Last week, we discussed Adjacent User Theory—a powerful growth framework for identifying opportunities to expand into tangential markets.

As a quick recap:

• Core Users: People your product was built for and who “get it.”
• Adjacent Users: People who could use it, but it needs to be modified or communicated differently to them. The goal of Adjacent User Theory is to identify the right adjacent users to expand into.

One of the powerful parts of this theory (that I didn’t cover last week because I think it muddied the conversation) is what I like to call “tipping points.”

Think of them as moments or conditions when a user is on the cusp of becoming more engaged or converting into a paid customer.

Products (ecomm and software) have tipping points at various stages.

Let’s dive into some examples.

Slack example of tipping points

The primary thresholds that a Slack user has to cross through are:

• Not Signed Up → Signed Up
  • Ex: A friend invites them to Slack
• Signed Up → Casual (occasional free user)
  • Ex: They open Slack whenever they’re pinged
• Casual Free → Core Free (active free user)
  • Ex: They open Slack to speak regularly
  • Ex: Maybe they even start their own Slack channel
• Core Free → Monetized (active paid user)
  • Ex: They upgrade to a paid user on someone else’s or their own Slack.

A tipping point is when they’re on the line between one stage and the next.

For example, Slack determined that the tipping point between a “Casual Free” and a “Core Free” was their weekly active use. If they used Slack 3 out of the last 7 days, there was a 50/50 shot they’d either churn entirely or become an active user.

Armed with this information, they knew they had to do everything they could to push people to be active more than 3 days per week. Things like:

• Encouraging them to download the mobile app
• Encourage them to enable notifications (of any kind)
• If they don’t enable push notifications, send them emails
• Seamless onboarding that lets them discover the value of Slack quickly

They knew where to focus their efforts.

Instagram example of tipping points

Here are the thresholds for Instagram:

• Not Signed Up → Signed Up
• Signed Up → Activated
• Casual → Core Usage

They discovered that if a “Signed Up” user had more than 10 followers in the first 7 days, there was a >65% chance they became “Activated.”

This is the counterpoint to the famous Twitter example where if someone followed a certain number of people, they’d be more likely to stick. Here, Instagram users were more likely to be engaged the more followers they had.

If you’re an Instagram user, you’ve definitely received these notifications before:

These trigger in various scenarios, but a common one is when someone creates an account on Instagram. It can fire them out to:

• Facebook friends
• Contacts in your phone (or if you’re a contact on their phone)
• Mutual friends
• Shared educational background on Facebook

These were created so that new users would quickly gather followers so that people became activated users.

How to find and act upon tipping points

I’ll leave you with some tactical tips on how to take action here:

#1. Make sure you’re tracking everything.

You can’t make decisions if you don’t know what users/customers are doing. Every click should be recorded and associated with the user. Do that in GA4 and/or Mixpanel/Amplitude and/or your ESP.

#2. Identify the various stages that a user goes through from discovery to full converted.

A stage can be defined by either them taking action (signing up, subscribing, purchasing) or by a more complicated set of variables (daily active, does X things per month).

See the next step for examples of different variables.

#3. Analyze the behavior of people who blew through thresholds and those who did not.

Try to identify the variables of “things they did/didn’t do” that lead to someone significantly more likely progressing through the threshold.

For example, this could be things like:

• Purchased the consumable product X times
• Have used the product on X of the last days
• Have used X and Y features (either at all or a threshold amount)
• Have opened (or clicked) X of the last Y newsletters/product emails
• Have at least X team members
• Follow your account on social media
• Have downloaded the mobile/desktop app

There are a lot of variables to consider!

Since this comes from Adjacent User Theory, you’ll also want to try to learn who these people are. Are specific personas getting stuck while others are not? If so, that could be an opportunity to change the flow/messaging to convert them better.

#4. List strategies for how to get people to reach and exceed the tipping points.

For example, if you identify that customers who buy at least 6 of your consumable DTC products are X% more likely to become paid subscribers (or loyal repeat purchasers), then list strategies to increase the likelihood they order at least 6 of the product (either all at once or in separate orders):

• Bulk discounts (shipping or discount)
• Sell a starter bundle
• Send reminder emails or texts to stock up
• Inserts into product deliveries that encourage repeat purchases
• Surprise gift (like a sample of a new flavor)

Now, go put this into action!

There are infinite ways to adjust your marketing or product to increase conversions.

Identifying tipping points helps you learn exactly where to apply force to get the maximum leverage. They provide clarity and significantly increase the odds of success for a test.

Creating a headline for an ad is incredibly difficult. It has to:

• Hook them
• Highlight the problem
• Communicate the value
• Hint at who it’s for
• Be unique/novel
• Do it all as quickly and in as few words as possible

Luckily, the visual is there to help.

The text often sits on top of or adjacent to the visual. Something like this:

This tactic all about getting creative with where the headline is placed.

Ask yourself

“Where’s the most perfect or powerful or ironic place for your headline to appear?”

(Note the headline above is from A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters.)

For example, the perfect place for a NYC taxi ad is:

And if you run a chain of restaurants in Austria at highway rest stops:

And no, before you roll your eyes and go: “I run a startup, I can’t afford to start building 100 foot tall billboards!” 

I agree. 

You probably shouldn’t do that unless you’ve got a massive budget. But remember that with a combination of Photoshop and AI you can easily make anything look real.

Some more examples

Speaking of tunnels

This ad is extremely unignorable:

3M Security Glass

This ad has gone viral numerous times: 

What better way to make a point about your product than to than to put “$3M” in a public bus stop. Note: it was there for a day, and it was only $500 of real money and it was protected by security.

Interactive ads

This is a clever two part ad:

Perfect for a non-profit that helps find housing for those who need it.

For some reason benches are popular props for this:

Transforming the everyday

Use the environment to create an absurd scene your product can help with:

Using people as props

Build up to it

These two ads show that you can build up to the punchline:

Remember, it doesn’t need to be in the real world

Many of these ads have gone viral one or more times since they’ve been captured and thrown online.

I think that’s proof that you could them as real or photoshopped images and run them digitally.

Here’s an example of a clever ad that was intended as an image from the start:

So get creative and figure out ways to place integrate the headline with the visual—whether it’s real or digital.

And I recommend A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters by Dan Nelken for more great ad-making ideas.

We’ve never analyzed a “political” ad before—for many reasons.

But this one is just completely different than any other I’ve seen.

As a fair warning, the first 2 seconds are NSFW, as you can tell from the thumbnail below.

Click here to start after that point.

tl;dr is that a man tries to use the contraceptive drug Plan B, and a grumpy Republican senator appears and tells him it has been banned.Here’s what this ad does incredibly well:

#1. The Hook

The average person scrolls ~43.25 feet of content daily on their phone.

If you fail to hook someone in the first few seconds, they’re gone.

This ad’s opener is very hard to ignore, both visually and aurally.

#2. It cuts to the chase

Most stories are terrible because they meander endlessly with useless context.

The stories that captivate give you only what’s critical.

This is what Wes Kao calls the Minimum Viable Backstory:

It didn’t waste precious time showing how the couple got into this scenario.

Instead, it cuts to the critical moment where the main character’s problem begins with just enough context for you to understand what’s going on and be invested.

