Gen Z didn’t break marketing. They just revealed it was broken the whole time.
The tactics that worked before worked because the audience hadn’t seen them yet. Gen Z has seen all of it. Twice.
They know when an influencer deal was paid for.
They know when a brand voice was written by a committee.
And unlike every generation before them, they say it out loud.
The brands winning right now aren’t doing something new. They’re just doing what marketing was always supposed to be: clear, useful, honest, consistent, and native to the communities they serve.
If you’re building a brand right now, the question isn’t “how do I market to Gen Z.” It’s “does my brand actually deserve their trust?”
💬 Comment “FILTER“ and I’ll send you the free Gen Z Brand Scorecard — 15 questions, score yourself across all five pillars, and find out exactly what to fix first.
#brandstrategy #marketingtrends #brandbuilding #founders
More traffic won’t save a weak brand.
It will expose it faster.
Most brands think they have an ad problem.
Bad creative.
Wrong targeting.
Weak hook.
Poor landing page.
Sometimes that’s true…
But usually, the ad is doing its job. It’s sending people into a brand system that can’t hold them.
They click…
Then they check your Instagram.
Your website.
Your reviews.
Your proof.
Your offer.
Your competitors.
That click becomes a background check.
Every weak signal creates doubt.
And doubt kills conversion.
The brands that scale profitably aren’t just better at buying attention. They’re better at surviving scrutiny once they get it.
Ads don’t create belief. They amplify the belief system that already exists.
💬 Comment “LEAK” and I’ll send you the Brand Leak Diagnostic. Find exactly where buyers are dropping off between the click and the sale.
#brandstrategy #dtcmarketing #growthmarketing #contentstrategy #paidads
Nobody buys from a brand they just met.
Buyers are scrolling your grid before they buy.
They’re reading your captions like reviews.
They’re checking whether the brand they’re about to support actually stands for something, or just stands next to whatever’s trending.
Three behaviors are driving this:
- Discovery moved into group chats and small communities. Reach isn’t demand.
- People buy from brands that reflect who they already are, not brands that pitch hardest.
- Authenticity reads as a pattern, not a post. One good moment doesn’t build trust. Fifty consistent ones do.
The brands losing right now aren’t bad at marketing.
They’re inconsistent. And buyers can feel it.
I built a free audit that scores your last 30 days against the four things buyers are actually checking for.
💬Comment “AUDIT” and I’ll DM it over.
#brandstrategy #brandpositioning #brandgrowth #contentstrategy
We have a generation of marketers who’ve been neutered. And it’s killing the brands they’re hired to build.
Test toward the middle.
Never alienate.
Never commit.
Optimize for everyone until the brand is nothing to anyone.
The founders I work with keep asking why their content isn’t landing. Why nothing feels sticky. Why the brand isn’t breaking through.
The answer is the same one nobody wants to hear. Every edge that would’ve made it matter got sanded down on the way to broad appeal.
@notyethome.co built a faith brand that doesn’t water down the message. @davidprotein put a frozen cod on their website and went $0 to $100M. The brands getting bought aren’t the safe ones.
They’re the ones a specific group of people are obsessed with.
That obsession comes from saying something with conviction and being okay when the wrong people leave.
💬 Comment “BOLD” and I’ll send you the Boring Brand Audit.
#brandstrategy #marketingpsychology #brandpositioning #contentstrategy
Brands are quietly killing the one-off creator deal and most people aren’t paying attention.
For a decade the move was the same. Hire a bunch of creators, spread the money thin, chase impressions. It barely worked.
Only 12% of consumers buy after one exposure. The other 88% need to see it again, and again, and again.
So one-off posts were always a setup to fail.
The biggest brands already figured this out. @nike built its own studio. @lvmh launched one. @abinbev signed a multi-year deal with @netflix . They stopped buying ads and started building IP with talent.
The same thing is coming for creators. Longer deals. Equity. Co-developed product. A real seat at the table.
