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How Brands Can Guarantee Going Viral In 2026

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Start with the signal

9 min read

Summary

At-a-Glance

  • Verdict: Skim
  • Core thesis: Virality is not reliably accidental: brands can materially improve the odds of a breakout by coordinating a clear narrative, creator seeding, owned-media world-building, participation, visual distinctiveness, scarcity, and a concentrated launch window.
  • Why it matters: The useful idea is treating a launch as a cross-channel operating system rather than a single creative post, with creator briefs, inventory constraints, retail activation, and content timing all reinforcing one sharable story.
  • Best use: Use it as a lightweight campaign-planning checklist for product drops or seasonal launches, not as proof that virality can actually be guaranteed.

Executive Summary

The speakers argue that a viral brand moment begins with a concise, repeatable narrative: the one sentence the internet will use to describe the campaign. Their central distinction is that audiences share stories, hooks, and cultural interpretations rather than SKUs or product specifications. They point to American Eagle's Sydney Sweeney "great jeans" campaign as an example of a campaign with a simple, culturally legible line that could travel independently of the product page.

Their proposed operating model is to decide the narrative in advance, seed roughly 100-300 appropriate creators with product or information and a limited set of approved hooks, then use owned content to build anticipation around the launch. The brand should add an explicit participation mechanism, such as a rare item or golden-ticket-style reward, create an unmistakable visual anchor, and make the drop genuinely time- or quantity-limited.

The most practical recommendation is synchronization: plan the moment at least six weeks ahead and concentrate creator posts, brand content, participation mechanics, and retail activity into a projected 48-72-hour peak window. They also argue that social posts often need time to find distribution, so urgency creative for a seasonal purchase event should enter the algorithm weeks before the buying deadline rather than only at the deadline.

The video is strongest as a tactical synthesis of familiar growth levers, especially for CPG, apparel, and retail brands. Its central limitation is evidentiary: the speakers provide anecdotes and inferred tactics rather than causal data, and the title's claim that brands can "guarantee" virality is substantially stronger than what the framework supports.

Key Takeaways

  • Claim: A campaign needs a one-sentence narrative that people can repeat to each other; if the moment cannot be explained in one clear, witty line, it is unlikely to spread. | Evidence: The speakers frame American Eagle and Sydney Sweeney's "great jeans" campaign as a memorable narrative unit, and contrast this with trying to make people share a SKU or ordinary product announcement. | Implication: Before commissioning creative or creators, define the exact sentence a follower should use when describing the launch to a friend; use it as the campaign's message-quality gate.
  • Claim: Creator seeding works best when the brand distributes a coherent hook or newsworthy information to many relevant creators instead of hoping creators independently discover the message. | Evidence: They recommend getting the right information to roughly 100-300 creators and cite David Protein's acquisition of an EPG manufacturer as controversy that fitness creators felt compelled to discuss. They also cite Yerba Magic's repeated "nature's Zempic" phrase and Salud's flavor-plus-functionality hooks. | Implication: Treat creator activation like message distribution: provide a tested set of one to five hooks, product context, and an angle creators can credibly personalize rather than distributing open-ended briefs. | Caveat: Repeated claims must remain compliant with platform and advertising rules; the speakers note Yerba Magic was reportedly banned from TikTok and characterize parts of this approach as operating in a "gray hat" zone.
  • Claim: Owned content should world-build before a launch by teasing the product, grounding it in nostalgia or a cultural tentpole, and using a strong first-frame visual hook. | Evidence: Malbon is cited for teasing, documenting, and showcasing upcoming collections. The proposed teaser ingredients are nostalgia, a relevant cultural connection, launch timing, curiosity, and a visually arresting opening frame. | Implication: Build a pre-launch content sequence rather than relying on a single announcement; the visual system and narrative need to be recognizable before the coordinated release peak.
  • Claim: Participation mechanics turn attention into action and can make a campaign more valuable to retail partners by creating store visits. | Evidence: Examples include Feastables' golden tickets, the suggestion of a limited "golden can" for Huel in Target, and signed American Eagle jeans. The speakers say retailers value brands that drive "visit occasions," since a shopper drawn in for one product may buy across the store. | Implication: For retail launches, design participation not only for social engagement but also for geography-specific foot traffic, particularly in underperforming stores or regions. | Caveat: A collectible or reward mechanism must be operationally feasible across inventory, retailer allocation, fulfillment, and promotion rules; the video does not address these execution details.
  • Claim: Every viral launch needs a big, extreme visual anchor that is instantly recognizable and easy to reproduce across formats. | Evidence: The Sydney Sweeney image looking into the camera is presented as the campaign's signature image. Other cited examples include Severance's Grand Central office pop-up, Kith's padel activation, and the recurring top-down fashion lookbook format used by brands including Shinzo. | Implication: Choose one visual asset, scene, installation, or composition that can carry thumbnails, paid placements, creator remixes, press coverage, and retail displays; being merely polished is less useful than being unmistakable.
  • Claim: Real scarcity and urgency increase attention and conversion when customers believe the product will actually disappear. | Evidence: Japanese-inspired streetwear brand Shinzo reportedly uses limited stock and approximately three-day purchase windows, leaving desired items sold out. Salud used a "once we run out, we run out" message for its churro flavor, which affiliates repeated to create purchase urgency. | Implication: If using limited drops, align inventory policy, creator claims, customer-service messaging, and future replenishment decisions before launch; scarcity only compounds if the brand consistently honors it. | Caveat: Artificial scarcity can damage trust if inventory is replenished contrary to the stated promise or if the scarcity mechanism is not credible.
  • Claim: A viral moment is a coordinated timing problem: brands should prepare weeks in advance and synchronize all amplification around a 48-72-hour window, while publishing some content early enough for platform distribution to mature. | Evidence: The speakers recommend roughly six weeks of preparation for a target launch date, including creator logistics and message workshopping. They argue that new formats can take time for Instagram and TikTok to find their audience, and cite Target's observation that Halloween candy demand peaks in the final week after earlier promotional periods. | Implication: Create a launch runbook with backwards-planned deadlines for inventory, legal review, creator delivery, teaser testing, retail coordination, and peak-window amplification instead of treating the launch date as the start of work. | Caveat: The assertion that content posted weeks before a holiday will reliably spike just before the event is a hypothesis from the speakers, not demonstrated with platform-level data.

