🧠 1 Marketing Framework:

STEPPS

STEPPS is a formula developed by Jonah Burger, the author of Contagious, to create viral content.

• Social Currency: Invite your customers to feel more like insiders. Humans are programmed to care what others think of them. This taps into that need to be seen positively by others and encourages conversation around your product.

• Triggers: Frequently remind people of your product utilizing triggers and they’ll talk about it more.

• Emotion: Highly emotional content is more likely to go viral. Taking that one step further, high arousal emotions like anger will be shared more often than low arousal emotions like sadness.

• Public: When you make something public, you encourage people to talk about it and share it.

• Practical Value: Provide value in the form of useful content, and people will be more likely to share it.

• Stories: We are biologically wired to see the world through narrative. Creative stories that are easy to relate to and easy to remember, and they’ll also be easy to share.

Apple’s AirPods leveraged the STEPPS framework by making their product a social status symbol (social currency), highly visible in public, emotionally appealing through ease of use, providing real value, and turning it into a shareable story.

This helped Apple take a relatively simple product and turn it into a cultural phenomenon, driving widespread organic word-of-mouth marketing.

🧑‍🏫 2 Lessons From The Best Marketers:

Lesson #1: 5 mins marketing masterclass by Al Ries:

Lesson #2: Seth Godin on Nike's brilliant marketing strategy:

📱 3 Ads That Will Blow Your Mind:

Ad #1: Absolut Blank by Absolut Vodka

Absolut Vodka's "Absolut Blank" campaign used simple bottle shapes filled with colorful art created by different artists.

The idea was to show Absolut as a brand that inspires creativity and is connected to art and culture.

By doing this, they made the brand feel fun and artistic, appealing to people who appreciate creativity and originality in both art and drinks.

Ad #2: Nescafe: Mona Lisa

This advertisement creatively uses the iconic image of the Mona Lisa, incorporating humor to promote Nescafé's instant espresso.

By altering Mona Lisa's usually enigmatic smile into a wide-eyed expression suggestive of caffeine-induced alertness, the ad playfully connects the renowned art piece with the stimulating effects of espresso.

The tagline "The Instant Espresso" reinforces the idea of quick and easy stimulation, much like the sudden change in Mona Lisa's expression, cleverly implying that Nescafé's product is instant and revitalizing.

Ad #3: Worlds Apart by Heineken

Heineken's "Worlds Apart" campaign brought together people with opposing views and had them work on a task before revealing their differing ideologies.

The catch?

After their beliefs were revealed, they had the choice to discuss their differences over a beer.

This ad played on the power of dialogue and beer's social nature to bridge gaps between people, aligning perfectly with Heineken’s message of openness and bringing people together, regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs.