1-minute read
Jumping the fence is when a brand or product goes from serving a niche target market to serving a broader market outside of its core demographic.
Modern media and consumer brands are great examples of this.
Mr. Beast: He's grown beyond being a YouTube channel for kids and teens one of the most well-known marketers in the world. Content creators in all categories look to him as the example of how to create audience and community on YouTube.
Joe Rogan: The comedian, MMA commentator, and hunting enthusiast has become the biggest media outlet of our time—with guests touching every corner of art, science, entertainment, and beyond.
The All-In podcast: This group of famous venture capitalists now have a Top 50 podcast that’s followed by everyone from my next-door neighbor (shocked to find that we both are avid listeners) to high-ranking members on Capital Hill.
Ryan Reynolds: The actor's career jumped the fence. He's currently the best creative advertiser in the consumer products industry.
Vans, Lululemon, Patagonia (ahem, tech vests), and most famously Nike have all done this on the consumer side. Side note: Nike Air Force 1’s feel like a cultural phenomenon. The width of the demographic at which these shoes are worn is astonishing.
B2B products can also jump the fence. This happens when a company moves its offering up or down (making it more or less expensive and expansive) within the same market and reaches a healthy level of adoption with this new market segment.
There are many examples of PLG companies moving up-market with enterprise offerings, and enterprise companies moving down-market with a PLG strategy and/or consumer-facing platform play.
A few that come to mind are Notion, LinkedIn, Calendly, and Miro.
You can build an amazingly successful business by staying in your own yard. But when you jump the fence, things can hit hyperdrive overnight. Sometimes fence jumping is the result of organic cultural adoption. This is most common with consumer brands. And sometimes this is intentional due to market dynamics—like when B2B companies shift their product and marketing strategies. (PLG is all the rage in B2B SaaS right now.)
Both paths come with their own set of constraints and challenges. Weigh the tradeoffs carefully. Because attempting to jump the fence and not having the hops to make it over the top is extremely costly—and can even be unrecoverable.