#3. It’s laden with suspense

They hook you.They introduce the problem.

They get you invested.

Suddenly, an old man in a suit appears in the man’s bathroom.

(And the scream the man emits is delightful 😂)

You have no idea what you’re really watching or why.

It’s only 2/3 into the video do they finally introduce the “why.” By then, you’re really invested, and the surprise is hilarious.

#4. It engages an audience that is otherwise checked out

Most men ignore topics related to women’s reproductive rights. Although it’s a problem that affects all of us, it doesn’t directly affect men.

This ad does an excellent job making it their issue too.

It made the guy the main character of the ad:

• He’s the one trying to grab the Plan B.
• He’s the one being confronted by the grumpy man in the suit.
• He’s the one who will have to break the news to her.
• He’s the one being called “daddy.”

This ad does a perfect job of making the target audience acutely feel the problem.

#5. It’s relatable

The minimal viable backstory doesn’t explain the status of these two people. They could have just met. They could have been dating for a year. They could be married.

It leaves you to fill in that blank.

On top of that, according to studies, condoms break 2-5% of the time. And at least 45% of women have had pregnancy scares in their lifetime with 25% of women having used Plan B at least once.

It’s a relatable problem the target audience has experienced first- or second-hand.

#6. Most importantly, it shows, not tells

Most ads of this type are just someone talking at the camera trying to either:

1. Shame you
2. Educate you
3. Convince you

This ad isn’t a man staring you down and bashing you over the head with their opinions about how the other side is evil/wrong.

Instead, it tells a relatable story designed to empathize with the problem.

A far more effective way to convince someone.

#7. It attempts to simplify the decision

Politics is extremely complicated. There are infinite possible combinations of opinions that someone can have about how a country should be run.

Unfortunately, in a lot of countries, we're given two options.

Given that, it can be extremely difficult for someone to weigh all the pros and cons of stuffing a round or a square peg into the amorphous blob of a hole that is your political opinion.

This ad attempts to simplify the problem by making you care first and foremost about a single issue.

And our brains love simplicity.A study showed that a single thing can heavily influence people's voting in the final days to hours before an election.

Politics aside, I hope you found this inspiring

I leave it up to you to decide whether you agree or disagree with the ad’s message.

Regardless, this ad is a masterclass in making someone care about something they might not be paying attention to.

Takeaway:

Make them painfully aware of a problem or danger through creative storytelling.

Charlie Munger died nearly one year ago at the age of 99.

His net worth was $2.6B then, thanks to his uncanny ability to identify companies to invest in and not get spooked by short-term volatility.

One of his mottos often rings through my head.

I think it does because it’s at odds with what we generally talk about here at DC.

The motto is:

It's not about the big picture. 
It’s about the work on your desk. 
Do the work in front of you and do it well.

And because this newsletter is all about growing startups, I feel it’d be a disservice to all of you if I didn’t occasionally pause from talking about the nitty-gritty marketing and growth tactics to truly focus on what matters:

Your product is by far the most important thing.

Let’s analyze the situation where you do lousy work/your product isn’t very good:

• People stop using you (churn is high)
• People talk about it
• You never get referrals
• You never have good reviews, testimonials, and case studies to use as social proof to close people
• Your reputation proceeds you, reducing the odds someone becomes a lead, signs up, or buys
• Your cost of acquisition increases across the board
• You have to invest more and more into marketing to make up for the poor organic growth

And in contrast, let’s say you have an exceptional product:

• People keep using you (churn is low)
• People talk about it
• Referrals drive a significant portion of your revenue
• You’re able to collect great social proof
• Your reputation proceeds you, making anything you launch convert better
• Your cost of acquisition decreases across the board
• You can invest in marketing to make things grow even faster rather than try to fight the tides. And when you do, it’s more effective.

Marketing should be about getting the word out about an amazing product—not making up for a bad one.

This is why our agency is selective with who we work with. It doesn’t matter how good our ads are if the product isn’t good. It’s setting ourselves up for failure, and our clients up for disappointment—ruining our own product in the process.

So really, the best growth tactic I can and will ever give is:

It’s about the work on your desk. 
Do the work in front of you and do it well.

Consider this your primary mission as a founder

So please please please, if you’re a founder, get deeply involved in your product/service. Know it better than anybody else. Be brutally honest about how good it is and where it falls short. Obsess over making it better.

Most people are terrified to look too closely and start asking hard questions. Be one of the brave few who do.

And remember, no one will ever care as much as you, the founder. You have to be the one to go the extra mile to make it exceptional.

So, in short, do everything you can to consistently increase the average satisfaction of your customers.

Do that, and you’ll see more organic growth.

Do that, and all of these growth tactics we have covered and will cover will work significantly better.

Thanks for reading, and back to the regularly scheduled growth tactics next week.

The Airbnb host onboarding experience is a bit magical.

You click the CTA in the top navbar that says “Airbnb your home,” and instantly, you see this:

Whoa, I could make an extra $2k per month?

To give me this estimate, they had to make a lot of assumptions:

• That my home is where I’m accessing their site from (safe assumption)
• That I can charge $289/night for my place (average based on their data)
• That is has two bedrooms (median number of bedrooms)
• That I’d get 7 booked nights per month (average based on their data?)
• That my home is somewhat “average” and not crazy good or crazy bad (little do they know!)
• That I wanted to rent out my entire place and not just a private room
• That I’m even eligible to Airbnb my home

Some of those things could be horribly horribly wrong.

But they committed to reasonable assumptions that allowed me to immediately experience the “magic moment” of seeing how much money I could make.

A bad experience would be making me do a long onboarding form, selecting all of these before seeing my estimate. It would be terrible if I had to enter my email to see my results or, worse yet, book a call with someone to discuss them.

This is the power of opinionated defaults.

Opinionated defaults loosely held

Opinionated defaults are pre-selected choices within your product that nudge users toward desired actions—or that simply make the experience that much easier or more delightful. For example, Airbnb made several opionated defaults to show me my estimated monthly income.

Defaults are powerful for two reason:

1. They anchor you. If $20 is the default on a donation field, that will be the most common donation.
2. They make it smoother for the most common use cases. If chosen properly it can make the experience more seamless for the average user.

“Loosely held” meaning the user can easily change them. For example, I could easily change my location, number of bedrooms, stay type, and number of booked nights to get a more accurate estimate.

You can assume a bunch of different variables:

• Location
• Pricing
• of users
• Preferred login method
• Preffered payment method
• Template
• Pricing/tier
• More nuanced, product specific things (ex: # of bedrooms)

Let’s dive into some more real-world examples:

Uber/Lyft example

Both Uber, Lyft, and Google assume that you’re booking a ride or getting directions from your current location:

You can, of course, change this, but it defaults to your current location because 99%+ of rides/navigating likely start there. They’ve made it more annoying to use 1% of the time to make it easier to use 99% of the time—great trade off.

Patreon example

According to Adam Fishman, Patreon had the problem of all their creators choosing $1 as their support membership price—it just became culturally normal to do it after the default was set to $1—which shows the impact a default can have.

To combat this, they changed the default text to say $1 to $5, which they eventually changed to:

This change significantly increased the average monthly price of tiers—increasing revenue for both them and their users.

Figma example

One thing we’ve covered previously is Figma’s invite and billing mechanism.

