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Bonjour Millionaire,

Remember when this happened last year? I was all over it. I still love.

Oh, on the topic of Loewe....

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ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS

“Surprise and delight” has become a marketing cliché. Accordingly, I’d like to take a moment to reset what “surprise & delight” is NOT:

- A really cool ad is NOT “surprise and delight.”

- Expedient and personalized customer service? NOT “surprise and delight.”

- A great product….you already know what I’m gonna say.

THESE ARE NOT SURPRISE & DELIGHT. CONSIDER THESE NON-NEGOTIABLES.

“Surprise and delight,” on the other hand, is the extra special something customers never even imagined. It blows minds, and then changes them. It turns casual browsers into rabid evangelists. (I say this as a rabid evangelist myself.)

It's why the brands of tomorrow turn “surprise and delight” into a repeatable, expandable strategy that customers simply can’t resist sharing.

I’ve rounded up a few examples of recent favs for us to peruse, starting with 1 of the best instances of surprise & delight from the past decade, IMNSHO.

Oh, sorry. Where was I? Ahh, yes. My favorite surprise & delight.

LOEWE

Wanna come up with something customers will talk about? Start with social listening.

LOEWE saw a funny tweet about an heirloom tomato and rewarded its originator with a limited-edition tomato clutch!

Then it made the bag available for purchase (it sold out immediately), and went HARD on Hot Tomato Summer with tomato-centric social, brand activations like greenhouses and drink collabs, and SKUs. This spring, they even launched a flipping hot air balloon. I LOVE WHEN BRANDS WITH BIG BUDGETS ACT LIKE IT.

You know I don’t get the tomato scent craze, but this is ICONIC.

Note to ourselves: whether or not the tomato clutch was just a case of exceptional timing (Jonathan Anderson claimed it was already designed for the next season and revealed the bag 2 days after the meme), the takeaway here is clear: embrace the moment, and capitalize on it.

When Anderson shared the new bag for the first time on IG, he captioned it “🍅Loewe🍅 meme to reality.”

They could have ignored the viral gag. They already had their inexplicably popular Tomato Leaves scent, after all. But instead, they took an opportunity to play. To frolic. To surprise & delight. And now, every time I look at an heirloom tomato, I think of a brand. 🍅 🐌

Old Navy

You know how sometimes the comments are the best part of TikTok? Brands are figuring that out, and running with it.

When a Florida high schooler mentioned that a new Silk Sonic song would be perfect for an Old Navy commercial, over 1K TikTok commenters started imagining different scenes. Was it a compliment? A drag? Either way, it was an opportunity.

Old Navy dropped the “Written by the Internet” commercial 3 months later. It didn’t use the song I guess Silk Sonic thought it was a drag, but it prominently featured TikTok comments over corresponding visuals - and paid featured commenters as co-creators.

And, Old Navy encouraged fans to continue sharing their advertising ideas, which they still do.

Gatorade

This one gives me chills. Literally, I feel a bit chilly.

Gatorade (and R/GA) recently introduced a program called Cool Seats that determines the worst seat in a stadium or arena and then invites the fan in that seat to watch the game from a Gatorade cooler right on the sidelines, at the bench.

Cool Seats launched in Argentina, but if this doesn’t become a global multiyear marketing campaign, Gatorade has fumbled. Look, I speak sports.

Chewy

So, the bar here is already high. Chewy is beloved for a generous refund policy when pets don’t like a certain food or product, and occasionally surprising loyal shoppers with custom pet portraits.

Sometimes it uses “surprise and delight” to “surprise and empathize.”

Customers who report that a pet has died can get refunds on recent purchases and are sent flowers, cards, and portraits as a condolence.

It is so sad. And so beautiful.

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Surprise & Delight doesn't always need to be a whole campaign. I subscribe to OSEA Malibu and every month they send a travel-sized GWP (gift with purchase) with every subscription order.

When it arrived for the 1st time I thought I was shopping too late again and that I had accidentally added it to my cart. But then the next month, my present arrived.

Glorious. And then the next, and the next. I'm still subscribed. I am also still surprised - they change it up sometimes. Delightful!

Yours,

Ari

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