Deodorant brand Fussy on why Dragons’ Den was its ‘best advert’

Most people were introduced to the sustainable deodorant company Fussy when co-founder Matt Kennedy jumped out of a trash can on national television.

Since their appearance on Dragons’ Den, Fussy has built a loyal customer base that wants a sustainable alternative, he says.

Fussy bills itself as a sleek, refillable natural deodorant with plastic-free refills. Kennedy, along with his co-founder Eddie Fisher, has tapped into the Instagram generation’s concerns about plastic waste.

Now the brand is taking the next step, having recently signed a deal with Tesco. It’s all over for Fussy now that they’re no longer seen as the guys from Dragons’ Den, but become a multi-million dollar company.

After a successful career in advertising, working as a creative director for some of the country’s largest agencies, Kennedy said it was a “natural evolution” for him to break through for himself.

“We were paid to come up with ideas for other people and then give them away…” he says.

However, the original plan was not a deodorant. As a side project, Kennedy had started a Japanese rice wine company made from leftover sushi rice from London restaurants.

It was his experience working for leading consumer brands that sparked the idea to try his hand at the cosmetics industry.

“It was towards the end of my career in advertising, working for the likes of Pantene and Gilette, which not only can get quite mind-numbing in terms of the creative output… but also frustrating because they had the ability to solve a lot of the problems we’re facing, but I feel like there’s a slowness to do anything about it.’

“I saw what was happening in the US at the time. Neither us nor [rival] Wild had been launched, so we saw an opportunity.’

The natural cosmetics market has been quietly building for years, as younger generations become more aware of what they put on their skin and its impact on the planet.

But natural deodorants have not become as popular in the UK, largely because they are not as effective as their mass-market counterparts. It was his wife’s own experience of not being able to find natural deodorant during pregnancy that proved to be the final push Kennedy needed.

In October 2020, while Kennedy and Fisher were still working full-time, Fussy launched his Kickstarter – a crowdfunding platform.

At the time, it was still an unproven concept, and Kennedy wasn’t willing to take the risk: “We definitely talked to investors when we were trying to raise money while we were still doing a job doing Fussy, who said, “You’re not all gone.” in, you didn’t quit your job, why should I support you if you don’t support yourself?

It appeals to the general experience of entrepreneurs who, often with a financial background, have accumulated savings and are willing to take risks.

For Kennedy, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I felt like I have a mortgage to pay, a child on the way, I don’t have a lot of savings in the bank, I don’t have a huge bonus.

“That’s just not realistic and you really want to use it to take your money and take risks, but calculated risks.” Isn’t the calculated risk here to prove there’s a demand for Fussy before you quit.’

However, Kennedy needn’t have worried. Within two weeks, Fussy had sold £130,000 worth of products through Kickstarter, and two months later the pair finally resigned.

The Dragon’s Den Effect

However, it was Fussy’s performance in Dragons’ Den that really catapulted the brand into the mainstream.

In June 2021, eight months after Kickstarter, the product was finally ready. Two weeks later, Kennedy and Fisher were at a TV studio pitching Fussy to the Dragons.

“Looking back we are like oh my god what rookies. All we had to talk about was our Kickstarter and two weeks of trading. My wife literally gave birth the day before…”

Why put yourself through the stress of being both a new entrepreneur and a father?

“For us, it was that our competitor was already on the market. We knew that if we got on the show and they didn’t, they wouldn’t bring another new deodorant with the show.

‘We knew we could strengthen the marketing. It was really about publicity and making an impact for us.

“When I speak to people who go to see the show, I say it’s 10 minutes of biological TV, for you to buy that would cost millions. It’s the best TV commercial you’ll ever get.’

Memorizing the numbers with and without tax to the penny, Fisher and Kennedy wrote their pitch as if it were an advertisement.

“There are a lot of sound bites of us on the show…we thought about that and what we would say and make sure we said we made it the ultimate test in the den, it could withstand the heat.. .

“The trash was purely because the producers said there was no guarantee we would be on the show. I said what if we hide in a big bin and pop out? They said yes, that will probably work.’

The plan worked. While Kennedy may be remembered as the man in the bin, the gig turned into securing a £50,000 investment from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, and more importantly, sales soared after the episode aired.

“We really milked it.”

Surprisingly, one thing Fussy hasn’t milked is their connection to Meaden or Jones, though it’s not because Fussy hasn’t tried.

“Deborah has been great. We have her on Whatsapp, it’s less business advice, but if we need anything from her, can you pass a package to this celebrity, or can you show some TikTok videos in a movie? She’s ready. Peter is more… hands off.”

‘We take what we do seriously, but not ourselves’

While the Dragons’ Den experience has been central to Fussy’s growth, the next challenge is to keep that up and build a brand beyond the TV show.

So far the team has taken this to heart and Kennedy’s advertising background has played a part.

Jumping out of a trash can on TV and taking a goat to Brewdog founder James Watt’s Next Unicorn contest are surefire ways to get cover.

Even when they got a 16-page letter from Unilever for an ill-conceived ad, Fussy used it as an opportunity for the press and delivered an olive tree to the offices of the consumer giant.

“We always go back to the premise that we take what we do seriously, but not ourselves.

“We are serious about saving the planet, but we will always try to do it with a smile on our face and not take ourselves too seriously. Hence the goat or the bin.’

It is reminiscent of the early Brewdog advertising campaigns.

It seems fitting, then, that Fussy recently teamed up with Brewdog to release a Punk IPA deodorant, which Kennedy says is “a bit disgusting, but in a good way, and actually smells nice.”

But do consumers really care about a flash ad campaign? Do they need their deodorant brand to be good on social media?

“I think it’s personality. I think that’s what branding is… from the beginning we wanted to be a little bit disruptive.

“Obviously the tricky part is we’re trying to build a big company and you have to try and get the good side of being commercial and not too cool for school.”

Especially brand awareness seems to be the most important goal. Fussy’s closest rival Wild, which also sells refillable sustainable products, dwarfs Fussy in terms of market share and the amount of capital they’ve raised.

But that doesn’t stop Fussy.

Kennedy has plans to move to Europe this year and make more products to tackle bathroom-wide plastic waste, which will no doubt be accompanied by social media stunts.

Although Kennedy will probably dump the trash this time.