Most SaaS tools work like this:

1. A team member wants to invite someone to the tool so they can collaborate on a project
2. But they can’t, they need an admin to approve it
3. They get delayed waiting for the admin to approve it
4. The admin responds 2 days later, saying, “No, we don’t want to pay for them!"
5. The team member gets annoyed waiting and needs to find a workaround

Here’s what Figma does:

1. Anyone can invite someone to a Figma file
2. New people get added to the team but get the first month for free
3. The admin gets an email reminding them of next monthly payment and tells them to check the users
4. They go in (maybe) and see their team has added various people
5. They either leave them or remove them

Figma made inviting someone to the paid membership the opinionated default.

And I imagine that change alone has contributed a lot to their MRR over the years because it’s significantly harder for the admin to revoke someone’s existing access than denying it in the first place.

Canva example

Templates are a common thing these days.

Pushing templates onto people is Canva saying, “Hey, you’re probably trying to do something that most other users have already done before; why not use this thing and save hours of work?”

In many cases, it works wonderfully—assuming you make templates for the most common use cases and legitimately solve the problem for most people.

Framework for Opinionated Defaults

Adam Fishman made an actionable framework for you. I could reword it for you but this image has all the necessary info.

Just remember, by thoughtfully choosing opinionated defaults, you can guide user behavior to benefit both your customers and your startup, leading to sustainable growth and a more intuitive product.

But always, ALWAYS, make sure to let people adapt things how they actually want it in case the default is wrong.

Get going, folks!

Most startups fail because of bad ideas.

The rest?

Well, in startups, growth solves all problems.

• Low cash reserves? Growth means you get more revenue and can raise money easier.
• Hate your cofounder? Growth makes it easier to ignore. The real fights happen during the hard times.
• No systems or processes? Growth lets you throw more resources at it
• Struggling to hire top talent? Growth makes you more attractive to top-tier candidates

So, the rest fail because they either never crack a consistent growth channel or they run out of room to grow because they failed to adapt before they hit the ceiling on their current channel, market, or product.

That’s what happens when companies ride one growth curve too long:

• Markets get saturated
• The competition heats up and copies what their doing well
• Customer acquisition gets harder
• Momentum dies

Smart companies prevent this by mastering S-curve growth—a structured way to expand into new products, new growth channels, and new markets before hitting a ceiling.

Here’s how to do it.

First, what's an S-Curve

Most famously, the adoption of new technologies follows the S-Curve:

Notice that they all follow a similar S-shape (with some momentary dips). And how they're generally accelerating.

What's missing from that graph is AI, which was around for decades and was slowly, slowly getting increased adoption. Then ChatGPT came out, and suddenly, everyone was talking about and using AI.

So AI had a decades long ramp up, and then an extremely violent adoption.

How S-Curves work

Every product, channel, or market follows an S-curve:

1. Slow Start: Early traction is hard. You’re figuring out positioning, messaging, features, form factor, UX, etc.
2. Hypergrowth: You find a repeatable customer acquisition loop, and growth accelerates. In products, typically, it happens with some "killer app" moment like when ChatGPT was released.
3. Saturation: Channels become expensive, competitors catch up, there's fewer and fewer remaining "potential users," and growth slows.

The mistake many startups make?

Waiting until Stage 3 (Saturation) to launch a new growth curve.

At that point, it’s often too late.

How to sequence growth

The best startups layer new S-curves before the first one flattens.

Again there are three types of S-Curves a company is fighting with:

• Product
• Market
• Acquisition channel

The slightly confusing part is that Product and Market are a little muddied.

A new product can enter a new market (Mac vs iPhone), or it can be the same market just with a much better form factor (Netflix DVDs vs Streaming).

Let's dive into each.

In terms of products, think:

• Uber: UberX → Uber Pool → UberEats → Freight
• Amazon: Books → ecommerce → AWS/Prime Video/Music/Medical
• Telsa: Luxury (S and X) → Mid-range (3 and Y) → Solar → Trucks (Cybertruck) → Economy (upcoming) → Semis → Autonomous (Cybercab) → Home Robots (Optimus)
• Apple: Macs → Macbook → iPhone → iPad → Watch → Airpods → Airtags → Vision
• Airbnb: Homes → Experiences → ???

Note: Many of these expansions were larger (or more profitable) opportunities than their earlier products (iPhone, Macbook, AWS, Model Y), but some of them were expansions were smaller opportunities (Watch, Airpods, Experiences).

Sometimes it's obvious that it's a bigger or smaller opportunity, and other times it's a gamble. For example, things like Apple Vision, Uber Freight, and Tesla's upcoming products like Semi, Cybercab, and Optimus are either going to be big winners or not—time will tell.

Also note: Unless Airbnb can find its next S-Curve, it may lose its dominance and stop growing due to saturation, competition, and regulation. Experiences is a small portion of their revenue currently.

In terms of markets, think:

Expanding into new markets can be done by opening the same product to more people or creating a new product that targets a different market (for example, Amazon AWS was a totally different market than those buying books)

• Slack: Developers → Startups → Enterprises
• PayPal: eBay payments → Peer-to-peer payments → B2B  → Crypto
• Shopify: Small businesses → Enterprise → Retail POS (new product)
• Square: Small business payments → Enterprise solutions → Consumer banking (Cash App) → Crypto

In terms of growth channels, think:

• Dropbox: Paid ads → Referral program → B2B partnerships
• HubSpot: Content → Sales-led growth → Community-driven growth
• TikTok: Organic viral loops → Influencer partnerships → Paid advertising

For primary growth channels, reference Lenny's ​Racecar Growth Framework​'s "Growth Engine" section:

Everything else (Kickstarts, Fuel, Lubricants, Turbo boosts) help with conversions or to kickstart growth, but only the Growth Engines are likely to produce these S-Curves.

Note: For each new product and market a company creates, they also create separate S-Curves for growth channels.

For example, Square could saturate the market on Meta Ads for small business payments, then launch the Cash App, and massively open up Meta Ads again with the consumer market.

Here’s how to sequence your growth properly:

#1. Find your next S-Curve early

• Identify adjacent customer needs. What else do your existing users struggle with? Ex: Canva started with social media graphics, then expanded into presentations and video.
• Alternatively, look for new growth channels. Ex: Dropbox shifted from paid ads to referral-based growth to sales.
• Or explore new markets. Ex: Stripe expanded from startups to enterprise payments to government integrations to crypto payments.

#2. Expand through existing distribution

• Ideally, your new product, channel, or market can leverage your existing user base. Either through product-led growth or through broadcast marketing (email + social).
  • Slack grew through developers, to internal teams, then expanded into enterprise sales.
• You can also layer in new marketing channels—e.g., Facebook ads → influencer partnerships → outbound sales.

#3. Test without disrupting core growth

• Avoid derailing your primary revenue stream in case the expansion is unsuccessful.
• Start with small tests or pre-sales (MVPs, beta launches, new ad channels) to validate before scaling.

#4. Time it before growth slows

• If you wait until CAC rises or retention drops, you’re already behind.
• Launch your next S-curve during your peak growth period.

Takeaway

If your startup is still finding traction, again, use the Kickstarts, Turbo boosts, etc to help get your first Growth Engine going. Here they are again:

If your startup is growing fast, now is the time to plan your next move.

