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How Jennifer Anniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

For its first CTV campaign, Jennifer Aniston’s DTC haircare brand LolaVie had a few non-negotiables. The campaign had to be simple. It had to demonstrate measurable impact. And it had to be full-funnel.

LolaVie used Roku Ads Manager to test and optimize creatives — reaching millions of potential customers at all stages of their purchase journeys. Roku Ads Manager helped the brand convey LolaVie’s playful voice while helping drive omnichannel sales across both ecommerce and retail touchpoints.

The campaign included an Action Ad overlay that let viewers shop directly from their TVs by clicking OK on their Roku remote. This guided them to the website to buy LolaVie products.

Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Anniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

March 9, 2026

Yesterday, we paused a campaign that wasn't “bad,” just stalled. Opens were good, bounces were normal, but replies were flat. When we examined the thread, the issue was clear. The first 40 words sounded like a sales email trying not to sound like one. We shortened the opener to two sentences, made the first line specific to the prospect’s world, and responses started coming in within 48 hours.

If your copy seems polished but performance remains stuck, this is the lever.

FROM MY DESK THIS WEEK

Cold emailing in 2026 is splitting into two lanes, with most teams stuck in the slow lane. Lane one consists of high-intent operators who send fewer emails, use more targeted lists, and focus on reply rate as a key KPI. Lane two includes everyone else, still pushing volume and hoping that copy can fix targeting.

The biggest trend I’m seeing right now is this: smaller segments are outperforming larger lists, even when the offer is the same. On a recent set of accounts, we cut list size by about 35% by removing “maybe” titles and weak-fit industries. Total replies increased from 1.6% to 2.7% within a week, and positives rose from 0.7% to 1.1%. Same sequence structure. The lift came from the restraint.

If your outbound campaign isn't working well, it's usually better to use fewer lists.

CEO’S PLAYBOOK TIP

What this means: Your opening isn't a brand story. It's a speed test. In 2026, if the first two sentences don't sound relevant and human, you won't reach sentence three.

Why it works: Buyers scan instead of reading. They decide quickly if the email is relevant. Long openers make them work harder. Short openers reduce their effort to understand. The sooner they grasp your point, the more likely they are to respond, even if it’s just “not now.”

The data: Across agency campaigns this quarter, the clearest improvement we observe is reducing the opener and increasing specificity. When we shorten the first paragraph to two sentences and start with one concrete problem, reply rates often increase by 40% to 80% without altering the offer. In the test above, total replies rose from 1.4% to 2.6%, and positive replies doubled from 0.5% to 1.0%.

How to use it this week: Use this format for your upcoming campaign. Make sure the opening is less than 35 words.

  1. Sentence 1: name one specific problem or trigger.

  2. Sentence 2: ask a simple question that is easy to answer.

  3. Stop. Do not add a paragraph of credentials.

Copy-ready line you can steal:

Noticed you are hiring for SDRs while pipeline coverage is still thin. Are you open to a faster way to book qualified calls without adding headcount?

If you want to be even safer, add a single line after the question that gives the prospect a clean exit:

If I am off, tell me who owns outbound and I will go away.

INTEL THIS WEEK

E-Commerce Times notes that generic blasts are fading, and the focus is shifting toward relevance and improved segmentation.

Takeaway:

“Spray and pray” is no longer just less effective; it has become actively costly. You damage your reputation, burn your list, and teach good prospects to ignore you. For your next campaign, prioritize reducing volume before adjusting your copy. If you can't explain why this segment should care right now, don’t send.

In this episode, I explained what is actually driving cold email performance right now. I focused on what most teams overlook: infrastructure first, clean targeting, and measuring replies instead of opens. My aim was to make it practical, because most “cold email advice” is either too theoretical or too cute to implement.

Takeaway:

The quickest way to ruin good messaging is sending it from a setup that can't reliably reach the inbox. Also, open rates are a distraction for cold email. Replies are the real indicator of success. What this means for your next campaign: treat reply rate drops as an early warning for deliverability issues, not a sign that “the offer is weak.”

This is my view on the 2026 discussion. Cold email still works, but only when you stop pretending that volume is a strategy. I explained why short, human copy combined with real targeting beats fake personalization every time, and why the teams succeeding now are the ones treating outbound as a disciplined system, not a Hail Mary.

Takeaway:

Cold emailing didn't die. Lazy targeting did. If your message sounds like it was made for everyone, no one responds. For your next campaign: protect your main domain, refine your ICP, and write as if you're speaking to one specific operator with a real problem to solve.

High-Performance Cold Email That Actually Books Meetings!

Struggling to land real meetings from cold email? You’re not alone — and you’re not the problem. The cold outreach game has changed, and generic blasts just don’t cut it anymore.

At Email Outreach Company, we’ve perfected a system to make sure your critical messages bypass spam filters, hit inboxes, and convert into real sales opportunities. Using our advanced AI-driven personalization engine and bulletproof sending infrastructure, we help you consistently schedule meetings with decision-makers at top-tier companies.

Leading brands have already trusted us to book meetings with executives from Amazon, Apple, and Goldman Sachs — driving over $5 million in revenue, all through cold email.

Here’s your chance to finally win at cold outreach… without the trial and error.

MY LAST $.02

Most cold emails fail before the offer even appears. They fail in the first paragraph because the writer focuses on sounding credible instead of being understood.

When I built businesses that I could sell, I did not win because I used the prettiest words. I won because we could start conversations on demand. That is still the job. In 2026, polished reads like mass. Specific reads like real. If you want more replies, stop trying to fit everything into the first email. Earn the reply with a short opener that shows you understand the prospect’s world, then let the conversation do the heavy lifting.

The best sequences feel like someone reaching out, not a funnel. That’s the standard now, and it’s not changing.

See you tomorrow,

Adam

P.S. Reply and tell me your current reply rate. I will tell you where I would look first.

Adam Rosen
Founder
Email Outreach Company
New York, New York
www.eocworks.com

P.S. We’ve built a system that helps you break through the noise and actually land meetings that matter. Click here to book your free cold email audit, and we’ll show you exactly how to turn cold outreach into real opportunities.

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