If you’re a creator negotiating a brand deal right now, or a brand still running one-offs and wondering why the ROI is soft, comment “PARTNER” and I’ll send you the audit I use to score any partnership.
Creative freedom on projects is a balance.
Even if there is a lot of red tape with a client, know how to still add your sauce.
If the reigns are removed — go crazy.
Recent work w/ @nobull
#production
@paypal is paying $236K for a Head of CEO Content. @openai is paying $393K for a Content Strategist.
The most valuable companies on earth are now hiring humans to act like a media team for their brand. That tells you everything.
Your favourite brands aren’t selling products anymore. They’re running shows that sell products on the side.
The proof is everywhere if you know where to look.
@grunsdaily sold to @unilever for $1.2B in 32 months by out-publishing the supplement category.
A bagel shop in New York built a separate Instagram show interviewing people in their line and racks tens of thousands of views per video. @leonsbagelsnyc
A hat brand from Virginia shot a 4-day cinematic film on the Bonneville Salt Flats to launch their biggest collection of the year. @sweethatco
A clothing brand made its grid look like stills from a film and built 261K followers selling expensive clothes. @shinzobrand
Different categories. Same playbook. They all stopped acting like product companies and started acting like studios.
If you’re a DTC founder, you’re not running a brand anymore. You’re running a studio that ships product.
💬 Comment “MEDIA” and I’ll DM you the Brand-as-Media Audit. Score where you sit across the 4 content categories and what to fix first.
2.6M views. 13.7K sends. 770K more views from the trainer’s personal page.
@joinladder first celebrity campaign with @hilaryduff didn’t just perform. It scaled past Ladder’s category entirely. But the casting is what made it work.
Hilary wasn’t cast because she’s Hilary Duff. She was cast because she’s a mom of four who actually lifts. The campaign confirmed a cultural truth her audience already believed. And her real trainer had real reasons to talk about it.
Same playbook is showing up everywhere right now. @meetcleo did it with a real NYC finance bro. @linkedin did it with a DJ who used to be a CPA at EY. @johnsummit
The casting is the strategy. Start with the truth, not the talent list.
💬 Comment “CASTING” for the worksheet. 5 questions to pressure-test your next campaign casting. Free, no email.
#brandstrategy #marketingstrategy #creativedirection #brandbuilding
This project speaks for itself 😮💨😮💨
A clean design, clear message & apparel that vibes with the brand. This bundle of American Apparel tees and Richardson hats displays what it means hit the mark when aiming to be on brand.
Garments: @americanapparel unisex French terry ex crew, @richardsonsports 323FPC & 258 rope cap
@lilbieber did $15M in merchandise at Coachella.
The previous record was $1.7M across two weekends.
He beat it nine times over with @skylrk that was eleven months old.
@davidprotein launched in September 2024 and is on pace for $140M in year one. A protein bar. Acting like a fashion house.
@realeactives did $5M on launch day because the world was built two years before the product existed.
Different categories. Same blueprint. Story. Signal. System. Then the launch is a formality.
I built a diagnostic to score your brand across the three pillars of worldbuilding.
💬 Comment “WORLD” and I’ll DM it to you.
#brandstrategy #marketingstrategy #buildingbrands
Every marketer on my feed is telling brands to launch a show.
But a show is just a container. The brands people keep pointing to, Red Bull, Patagonia, Aimé Leon Dore, Bandit, didn’t win by making content. They won by picking a culture their audience already lived in and showing up as participants. The content came after. Not before.
@redbull funded extreme sports. @patagonia funded environmental activism. @aimeleondore built inside NYC basketball and hip-hop. @banditrunning came out of the run club scene. Four categories, one playbook: be part of a world, don’t just market at one.
Three filters before you make another piece of content:
1. Is there a world your audience already lives in?
2. Would you still show up if the cameras were off?
3. Does your presence make the culture better, or just more branded?
💬 Comment “SCALE” and I’ll send you the Participation Audit. Scored diagnostic that tells you if you’re a Brand with Ads, a Brand with Content, or a Brand with a World.
