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  • When you are running prospecting ads at a large scale, you often need to “over explain” the benefits and value props in your ad.

  • If this isn’t a retargeting campaign, then it’s considered cold traffic. For this audience, simplifying the product and re-iterating all of the key value props is a must to get the most out of your media at scale.

  • My favorite framework is to first write out how you would explain what you’re selling to a friend over text. Then write out the answer to, “Why did you buy this”, but think of someone asking that in a condescending tone. Combine that and you have an amazing prospecting ad.

I love a question that makes you alter your perspective, so the “why did you buy this” idea above is right up my alley.

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Fun listen about Formula 1 as a brand and it’s accidental rise in popularity.

Pandemic + Netflix doc + TikTok + creator economy = Formula 1’s (American) ascension

Doc popularity was a surprise to Netflix.

Now there’s a major sport with a differentiated audience demo compared to the legacy leagues.

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We study the macroeconomic implications of narratives, defined as beliefs about the economy that spread contagiously. In an otherwise standard business-cycle model, narratives generate persistent and belief-driven fluctuations. Sufficiently contagious narratives can "go viral," generating hysteresis in the model's unique equilibrium. Empirically, we use natural-language-processing methods to measure firms' narratives. Consistent with the theory, narratives spread contagiously and firms expand after adopting optimistic narratives, even though these narratives have no predictive power for future firm fundamentals. Quantitatively, narratives explain 32% and 18% of the output reductions over the early 2000s recession and Great Recession, respectively, and 19% of output variance.

For all our advancements, we’re still a storytelling species subject to animal spirits. Interpreting the shadows cast by the communal fire and sense making through story.

Narratives matter.

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Imagine this but in a pair of glasses like Meta’s Orion:

Sensors will only proliferate (ambient computing!) creating even richer augmented experiences.

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Glamming up a robot risks overpromising what the robot as a product can actually do.  That risks disappointing customers. And disappointed customers are not going to be an advocate for your product/robot, nor be repeat buyers.

Replace “robot” with whatever you sell.

Marketing and selling is a series of promises made to a potential customer. The product better keep—or better yet, exceed—those promises.

The spectacle should be ancillary to the product—an attention magnet. The spectacle shouldn’t be the promise.