Rothy's finds its Substack partners among writers who had already mentioned the brand

Three of the five Rothy's examples in Business Insider's account began with a writer mentioning the brand before the brand made contact ^[19]. Emily Sundberg wrote in her newsletter, Feed Me, that she had stashed a pair of Rothy's flats on her wedding day. Rothy's later partnered with her to sponsor a pizza party for her readers ^[6]. Erika Veurink's New York Magazine article featuring the shoes went viral, and the brand then reached out and signed a long-term relationship with her ^[7]. Denna Nazem had mentioned Rothy's in Strictly the Good Stuff before the brand approached her ^[9].

Anna Doré, Rothy's vice president of brand and communications, ties the approach to what social feeds have become. "In this AI-driven algorithm world where we're all being served the same content on the feed, we more than ever are going to be looking to great tastemakers," she said ^[2]. "People follow these Substack writers because they are in the know," she said ^[3].

Business Insider describes Rothy's as doubling down on the platform ^[5]. The results anyone has counted happened in a store. The pop-up for Veurink's readers drew more than 200 people ^[8]. The report does not include what Rothy's paid any writer, or any sales from the pizza party or from the essays five Substack writers wrote for the brand's 10th anniversary ^[11][4].

Substack is building a product around arrangements like these. Cofounder Chris Best launched a native brand sponsorship program in June, pointing to partnerships already running on the platform, such as Sundberg's with Hinge ^[16]. Dan Robbins, Substack's head of brand sponsorships, made the same complaint about feeds that Doré did. Brands can "earn real standing instead of shouting through feeds and swipes," he said ^[18].

The other brands quoted want different things from the platform. Sophia Sesto, Poppi's vice president of culture, is weighing it as a way to plan creator work. "You can know more about the creators you're working with," she said. Her example was learning that a creator travels to the same destination every year, then setting up a Poppi bar for the trip ^[13]. The Knot Worldwide wants owned media. "We're actually starting up our own Substack from The Knot," said Kiara Kempski, its vice president of global consumer marketing. "Our editors are moving over there and creating owned content for us and building that out." ^[14]

A skeptic would say the evidence so far is a pizza party, a pop-up and some commissioned essays, which is the scale of a test budget. Doré calls Substack "one of the most exciting channels out there right now" ^[1], and the skeptic would say that runs ahead of the record. On size, the skeptic is right. I think the case for a Substack line in the creator plan is narrower than Doré's enthusiasm: the platform is a place to find writers whose readers turn up in person, and so far it has been tested with a handful of events.

This quarter's choice is whether to read the newsletters that already mention the brand and fund an event or two with their writers. Next quarter's consequence comes from Substack's side. I'd expect more of those writers to be selling through its standard formats by then ^[17]. Brands that arrive later would be buying those formats, while Rothy's keeps the long-term relationship with Veurink that it arranged directly ^[7].