Spot your next S-curve—whether it’s a new product, growth channel, or market—validate it early, and launch before your current curve stalls.

Not sure what your next growth curve should be?

Ask: "What’s the biggest pain our current customers still have?"

Their answers might define your next expansion.

— If this was helpful, forward it to a founder who needs to hear it.

Read ​Casey Winter's full article​ to learn more.

The vast majority of homepages are incomprehensible—especially for SaaS.

Seriously, it can take a ton of brain power to figure out what they sell and to whom.

There’s a reason for this:

• Everyone on the team knows what the product is.
• They know what the internal jargon means.
• They don’t understand what it’s like to have zero context on the brand, the company, the competitive landscape, the industry, and the market as a whole.

Everyone on the team has intimate knowledge of 👆 those things.

Unfortunately, complicated jargon is often the most succinct way to describe a complex product.

“It’s the all-in-one AI hyper-personalization platform.”

I’m sure that perfectly describes it, but… HUH?

This same problem also exists for product decisions

You are a power user of your own product.

When you and your product team use your app (or product/service), you’re viewing it from a highly informed viewpoint:

• You’re very technically savvy.
• You know the product intimately.
• You know where everything is.
• You know everything it can and cannot do.

The vast majority of your current and potential users?

They don’t know any of that.

They’re fumbling around in the dark, trying to figure out what the tool does and how it can help them.

It’s not until they’ve reached some tipping point that they finally stick.

The Adjacent User Theory by Bangaly Kaba

What is an Adjacent User, you say?

Honestly, a lot of the explanations out there are confusing, so I’ll try to make it clear:

• Core Users are those for whom the product is initially built and who understand and engage with its core value without much modification or onboarding friction. These users align directly with the product's initial design and purpose.
• Adjacent Users are people interested in or could benefit from the product but don’t align perfectly with its current form or messaging. They may need a slight change in positioning, feature tweaks, or lower barriers to engage fully.

I’ll dive into examples next to help illustrate this.

Adjacent users are often accidentally ignored by teams that are too knowledgeable to understand their unique needs.

Instead, product teams focus on improving the experience for the already active and engaged core users—because they are core users.

If you want to unlock growth to a broader set of users (rather than just obsessed power users), you need to identify:

• Who these adjacent users are (user attributes and behavior)
• What exactly they’re getting hung up on
• What they are actively using and enjoying that you might not be prioritizing
• The thresholds/tipping points between inactive users and active users
  • We’ll cover tipping points in a future newsletter.

Examples of identifying adjacent user behavior

Here are some examples of companies identifying adjacent user behavior and expanding to make it more appealing to them:

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn started as a site for getting a job and hiring. Then, they noticed that a cohort of entrepreneurs and freelancers used it to build a personal brand. So, they added various features like Creator mode.
• Instagram: It started as a “check-in” app like Foursquare. They noticed people were more engaged with sharing photos of their outing—and using filters to make up for their terrible phone picture quality. So, they expanded that functionality.
• Slack: Initially marketed itself as a communication tool for developers. Then, they noticed people who worked tangentially with developers (designers, marketers, etc) were being invited in. So, they broadened the appeal.
• Airbnb: Started as a platform for renting air mattresses in people’s living rooms. People looking for affordable and unique accommodations beyond hotels were interested but hesitant about staying on air mattresses. So Airbnb expanded it to staying in people’s homes… regardless of mattress type.
• Dropbox: Dropbox initially focused on cloud storage for tech-savvy users who understood file synchronization. They found that people without technical expertise needed a simpler way to store and access files across devices. So they made it super simple.

If these companies had stuck with their initial set of core users and ignored all the adjacent users, they’d all be much smaller than they are today.

How Instacart identified potential adjacent users

To understand expansion opportunities, you first need to know exactly who your core users are.

Early on, Instagram knew that 75% of its core users were:

• Women
• Urban
• Located In Certain Cities
• Head of Household
• Had one or more kids
• Were more affluent and less price-sensitive
• Willing to spend an hour filling up their Instacart Order

Each one of these attributes has an opposite (or tangential) user attribute:

• Women → Men
• Urban → Suburban
• Cities → Other Cities
• Head of Household → Members of households
• >1 kid → Smaller Families, Couples, Singles
• More Affluent + Less Price Sensitive → More Price Sensitive
• Willingness to put effort into the cart → Less willingness to spend that time

Each of those is a potential adjacent user to your core user. Here is an excellent image from Reforge for the common attributes:

Actionable takeaways

Okay, so we know who adjacent users are and the importance of engaging them.

I'll leave you with some actionable takeaways on how to do something about it:

• Identify core attributes of core users and look at opposites/tangential: This will help you find potential adjacent user attributes.
• Look for use cases you didn’t initially design for: Are there users finding value in your product in unexpected ways or segments?
• Identify small barriers for similar users: What minor adjustments would allow these “near” users to engage fully? Is it messaging, ease of use, or feature tweaks?
• Talk to adjacent users: Identify and talk to people who are using the product in unexpected ways or who are outside the core audience.
• Expand incrementally: Experiment with language and features that address those near-miss users without alienating core users.
• Simplify onboarding: If the adjacent users are less savvy and engaged, simplify onboarding as much as possible.
• Speak clearly: Instead of your copy speaking just to tech-savvy nerds, make sure it speaks to less knowledgeable people.

Remember, your core user base is only so big. Ignoring the adjacent user could prevent you from unlocking the next stage of growth.

If you want to dive a lot deeper into the full nerdiness of Adjacent User Theory, check out Andrew Chen’s full article.

PS: Ads are also a great way to experiment with these new cohorts, as you can create lookalikes from your adjacent users or target people with attributes of the adjacent user.

This tactic is all about illustrating your value by picking a fight with a well-known competitor on a metric that you’re superior at.

Some quick warnings:

• Make sure it’s a fight you can win
• Don’t get sued. Get clever with how you mention them.

Here are the clever ways people do it:

Secret Wink

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Surreal did a great job using the notoriety of incumbent brands to get attention and call out how they’re better.

The not-so-secret slap to the face

There’s also the other strategy where instead of doing a wink, wink, nudge, you instead just come out and say it:

First, yes, that is true. Ask your AI of choice to verify.

Second, this is a classic X vs. Y ad, but it’s done through text instead of the typical visual format.

Start with a fact and build on it

Start with a fact:

• McDonald’s has way more drive-thrus than Burger King
• People put other brands of ketchup in Heinz bottles
• There are a lot of songs about Corvettes

Then build on it:

Use them against themselves

Here, you use a unique aspect of their branding or product to your advantage. For example, this classic Pepsi Max ad:

Note: This Pepsi ad is risky. We’ll cover why below.

Or how Huel takes a shot at Athletic Greens (their most hyped competitor) by removing the label from their distinctive package:

Make fun of the stereotype of your competitor

There’s no better example of an ad campaign where a brand made fun of who uses their competitor than the Mac vs PC campaign:

This ad was extremely successful in making Macs seem like the “cool” choice, a trend that has continued nearly twenty years later.

Just be careful

Remember, when you mention a competitor, you draw attention to them. Therefore, you run the risk of that competitor winning that fight.

So, as I said before, make sure it’s a fight you can win.

But also remember that this strategy works better if you are a challenger startup going after incumbents.

