Good Marketing, Bad Marketing and One Campaign That Almost Ruined a Brand

Alright guys welcome back to another episode of Running with Wolves. If you have seen any of the content I've been posting on TikTok or Instagram, this episode is going to sound very familiar to you, but we are going to kind of dive into an extended episode of my What the fuck was that series? So my What the fuck was that series was something that I came up with a couple months ago because I kept seeing such terrible marketing campaigns. So as a quick ask from you guys, if there are any marketing campaigns that you're seeing where you're like, man, you need to talk about this. Please send them to me where you're like, this is atrocious or I've actually started doing recently some really positive ones because I can't find any more negative ones, but it was a series that was born out of, oh my god, these are such bad marketing campaigns. I have to talk about why they're terrible. So we're going to do just a speed round of what the fuck was that where we talk about all the different campaigns that I've seen in the last couple months, the good, the bad, the ugly, and we're going to talk about why they worked and why they didn't. So I'm excited for this one, but the entire goal, just as an FYI, it's not to just like roast people's marketing, okay, you know, you guys know, like I love a good roast. I always say like, we roast because we care, but I don't just want to roast different people's marketing campaigns or even talk about how phenomenal they are just for the fuck of it. It's really more so like, what can we learn? What can we avoid in the future in our own marketing or what can we take and implement even for our own marketing strategies moving forward of what people are actually doing really, really well. In fact, I actually sent one of my like, what the fuck was that video to some of my clients this morning to be like, hey, this would actually be really, really good for you to implement in your marketing strategy moving forward. Because I think one of the biggest problems with how marketing gets taught online in my opinion is that it becomes very like theoretical. So people will talk about funnels and content strategies and positioning frameworks and brand archetypes, right? Whatever buzzword is trending that week, like there was a time where I was talking a lot about sales psychology and buyer types because it was something that I was integrating into my client strategies consistently. This was like four or five years ago and all the sudden that's all anyone their mother was ever fucking talking about when it comes to marketing, right? Recently, it's about building community or founder-forward marketing. Any buzzword, it's going to change on the week, on the month, on the quarter, it doesn't matter. But marketing the real world doesn't just happen in a vacuum, which is why I think that real world examples are really helpful to see like what people mean by the specific funnels or strategies they're saying to use. It happens in culture, it happens in moments, it happens in conversations people are already having, right? And when you look at marketing through that lens, you start to see something really interesting, which is that the brands that win are usually the ones that are paying attention and be involving themselves in the conversations their audience is already having. They're the ones who are listening to their audience and the ones that typically lose in my opinion usually lose because they completely misunderstand the emotional context that their audience is living in. So today, we're going to walk through four specific examples that I recently talked about. Some of them are phenomenal marketing. Some of them are absolute disasters and every single one of them teaches us something very valuable about biorepsychology, modern brand building and the future of marketing. So there are going to be some things you can take away to implement in your own strategies this week and there are going to be some things that I hope that every single time you potentially think about incorporating into your marketing, you run for the hills because you have my voice in the back of your head being like, ooh, Savannah said don't do that. Don't do it. So the first example that I want to give is going to be all about founder-led marketing. And we're going to start with one of my favorite examples of this, which is a creator named Shelby Sap who teaches sales. She's created a massive brand. She started out as a door-to-door pest control saleswoman. So she's built her brand literally from the ground up. She started giving trainings to different sales teams within her own company, went out on her own. And now she has actually a pretty big like closing program essentially where she teaches women primarily how to be sales closers and do it super effectively. And what she does in her content is incredibly simple but very powerful. So instead of telling people how good she is at sales, she shows them, which is one of the things I've been telling my audience and my clients recently is that the future of marketing is not telling people it's showing them. Oftentimes the way I think about this, a lot of the analogies are metaphors that I use are from relationships. So I'm sorry, but it's very applicable to a lot of people whether their romantic pletonic doesn't matter. If you have been in a negative relationship before, typically you lack trust. So if you've been burned before, whether that was by a family member, a friend, a romantic partner, it does not matter. You've been burned, right? And so you don't typically trust people's words. You watch how they act and how they operate. The same is for brands and businesses. Most consumers and buyers in this day and age when they're purchasing a product or investing in a service have been burned by a brand or business similar to yours or they know someone who's been burned. So they're skeptical, they're hesitant, they're cautious. And so trust building is