How to design better brand experiences
A conversation with Aparna Avasarala, Founder & CEO of Denimrush Experience ⭐️
Today’s letter is sponsored by .
Hello and welcome back to Brandscape!
I hope your week is off to a great start. Today, I’m excited to share my conversation with Aparna Avasarala, a leader in branded merch and experiential marketing. We chatted about the process of starting her business, special client projects, and trends in the industry.
Aparna Avasarala is the Founder & CEO of Denimrush Experience, a branded merch and experiential marketing agency working with brands such as Under Armour, Summer Fridays, Nami Matcha, and more. She’s held previous roles in interior design and currently sits on the Board of Decorators of Gildan Wholesale.
This interview transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness. While every effort has been made to accurately represent the conversation, minor edits may have been made for readability.
HG: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Brandscape. Today, I'll be chatting with Aparna Avasarala, the Founder & CEO of Denimrush Experience. Aparna, welcome to Brandscape.
AA: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
HG: To start, could you please share a bit about yourself and the work that you do?
AA: We are a merch and experience agency. We basically — think about anything tangible in the marketing and PR world — that's sort of what we do. So your PR kits, your merch, and also some on-site customization experiences.
HG: What initially drew you to the creative marketing space?
AA: Denimrush started off as a hand-painted denim jacket company, hence the name denim, rush is “brush.” We started painting, and then Bloomingdale's reached out to us. My good friend, Jessica, who works at Bloomingdale's, found us on Instagram, and she was like, "Hey, could you live paint at the store for our denim event to drive some more traffic?" So, that's sort of how the world of on-site customization and experiences started with brands.
I was also already an experiential retail designer, so I would design pop-ups and other experiences as my full time job at that time. From there, once COVID hit, obviously we weren't doing experiences, because no one was doing experiences. So then, we started selling online as an e-commerce brand, and we did the tie-dye sweats that everyone wanted. It was very interesting to see how people wanted personalized, customized products.
And then we had brands reaching out to us, asking us to make merch for them, which I found very interesting, because I was like, “how, as a brand, do you not know where to get merch from? Like you're a big brand.”
So then, from there, I did a lot more research into the brand world and realized there's just this big gap of brand managers sitting on Google trying to figure out where to get custom matchboxes, merch, PR kits from. You know, it's a very interesting field to be in. So then, we pivoted from e-commerce to doing business-to-business and helping brands fill that gap.
HG: So, your first clients were more merch-based. But then, how did it come about where you're doing coffee sleeves and IRL activations? How has that sort of evolved as you've run the business?
AA: As soon as COVID started lifting up, we went back to on-site customization, which is what we were doing even before COVID. I think that touch of the IRL experiences has always been a part of us. For us, merch is not just clothing, it's any sort of supporting item that helps the brand sell who they are and their products. So, that's how we started. Once you understand the supply chain a little bit, you are able to source different factories, make different relationships with them. And since we do this day in and day out, we have these relationships built for all these different types of products. Whereas I feel like, if you're a brand, it's like a figment of what you do. It's a very important part, but you have so many other things when you're a brand manager. You have to get your distro list, you have to maintain what the brand looks like, even events. There’s so many things you have to do as one person or even one team. So that's really where we decided to come in and just be like, “let's just help you guys out, not drown and find actually good products.” And you're not just sitting there on 4Imprint or CustomInk or something like that, and just getting your generic, all-we-can-really-do-is-put-a-logo-on-it.
HG: Definitely. Can you share some standout projects you've worked on, who the clients were, and what you helped them create?
AA: We have three categories. We have branded merch, on-site customization, and PR kits. With branded merch, just right now for Bloom, we made a bunch of the merch for their new launch. They had events in Austin and LA, and we were able to create these custom charms, because charms are super in right now, with the orange flavor that they're leaning into. And then we also made custom t-shirts for them based on the city that they're in. And then we also made these hats and these custom Ikea-style bags. We made that, but fully branded. So it was really cool to do that, and then you could see it in-person being used.
And then from an event perspective, we worked with American Apparel, and we did GovBall with them, which was super fun. We were able to design all the merch for their booth, and we did on-site customization. So, people would come, they would pick their shirt, and then they would pick which design they wanted, and we would print it right in front of them, and they could be part of the printing experience. We also made these custom embroidered patches. So that was super fun. That line was so long, it was like eight hours and there were five people working the booth at all times — it was insane.
And then, from a PR perspective, we recently worked with Laneige to launch their new Glaze Craze lip glosses. We worked with Man The Studio, which is a design studio that we partner with a lot for design and creative concepting. It was all about donuts. We basically made the PR kit like a Krispy Kreme donut box, essentially.
HG: What is one thing brands often get wrong when it comes to merch, PR, mailers, or experiences? What's the number one thing you see that's maybe a white space for opportunity?
AA: I think that they forget to ask the question, “Why?” A lot of times, people have the budget and just want to send stuff, but then they're like, “Oh, it wasn't a successful campaign.” You have to ask the question, “What's the purpose of this? And why are they doing it?” So that's something that we always start with—whether it's merch, PR mailers, or even an event—we just ask, “Why are you having this?” so we can best assist you and also guide you. I feel like it's such a simple question, but a lot of times, brands forget to ask it because you get so swept up in the, like, “Oh my god, we're making custom stuff.”
HG: And finally, to close, I'd love to hear about a trend you're excited about this year in your industry.
AA: I feel like brands are getting unhinged, which I'm kind of into right now. Like they're just doing crazy collaborations. They're really OK to push the envelope beyond the standard item, which I'm really, really excited about. I feel like the collaborations are crazy, the flavors are crazy, everything you're just kind of like, “I never thought this would be a thing, but here we are.” I feel like that's super exciting because it gives us a chance to push the boundaries when it comes to merch or events, or even creating PR boxes. So that's what we're really excited about.
HG: That's great. Yeah, I'm excited to see how that evolves, too.
Denimrush Experience offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to make your brand stand out. Click below to see their capabilities and previous projects.
Headlines of the week 🗞️
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Gen Z’s coffee habits are reshaping the U.S. coffee products industry. According to research, 85% of Gen Z coffee drinkers add creamer to their coffee. To meet this demand, companies are spending big on developing different creamers. Nestle, for example, just opened a $675 million coffee creamer factory.
A new earplug brand, GOB, is working to make hearing protection cool. They’re positioning themselves as a “wearable wellness” brand and bringing some fun to the space through their content. It’s great to see a brand innovating in this space given estimates suggesting that more than 40 million American adults have hearing loss due to noise exposure. Their earplugs are made out of mycelium, which is a network of threadlike structures composing the body of a fungus. Unlike PVC earplugs which collect in landfills, mycelium eventually breaks down into nutrients that feed soil.
Thank you for reading!
— Henry
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