Surreal doesn’t need to worry about giving cornflakes a platform that it doesn’t already have. And they’re so differentiated that they don’t need to worry.

But McDonald’s needs to be incredibly careful mentioning Burger King. Pepsi when it mentions Coke. Or Audi when it mentions BMW or Mercedes.

There’s been a few misses:

Kahlua ran ads that looked way too similar to classic Guinness ads during their prime time of year—St Patrick’s Day—when everyone is thinking about Guinness and seeing Guinness ads.

Or Pepsi reacting to Coke’s sales being 4x more than theirs:

Is this ad creative? Definitely.

But, why draw attention to the fact that your competitor is more popular? That’s social proof working against you.

And if they hadn’t made an ad about it, maybe people wouldn’t have known that Coke sold 4 times more than them.

But, if you’re a startup, think of ways to you can take shots at the big guys.

Most people either focus on themselves:

• Their story
• Their product’s features, benefits, etc

Or they focus purely on delivering their opinion or facts:

• This thing is good
• This thing is bad

But here’s the problem:

Everybody loves conflict

Anything without conflict is typically extremely boring.

Think about the stuff that people binge-watch:

• Dating shows like Love Is Blind and Too Hot to Handle
• Reality TV shows like Selling Sunset
• Dramas like Game of Thrones

Conflict. Conflict. Conflict.

When’s the last time someone binged a textbook with its cold, hard facts and total lack of narrative or conflict?

Conflict is inherently interesting.

As a result, it’s one of the most powerful hooks.

How to make people care to take their vitamin

Educational content is an absolute vitamin.

None of you need to be reading this right now. But you are because you know it’s good for you, and I’ve made it interesting enough to keep you engaged.

Most people fail to do that.

As Harry Dry of Marketing Examples says, many people would say something like:

“Loom’s positioning is good because they do X, Y, and Z”

Whereas Harry does it by using storytelling and conflict:

If you’re paying attention, you noticed something

This is effectively what I’ve done with this very newsletter you’re reading.

I didn’t just say:

“Conflict makes for interesting content. Here’s how to do it.”

Instead, I:

• Started with what most people do wrong
• Moved on to why it’s wrong
• Then gave an example of a better way to do it
• Pointed out that’s what I’m doing and why
• Then finished with pointers on how to do it

In short:

You have to make people care enough to do the “hard” thing that’s good for them.

Often, the hard thing is just spending time to consider your product.

People are busy, and they don’t care.

You need to make them care.

Conflict can help.

Pointers on how to use conflict

As Harry says in this great interview:

“You want pickle juice and orange juice. 
The pickle juice makes the orange juice taste sweeter.
The orange juice makes the pickle juice sourer.”

The contrast of the two extremes makes both more intense.

The problem seems worse.

The solution seems better

Simple ways to introduce conflict:

• X vs Y (including before and after)
• Here’s the problem, here’s why it sucks, here’s the solution
  • This is the classic PAS copywriting framework.
• Here’s how they do it. Here’s how we do it
• Tell a story of someone experiencing a problem

The next time you write copy, ensure there’s an element of conflict.

It’s the only way to make people care.

And if you liked this, you’ll love Harry Dry’s Marketing Examples.

There’s a common mistake that new advertisers make.

They unknowingly assume that all traffic is equal.

They focus too much on CPMs (cost per 1,000 views) and CPCs (cost per click) and not enough on how much they make from their ads.

For example, say you have two ad campaigns:

1. Campaign 1: $10 CPM, $1 CPC.
2. Campaign 2: $30 CPM, $5 CPC.

In other words, Campaign 2 costs 3x more for impressions and 5x more for clicks!

Campaign 1 will surely make you five times as much money, right?

After all, if your conversion rate is 2%, shouldn’t a conversion cost $50 for one and $250 for the other?

Nope.

In many cases, the $5 clicks perform better.

Here’s why:

1. The ad channels know a lot about people. 

They know a lot about the apps you use, the sites you visit, and the ads/posts you read, click on, and share. They know what you find interesting. And they know when you’re on the cusp of a buying decision.

Imagine you’re Meta—a public company trying to maximize shareholder value and  let Zuck buy more of Hawaii and custom Porsches—and you determine that a user:

• Is a high-income earner or represents a business, 
• Is prone to buying products after seeing an ad,
• Is on the cusp of purchasing an expensive product, or
• Has a behavior and interests profile of a typical customer.

Wouldn’t you also charge as much as you possible can for their click?

The more confident they are that a click will lead to a conversion, the more confident they are to charge proportionally more for it.

2. Not all placements are created equal.

Meta has a ton of different places it can show ads.

Some placements are known to be the best:

• FB/IG feed
• Reels
• Stories
• Explore
• Marketplace (when appropriate)

And some are known to be lower quality:

• Audience Network
• Right Column
• Messenger
• Instant Articles

Meta will charge you a lot less for 1,000 views of a Right Column Ad then it will for an Instagram Reel or Story. 

But I bet conversion performance will be a lot worse.

In short, focus on CPAs and ROAS

If the CPMs or CPCs are cheap, there’s probably a good reason why.

Ad channels use an auction system to sell people’s attention to relevant advertisers. If their attention was worth a lot, they’d charge a lot.

Cheap traffic is likely:

• Not paying attention
• Not likely to click
• Not likely to buy
• Not actually interested

That being said, if you’re one of those rare founders who has something truly novel, exciting, and enticing to a broad range of people.

One of those rare products that immediately intrigues basically anyone.

Then you can probably go for bargain-bin traffic.

For the rest of us, the more expensive traffic is often the better option, sadly.

Just make sure you have great creatives, landing pages, and funnels to take advantage of the expensive traffic, or it’ll get very expensive, very quickly. Check out our free Growth Guide as a tactical overview of all things Growth.

Multivitamins have been on the market since 1916.

Greens powders the early 90s.

They are the definition of vitamin pain.

So they require a ton of fancy marketing to get you to buy them.

Athletic Greens is easily one of the top players in the market, with $112M in funding and a unicorn status valuation.

And it just so happens to be extraordinarily expensive compared to all its direct and indirect competitors—$80 per month.

In comparison, I got a greens powder from Costco for $40 with 100 days' worth of servings. This calculates out to be 6.67 times cheaper than AG1. A multivitamin from Centrum would be even cheaper still.

Athletic Greens is expensive—no doubt about it.

Therefore, their entire job as a marketing department is to convince you that their premium-priced product is worth paying for.

Consider this an analysis of how AG1 attempts to justify its price tag.

First, the vast majority of companies pitch multivitamins and greens power with (honestly, I just checked like ten brands):

• 40+ vitamins & minerals that are essential for health & normal bodily function
• Provide a safeguard to your diet.
• Great way to ensure you get enough of the right vitamins and minerals daily.
• Specially formulated for various niche groups (women, men, over 50, kids, etc)
• High-quality ingredients.

Or, to put it shortly:

• SNORE
• SNORE
• SNORE
• Okay, I’m interested. Niche targeting is powerful.
• SNORE

If you read our newsletter earlier this week, you'll notice they all appeal to reason, not interest—read the previous edition to find out why that's a bad idea.