Detailed Brief

How the speakers apply the framework to specific brand types

  • Claims: The framework is intended to apply below major-brand scale; the speakers explicitly say a roughly $5 million-per-year brand can use the same seven components, though with less surprise capacity and fewer distribution resources.; For culturally specific brands, a product's authentic naming and flavor cues can themselves function as the sharable hook when they immediately signal relevance to a community.; For fashion, limited inventory, cohesive cultural references, and highly repeatable editorial formats combine into a brand world that can make even a small posting volume appear curated.
  • Evidence: Salud's cited hooks were "horchata electrolytes" and "pepino limon electrolytes," while its churro launch produced a top-performing hot churro latte video and was claimed to generate about 150,000 sales in September.; Shinzo had reportedly posted only 49 times since beginning in 2022, with posts cited at 84,000 and 153,000 views; the speakers attribute the effect partly to keeping only strong content visible.; They identify About Blank as an earlier clothing brand that effectively used short-form video and carousels, with newer brands adapting similar top-down, prop-heavy visual compositions.
  • Caveats: The 150,000-sales result is presented without attribution methodology, spend level, timeframe precision, or a basis for assigning sales to the viral content.; The fashion examples may not translate directly to commodities or products without identity, collectibility, or visual-expression potential.
  • Implications: Match the mechanism to category economics: flavor rituals and recipes may be better participation units for consumables, while collectibles, limited editions, and visual lookbooks fit apparel.; A smaller brand should prioritize a narrow, coherent message and concentrated activation rather than attempting broad, unfocused reach.

The underlying strategic model: engineer conditions, not a single post

  • Claims: The speakers separate viral content from a viral moment: a moment requires several levers pulling around the same idea, not simply a post that is judged creative.; They infer that large campaigns are often pre-seeded through PR, theme pages, and NDAs before the public perceives the moment as spontaneous.; Their positioning advice is to be distinct at an extreme—either highly premium and recognizable or broadly mass-market—rather than ambiguously positioned in the middle.
  • Evidence: They speculate that American Eagle likely placed campaign information with theme pages and PR contacts well before mass-market attention arrived.; Truff is used to illustrate the tension: it is positioned as premium, while its next growth opportunity is described as expanding to broader mass-market appeal.; The speakers summarize the process as pulling coordinated levers around a predetermined idea rather than relying on intuition that something is "a good idea."
  • Caveats: The American Eagle pre-seeding account is explicitly speculation rather than verified campaign reporting.; The premium-versus-mass-market framing is a heuristic, not a universal positioning rule, and the video does not establish why middle-positioned brands cannot win.
  • Implications: Separate the internal question of creative quality from the operational question of whether the organization has enough coordinated distribution, inventory, and timing support to turn it into a moment.; Where a campaign depends on surprise, establish confidentiality, creator/press sequencing, and embargo controls early rather than improvising them at release.