a really crucial part of any marketing strategy. And what I love that Shelby does is that she doesn't tell people you should trust me because I'm really good at sales. She shows people that they can trust her because she's really good at sales. Okay. So she creates content where she will literally walk through sales scenarios. If you go look at any of her TikToks, her Instagram doesn't matter. She'll be in her car, but she'll be like, if someone tells me that they're struggling to help like overcome an objection to sales conversation, this is how I would handle it. And she starts role playing right there in that video. She's letting people watch her think, which is incredibly fascinating because a lot of marketers or brands or businesses don't do this. And I think it's why she's grown so quickly and why she stands out from her competitors. So aggressively like there really isn't anyone who's doing things the way that she is. Because think about how most people market their services, right? They say things like I help people scale businesses or I help people close more deals or I help people grow their brand, right? But those are claims that they then need evidence to back up. So a lot of people will use social proof. A lot of people will use their own results to show proof or evidence of that claim. And unfortunately buyers today are incredibly skeptical of claims, right? Because like I said, we've all been burned by good marketing before. It doesn't matter what the product or services. We've all bought something from someone or a brand or a business that we were promised to the world and delivered absolutely nothing. Okay? So when someone like Shelby comes along and actually demonstrates her thinking process, something shifts in her audience and buyers minds, which is instead of asking like, oh, is this person legit, right? This buyer starts thinking like, wow, she actually really knows what she's doing. And that shift is huge. And something that I think actually takes a lot of time for most brands or businesses to build as far as like that shift or that trust if they're marketing normally how you would see a brand or business market. Because that number one barrier in most sales decisions is trust. And when someone trusts that you understand their problem, the entire buying process becomes easier, which is why demonstration based marketing is so powerful because instead of just saying something because like if you just make a statement about something, people's walls will immediately go up. I always say if you demonstrate it or you ask questions, their defense mechanisms immediately go down. And it's so powerful because instead of telling someone that you're good at something, you show them how you think, you show them how you solve problems, how you approach specific situations. Because when people watch you solve problems in real time, your expertise becomes really obvious without you needing to tell people about it. And that's pretty much exactly what Shelby has been doing. So if you guys want to go and look at any of her content, I very much recommend that you do so. Obviously don't copy any of it, but it's a great example of that demonstration based marketing. Okay, so the second example I'm going to give you is also another positive one. I think I only have one negative one. Yeah, I only have one negative example in here. So I'm going to give you three really great examples of fantastic marketing. And a really another great example of demonstration based marketing. I actually just did a video on this. I believe it was yesterday or the day before Friday or Thursday. I can't remember. But another really incredible example of this comes from a salon owner that I saw on TikTok. Now this salon owner owns a place called Smooth Salon, which I believe is in Phoenix. Don't don't correct me if I'm wrong. And what she does in her content is something that honestly, I wish more service providers would do, which is showing her consultation process. And I know that there's a lot of people in the beauty industry who are starting to do this now, which is great as far as showing their consultation. But I think she does a lot of things differently than even other people showing their consultation process. I actually was talking with some of my clients about this because I gave it to them as an example of today as well. And something I mentioned to them was that this video that I saw of hers was almost I call it like a triple threat, basically, right? Where it does so many things all at once for you. It's content that would probably go viral, which it did, which is why I saw it. It would create a ton of engagement and trust, but it would also convert people into a potential client or booking for her. So this one video I saw of hers, and if you wanna see the actual video, go look at my page 'cause you can see it from there. She does such an amazing job. She analyzes her client's hair on camera, explains why certain approaches work or don't work. She breaks down the reasoning behind her recommendations, and she even talks through her client's potential hesitations, concerns, or objections around the treatment she's gonna use for her hair, okay? So this video does so many different things and this video is a transformation video. So it shows the before of her hair and the after of her hair when she does it, okay? Not only does this show the before and after of her work, it also immediately grabs people's attention who have hair similar to her clients. Her client had type four hair, which unfortunately most people in the beauty industry are not taught how to handle that kind of hair, okay? So her hesitation in coming to this new salon was are you going to be able to handle my hair? Here's what I've tried before. Here's why it hasn't worked. Here's what I've been told to try. Here are my concerns or hesitations around it. Immediately it uses a sales psychology tactic called identity, which is to immediately get people to identify with what you're talking about in