Let's dive into eight clever tactics AG1 uses to justify its price:

High price justification #1: We replace a bunch of stuff

Here’s why this is smart:

• It leverages a famous saying from the movie jaws (”You're going to need a bigger boat”)
• It tells you what Athletic Greens replaces—an entire cupboard full of vitamins.

They aim to make people confident they can replace all the other vitamins they’re slamming back each day with one healthier and tasty drink.

The claim is: "You'll save money, and it works better than what you currently use."

Hence, this prominent part of their homepage:

High-price justification #2: It's totally different. We swear.

If you go to their website, you'll notice they do not call themselves a greenspowder or a multivitamin.

Of course not.

That'd put them in direct competition with cheaper alternatives.

Instead, they're a Foundational Nutrition supplement.

What is that you ask? Well, no one quite knows

But it sounds fancy.

Maybe AG1 is worth over six times more than a regular old greenspowder.

Right?

This is a concept from the field of category design.

Where you come up with some fancy new term for your product to help allow it to operate in a "category of its own."

High-price justification #3: Specific outcomes

As I said initially, their competitors almost all say the same boring things about general health and wellness.

Instead, AG1 focuses on specific outcomes that people care about most (even if the statements are not evaluated by the FDA):

Better yet when they're backed up with scientific research:

High-price justification #4: The highest quality possible

This is an age-old tactic. Particularly for something attached to someone's:

• Health
• Wealth
• Status

How can you make sure that yours appears like it's the best?

For health, make it appear like no one else is remotely close in terms of quality:

High-price justification #5: Trusted influencers

Their number one key to success is their influencer marketing.

The hashtag #athleticgreens has over 86.8 million views on TikTok.

Athletic Greens has recruited nearly all the top tech and health influencers to promote and recommend their product.

Not only do they pay for placements, but they also give them a cut of sales.

If you hang on to Huberman's every word, would you not be convinced that AG1 is worth the money?

High-price justification #6: Good ol' social proof

We're herd animals. We do what others do.

Therefore, they can build tons of trust simply by highlighting the nearly 50,000 verified 5-star reviews that they've done a great job collecting.

If you're putting something in your body every single day, are you going to trust the greens powder on the shelf at Walmart, or the one with 50,000 glowing reviews?

High-price justification #7: Pricing + quality hacks

Our brains are easily tricked.

If something is in a premium package, we value it more.

And if we get a bundle of things for free upfront with your monthly subscription, we feel we got a deal.

That's why their Welcome Kit is genius.

You get a premium, branded glass bottle, and tin to use with your Foundational Nutrition supplement—and to signal to everyone else that you're an AG1 user.

Is AG1 worth the money?

I have no idea. 

I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, nor do I make greens powders.

It could be. But I suspect it's all just clever marketing designed to turn a commodity product into a luxury good worthy of the elevated price tag.

Coincidentally, Bryan Johnson posted this AG1 hit piece as I wrote this newsletter. If you're interested, I suggest you check it out

This is a funny cautionary tale.

In most of the US, you’re likely to see accident lawyers, churches, McDonald’s, and realtors plastered on the countless billboards that fill major cities and highways.

In San Francisco, however, it’s almost all startups selling to other startups.

This is a funny, cautionary tale of one of those campaigns, with a few actionable nuggets—including an example of how they could have done it so much better.

Here’s the billboard in question:

Say you drove past and saw this.

(Although tbh I don’t think it’s particularly noticeable)

What would you likely remember to google when you get to your destination?

For many, it’s likely “ai sdr.”

Which funny enough, is actually the name of one of the advertiser’s competitors.

The advertiser is called Qualified. And Piper, is the product.

AiSDR got an uptick in traffic and closed at least 2 deals from their competitor’s ad.

Here are some actionable takeaways

#1. Considering being clever with naming:

Choosing a name and/or domain that matches the keyword the majority of people will search can pay dividends.

This reminds me of this famous Thai restaurant in New York:

#2. Use Google Ads to target essential keywords

If you are running ads where it’s likely people won’t act on it immediately (billboards, radio, podcasts, TV, or print), make sure you use Google Ads to bid on the keywords they’ll likely use to find it later.

For example, they probably won’t google “Qualified Piper AI SDR.”

Instead, they’re likely to google “ai sdr.”

People are remarkably good at forgetting everything but essential details.

And you don’t want a competitor with better SEO to get it instead.

#3. Make an ad that people can act on immediately

This ad is a FAR better version:

Here's why it's so good:

• It communicates so much in just six words
• People can immediately act (call the number)
• It’s incredibly intriguing to try out
• It leverages a familiar interface (iOS call notification) to shortcut understanding
• The phone number is simple to type in
• People can try the product within seconds of seeing the ad
• It’s absurdly simple and noticeable, with a ton of whitespace.

Here’s a snippet from Lenny’s Newsletter where he compiled a quote about this billboard:

I bet that’s infinitely more benefit than Qualified got from theirs.

Particularly since Qualified’s version increased the visibility of their competitor.

Stay creative folks.

In film, stage, and TV, there’s a concept of the “fourth wall”—the unseen wall that separates the audience and the performers. 

The separation between actor and audience makes for a more believable story.

“Breaking the fourth wall” is the intentional act of either:

1. Speaking directly to the audience: The performer makes eye contact with the audience and talks to them as co-conspirators in the action. If you’ve seen House of Cards, Frank’s monologues to the camera are a perfect example.
2. Breaking character: The performer talks about the performance—making reference to it being a movie, show, etc.

Breaking the fourth wall is a way to connect with the audience and build trust.

This is also a tactic used in a bunch of ads. 

Let’s talk about both styles:

Speaking to the audience

Traditional video ads create a scene where people are experiencing a problem and the product is presented as the solution to that problem. 

It’s a performance.

Other video ads are just showing the product in action and talking about its features.

Static ads try to do both with punchy copy or intriguing images.

Dollar Shave’s Club famous ad has the actor stare at the camera the entire time:

Old Spice’s famous ad takes it up a level by talking directly to the women watching and references their male partners:

Bonus points for the complicated production to make it absurd.

Lastly, this is basically every UGC ad out there

A creator or user speaks directly to the camera and talks about their experience. 

Breaking character

Here instead of just speaking directly to the audience, you call out the fact that you’re trying to sell something to them.

L’Oréal’s ad is one of my favorites

This ad is genius because the hook is intriguing when contrasted with the traditional feminine image of lipstick.

Surreal and Oatly do this a lot and weave in humor

RxBar does it to lean into their “No B.S. ingredients” mantra

The core idea behind it is that even their ads are “no B.S.”

Lastly, this amazing ad from Lewis Capaldi

I love this ad because it:

• Hooks you first with an insane visual
• Rehooks you with the credibility hook style 
• He leverages that credibility & social proof while also making fun of himself so it doesn’t come off as bragging
• It’s subtly breaking the fourth wall by saying “you” and “I” and is acknowledging that he’s created an ad begging for your attention.

It’s unignorable. It’s funny. And it’s quirky enough to go viral on social.

Go try it yourself

The next time you’re creating content or ads, try breaking the fourth wall:

1. When creating videos, try speaking directly to the audience.
2. When creating static or video content, try explicitly or subtly calling out the fact that it’s an ad.

Have fun with it!

Creativity is by far the number one way to impact the success of your marketing. 