Notable Concepts & Terms

  • One-sentence narrative: The compact campaign story audiences repeat; the speakers treat it as the foundation of shareability.
  • Creator seeding: Providing selected creators with product, information, and a defined message angle before the broader public launch.
  • World-building: Using owned content, aesthetics, cultural references, and behind-the-scenes storytelling to make a drop feel like an event within a coherent brand universe.
  • Participation mechanism: A reason for the audience to take part, such as a rare find, golden ticket, signed item, or location-specific reward.
  • Big swing visual: The extreme, recognizable image or physical activation that becomes the visual shorthand for the campaign.
  • Visit occasions: Retailer terminology for a brand's ability to drive shoppers into physical stores, where their broader basket can expand.
  • Stacking scarcity and urgency: Combining limited inventory with a short, credible purchase window so attention has a conversion deadline.
  • 48-72-hour peak window: The concentrated period in which creator activity, owned media, retail mechanics, and customer urgency should reinforce each other.

Operator Notes / Why Ken Should Care

  • Create a reusable launch-brief template that forces owners to specify: one-sentence narrative, target creator cohorts, approved hooks, visual anchor, participation mechanic, inventory rule, and peak-window date.
  • Add a backwards-planning rule for campaign launches: lock the peak date at least six weeks ahead and require readiness reviews for product availability, creator fulfillment, legal/compliance, and retailer coordination.
  • Test message concentration versus creator freedom: issue a small set of fixed hooks while allowing creators to choose their own format, then measure whether repeated language improves search lift, conversion, and earned mentions.
  • For any scarcity campaign, require an explicit policy on restocks and substitutions before affiliates begin making availability claims.
  • Instrument retail activations around incremental store visits and basket effects, not only social views or direct-attributed sales.
  • Treat claims around appetite suppression, health effects, or other regulated benefits as a compliance review trigger; do not copy the "gray hat" examples.

Source/Metadata

  • Title: How Brands Can Guarantee Going Viral In 2026
  • Transcript words: 6256
  • Duration seconds: 1500
  • Timestamp note: No usable timestamps or chapter markers were present in the supplied transcript; the transcript also contains substantial repeated passages near the end.
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Full transcript 4562 words · 28 min read
0:00

Everyone thinks viral moments happen by accident, that they are luck. But in actuality, over the last couple of years, we've proved out that virality is a science. And at the end of this episode, you'll have a seven-step framework for how to go viral on demand for your brand, no matter what category you are. So we're going to walk through these seven different ways that you can construct a viral marketing moment. Super excited about this one. If you're not already subscribed to the channel, please like, subscribe, leave a comment if you like what we're talking about. If you don't like the glasses, if you think Alex should cut his hair, just let us know.

0:08

But all right, let's get into the episode. What is the biggest viral marketing moment you remember from this year? Probably two, actually. Probably the Kendrick and Drake beef. Yeah. That was something that was taking over culture. For sure. Right? So there's elements there. And more so, the marketing around Kendrick and Drake, they both did their own things. Second, from a really tactical marketing lens, probably Sydney Sweeney, American Eagle. American Eagle one. The great jeans. Yeah. Right. Had to be. It's still relevant. It's everywhere. With the GQ interview? Or Vogue or whatever it was. Yeah, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Right? 100%.

0:49

So the reason I ask is because I think that campaign, and many other campaigns like it, have seven core principles that go into pretty much every viral marketing moment. If you think about the Sydney Sweeney, American Eagle, great jeans, then that's a narrative. Right? So the first thing that people are going to need to establish whenever they want to create a viral marketing moment is the narrative. And when I say narrative in this way, I want people to think about it as the one sentence that the internet will repeat about that campaign. So if you can't explain the moment in one line, it's not going to spread. Spot on.

0:55

You have to think about, I'm chatting with McCoy and I'm like, yo, you see the Sydney Sweeney good jeans ad? You see that new brand talking about nature's epic? This can apply to pretty much everything, but you have to have that core one-liner that's extremely clear, a little bit witty, and describes the brand's relationship and what they're trying to promote in that moment. Because the audience is going to share the story. They're not going to share the SKU. They're not going to share the product.