your marketing. So someone who has type four hair or unruly hair that's a little bit more difficult to manage. Maybe it doesn't work with certain treatments or services or things like that. Would be like, yep, that's me too. I've tried that as well and it hasn't worked. Or here's something I've considered trying, but here's my hesitations. They see themselves in that marketing, which immediately gets their attention number one. But then on top of that, it immediately causes them to listen to you because you understand their current reality. So they're like, well, why is she talking about this? Clearly she knows something. Maybe she has some insider expertise that I don't, right? Now, if you're someone who gets their hair done regularly, you know that the trust between your stylist and you as a client is everything. It is crucial. People are literally trusting you with their appearance, which means they want to feel confident that you know what you're doing, that you're not going to fuck up their hair dramatically, right? And this creator is so brilliant 'cause she's letting people and potential clients see exactly how she thinks, how she operates, how she figures out what's going to look best and what isn't on a client. She shows them how she diagnoses problems with a client's hair, evaluates hair types, how she decides on solutions. And that transparency builds trust pretty much immediately because instead of guessing whether she's good or not, you can actually see it. And this is something that so many service providers I think really overlook because your process is one of your biggest marketing assets 'cause typically it's pretty unique, right? People love watching experts work. Think about cooking shows, right? Think about behind-the-scenes documentaries. Think about interior design like home renovation shows. Think about any form of content where someone is mastering a craft. Watching someone work is fascinating. And when you bring that energy into your marketing, your audience starts to feel like they know you before they ever work with you. And that familiarity, that trust makes it dramatically easier for them to choose you versus your competitors. Okay, let's talk about a completely different example. For those of you who watch Trash Reality TV, you will know the intersection that I'm talking about. For those of you that don't, don't worry, I'll catch you up. It's pretty simple to understand. So I myself am a lover of Trash Reality TV. And when it intersects with a founder, a business owner, that I already know of, immediately binging it, okay? So as most of you guys can guess, who I'm talking about, Amanda Francis is the newest cast member of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills this season. And before she was on the show, she already had started founded and scaled a company all the way to eight figures actually. So she's very successful teaching manifestation and money mindset. Now, I am not here to talk about whether or not she's a scam artist because I know that conversation is going around the reality TV worlds. Okay, I'm here to really more so talk about her marketing and her ability to shift, I would say, criticism and controversy into like actual sales because it was pretty wild seeing this happen in real time. She recently was kind of the feature or like focal point of a specific episode this season. And she hosted what she was calling like a manifestation dinner for her cast mates, okay? She put a lot of time and effort and thought into it and she wanted them to experience the work that she does with her clients. And the internet had a lot to say about it, obviously. Some people thought it was amazing, some people thought it was fucking ridiculous. And a lot of people were making fun of it, right? But here's the really interesting part is that she did not sit here and like try to defend herself. She didn't create content around like why it was actually a great idea and no one understands her and blah, blah, blah. She didn't try to argue with critics. Instead, she actually turned the dinner into a fucking digital product, you guys. She created a product where people could basically experience that manifestation dinner themselves. It was essentially a master class. And I thought it was a really brilliant marketing move because sometimes something that founders forget is that not everyone is your customer, okay? The people mocking her online were never going to buy from her anyway, right? But the people who already believed in her brand or even believed in manifestation as a whole money mindset, things like that. And the people who watched that show who also believed in that were potential customers. The people who already follow her, the people interested in that worldview loved it immediately bought from her, right? And it's one of the biggest mistakes that I think brands make, which is that they try to convince skeptics instead of serving their believers. Marketing is not about convincing everyone and I actually believe firmly that if you are marketing correctly, what your marketing will do is it will deter people who are not your target audience and it will actually bring people in who are your target audience. So having that polarity almost and having people be like, she's fucking crazy. I don't like her blah, blah, blah. That's exactly what she wanted it to do, right? Marketing is about finding people who already resonate with your message and giving them more of what they want. And she did exactly that. She saw a moment of attention, even if it was negative from people who weren't even gonna buy from her in the first place and she turned it into a product which is marketing awareness, right? All right, last of our positive examples and then I have a negative example for you to really end us on a high note, you guys. For those of you just listening to the podcast and not watching, I was like, yeah, amazing, perfect. Okay, so founder vulnerability. Another example that I loved recently of founder-forward content