Ep 507 · 7 min · Fri 4 Apr 2025

Roger Lee from Brand Collective

Roger Lee of Brand Collective share their insights on partnership strategies, essential tech, and scaling efficiently.

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In this episode

In this episode of Checkout, we sit down with Roger Lee, Head of Digital Marketing at Brand Collective, who oversees a portfolio of 17 brands, including Reebok, Hush Puppies, and Shoes & Sox, using Impact.com’s tools to manage paid channels like search, social, and affiliate marketing.  Managing digital marketing for such a diverse mix of brands is no easy feat, but Roger has found ways to streamline operations while driving results. Here’s a look behind the scenes of Roger Lee.

Together, Adam and Roger take us behind the scenes of their businesses, sharing insights into the tech they rely on, their strangest online purchases, and the challenges of scaling in today’s digital landscape.

Good Ol’ Chips Clips

Roger’s most unusual online buy wasn’t flashy, but it sure was practical. “I bought these little plastic clippy things off eBay that you can never find in shops,” Roger shared, referring to kitchen clips used to keep chips fresh. “I’m known for being a massive chip eater, so I had to make sure they stayed crunchy!”

The Tech That Keeps Roger’s Empire Running

When it comes to running multiple brands and managing large teams, the right tech tools can make or break a business. A key platform in Roger’s tech stack is Impact.com, which helps him manage and scale affiliate and partnership programs across Brand Collective’s portfolio. Roger is also a big fan of Shopify, which he uses across all 17 brands under Brand Collective.

Shopify is our go-to platform. It’s just so easy to use and integrates seamlessly with everything we need, like Klaviyo for email marketing.

“Managing 17 brands is no joke, but Shopify helps us keep things organised and running smoothly.”

Retailers That Set the Standard

Roger is always on the lookout for brands that are going above and beyond in terms of branding and loyalty programs. When asked about what brands are impressing him of late, he kept his focus close to home with one of Brand Collective’s own labels, Shoes & Sox, a beloved Australian retailer for children’s footwear.

We’re in the middle of a complete rebrand for Shoes & Sox.

“New products, a fresh website, and a new loyalty program—it’s all coming together just in time for back-to-school season.” This rebrand is more than just a facelift; it’s a full refresh aimed at enhancing the customer experience both online and in-store. 

The Book Roger is Caught On

Roger is a big fan of Catch of the Decade, a book that follows the entrepreneurial journey behind Catch.com. “I’m fascinated by how they turned risk-taking into huge success,” he said. “The lessons in the book are incredibly relevant for anyone running a business today.” For Roger, the story of Catch.com demonstrates how resilience, innovation, and strategic pivots can propel a business from a startup to a market leader. It’s a reminder that in ecommerce, the ability to adapt and seize opportunities can often be the difference between simply surviving and scaling to new heights.

Time Management: The Biggest Challenge in Scaling 17 Brands

With so many brands under his wing, Roger’s biggest challenge is managing time efficiently. “With 17 brands to handle, being time-poor is a constant issue,” Roger shared.

We use Impact.com to streamline our affiliate and partnership programs—it saves so much time.

Finding ways to work smarter—not just harder—is crucial when juggling multiple brands. By automating processes, Roger’s team can focus on high-impact areas without getting bogged down in manual tasks.

The Future of Digital Growth

Roger’s insights point to a key truth in modern ecommerce. Scaling isn’t about growth, it’s about smart growth. Success isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing things more efficiently, with the right tools and strategies in place. As competition in retail intensifies, the brands that can adapt, streamline, and stay ahead of consumer expectations will set the standard and lead the charge.

The Checkout is a short snippet of our conversations.

Read the full transcript Auto-generated

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[Voiceover]: Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Here's your host, Bushy.

[Ad]: Today's checkout features Roger Lee, head of digital marketing at Brand Collective. The driving force behind marketing strategies for iconic brands such as Reebok, Hushpuppies and Shoes and Socks. Roger is juggling partnerships across 17 brands, no small feat. In this episode, Roger reveals some of his favorite tools for managing multiple brands, his most unusual online purchase, and how he stays organized while juggling so many brands and so many projects. It's a must listen for anyone looking to go through smarter partnerships.