Particularly for a boring product. For example, dietary fiber powder:

Unless you have a unicorn product that is so unique, compelling, and well timed that you can basically do anything (or even nothing) to sell it…

You’re going to have to get creative.

This tactic mostly relies on physical advertisements (billboards, signs, buses, cars, etc), but I find the creativity incredibly inspiring.

Let’s break down some examples.

Materials and elements

Tyrolit could just show a beautiful knife cutting some shoes or tin cans and say their slogan “Flawless forever.” 

That’s what almost all knife companies do.

Or they could show rather than tell like they do in this creative billboard that lets the materials and the elements make the point for them:

Incorporating people into the ad

The Economist could just say, “Our content sparks ideas.”

But instead, this ad incorporates people into the ad to make the point for them.

And the giant light bulb turning on and off also helps attract people’s attention.

Using materials to show the problem

Most breakfast cereals, like most companies, focus on the “features” or the “lifestyle.” Examples:

• Features: Magic Spoon has Xg protein and Yg of sugar per serving.
• Lifestyle: Vector is for athletes.

This ad from Surreal, however, focuses on the largest objection people have about “healthy cereals,” and they do it in a delightful and creative way that shows the problem.

Transforming the everyday

Again, most companies focus on the obvious uses of their product.

For LEGO, that would be distracting your kid for a few hours with building the Millenium Falcon.

This ad, however, leans into the idea that LEGO fuels your child's imagination.

What better way to illustrate that, than to use LEGO to completely reimagine the mundane everyday scene of a bus stop and an overpass:

Show the problem vividly

Think of the last time you saw an ad for a glasses company. 

It’s probably a bunch of attractive people’s faces wearing attractive pairs of glasses doing attractive people things, and the ad really doesn’t say anything at all.

Instead, Specsavers delightfully highlights the problem of not wearing glasses with the right prescription:

• It’s funny. 
• It’s noticeable. 
• And it takes a second to realize it’s not a mistake.

I’ll say it again:

Creativity is by far the number one way to impact the success of your marketing.

The next time you create a new campaign, email, post, or ad, take some extra time to think outside the (two-dimensional) box.

1. How can you show rather than tell?
2. How can you make it fun?
3. What are my competitors not doing?

People are profoundly illogical.

Our actions are predominately driven by emotion.

Then, we tell ourselves logical stories to rationalize our irrational behavior.

Savvy marketers and founders recognize this and leverage it.

Here’s an example from Poor Charlie’s Almanack:

In short, to convince, don’t appeal to reason.

Instead, appeal to their selfish interests. 

Let’s dive into tangible examples:

1. High-end electric car (ex: Tesla)

• Reason: 
  • Environmental benefits. 
  • Savings on gasoline.
  • Low maintenance costs compared to traditional gasoline vehicles.
• Interest:
  • Prestige from owning the newest Tesla.
  • Break-neck acceleration.
  • Quirky and novel features (whoopie cusions).
  • Futuristic Full-Self Driving that your friends will be wowed by.

2. Fitness mobile app

• Reason: 
  • Cost-effectiveness compared to a gym membership.
  • Convenience of working out at home.
  • Variety of workouts that can cater to different fitness goals.
• Interest: 
  • Desirable outcomes, such as getting into shape quickly for a wedding. 
  • Ability to workout at home and not feel like you’re being judged or creeped on.
  • Personalized training plans that make the user feel special and catered to.

3. Luxury skincare products

• Reason: 
  • The scientific research behind the products.
  • High-quality ingredients.
  • Benefits of using a scientifically formulated skincare regimen.
• Interest: 
  • Sell the dream of flawless skin.
  • The allure of using products loved by celebrities.
  • The exclusivity of having a luxurious skincare routine that not everyone can afford.

4. Educational children’s toys

• Reason: 
  • Explain how the toys enhance learning and development.
  • Discuss the safety of materials used.
  • Made from durable, high-quality materials.
• Interest: 
  • Promote how these toys can make their child smarter.
  • The free time parents will have because the child will be distracted.
  • How the toys will help their children succeed in the future.

5. Organic food products

• Reason: 
  • Detail the health benefits of organic eating.
  • Absence of harmful pesticides.
  • Positive environmental impact of organic farming.
• Interest: 
  • Emphasize the taste superiority of organic products
  • The lifestyle connotation of health and wellness that comes with organic eating, 
  • The social status associated with making environmentally-conscious decisions.

We all know that we shouldn’t eat sweets and fried foods.

They’re bad for our health after all.

Yet almost every single one of us does.

So clearly the logical argument is not compelling. 

The next time you’re writing copy, stop to notice whether you’re appealing to reason, or their selfish interests.

This tactic is about the juxtaposition of the absurd and the normal.

As Dan Nelken calls them:

1. Twisted visual. Straight line.
2. Twisted line. Straight visual.

When creating ads or promos, maximize the absurdity of either one or the other.

Making both the visual and text absurd makes the ad overwhelming and less powerful. It also ruins your ability to control how they experience the ad.

Let’s illustrate this with examples of both:

Twisted visual. Straight line.

Hook with an absurd visual. One that takes your core idea and takes it to 1,000.

Then, state the core idea plainly with unassuming text.

For example:

The unique leaf catches your eye. You focus on it to discern what it is. You then scan for the text to explain it. You then have the “aha” moment.

Or this eye-catching ad from Sirius:

The basketball-playing punk nun catches your eye. The headline contextualizes it. The footnotes explain it.

Or this hilarious ad for Nicotinell

The old woman lighting a cigarette with a candle is shocking. Your eye then goes to the 42. You’re momentarily confused. You scan the ad, looking for an explanation. The text snaps it all into clarity and makes you laugh.

This tactic is powerful:

1. The visual grabs their attention and piques their curiosity.
2. They scan the rest of the ad for an explanation.
3. The text then contextualizes the image, causing them to close the curiosity loop.
4. Ideally, it makes them feel something, like a laugh.

Now, let’s explore the inverse.

Twisted line. Straight visual.

These ads let the absurdity of the words do the work.

For example, this viral ad from fiverr:

This ad was perfectly timed in 2023, when everyone feared AI replacing jobs.

The gigantic text makes you think it's a warning about the horrors of AI... but the juxtaposition with the smile on her face confuses you.

You then read the smaller text, and it makes you chuckle.

Then there’s this hilarious and beautiful storytelling ad from Mount Sinai Hospital:

This is one of my favorite ads. It again makes you think it’s going one way, and leaves you with a laugh. The simple image of a child on a beach enhances the emotion of the mini-story.

Then there’s this classic ad from Porsche:

I love that this ad starts with a fact that makes you say, “Okay, so what?” and then leaves you with a funny twist. You then notice that the car has a tire lifted.

Remember: It’s key for these ads to have fairly simple images because you want the words to be the star of the show. The image contextualizes them.

Okay, so what?

The next time you’re creating an ad, a social post, or even a section of a landing page, try both:

1. Twisted visual. Straight line.
2. Twisted line. Straight visual.

Set a timer and create a few variations for #1. Then do it again for #2.

Play with the design, fonts, and placements to control how the person experiences the ad.

For more ad inspo, check out our ever-growing Ad Vault. And for more creative advice on writing great headlines, check out A Self-Help Guide for Copywriting by Dan Nelken.