1:03

Even on our onboarding calls, we always ask the one question and say, if you wanted one of your followers to try to convince another person to follow you, but they could only describe your content in one sentence, what is that? And you have to have some kind of central narrative. I know you're talking about campaigns, but you have to be able to have the thing that you're going to build around. The way that somebody's going to talk about it as well.

1:05

A CPG brand, because the next thing that I want to talk about is number two, is you have to seed the right creators with either product or information. So this can be, obviously, if you gift a bunch of creators a product, or if you're in the apparel space, Skims obviously just did this with their somewhat controversial Bush underwear, right? They send it to a bunch of people, and then all of a sudden it drives a ton of conversation. So you're going to want to seed the right creators.

1:05

But to take a CPG example, I made a video about David Protein back in the day in their launch masterclass, which I think they've done an incredible job hijacking attention across many things, right? Their movie-trailer-style tagline is the macros, right? 26 grams, 28 grams protein, 150 calories. For the right audience, that's crazy, right? However, what they did an excellent job of is actually sowing controversy with buying that EPG manufacturer, because what they did is they created the controversy and then they seeded all of the fitness influencers with that information.

1:05

All of a sudden, if you're a fitness influencer, you have to talk about this product. You have to talk about what they did, what its implications are, because you can't miss out on the current event that your entire industry is discussing. Similarly, I think people in the fashion industry have to talk about this with collabs. There's different ways to do it, but you want to make sure that anywhere from 100 to 300 creators have the right information. I think we see a lot of this on TikTok Shop where, to drill it down into a singular phrase, I think this Yerba Mate brand did an incredible job talking about nature's Zempic, right? It's an appetite suppressant. Which brand?

1:08

It's called Yerba Magic. I think they got banned off TikTok at this point. We're always in the gray hat realm. But it's like, you want thousands of creators using the same punchline, hook, or catchphrase. You want to establish that as a brand. And so many people think that you can crowdsource that information. I think you should actually be drilling into one or five different options.

1:09

We have this at a micro level with Salud, where it's like, bro, it's so cracked in the Latino community. All we have to do is use the authentic flavor name, which is the product name, and then electrolytes: horchata electrolytes, pepino limon electrolytes. And it immediately hits for the right audience, and it's very, very shareable and spreadable. And what we do is just brute-force the algorithm with that.

1:10

And it's kind of funny. To give a more practical example of this as well, they had a churro flavor that we dropped, and it's fire. Salud has the best hydration packets in the game. Tyler, I know you're listening to this, but it's actually unparalleled. So we did a promotion of their churro flavor, and I knew because we had had the horchata core protein shake collaboration, or viral moment, earlier this year where people would put horchata into a core protein shake on ice. And that was this huge moment in the Latino community. And I knew we could do something similar with churro and warm fall drinks, because people want to have a hot toddy or whatever it is, like a hot toddy mocktail with churro. And lo and behold, the number one video was a hot churro latte. Printed like 150,000 sales, crushed it in September.

1:10

Till this moment, I thought Salud was an alcohol brand. They move like an alcohol brand. They've been partying for sure. Shout out Josh Leyva. I don't know what I'm talking about. Crazy bastard. Like the tequila. Yeah. It just has the vibe that it could be a tequila, but this makes a whole lot of sense. Yeah, yeah. They're on a healthy, authentic flavors type of way. Okay, so they're like an Element for Hispanics. Yeah. Probably not positioned here for athletes and whatnot. Yeah, I think a little more flavor profile rather than functionality, but still, yes.

1:39

I know that. That's super interesting. Honestly, I think they're just a dominant hydration brand at this point. I was golfing the other day with my buddy Rohan, who's Indian, and he's like, yeah, this is my favorite electrolyte pack. So I think they've done an incredible job. Old job communities. I'm not going on record saying that. You're not going to get me today. People that would eat churros. No, I've ordered a churro. Bro, I'm from San Antonio, baby. Churros can fit in your mouth. All right. Can you get me some? I'll buy it regardless.

