not just a feel-good buy. Lucas: Exactly. Now, one other thing I find interesting: the action stage doesn't stop at membership. REI also tracks what they call 'lifetime value of a member.' They know that a member who takes a class or goes on a trip has a significantly higher retention. So they use the #OptOutside community to drive that action. They host group hikes, gear clinics, volunteer cleanups. Those touchpoints turn a passive member into an active one. Luna: So the funnel is really a flywheel. Awareness draws people in, interest engages them, decision converts them, action deepens their commitment, and that commitment generates new awareness through word of mouth. Lucas: Precisely. And that's why I think the REI case is such a good teaching tool. It shows that a marketing funnel is only as strong as the value exchange at each stage. If you're only good at awareness, you get fame but no revenue. If you're only good at conversion, you get churn. Luna: Speaking of value exchange, if you find these marketing conversations useful — like, you've actually applied something from a past episode — you might consider supporting the show. It's listener-supported, ad-free, and that kind of support is what keeps us going. Lucas: Yeah, we don't run ads, and we want to keep it that way. So if you're getting value and want to chip in, head over to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the conversations coming. Luna: Alright, back to REI. So what's the risk if a company pulls a stunt like #OptOutside but doesn't have the co-op structure? Lucas: The biggest risk is expectation mismatch. If you tell people you care about sustainability but your products are made in factories with questionable labor practices, the internet will find out. Patagonia does this well because they actually donate 1 percent of sales to environmental causes. But a lot of brands have tried 'buy one give one' or 'close for a day' and it felt performative. Luna: So the funnel only works if the promise is genuine at every stage. Lucas: Right. And that's why REI's funnel is hard to replicate. The co-op governance means members actually vote on board members. They have a say in how the company operates. That's real accountability. So when REI says 'we're different,' they can prove it. Luna: One last thing — where does #OptOutside go from here? Is it still growing? Lucas: It's plateaued in terms of surprise, but it's become a permanent part of the brand. They now frame it as a 'year-round commitment' with specific actions each quarter. Last spring they launched a campaign around 'opt to vote' — registering people to vote for pro-environment candidates. So the funnel adapts. The awareness stage now uses relevance to current events rather than novelty. Luna: That's smart. Keep the core message, but update the execution. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the final takeaway: a marketing funnel isn't a one-time campaign. It's a system that needs to be maintained, measured, and evolved. REI does that by tying every stage back to a single, authentic value proposition: time outside matters. Luna: And that's why we're still talking about it ten years later.