Turning Ocean & San from Cash Flow Crisis to Multi-Discipline Growth Machine

We rescued Ocean and San from agency-induced losses in 2023, built a profitable evergreen program, then helped them scale 20%+ year-over-year—all powered by brand-centric creative that breaks every DTC ad convention.

‍Overview

Ocean and San came to Artifex Digital in 2022 at a critical juncture. You can read all about the first six months of our engagement here.

This is the story of what came next. This is how new products bolstered by a new creative direction and that defied DTC norms (with the ad strategy to drive it) lead to Ocean and San’s biggest growth yet.

The Challenge

Growth was steady on the back of their flagship product, the All Day Shirt, but 2024 opened up an opportunity to take things to the next level. 

First, the introduction of a new product, the UtiliTee, a shirt with functionality tailored to a different type of rider.

Second, exploration of a bold new creative direction, driven by the ingenuity and eyes of the founders.

The challenge was no longer about achieving profitability, but maximizing it.

The Solution

Phase 1: Creative Revolution - Breaking the DTC Ad Mold

Throughout 2024, Ocean and San had their critical growth moment. With steady revenue and cash flow, Alec and Jake had the freedom to develop new products and expand their offerings, which opened up new creative angles and customer segments.

But the biggest driver of success wasn't just new products—it was a massive creative shift driven by the founders themselves.

Ocean and San made a bold decision: abandon typical direct-to-consumer ecommerce advertisement conventions.

Out went:

• Customer reviews and pull quotes
• USP-heavy messaging
• Traditional product explainers
• Generic lifestyle shots

In came:

• Provocative, entertaining, and eye-catching ad creatives
• Brand-centric imagery with confident identity
• Video content focused on storytelling
• Short, catchy hooks that grab attention immediately
• A brand that felt both desirable and obtainable

This wasn't just a creative refresh—it was a complete philosophical shift in how Ocean and San showed up in the market. The ads no longer looked like ads. They looked like content people actually wanted to see.

We adapted our media strategy to leverage these assets:

• Video content for storytelling across Meta and YouTube
• Still versions extracted from video for traditional direct response campaigns
• Continuous creative testing to identify which provocative angles resonated most
• Platform-specific optimization ensuring each creative worked in its native environment

Phase 2: 2025 Expansion - Multi-Discipline Growth

On the back of new SKUs and these revolutionary creative assets, we've been able to significantly expand the ads program in 2025 while increasing overall efficiency.

Google Ads expansion: We leveraged non-branded search to target specific disciplines within cycling—road cycling, gravel, mountain biking, bikepacking—allowing us to find high-intent customers across the entire cycling spectrum.

Meta prospecting sophistication: We created separate prospecting audiences targeting different cycling disciplines, each with creative tailored to that audience's specific pain points and aspirations while maintaining Ocean and San's distinctive brand voice.

The Running Line Launch: Summer 2025 brought the most significant expansion yet—Ocean and San launched their running line. This involved finding and warming up an entirely new demographic that had never interacted with the brand.

Our approach:

• Awareness campaigns introducing Ocean and San to runners unfamiliar with the brand
• Educational content highlighting product features and benefits specific to running
• Brand-centric creative maintaining the same provocative imagery and catchy phrases that drove cycling success
• Discipline-specific prospecting on both Meta and Google to capture intent at different funnel stages

The beauty of Ocean and San's creative philosophy is that it works across disciplines. The brand ethos—confident, provocative, attention-grabbing—resonates whether you're a cyclist or a runner. No prior understanding required.

Phase 3: Retention & Reengagement

Throughout this expansion, Ocean and San has maintained a sophisticated approach to their existing customer base through limited edition product drops, brand collaborations, and new colorways. These initiatives create natural reengagement opportunities that we leverage through paid media.

The results speak for themselves: 2025 is seeing the highest year of returning customer revenue to date, with consistent reengagement rates running alongside record new customer acquisition.

This dual focus—growing new customer counts while maximizing returning customer value—has created a compounding growth effect for the brand.

Phase 4: Solving Seasonality - The Winter Line

Looking toward the end of 2025, Ocean and San is launching their winter line—a whole new branch of apparel designed to solve one of the brand's persistent challenges: seasonality.

Like any outdoor apparel brand, Ocean and San historically saw sales peak in spring and summer, with significant drop-offs in fall and winter. The winter line should allow us to:

• Engage existing customers during traditionally slow months
• Find new customers interested in cold-weather athletic apparel
• Extend the peak sales period throughout the year
• Smooth revenue distribution across all four quarters

The Results

2024 Turnaround Results

• +22% net sales year-over-year
• +48% CM3 (Contribution Margin 3)
• +19% Marketing Efficiency Ratio
• Established a profitable, evergreen ads program

2025 Multi-Discipline Expansion Results

• +20% net revenue year-over-year
• +26% CM3 year-over-year
• Maintained solid Marketing Efficiency Ratio despite significant budget expansion
• Steady CAC even while scaling to new audiences
• All-time high new customer acquisition driven by the running line launch
• Record returning customer revenue from reengagement campaigns

What This Means

Ocean and San became a profitable, multi-disciplinary athletic apparel brand with a distinctive creative voice that resonates across customer segments. They've successfully expanded beyond cycling into running, with winter sports on the horizon—all while maintaining the efficiency metrics that keep the business healthy.

Why This Partnership Works

This case study represents the kind of long-term partnership that excites us at Artifex Digital. We didn't just fix a broken ad account and move on—we've been Ocean and San's growth partner for three years, evolving the strategy as the business itself evolved.

Working with Alec and Jake has been a masterclass in the power of brand-centric creative in performance marketing. They had the courage to break convention and trust that provocative, entertaining content could drive direct response results. We provided the strategic framework and tactical execution to prove it.

The results validate what we've long believed: the best ads don't look like ads. When you lead with brand, creativity, and entertainment, performance follows.

What's Next

As we look toward 2026, the opportunity in front of Ocean and San is massive. The ads program needs to become more sophisticated to reflect the reality of a multi-disciplinary brand serving multiple customer demographics.

Our focus areas:

• Platform complexity - Building separate prospecting and retention funnels for cycling and running
• Creative diversification - Developing discipline-specific creative that maintains brand consistency while speaking to unique customer needs
• Cross-sell strategy - Converting single-discipline customers into multi-product buyers across Ocean and San's expanding catalog
• Seasonality optimization - Leveraging the winter line to smooth revenue throughout the year and reduce dependence on spring/summer peaks

Paid acquisition remains Ocean and San's most efficient and effective distribution model to get their message as far and wide as possible. With their creative voice continuing to evolve and new product lines expanding their addressable market, we're positioned to help this brand reach entirely new heights.

The foundation is rock solid. The creative is best-in-class. The products are expanding. Now comes the exciting part: scale.

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