2:16

Come on, bro. You'll buy a $20 electrolyte pack a day. That's why I cited it. I'm like, it was $24. I don't need you to ask. I don't need to ask you for this. Let me get the Alex Garcia sample pack. Fuck that. All right, so once you seed the creators with the one unified phrase, I also think that the biggest thing that you need to do is world-build through your own content. So in the past, I think a brand that has done this extremely well, I documented on my IG, is Malbon. So whenever Malbon has an upcoming collection, they'll tease, document, and showcase throughout the process.

2:33

So I think you want to go a step further and drill into what that teaser should have. I think a teaser should tap nostalgia. It should attach to a cultural tentpole. It should ultimately tell people when the product is coming. That's why I cited. I'm like, it was $24. I don't need you to ask. I don't need to ask you for this. Let me get the Alex Garcia sample pack. Fuck that. All right. So once you see the creators with the one unified phrase, I also think that the biggest thing that you need to do is world build through your own content. So in the past, I think a brand that has done this extremely well, I documented on my IG, is Malbin.

3:27

So whenever Malbin has an upcoming collection, they'll tease, document, and showcase throughout the process. So I think you want to go a step further and drill into what should that teaser have? I think a teaser should tap nostalgia. It should attach to a cultural tentpole. It should ultimately tell people when the product is coming.

4:01

And last, similar for the immutable laws of power or of content that you did last episode, drill into that first frame, the visual hook. Lock in on the visual hook because it's not just enough to broadcast an announcement, right? You have to use nostalgia, attach to a cultural tentpole, and also make sure that it's got the action, the text that is needed, build some curiosity, some anticipation, whatever. But yeah, they've got to tease, document, and showcase to create a moment, in my opinion. Number four is adding a participation mechanism. People who have done this really well are Mr. Beast and some different creator brands.

4:23

But I do think the idea of a rare find somewhere in the batch, right? Get a golden can or something like that. Huel is one of our brands. They've got this green strength that they're promoting, and I think it would be awesome if they did a golden can in Target, and that was a part of the protein. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they just got into the green space. They're crushing it. And I think you want to add a participation mechanism on top of this overall branded campaign, right?

4:43

So how cool would it be if in the American Eagle, Sydney Sweeney campaign, they actually had 15 of those jeans embroidered with her signature or something like that, some sort of resale-down-the-line mechanism there. I think that part is underrated too, because it should be built into the overall nature of this thing, right? The Easter egg. And it becomes very shareable. It's a reason for people to participate in the campaign, and it's engaging. And it just feeds your content. And there are, I think, some pieces to understand about it as well.

5:10

One, Feastables was doing that in 2023, right? Circa 2023, when they were having golden tickets, they were having all sorts of different things within random Feastables. And so it drove a ton of retail foot traffic. Right. Right. That's one layer. The second layer that I think is interesting is you can do these in areas where you don't have a lot, where you're struggling, right? If Feastables is not doing well in Texas, you can do that specifically in Texas. Totally. Right.

5:44

And those are other elements where you could look at the different areas, the different retail presences, or yeah, retail presence where you're not selling as much as you should be, and figure out your ways of layering in gamification or participation into those places. Yeah. Which, the more that I talk to big retailers, it's really interesting. They are looking for brands that can drive visits. Visit occasions is the terminology that they use. To the actual store. To the physical store, because the way that they look at everything is like, okay, so the basket, right? It's like you go into retail and you have a basket. Maybe you're picking up some cheese.

6:10

Maybe you're picking up some thumbtacks. There's such a variety of things that you're going to put into your basket when you're actually in the store and when you're browsing things. And so what they're looking for is these D2C brands who have done an excellent job demonstrating they can get a lot of traffic and can then drive visits so that there's that sprinkle downstream across the rest of the portfolio. It's like, if I go to Target for a Huel green can, for a pack of Huels, maybe I'm also going to get paper towels. Maybe I'm also going to get some hand soap. Maybe, oh shit, I need a new pillow. I might accidentally get a new pillow.

6:21

There's just so much product discovery that happens at the visit level. And that's really the focus of these brands, is how do we continue to drive visits, and the focus of the retailer. And so again, if you're a brand who is looking to do something like this in a major store and you're adding a participation mechanism, all of a sudden you're a darling to them. They can't lose you. Joyride Coffee. I was about to say Joyride. Bro, the way Target loves that, man. You said Joyride Coffee. Joyride Candy. Yeah. Shit. Just FYI. I might need some more coffee. No, I agree. Yeah, they have to, bro. I think Joyride is Target's favorite brand. They might have been brand of the year.

