How High Camp Flask Grew Creator Partnerships 4X and 7.5 Million Impressions Using Refunnel

About High Camp Flask

‍

High Camp Flask is a California-based premium drinkware brand founded in 2016 by two outdoor enthusiasts. Originally targeting hardcore adventurers, they now focus on affluent craft spirit and wine enthusiasts who value quality and memorable outdoor experiences.

‍

Their product range includes high-end flasks (like the Firelight 750), drinkware, and accessories positioned well above typical competitors in design, build quality, and price. Their audience consists mainly of suburban, family-focused gift-givers, with most growth coming from direct-to-consumer sales, wholesale, and corporate customization.

‍

The growth story: Revenue grew from 6 to 8 figures with healthy double-digit growth year-over-year. The brand now spends mid-7 figures on ads annually, with approximately 50% of their budget allocated to creator content. Since 2023, their top-performing ads have all been creator-led—developed from personal relationships that started with product seeding.

‍

Core belief: Real human creators are critical to their success. Manual outreach, authentic relationships, and trust matter far more than what automation alone can do.

‍

We spoke with Kevin Luby, Head of E-Commerce @ High Camp Flask.

‍

Before Refunnel

‍

Before adopting Refunnel, High Camp Flask's approach to creator partnerships was entirely manual, relationship-driven, and completely disorganized.

‍

No Central System, Just "Vibing It"

‍

Kevin described their workflow as entirely human-powered with virtually no process in place. Sometimes there was a spreadsheet, but often no one ever looked at it. Instead, their social media person would cold DM creators on Instagram or search for #UGC on Twitter.

‍

"We just vibed it," Kevin said.

‍

Each outreach and product seeding was individual and disconnected, with tracking happening (if at all) in people's heads or scattered across various channels.

‍

Limited Sampling and Low Scale

‍

The brand occasionally tried launching bigger seeding efforts ("at one point we tried to do like 50 a month, which was never gonna happen"), but in reality, it was usually just 10 samples a month, if even that.

‍

There was no organized record of who received what, how many creators were activated, or what impact any individual outreach had.

‍

The team worked with maybe half a dozen creators some years, sometimes up to a dozen, far from systematic or scalable.

‍

No Historical Data or Operational Oversight

‍

There was no way to look back, aggregate results, or learn from past partnerships. With data spread across random DMs, emails, and the occasional spreadsheet, the team couldn't easily identify winning creators or repurpose successful content. Product seeding, creator recruitment, and reporting were all built on a "vibe and human touch" method.

‍

The reality: While their authentic approach and relationships set them apart from other brands, operational headaches and missed opportunities were constant. As the brand scaled to 8 figures, it became clear that "vibing it" wasn't enough to realize the full potential of their creator partnerships.

‍

High Camp Flask's creator operations were stuck in first gear until they embraced Refunnel, moving from scattered manual outreach to a more strategic and data-driven approach.

‍

How They Use Refunnel

‍

For High Camp Flask, Refunnel serves as a streamlined analytics and creator management hub, giving their team a centralized system for product seeding, tracking creator collaborations, organizing whitelisting permissions, and evaluating the real impact of creator content without messy spreadsheets or endless manual reviews.

‍

5 Ways High Camp Flask Uses Refunnel

‍

1. Product Seeding at Scale

‍

High Camp Flask leverages Refunnel to automate and track the process of sending their flasks to dozens of creators each month. Instead of manually managing outreach and fulfillment, they use Refunnel's "Product Seeding" campaigns where product seeding is completely automated from product selection to shipping and tracking of content.

‍

They ran a Q4 campaign where creators could choose from a select number of SKUs (pre-selected by High Camp Flask), then automatically sent products to creators and tracked all submissions.

‍

Now, any time a creator posts, Kevin has a dashboard collecting every submission and tracking all important metrics inside Refunnel.

‍

When content performs well organically, he requests rights in Refunnel and turns it into an ad, no switching platforms, no delays.

‍

2. Whitelisting Workflow

‍

Instead of manually requesting usage rights and whitelisting access from creators, High Camp Flask now sends whitelisting requests directly through Refunnel, streamlining the entire process from permission to paid in under 1 minute.

‍

‍

3. Visual Content Dashboards

‍

The team uses Refunnel's visual interface to monitor what creators are posting about their products in real-time. This gives them a pulse check on current activity, helps them identify standout creators, and surfaces promising content for future ads—especially helpful since they're not personally active on social media anymore.

‍

Analytics tracked include: Content Count, Total Creators, Engagement, Impressions, EMV.

‍

‍

4. Data-Driven Partnership Building

‍

By tracking which seeded products yield top-performing creator videos and ongoing engagement, High Camp Flask identifies and nurtures long-term relationships with creators who truly resonate with their brand. Several of their most successful ads originated from seeded partnerships uncovered and managed inside Refunnel.

‍

5. Centralized Reporting and Analytics

‍

Refunnel provides High Camp Flask with an overarching view of seeding efforts, creator collaborations, and ad performance, making it easier to demonstrate the value of the creator channel. While they aren't focused on deep data slicing, Refunnel's reporting tools help the team demonstrate impact, advocate for more resources, and continually refine their creator strategy.

‍

The approach: High Camp Flask remains hands-on and relationship-driven, and Refunnel gives them the structure, visibility, and efficiency to support that ethos. They're able to add analytical and process rigor to their personal approach—flexibly using the platform to strengthen the relationships that matter most.

‍

‍

The Results

‍

Before Refunnel:

• Product seedings: <10/month
• Process: Entirely manual, outreach tracked loosely, "just vibed it"

‍

After Refunnel:

• Product seedings: Dozens per month
• Creators worked with: Dozens at a time, "only increasing daily"
• 7.5 million impressions, $115K GMV
• Process: Full-time staff plus Refunnel, streamlined seeding, clear visibility into seeded volume, visual dashboard for impact tracking
  ‍

Since 2023: All top-performing ads have been creator-led, developed from personal relationships that started with seeding

‍

In Kevin's words:

"We're seeding dozens of flasks a month, working with dozens of creators at a time and only increasing daily. ... It only takes one of these creators to really resonate with your brand and all of a sudden you have an ad that'll spend seven figures, and we've proven that multiple times over and over again."

‍

"Since 2023, our top-performing ads have all been creator-led ads. All developed out of personal relationships that started with seeding…so we're really excited about how we've been able to flexibly use Refunnel to add some analytical and process rigor to our personal approach."

‍

Bottom Line

‍

Refunnel enabled High Camp Flask to scale from a handful of manual relationships to a sophisticated, high-volume, relationship-led, data-driven creator strategy. By adding structure and analytics to their authentic, personal approach, they've multiplied their odds of discovering winning ads and turned creator partnerships into a revenue-driving growth channel—with approximately 50% of their mid-7-figure annual ad spend now going to creator content.