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Bonjour Millionaire, Happy Birthday week to my little sister Kayla. Nobody I'd rather copy in this life.* *specific only to sunscreen. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe Here
Sponsored by Billo First, I have 2 resources to share:
1️⃣: NEW: top-performing creator ad hooks over the last 6 months (!)
- The winning hooks out of hundreds of thousands of UGC assets.
- 3 patterns that appear in over half the top spots
- Types of briefs that work best
2️⃣: CreativeOps, a new service built on the same insights ^^^
You: paste in a product link. Get back: persona suggestions, briefing ideas, & specific messages to test for each 1.
The temptation to gatekeep these is strong. But I'm choosing generosity! Proud of myself.
(And excited for the new hooks we're both about to test.)
P.S. Off-topic, but “The anti-guesswork system for creator ads"? Can we take a second to admire that tagline?
ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS It's never smart to copy or seek influence from the brands you don't look up to. I've described this before as playing in the right sandbox. I'm very happy to run an ad of my products next to Chanel lip gloss or in an expensive setting playing with brands that are more known, more historied, or just crushing. Some brands also lend cool-factor that is used in organic and in paid arenas. Coca-Cola is the coolest example of that (to me). Here's 1 of my fashion idols (Morgan Stewart McGraw) hard-posting Coca-Cola to Instagram. Because it's good for her brand. I think it has to do with the whole punching up a weight class theory and you know who your brand is for sure not bigger than? Coca fucking Cola. If you're not Coca-Cola, you're not big enough. Today we will explore the luxury product that is Cola Cola. WWCCD =
What Would Coca-Cola Do?Why are we talking about Coca-Cola? Well, for starters, because Coke is my platonic ideal of a big behemoth of a brand. And, as you know, a brand is a series of choices. Especially a big one that stands the test of time. What were coke’s choices, and why were they the right ones? Then, is it possible to create your own “WWCCD?” philosophy/rubric to guide your own brand? I think you should do that. In thinking like Coca-Cola, perhaps we create the ideal lens to explore what it means to build a distinctive, big, luxury brand. To quote myself as I talked to my friends about this, "Coca-Cola is like a luxury brand in my mind, even though it's genuinely the most mass product that's ever been made." I feel this way because you KNOW that if you were asked to name the most luxury soda brand, you would absolutely name Coca-Cola. YOU KNOW YOU WOULD. Because there's a standard and a taste-level and an art, and it's fucking Coca-Cola! Next time you're in a meeting arguing back and forth over an idea or unsure of what to do next that future-you can own gracefully, invoke the WWCCD methodology and I think you'll be alright. And, as you know, there's a right and a wrong way to do everything. What's wrong in brand and in marketing and in growth and in the market right now is that nothing is interesting and everyone is so aloof that it just loses charm. They actually call it blanding… all of these brands seeming so derivative because they're all just trying to look luxe or look like the brand that's in their category that is 1 step ahead of them. And, that's just not dreaming big enough. WWCCD? Coca-Cola is for sure more than 1 step ahead of you. And, that's totally great. Hence why we look up to them. There’s a reason brands go for the trendy look-alike style or aesthetic, and in the short-term it can be really handy. We’ve all bought based on aesthetic, even if it was just a wine label. Santa Margarita in college made me feel so beyond classy that I stuck with it for many years as a way to flex. I admit it. I wish this wasn't my picture but it is and it's my old old old apartment and I was so proud to display my Santa Margarita let me tell you. Back to Blanding. The DTC Darlings all looked the same. The millennial brands all looked the same. I mean, they still all look the same. Everyone is looking to their left and their right but nobody is looking up the way I think they used to and it's showing. Putting this one in so we can all take a second and be like FFS where did the good ones go? This old Burberry logo was so gorgeous… and now it's nothing. Breaks my heart. Look at the Erewhon drink case for the same sea of sameness AKA sea of nothing AKA copied their category set and didn't look UP. Not giving Coca-Cola to me! WWCCD?I've been a part of many brand launches that I'm extremely proud to have seen up close. When the founders who sat on the other side of the launch, the founders who actually own the brand and control the vision, I knew a brand had real legs when their references were so aspirational (looking up) or so vintage (looking back at what has lasted) that they didn't even care to talk about the brands directly in their set. Because when you think about choices you're making as you launch a brand, scale a brand, send an email, make an ad, launch on Marketplace, redo your storefront, go into podcast advertising, whatever... ask yourself WWCCD and not what would the brand that's making $5M more than us doing. Because what could happen if you just acted 50 steps ahead instead of 1 step ahead? A lot. I know because I've seen it. Coca-Cola references Norman Rockwell / Americana, not other drinks. Coca-Cola follows the seasonsBut Ari! I don't have a Coca-Cola level budget. But Millionaire! I don't either. But Coca-Cola invented Santa Clause as we know him now because they follow the seasons and so maybe you could do that too as a next step? NY Fashion Week is happening right now showing SS27. I want a Khaite leather jacket so badly it hurts me to even type that to you. Where was I? Oh, I was at the point where it doesn't cost anything to redesign your site to bring more red into it for Cyber. Because that makes it holiday-themed. Like your promobar. Make it red. I just helped you in a big way and I hope you do that. Create products that aren't for every TAM but that elevate your brand. That will cost you but it's worth it. Like the Coca-Cola glass bottle. I'll continue talking about this because I have a lot to say and this is why I'm a good marketer if I'm honest. I'm studying the brands that are so, so iconic and out of reach. Do that, too! WWCCD!
EVENT OF THE WEEK If you want to break through the Black Friday noise, you probably need to stop asking 1 channel to do everything. 😉 I've got an omnichannel BFCM weapon scaling this year. 🤺 Join me on 10/8, I'll break down exactly what's working. Was kidding about only copying her for sunscreen. She's cool cool. Love her. ♍️ Yours,
Ari | 