7:00

Straight up. I believe it. Yeah. I mean, what Ryan's probably done for them is crazy. He's a unicorn. And ultimately, it's like you should be trying to be 70% as good as them at what they do. And the key is just that's what he always does. He's like, I'm at the lowest-performing Target in our entire portfolio, and I'm giving out Joyride or talking to people. And it's like— Road dog, dude. I would love to have him on the pod. For sure. That'd be incredible. I would love that. Shout out Nick Eby, right? I have you. I have you. Damn. All right. So the next one is creating the big swing visual.

7:27

And I think with this one, you want to get more extreme than you're comfortable with, right? If there's one thing I firmly believe, it is that you either want to be the Ritz Carlton in today's day and age or the Motel 6. You either want to be maximalist luxury, known for something, or you just want to be slop and super mass market. Shout out Nick from Truff because he has a really interesting thought process in all of this, having built Truff. And I'm not going to go into it, but the summary is, if you want to sell to kings, sit with the masses. If you want to sell to the masses, sit with the kings.

7:47

Because the level of scale that you have going super, super mass market is so unbelievable. And Truff is obviously a very, very premium-positioned good. And so the next evolution for them is going more mass market, going broader appeal. Anyways, this is the visual, the big swing visual. This is the visual anchor, right? And this is something that obviously the Sydney Sweeney, going back to that campaign, the signature visual is the image that everyone has seen of her where she's sitting down and looking into the camera. It's a very recognizable thing you're going to plaster everywhere.

8:09

So consider what is going to be my big swing visual and how extreme can I get with that, right? How eye-catching, captivating can I get with that? I'm trying to think of other campaigns that have done a very, very good job with that. I mean, Nike kind of did it with winning is for everyone and the way they plastered that across all— Yeah. Like their billboards. Well, a lot of this stuff is getting hyper-fragmented too. Nike Running is doing Nike Running. They're also doing win ads for all of their different basketball players, athletes. Is there anyone else that comes to mind that has done an amazing job with this this year? Yeah.

8:51

Like the big brands, Severance had a pop-up of their office in, they had it in Grand Central, in Grand Central Terminal in New York. So, I mean, that's kind of one. Oh, Kith did that too with Padel. Right. Right. So, I mean, there are some like that. Anyway, so go for that big swing visual. And then this one is probably something that y'all have heard us talk about a lot, but ultimately I think is one of the hardest pills to swallow about creating a viral moment. And that is stacking scarcity and urgency into the drop. Nike Running is doing Nike Running. They're also doing win ads for all of their different basketball players, athletes.

9:19

Is there anyone else that comes to mind that has done an amazing job with this this year? Yeah. The big brands, Severance had a pop-up of their office in, they had it in Grand Central, in Grand Central Terminal in New York. So that's kind of one. Oh, Kith did that too with Padel. Right. Right. So there are some like that. Anyway, go for that big swing visual. And then this one is probably something that y'all have heard us talk about a lot, but ultimately, I think is one of the hardest pills to swallow about creating a viral moment. And that is stacking scarcity and urgency into the drop. There's a brand called Shinzo that I just did a video on.

9:54

It's Japanese-inspired streetwear. And they do an amazing job world-building. They do an amazing job pretty much with everything that we're talking about. Because they're a Japanese brand, they're tied to Japanese fashion ideals. They use loose cultural allusions to Japanese ideals such as discipline and prestige and whatever. And they just don't get greedy with their stock. If you're not in the moment, you're not going to get their stuff. They sell out. And I think what that does is you really hack someone's mindshare. They now have to pay attention to you. If I miss the drop and I want the product, I can't get it otherwise. This is a sick brand. I've never seen them.

10:24

Yeah, they're cool. And I can't get any of their stuff. It's like you go to their website, they're sold out of pretty much every item that you actually want. And it's because they're just running limited stock. And they're making sure that there's pretty much a three-day window for you to actually get the drop. So it's a lot of delayed gratification. You hear a lot of us talk about it on everything, but it does pay off at the end. It's so funny because I was about to call them a Japanese Cody Phillips. Do you remember Cody Phillips? Yeah. I mean, Cody Phillips is a British Shinzo probably, right? Is that where you're going to go? No, I think Cody Phillips is much bigger.