Ironically, I won't waste time jumping into an example.

Guinness needs to be poured slower than every other beer (here’s why). Instead of figuring out a way to pour it faster, they’ve leaned into this slogan:

My personal favorite is how Stella Artois leans into a powerful psychological bias:

The more something costs, the more people value it.

This is why I love their slogan, “Reassuringly expensive,” and the clever ads that go along with it:

We all know Buckley’s famous line: “It tastes awful, but it works.”

This is clever because people are more likely to believe its claims of potency. After all, it tastes so weird and medicinal. (I’ve written previously about how Red Bull uses both the price and taste to its advantage.)

And lastly, Avis was famous for reframing their “number 2” position as a positive with “We try harder.”

They know people default to the market leader, so they decided to address that head-on and turn it into a benefit.

Here’s a swipe file of a bunch of their ads leaning into that concept.

To do this, you need to decide what you’re not

• Stella decided they’re not a budget beer for the everyman.
• Buckley’s decided to keep their product tasting terrible.
• Nintendo decided to make the Switch portable (and slower), instead of competing directly with Xbox and Playstation on performance.
• Tesla decided only to make electric vehicles. No hybrids. No gas cars. No fuel cell vehicles.

The framework here is:

1. Decide/figure out what you aren’t.
2. Use that to figure out what you are (it’s easier to invert).
3. What are the downsides of that?
4. How do you flip that on its head?

We all suck at something.

You might as well make it work for you.

It’s human nature.

Very few people (and companies) are willing to:

• Admit their flaws
• Turn people away
• Upset people

It’s part of why being extremely candid with your flaws can be so powerful.

Because others aren’t.

Be willing to insult yourself

It’s incredibly bold to insult your product on a quality many consider important.

Like this classic VW ad calling their cars ugly:

Or this one calling their cars slow:

I love the old VW because they were brave enough to draw a line in the sand:

“We focus on reliability and practicality. We’ll let all the other brands fight over the fastest, the prettiest, and the most advanced.”

Side note: Today, nearly all car companies sell all kinds of cars. Lamborghini sells an SUV. Volkswagen sells luxury models. Hyundai sells trucks. I suspect this is why their advertisements are all so boring and similar now.

Being candid with your flaws works for a few reasons:

1. It builds trust. If you’re willing to be candid about your product’s flaws, people trust you’re telling them the truth about its strengths.
2. It tells you who it’s for. We all want a product that’s tailored to our specific needs. Yet most companies try to be all things to all people.
3. A flaw is also a strength. There are always trade offs. When you make something better at one thing, it gets worse at others. If your car is pretty, it’s probably expensive. If your car is fast, it probably uses a lot of gas. If you car has room for 7, it probably will be filled with kids.

This Atoms’ ad tackles these trade offs head on:

Be willing to alienate people

This old SAAB ad takes #2 (telling you who it’s for) to the next level:

Instead of insulting the product, they insulted people who buy their competitor’s product—which candidly, is a small pool of people that can afford to buy a sports car.

The beauty of this ad copy is that it implicitly admits that the SAAB is nobody’s dream car.

That’s a brave thing to admit.

SAAB didn’t even trying to compete with the Ferraris and Corvettes of the world. 

Instead, they put their car in its own category: A practical and affordable car that’s also sporty.

Be willing to turn people away

Do what nearly all other brands are not willing to do:

• Admit your flaws.
• Turn people away
• Upset people who aren’t your target customer

It'll attract the right people to you.

By the way, I’ve been curating and analyzing some of the world’s best ads on my LinkedIn. I’m now starting to use that to fill up our Ad Vault.

The goal is to make it a comprehensive, searchable, filterable resource for the best ads in the world—with quick explanations of the tactics they’re using.

It’s a work in progress, so keep checking back as we fill it up.

Every copywriter will tell you to be as clear as possible.

Today, I’m telling you to be the opposite.

Being cryptic can be powerful.

For example:

The beauty and hilarity of this ad/public service announcement is in its lack of clarity.

It’s not saying: “Don’t drink and drive or else you’ll be arrested, go to the hospital, or maybe even die.”

If it did, it would have elicited an eyeroll.

Instead, the unusual sight of the 4 cars and 4 people hooks and intrigues you.

You read the line. 

You look at them again. 

A light bulb goes off. 

You get it. 

Dopamine surges through your brain. 

You chuckle.

All because they didn’t tell you everything you needed to know. Instead, they presented all the information, left some key things unsaid, and let you bridge the gap.

Some examples of this done well

This is one of my favorite ads from The Economist:

This ad cleverly nods to the horrors of smartphones/watches:

This ad leverages the familiar image of the Hulk’s hand to shortcut understanding:

And lastly, this ad makes you put two and two together to explain the weird scene:

Don’t always be crystal clear

As Charlie Munger said in his 1996 Stanford commencement speech about a lesson his father taught him:

Instead of just pounding it in, he told it to me in a way that required a slight mental reach. I had to make the reach myself in order to get the idea that I should behave like Grant McFayden. And because I had to reach for it, he figured I’d hold it better. And, indeed, I’ve held it all the way through until today, through all of these decades.

These types of ads are intriguing, memorable, and funny. 

Which is hard to say about 99+% of ads.

But hopefully, now, I'll be able to say it about yours 😉

Let’s play a game.

I’ll share 3 ads, and you tell me why I think they're clever.

Okay, here they are (click for high-res):

Figure it out?

That’s right. They each reuse an absurdly common interface: Texts, Calendar, and right-click tooltip.

These ads are clever and effective for a few reasons:

1. Familiarity Bias: We gravitate to familiar things.
2. Peculiarity: They’re completely unignorable. They stand out, demand closer inspection, and are shareworthy:
   1. You don't expect to see a message thread on a sign. You’d walk up to it.
   2. You don’t expect to see a calendar at a bus stop. You’d stop to read it.
   3. You don’t expect to see a tooltip on a photo of a woman’s face. You’d assume it was a mistake, pause to take a closer look, or take a picture of their mistake, and then you’d notice it’s intentional.
3. Memorable: Most people don’t need the product when they see an advertisement. It’s critical that your ads are so memorable that they think of you when they do need it.
4. They’re funny: Each leaves you with a smile.

Why does that all matter?

Consumer neuroscience research has found that highly successful ads score well on three key dimensions:

1. Attention (familiarity + peculiarity),
2. Conversion to long-term memory (peculiarity + humor),
3. Emotional engagement (humor)

These ads hit the mark for all 3.

Here are a few more examples of ads that leverage this tactic

These ads all mimic apps that every Apple user knows:

And these two mimic Instagram DMs and stories:

Here’s McDonald’s using their classic format of replicating their BigMac with color symbols, but doing it in a calendar interface that tells a story:

There are infinite ways you can do this.

The key is to find interfaces or environments that your ideal customer is intimately familiar with then to use them in a completely unexpected context:

• For accountants: Quickbooks, Xero, or Excel.
• For salespeople: Salesforce, HubSpot, Gmail, Spam, or Zoom.
• For gamers: Twitch, Discord, Steam, or Fortnite.
• For lawyers: a golf course.

Or you can leverage the classics that everyone knows: texts, calendars, calls, Windows, email, excel, and PowerPoint.

PS: I couldn't resist an opportunity for a Rick Roll.