Shadowing Practice: Why All Brands Should Study Stanley Cup CEO Terence Reilly's Marketing Masterclass - Learn English Speaking with Video
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- Imagine going back to 1994 and asking people what a hot product would look like in 2024.
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Chances are, it wouldn't resemble a Stanley Cup.
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Yet, here we are.
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The reusable water bottles are one of the most sought after forms of beverage containment.
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Largely thanks to TikTok, Stanley's revenue jumped from $74 million in 2019 to $750 million in 2023.
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But look behind the massive sales, And there's a deeper case study in effective product marketing and leveraging cultural momentum.
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I think with the Stanley Cup, brand, you're not really buying into Stanley.
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You're buying into the community of all the other girls who have one in their hand.
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And it's very similar, in my opinion,
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to Jolie, the showerhead company that's gotten pretty popular through customers who post about it.
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And, you know, on one hand, it's it's something to brag about, right?
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You have this amazing piece of hardware in your home.
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It's that with the Stanley Cups as well, but it's also, it's this sense of community.
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Like everybody's got their Stanley Cup.
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you know, everybody's staying hydrated.
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It's something that signals you know, only good things.
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Stanley Cup's marketing has been successful in the diversity by which it's gone to market.
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So, Stanley Cup is a 110 -year -old company, right?
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And the products aren't terribly novel since its conception 110 years ago.
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The only new product it's had, as far as a new actual product, was in 2016, 2017, the Quencher Tumblr.
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They have different colorways since, but the product has been, by and large, very much the same.
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to not only do the traditional marketing means, but also leverage other vehicles by which the message is not only reaching new people,
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but done in new contexts.
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This diversity of content, of communication derivative works provides new opportunities to bring new people into the brand,
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into the idea.
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So they've partnered with content creators throughout TikTok that have taken the brand,
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taking its products and reworked it through their own cultural frames for people who self -identify
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or subscribe to a similar culture as that creator.
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The success of Stanley's marketing is mainly credited to its company's president, Terrence Riley,
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This is the same man who made Crocs cool during his five -year stint as the footwear company's chief marketing officer.
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After Riley saw the now famous TikTok of a woman's Stanley Cup surviving a car fire and still containing ice,
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He said it showed the product is "built for life" and offered the woman free Stanleys and a new car.
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When I saw that He was...
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At the helm of all this, you go, "Oh, of course." Because it is a very similar playbook, not in its executions, but in its ethos,
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in that brands are not owned by the company.
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They are stewarded by the company, but they are co -created.
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Their meanings are co -created by the people.
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To be a part of the mythology and the folklore, they'll do things that you could never do.
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They'll take you in places that you can never be.
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They'll provide a level of media creates that you can never buy.
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Because people trust people more than any form of marketing communications.
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Stanley, the tough, all -steel thermos bottle that's completely defendable.
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Stanley has always been kind of a blue -collar, utilitarian, masculine product, right?
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It had a utility and not unlike what Yeti has done with coolers
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and probably their own tumblers and a portfolio of things.
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They've really found a way to expand appeal, to invite new users in, to capture a higher margin by redefining the brand for a new generation and new audiences.
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But it's all rooted in the product quality.
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We see the absolute power of scarcity, the absolute appeal of limited additions.
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see his desire and demand on full display, right?
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Social commerce hasn't just kind of catalyzed this, it's created community around it, which is yet another thing we see here,
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which is the power of community and ultimately identity." Naturally, Stanley's warp speed rise in popularity has not been obstacle free.
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There were the uncivilized situations at Target the woman who was arrested for allegedly stealing $2 ,500 worth of cups,
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and customer concerns over potential lead content.
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The company responded to the concerns, saying it does use lead -containing sealing material during the manufacturing process,
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but that the lead -containing parts are covered with stainless steel, making the cups safe.
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That prompted competitors like Hydro Flask
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and Owalla to take shots at Stanley in social media posts and promote the safety of their own products.
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But none of this appears to be slowing Stanley down.
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and who's buying and why they're buying than probably most of the players in their category that sell through retail.
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If you look at Stanley as a company, it's not a company that was venture -backed and forced to grow over a couple years after launch.