11:01

I think Cody Phillips has four to five hundred thousand followers. Oh, really? Let me fact-check that. No, 175. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. They're on point with each other. Yeah. But what I will say is Shinzo stole Cody Phillips and how he did the lookbook. So do you remember the lookbook that Cody Phillips did where it was top-down? And they did it like it was part of their actual campaign, where it was different stories that they were telling about some robberies and some whatever it was, something along those lines. And then, dude, the amount of people that I'm seeing doing the top-down with props around them is crazy. Yeah. And the person's dead for some reason.

11:54

Why are they always dead? You got to stop killing models. There's an epidemic out there. But I wonder, Shinzo has only posted 49 times. Their first one was in 2022. I wonder if they delete their content. I think they definitely do. Everything on their page is a hitter. I mean, they're putting up crazy numbers, though. Some of these. Yeah, bro. Their flat lays are good. Their overhead shot has 84,000 and the other one has 153,000. I think both of these brands probably took a lot of inspiration from About Blank and twisted that 3%. When I think about the OG clothing brand that really used short-form and carousels effectively, it was About Blank back in the day.

12:17

And now everyone has access to that same learning. And so that's why you're seeing a lot of the different similarities between all of it. This brand goes hard. You're going to see so much Shinzo on this dude in two months. So anyways, introduce scarcity because once you do that, customers will respect it and they understand that you mean it. I think that's another big thing. The churro flavor for Salud was very much so like, hey, once we run out, we run out. You're never going to get it again.

12:33

And that allowed our affiliates, when we have a thousand creators broadcasting that same message, it drives a lot of scarcity and purchase decision from the customer if they really want to try it. And the last thing is you really want to synchronize everything across a 48 to 72-hour window. And so this is one of the biggest things that I don't think people plan enough for because to do so is actually almost a quarterly initiative. Yeah. When we're talking to brands, we're saying you need to give us six weeks before you want your moment to engineer it.

12:42

If you want this moment to happen January 15th, I would recommend starting on December 1st because we're going to have a lot of different logistical challenges in the first three, four weeks before creators have their information, before we know how we want to package the statements, the narrative, the one-liner or the punchline, the catchphrase. All of these different things you almost want to workshop well in advance. And then the thing is also posts take time to ramp up their views. It's very rare that a post is just nuclear viral overnight anymore. I don't know why IG is doing this. TikTok's the same way.

12:49

I feel like I'm seeing mostly things that were from a couple months ago almost sometimes. And it depends on the format, right? If you're introducing new formats that you've never done, the algo is learning based off the content that a brand has published. Yeah. And so if you're introducing new formats, and I wouldn't even say new characters, but predominantly new formats. Yeah. It has to find people that are going to like those. And that is not a tomorrow kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. And I think it's another learning that we've been discussing with a lot of these brands.

13:22

A super interesting insight from the Target team was most of Halloween candy sales happened the last week. And it's so much demand and FOMO for people to have to have that candy that they'll run promo basically for the six weeks prior in September and the first couple of weeks of October. So all the candy will be on promo, right? It's like go get a bundle of Reese's and Hershey's and it's 30% off or whatever, coupons, whatever. That last week, they don't have to promo because there's so much demand from late adopters. Can you imagine you fuck up all candy sales for Target because of this? No one starts shopping the last week anymore.

13:48

I just expose them, completely ruin them. Honestly, I would be worried about that if it's not more so just like the entire content ecosystem is like everything just gets washed away in two seconds. But anyways, and honestly, shout out the Target team. If they're listening to this, that'd be fantastic. But that insight to me was really interesting because as we talk about how we're going to amplify seasonal moments, Easter candy is very similar, where it's that last-week rush. And I personally think what we're going to do is we're going to create content that'll say, you never want to be the mom that misses the Reese's eggs in her kid's basket, something like that.

14:04

I think if you post that content on March 10th, March 15th, and Easter is on April 7th, that content will spike April 4th, three days before Easter. It will spike at the right time. I think the algorithms are so smart that you want to put those urgency-based creatives into the algorithm weeks before so that they spike at the right time.

