Overview
Maileg is a Danish-designed toy and lifestyle brand founded in 1999, known for its whimsical mice, dollhouses, and stuffed animals, as well as rotating seasonal collections. Built on a philosophy of imaginative, heirloom-quality play, the brand launched formal U.S. distribution in 2008 and spent the following decade building a devoted following through independent toy boutiques, children’s lifestyle shops, and curated gift retailers. By the 2020s, placements at Anthropologie, Nordstrom, and Maisonette had cemented Maileg’s reputation among design-conscious parents and gift buyers nationwide. The retail presence was established. The direct-to-consumer opportunity was next.
The Problem
With brand equity built and U.S. awareness growing, Maileg had the foundation to scale its digital business, but its investment structure hadn’t kept pace. The brand operated within fixed monthly ad budgets, leaving little room to pursue new growth opportunities. Performance was solid, but with limited U.S. digital spend, and without a performance-linked framework, there was no clear path to unlocking additional investment. The results were there. The runway wasn’t.
The Solution
The strategy started with a reframed investment model: rather than operating within a fixed monthly ceiling, spend would scale in proportion to hitting a defined ROAS target. With a 4.0 ROAS floor established, the budget could grow as performance justified it. From there, a full-funnel paid social strategy was built across Meta and Pinterest, alongside a Klaviyo email program designed to convert and retain customers delivered by paid social. Each channel served a distinct role — and together, they formed a growth engine built for scale.
Meta
Campaign Architecture
The Meta strategy was structured across every stage of the customer journey. Prospecting campaigns introduced new audiences to Maileg’s product lines. Mid-funnel campaigns re-engaged users who had interacted with ads but hadn’t yet visited the site. Dynamic and static remarketing then reached high-intent users — those who had viewed products or added to cart — with creative tailored to that stage of consideration.
Creative Testing and Seasonal Campaigns
To maintain creative quality as spend scaled, new ad sets were launched into an isolated sandbox and evaluated against performance benchmarks before entering evergreen campaigns — keeping proven assets in rotation, while giving new ad sets room to mature.
Dedicated hybrid campaigns combined prospecting and retargeting logic to further support new seasonal collections.
Seasonal Discovery
Top-of-funnel discovery channel built around how Maileg’s core audience uses Pinterest. Gift-givers use it to plan — researching birthday ideas, holiday gifting, and seasonal moments well in advance. Evergreen presence was maintained through keyword and interest-based targeting, with incremental spend concentrated around peak seasonal windows when search intent and purchase likelihood are highest.
Long-Cycle Conversion
The standard 30-day attribution window reflects the platform’s purchase cycle: discovery and conversion are rarely in the same session. Shoppers save pins, continue researching, and return to buy weeks later. The strategy accounted for this by maintaining consistent visibility across touchpoints — so that when the purchase decision was made, Maileg was already part of the consideration set.
Email Marketing
Automation and Segmentation
Automated flows were expanded to passively capture revenue, and customer segmentation powered cross-sell and upsell sequences based on past purchase behavior and collection interest. With a catalog spanning mice, accessories, dollhouse furniture, and plush animals, there’s no shortage of relevant follow-on products to surface at the right moment.
List Health and Deliverability
Sign-up forms were optimized through A/B testing to improve list growth, while a list-cleaning initiative removed unengaged subscribers to strengthen deliverability across all sends. The result was a deliverability score of 86 and a more responsive audience — one worth marketing to.
With creative testing infrastructure in place, audiences building across all three channels, and automation converting and retaining customers in the background, the strategy was designed to compound — not just perform in the moment.
Outcome
By establishing a ROAS-based performance framework and executing a full-funnel strategy across Meta, Pinterest, and email, LP scaled Maileg’s U.S. paid media investment 186% year-over-year — and delivered results that justified every dollar.
+143%
Revenue
Due to account scaling
5.2x
Return on Ad Spend
Increasing Ad spend 186%
+121%
Purchases
Landing page views up 104%
+67%
Conversions
Order value increased 68%
+72%
Performance+ Campaigns
+15% outbound clicks
+111%
Remarketing Campaigns
Engagement increased 66%
+46%
Email Flow Revenue
Total email sales +6%
+20%
Recipients
Open rate increase of 7.7%
+8%
Deliverability Score
Up to 86 currently
The brand’s European headquarters took notice. Mid-year, leadership moved to increase the U.S. budget ahead of the holiday shopping season, a direct response to performance during what is typically Maileg’s slowest season.
Sustained Growth Achieved
By building a performance-linked investment model and a full-funnel strategy designed to scale with it, Maileg has established a durable growth engine for the U.S. market. The audiences built throughout the off-season — introduced through prospecting, nurtured through mid-funnel, and now sitting in retargeting pools — are positioned to convert at higher rates when holiday demand peaks. With expanded automation flows, a healthier email list, and a creative testing infrastructure that continues to surface winning assets, LP and Maileg enter the holiday season with momentum and a strategy built to sustain it.