Nathan Bush: Roger, welcome to the Checkout. Thank you for joining us here today. We had a brilliant chat with adam Furnesse from impact.com earlier around the power of partnerships and how you are planning and using partnerships on 17 of your brands across Brand Collective. Doing an amazing job there. But we're here to learn a little bit more about you. I've got five quick questions. All right, Roger, number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?

Roger Lee: Oh, weirdest thing. I don't know if I'm that much of a weird shopper. I think, I think my online shopping is pretty boring, to be honest. I don't know. Yeah, I could give you, I could give you the most recent example of something I bought. I bought some plastic clippy tag things off ebay just so that for around the kitchen, you can never find them in shops. So what do they do? You know, just when you've got like a little bag of chips you've half eaten or something, you can just like clip it on there.

Nathan Bush: I don't know.

Roger Lee: Yeah, I've got a good reputation as a massive chip eater, so I've got a gotta keep Them fresh.

Nathan Bush: I love it. All right, number two, which retailer has most inspired you recently?

Roger Lee: I'm going to say shoes and socks. I'm going to say one of our brands because we're doing quite a lot. We're just about to launch a totally new rebrand. The website's going to get refreshed. We've got a brand new loyalty program, got some amazing products. The marketing team has been brilliant in terms of putting things together and getting ready for Back to School, which is about to happen in January. It is one of our brands, but it's inspiring to work around when all that is happening at the same time.

Nathan Bush: Are you able to give us any hints and clues around platforms you're moving to or any tech that you're using around the new site?

Roger Lee: We're on Shopify. We're on Shopify across the whole group and integrated with Klaviyo. So that's not changing, it's just more the site architecture to make it a better user experience.

Nathan Bush: Very exciting. Most people get to January and they're like, oh, cool, foot off the pedal. We've got through the hard bit, but you're ramping up there at shoes and socks.

Roger Lee: Exactly. Yeah. No rest.

Nathan Bush: All right, number three, can you name a piece of tech that you or your e commerce business couldn't live without?

Roger Lee: My laptop. No, we couldn't live without, I suppose, Shopify. Since. Since we've replatformed all the sites to Shopify. It's. It's so core to what we do. It's so easy as well. Like when we're doing things like integrating with an app platform like Pinterest or something like that, you just clicking buttons and it's connecting and all your data's coming through, your catalogs are coming through. Yeah, I love it.

Nathan Bush: And have you got all 17 sites on Shopify?

Roger Lee: We have now, yet.

Nathan Bush: Wow. Awesome. Nice work. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?

Roger Lee: Joe, I read, I recently read, when I was on holiday, read Catch of the Decade, which I actually got from an impact event, but I'd been meaning to read it and I went off to Bali and I was like, right, I'm gonna. I'm gonna pack that book. I'm gonna finally get around to reading it. And I found it really interesting, like, obviously, that journey of capture the day into catch.com and yeah, I love all that kind of entrepreneurs just doing their thing and taking risks and some brilliant lessons as well that are transferable into what we do every day.

Nathan Bush: Great tip. And of course we would encourage people to buy it full price at their local bookstore. Right?

Roger Lee: Absolutely.

Nathan Bush: Number five, what is your biggest challenge today?

Roger Lee: I'm really time poor, I think with 17 brands to support. So, yeah, anything that makes sort of my life or what we do more efficient is a massive win. I think we have to learn fast, fail fast. We still want to try things. We don't want to use that as an excuse not to better what we do. But yeah, so that's probably the biggest challenge.

Nathan Bush: No, I love it. And you're obviously not alone there. That's it's a very common thing in our industry at the moment, especially for heads of marketing, marketing managers, e comm managers. And to hear how you're using platforms like impact.com to streamline some of the stuff that you don't want to do to keep the relationships authentic, but to streamline the tracking and the contracting and all the bits that actually take a lot of time but don't add much value was great to hear. So, Roger, thank you for joining us

Roger Lee: on the checkout say Family.

[Ad]: If you want to hear more from Roger, check out the main episode where we explore how Brand collective is using impact.com to create partnerships and supercharge their marketing. Roger shares how they're working with influencers, affiliate partners, and even customers to drive growth and engagement across multiple brands. It's packed with insights on building an effective partner partnership strategy. You won't want to miss it. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.

Tagged

  • Marketing and Acquisition
  • Shopify and eCommerce Tech
  • Technology and Platforms
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