is Jenna Palak. You guys all know her, we all know, we all love her. We're Jenna girls here. I posted this video on TikTok and people were like, I thought I was an enemy territory for a second, you are not, don't worry. I freaking love Jenna and I'm giving you a positive example of something that she did recently. She hosted, obviously you guys know, she does like these really big fitness events with hundreds of women attending and during one of them recently, the something happened with the DJ where he either like walked out or something happened but the music stopped completely in the middle of a workout and for those of you girls who do like big class workouts, you know that that music is really everything to keep that energy going, okay? And she was capturing her doing this class on video for content moving forward and so it caught her number one reaction and how she handled that process on video and instead of ignoring it, she leaned into it and she actually commented on the video that I did and she was like, this is so cool 'cause like I didn't actually even really think about how this was marketing. I was just trying to be like authentic online but I love hearing you talk about how this was actually a perfect fit into my marketing strategy because she posted a follow up video on it and she actually talked about like kind of her internal narrative while this was happening and even directly after it. She talked about how she was incredibly embarrassed by it, how anxious she felt and the thoughts that were like kind of racing through her head in that moment and something really interesting happened was that people fucking loved it because instead of pretending that everything was perfect, she showed the reality of what it's like to be a founder, right? And people connected deeply with that. She talked about how her goal is to always have these like perfect events where everything goes wonderfully but that she handled it the best that she possibly could. So it shows her dedication and her commitment to her craft and her clients and her brand. It shows how seriously she takes it. It shows her problem solving moments or problem solving skills in the moment. And it was really interesting because I think that something that I've seen pretty consistently with brands and businesses and like people's perception of them in marketing within even the last year, I would say, is that people are so sick and tired of like the overly perfect version of brands and businesses. They want connection, vulnerability. They want a peek behind the curtain. They want to see how you operate, how you are, your values, your mission, et cetera. And so that moment that she shared when real founders do stuff like that, their audience see something powerful, which is that this person cares. They care about the experience that they're creating, their customers and that emotional transparency builds loyalty. So if there's anything that you guys take away from this, It's that you should be looking at your day-to-day operations, not just your wins, but your failures as well. And be talking about all of that in your marketing and how you handle it, because that continues to build trust. Let's finish up with our last example, which in true what the fuck was that fashion? We are going to talk about a negative one, a very controversial marketing campaign. Like so controversial that I seriously saw this and was like, how the fuck did this get approved by the brand? Because you have to remember that like anything that goes out by a big brand like this, which is free to baby, anything that goes out with a big brand like that, this has to go through multiple rounds of approvals, right? Anything that's going to even be slightly polarizing, free to baby is a brand that has kind of blown up recently for a lot of parents. And so they have a good legal department, like it's not anything that is like a small start-up by any means. Like this is a bigger brand now, so like you have multiple different, like I said, rounds of approval that this has to go through to like even get out to the public. So I was like, number one, what's happening right now, right? If you're a parent, which I know a large portion of my audience, you guys are moms, you probably know this brand. I have a friend who, you know, is due to have her baby in a couple of months and she saw my post and she was like, "Okay, I'm taking their, their like products off of my registry because this is insane." And they released an ad that combined two very different themes, which was on one side. They were talking about using a rectal thermometer on your baby. And then on the other side, they were making sexual jokes about a threesome. In one fucking post, it was actually insane. And when I saw that, I got tagged in it and someone was like, "I'm not a marketing expert, but like someone needs to talk about this." I seriously was like, what the hell is happening here, right? Because marketing has one very important rule. Let's take out the completely like wildly inappropriate subject matter from this campaign. Okay, number one, let's talk about how fucking insane that is, especially given the state of the world right now and everything that's happening. This was like in the same couple of weeks as like everything blowing up with the Epstein files, like I just was like, "Oh my God, how did this get out?" Like number one. So, what the hell is happening here? But you have to understand all of that aside, as a brand, your marketing has one job. Your job is to join the conversation your audience is already having. Okay, so again, take away the wildly inappropriate themes here. Think about your target audience of free-to-baby, its parents of newborns that are having conversations around topics like fear and anxiety and sleep deprivation and doing things right and keeping their baby safe, right? That's their emotional landscape, okay? That's their reality right now. And Frida actually had a great product for conversation around that. Their thermometer