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It's a brand that took its time to grow and mature and build brand affinity.
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And I think that's a great lesson because a lot of people who start a brand today, they want it to blow up tomorrow.
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And they want, you know, millions of fans who are diehard fans of their brand to be, you know, really excited about what they're doing.
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But that takes a lot of time and consistency and continuity over the years.
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The other one, I think, is figuring out how you turn your brand or your marketing engine into, you know, instead of a megaphone,
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more sort of a pure marketing engine. in the category.
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And again, I've never seen an ad for Hydroflask.
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You know, I've only seen content for Yeti, particularly around the coolers online, but never seen an ad for it.
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But it's the cultural contagion of Stanley that has created such a gravitational pull.
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And I haven't seen the other
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there's probably a lot of folks looking at this case study their competitors saying how do we
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if not do our version of this but how do we in a more savvy way of looking at it
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How do we ignite our own version of cultural contagion in ways
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that are very unique to us and the people who know us and love us?
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There's no question this isn't just net positive, it's net incredibly positive, right?
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And you know, mayhem at Target, which is what we saw when they released a limited edition color, right?
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You know, first of all, people are gonna people and that's not Stanley's fault.
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That's not Target's fault, right?
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You know, idiots are gonna be idiots.
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It illustrates desire, it puts it on full display.
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We are all desperate, right?
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To connect, to belong, to express who we are, to have a means of identification that is culturally relevant.
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And that's just, that's just humans being humans.
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Like we were the same way when we were in the Capes.
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The architecture of our brains is unchanged.
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And I don't think it's that bad to have what is a relatively affordable, quote unquote, luxury and accessible aspirational vehicle.
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You know, if it makes you happy, do it.
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as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Why All Brands Should Study Stanley Cup CEO Terence Reilly's Marketing Masterclass”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Stanley, product, brand, marketing, Cup. This video has 90 sentences and 1199 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:28. The speaker talks at a steady 142 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| contagion noun | /kənˈteɪd͡ʒən/ | A disease spread by contact. |
| competitor noun | /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/ | A person or organization against whom one is competing. |
| leverage noun | /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot. |
| cooler noun | /ˈkuː.lə(ɹ)/ | Anything which cools. |
| aspirational adjective | /ˌæspəˈɹeɪʃənəl/ | Being ambitious. |
| catalyze verb | /ˈkætəˌlaɪz/ | To bring about the catalysis of a chemical reaction. |
| colorway noun | /ˈkʌləɹˌweɪ/ | Any of the schemes of two or more colors in which a design is available. |
| containment noun | /kənˈteɪnmənt/ | The state of being contained. |
| defendable adjective | [dɪˈfɛndəbəɫ] | Capable of being defended. |
| diehard adjective | /ˈdaɪ.hɑɹd/ | Unreasonably or stubbornly resisting change. |
| folklore noun | /ˈfoʊk.lɔːɹ/ | The tales, legends, superstitions, and traditions of a particular ethnic population. |
| footwear noun | /ˈfʊtwɛə(ɹ)/ | Items or an item of clothing that is worn on the foot; a shoe, sandal, etc. |
| gravitational adjective | /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/ | Pertaining to, or caused by, gravity or gravitation. |
| hydrate noun | /haɪˈdɹeɪt/ | A solid compound containing or linked to water molecules. |
| ignite verb | /ɪɡˈnaɪt/ | To set fire to (something), to light (something) |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been · they've partnered · has always been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is mainly credited · are not owned · are stewarded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who self · man who made · woman who was |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 20 contractions and reduced forms, such as they'll, gonna, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thermos /ˈθɜː.mɒs/, mythology /mɪˈθɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: aspirational /ˌæspəˈɹeɪʃənəl/, gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, conception /kənˈsɛpʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: competitor /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/, aspirational /ˌæspəˈɹeɪʃənəl/, defendable [dɪˈfɛndəbəɫ], gravitational /ˌɡɹævɪˈteɪʃənəl/, uncivilized /ʌnˈsɪvəlaɪzd/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like contagion, competitor, leverage.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.