At the IFA, the German tech fair, the Shark Ninja brand unveiled new products with which it intends to flood social networks and win new markets.
You couldn’t have missed it in recent months. Videos on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube extolling the merits of a two-tray Air Fryer XL, the Creami or even the Ninja pizza oven and barbecue with smoker. Internet users who multiply recipe videos or who opt for Shark Beauty labeled products. Long focused on the United States, its country of origin, the Massachusetts brand now has global ambitions and sales figures to prove it.
At the IFA show in Berlin (Germany), it even allowed itself the luxury of presenting no less than 20 new products, in multiple categories (beauty, home, kitchen, cleaning, barbecue, etc.). “At Shark Ninja, our aim is to solve consumer problems, to anticipate them by observing how our products are used and to always be innovative in our solutions,” says Neil Shah, global sales director of Shark Ninja. Having products that are recognized as being of quality for this is good. Making them known when you have a name that didn’t necessarily ring a bell with the general public is a whole different story.
And yet, in just a few months, Shark Ninja’s notoriety has taken a giant step forward. Over the past 15 years, the brand, launched in 2003 under the name Euro Pro Operating before taking its current name in 2015, has experienced annual growth of 20%. Today, it is worth more than $4 billion in revenue, shared almost equally between Shark, a vacuum cleaner specialist, and Ninja, which is more focused on kitchen appliances and beauty.
The incredible notoriety of networks
Shark Ninja owes much of its growing notoriety to social media. In recent years, the brand has cleverly understood how to use them to its advantage. It relies on promoting its products through videos and dedicated pages on TikTok, Instagram or others around influencers who are always quick to multiply the favorite videos.
“We managed to reach interested people who were making videos and who had managed to get hold of the product even though it wasn’t even sold in their country,” jokes Tom Brown, Shark Ninja’s European president.
In total, $400 million in advertising was spent to “tell the stories of our products across various channels,” the manufacturer acknowledges. Between January and June of this year, it collaborated with a hundred creators and influencers to total more than 9 million impressions on the internet thanks to them and bring ordinary consumers into their wake. The Creami has reached more than a billion views and the versatile FlexStyle hair dryer (one sold per minute in the United States in 2023) has accumulated more than 700 million worldwide.
Did you feel like you were seeing Shark Ninja everywhere? It wasn’t an impression. In France alone, the company has announced 200% growth since its arrival in 2020. “We invest everywhere the consumer is, whether it’s television, sponsorships, social media, advertising, digital or the in-store experience,” assumes Tom Brown. It’s not without reason that marketing has increased by 102% in one year, “so that the products have the amplification they deserve.”
To accompany the storytelling Shark Ninja, we now come across David Beckham, ice cream maker thanks to Creami, Thierry Henry, king of the barbecue with the former English footballer Peter Crouch, the actress Courtney Cox and Chris Appleton, the star hairdresser, in advertisements to carry the beauty products. And in the fall, the name will even be displayed at the opening of Koh-Lanta, the flagship program of TF1.
Because there is nothing better than advertising, social activation and media amplification to get people talking about you. To do this, Shark Ninja knows how to seize the spirit of the times by launching products that speak to its consumers, at the right time. There is no doubt that the next star of social networks will be the Slushi, a machine for creating frozen drinks such as granita, milkshakes or iced coffee by simply adding a sweet liquid (juice, soda, alcohol, wine, coffee, etc.) that will freeze or cool in 15 minutes without any additions.
In the United States, launched almost 3 weeks ago, the device has generated a lot of interest (200,000 views in one day, 1.3 million new subscribers to local social channels). Ninja hopes for the same enthusiasm when the product should be available in spring 2025 in Europe (around 300 euros).
Future stars of influencers
And what about the line of three coffee machines launched by Ninja. “A true coffee shop at home,” the company proclaims. Ninja Lux Cafe is a whole new category that the brand hopes to make a big splash with its semi-automatic system that allows you to make espresso, filter coffee, cold coffee or milk froth drinks like a pro and adjust all the parameters (grind, strength, type of milk, type of drink, pressure, etc.).
“What we like is to see our users on video diverting uses to create others,” emphasizes Neil Shah. Thousands of videos show devices as having new capabilities. Free advertising on Tiktok and Instagram that we know how to appreciate across the Atlantic.
Tiktok should also go wild for the upcoming Air Fryer Double Stack XL, ideal for Parisian apartments and their small kitchens. Because it now offers two trays, positioned vertically to take up less space. Unless it’s the turn of the Blast Max portable blender with its pop colors and its ability to make drinks based on mixed fruits and vegetables.
Shark shines with its consumer feedback – all read, they assure us on the American side – often very positive regarding the quality of the products and by very good word of mouth, particularly on washing appliances (robot vacuum cleaner with base and Powerdetect system, steam mop or for cleaning animal hair).
“We are proven disruptors, problem solvers, because we are always looking to see what we could do better, sometimes even finding and solving problems before our consumer even becomes aware of them,” says Tom Brown.
In any case, the strategy is holding up for a brand that is becoming increasingly well-known by having managed to appropriate the most sophisticated communication codes. A nice feat for a company that is nevertheless only present in 30 countries in the world. For the moment.
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