Case Studies

About the Project

The City Series started with a question: if the system works, can it work repeatedly? Starting with BeantownTshirts in September 2018, we built and operated five independent DTC apparel brands from scratch using the same full-stack playbook we now deliver to clients. Each brand launched with zero customers, zero email list, and zero sales history. Each one was grown using a unified approach: paid search for customer acquisition, lifecycle automation for retention and repeat purchases, content and organic SEO for compounding traffic, and analytics to allocate spend efficiently across every channel. Combined across Shopify storefronts plus Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, the portfolio generated over $1.2M in total retail sales. All five brands remain active today.

Our Role

• Paid Media and Lead Generation (Google Ads: Search, Performance Max)
• Lifecycle and CRM Marketing (Mailchimp: abandoned cart, win-back, VIP, and re-engagement flows)
• Content and Organic Search (SEO, product and category pages)
• Analytics and Reporting (Shopify and Google Ads performance tracking)
• Strategic Orchestration (full system design, brand launch, and ongoing optimization across all five brands)

How We Did It

Building a Repeatable System Across Five Markets

The City Series was built on one premise: a great system should be repeatable. Starting with BeantownTshirts in Boston, then expanding to LaLaLandTshirts in LA, TheLandTshirts in Cleveland, TheBayAreaTshirts in San Francisco, and TheSteelCityTshirts in Pittsburgh, we deployed the same core architecture across every brand. Google paid search campaigns drove high-intent customer acquisition at an average cost of $0.18 per click. Every brand launched with a full lifecycle automation stack from day one: welcome sequences, post-purchase flows, abandoned cart recovery, seasonal win-back campaigns, and a VIP tier for top buyers. The same playbook. Five cities. Consistent results across every market.

Where the System Proved Its Value

Running five DTC brands simultaneously made one thing clear: the system had to work without constant manual oversight. The lifecycle layer did exactly that. Abandoned cart sequences recovered orders at 5.6% click-through rates. Re-engagement campaigns reactivated lapsed buyers at 36.8% open rates. Thank-you sequences hit over 50% open rates on first sends. Average order value held steady at $32 to $34 across the entire portfolio for six consecutive years, a signal of consistent product quality and healthy customer retention. The City Series is the proof of concept behind everything mnbStudios builds for clients today. Before we built systems for other brands, we built them for our own.