solves a very real problem. Parents are terrified when their baby gets sick, especially first-time parents, okay? They feel anxious, they feel guilty, they want reassurance, but instead of speaking to those emotional realities and how that thermometer would actually calm their fears, would make it so that their parenting experience was easier and that they could take better care of their kids, the brand tried to, I don't even know what they were trying to do, I would assume that they were trying to be edgy or polarizing or funny, it more than missed them, obviously. And when you misread the emotional context of your audience like that, the backlash is pretty immediate, which it was. Like this is something where there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions of comments around this campaign and people being like, we're boycotting Frida baby, like a move like that can ruin a brand, which honestly, if that's what you're talking about and that's part of your values, maybe it should, but that's neither here nor there. So all that to say, it was a massive marketing failure because the brand ignored the emotional state of their audience and you have to remember that marketing isn't just about attention or being polarizing, if you want to turn it into sales, it's about alignment. It reminded me a lot of a, it was technically like, it was a less inappropriate campaign that happened, but it was the Bumble campaign, after they completely rebranded all this different stuff a couple years ago, Bumble basically came out with some campaigns, talking about how like celibacy wasn't the answer to like the dating issue in our society, all this different stuff. But they are a dating app founded by women originally for women to empower women in the dating space and women in this day and age because of their horrible dating experiences, feeling, you know, physically unsafe a lot of times going on first dates with strange men, right? On top of that, having guys treat them like crap, hook up cultures, taking over society, all this different stuff because of their emotional realities, have been deciding not to date more or to remain celibate until they're in a serious relationship or married or any of those things, right? That is statistically something that is happening more frequently right now because of where society is at right now, that is women's reality when it comes to dating, that is their emotional reality and Bumble a couple years ago had an opportunity to after they rebranded and they made some updates to the app and things like that, they had an opportunity to become a part of that conversation and talk about how their app is a solution to that. Instead of doing that, that would have been such a fucking easy lens for them to take and it immediately would have gotten more loyalty from their audience and I actually think created better conversions of getting people to download the app and even opt into a paid version of the app, right? Instead of doing that, they started to talk about, instead of putting your retainer in maybe going on a wild first date or something, it felt like an app that was created for women and the marketing had been created by the men who had been ghosted by women on the app or had been not given an opportunity to have a date with somebody, they were like the scorned men of Bumble, it was like they had created the marketing for this new version of Bumble that was supposed to be for women. It was very strange. So again, much less like inappropriate as far as subject matter goes, however, as far as like not playing into their audience's emotional reality, it was very comparable and they got a lot of flock for it and actually had to had to end up like putting out a statement around it and ended up making a bunch of like charitable contributions and donations to like different organizations for, you know, sexual assault, women's health, all of these things because of how bad it is. And so that's another really great example of like just fucking read the room, you know, of your audience's emotional reality, play into that and talk about how you better it as a product or service instead of trying to be edgy and polarizing. So what do all of these examples teach us? Obviously, there's a few lessons here. So first things first, demonstrate your experience, show people how you think, how you solve problems, pull back the curtain on your process. Transparency like we talked about builds trust faster than really any claim can and showing your process on top of that differentiates you from your competitors because oftentimes it's pretty unique. Next founder led marketing is obviously incredibly powerful and I think a really big part of the direction where marketing and sales is heading people trust people more than they trust brands and lastly, always understand and play to the emotional context of your audience. Marketing works when you speak to the conversations your target audience is already having and when you ignore that context, things can get weird or inappropriate or negative or can literally shut down your brand, very fucking fast. So with all that being said, number one, if you guys have any brands marketing or sales campaigns, things like that where you're like, oh, Savannah, I want to hear your thoughts on this, tag me on social media so that I can do a review of them. Number two, if you guys need help with founder led marketing, how to show not just tell your process or your expertise or talking about how to craft a narrative in your marketing. That plays into your target audiences current emotional reality, then message me over on Instagram. As always, I put the application and the inquiry form to work with me in the show notes. So if you have more than just questions and you want my support doing that as you move into the next phase of marketing and sales for your brand or your business, then definitely apply there. Otherwise, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll talk to you in the next one. Bye guys.