14:08

And so again, just underscoring the importance of, as you're a brand thinking about how you're going to activate these influencers, your own content calendar, the participation mechanism, you want to synchronize everything obviously around that 48 to 72-hour window where you think you're going to peak and make sure it all is cohesive and goes together. And that's how you engineer a viral moment. Spot on. I think two parts, viral content, viral moments, et cetera. It's all an art and science. Yeah. April 4th, three days before Easter. It will spike at the right time. I think the algorithms are so smart that you want to put those urgency-based creatives into

14:31

the algorithm weeks before so that they spike at the right time. And so again, just underscoring the importance of, as you're a brand thinking about how you're going to activate these influencers, your own content calendar, the participation mechanism, you want to synchronize everything obviously around that 48 to 72-hour window where you think you're going to peak, and make sure it all is cohesive and goes together. And that's how you engineer a viral moment. Spot on. I think two parts: viral content, viral moments, et cetera. It's all an art and science. Yeah. You can manufacture it. Yeah. But you do have to, you truly have to understand the strategy behind any of

15:09

those things. Yeah. It's funny because it's not just about, "Oh, I think this is a good idea." That's not enough in today's age. No. It's, "This is the idea that we're going to create around. How do I pull levers in all these different areas to amplify that idea?" Totally. That is the key here. I bet you American Eagle did go to all these different theme pages and had them talk about this weeks before that, before it really hit mass market, et cetera. Absolutely. 100%. Yeah. It's in every PR agency's email inbox two months before, strict NDA. And I think you can shock and surprise people if you're at a mass, mass, mass-market level, of course.

16:13

But I want this information to be valuable down to the 5 million a year brands, where it's like, bro, run that seven-step playbook. And obviously at each level, you are going to have to have some art, but that is the science, those seven components. Hopefully, through this podcast, we've touched on every single one of those components on how to actually execute it tactically. But if you follow those seven steps, you have a good chance, you have a very, very good chance. 100%. Good episode. Two good episodes. Cool. All right. Well, if you enjoyed, as always, please like, subscribe. If you're not already subscribed, we know that most of y'all are not subscribed.

16:51

Do your thing. That's cap. What was something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving? Yeah, please. I guess this is the December two episode, but we'll probably put this one out before my episode. Okay. So that it's like we hit part one, and then part two is right after. Cool. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right, y'all. Catch you next week. This year is a great question. Maybe the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle. I'm so pro, pro Sydney. Yeah. Big tits in America. It's sick. Big tits in America. There's an epidemic out there. But I mean, so I wonder those like Shinzo was only posted 49 times. Their first one was in 2022. I wonder if they delete their content.

17:47

I think they definitely do. Everything on their page is a hitter. I mean, they're putting up crazy numbers, though. Some of these. Yeah, bro. You know, like their flat lays are good. Their overhead shot has 18, 84,000 and the other one has 153,000. Like, I mean, I think both of these brands probably took a lot of inspiration from about blank and and twisted that 3 percent. Like when I think about the OG clothing brand that that really use short form in carousels effectively, it was about blank back in the day. And then now everyone has access to that same learning. And so that's why you're seeing a lot of the different similarities between all of it. Like this should go.

18:26

I mean, yeah, this brand goes hard. You're going to see so much Shinzo on this dude in like two months. So anyways, introduce scarcity because, you know, once you do that, like customers will respect it and they understand that you mean it. I think that's another big thing. Like the churro flavor basically for Salud was like very much so like, hey, this is a like once we run out, we run out. You're never going to get it again. And that allowed our affiliates, you know, when we have a thousand creators broadcasting that same message, it drives a lot of scarcity and purchase decision from the customer if they really want to try it.

19:00

And the last thing is you really want to synchronize everything across a 48 to 72 hour window. And so this is one of the biggest things that I don't think people plan enough for because to do so is actually almost a quarterly initiative. Yeah. When we're talking to brands, we're saying, you know, you need to give us six weeks before you want your moment to engineer it. Like if you want this moment to happen, you know, January 15th, I would recommend starting on December 1st because we're going to have a lot of different logistical challenges in the first three, four weeks before creators are have their information before we know how

19:35

we want to package the statements, the narrative, the one line or the punchline, the catchphrase, like all of these different things, like you almost want to workshop well in advance. And then the thing is also posts take time to ramp up their views. It's very rare that a post is just like nuclear viral overnight anymore. I don't know why IG is doing this. TikTok's the same way. I feel like I'm seeing mostly things that were from a couple months ago almost sometimes. And depends on the format, right? Like if you're introducing new formats that people that you've never done, like the algo just based is learning based off the content that a brand has published. Yeah.

20:11

And so if you're introducing new formats and I wouldn't even say new characters, but predominantly new formats. Yeah. It has to find people that are going to like those. And like that is not a tomorrow kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. And, uh, you know, I think it's, it's, it's another learning that we've been discussing with a lot of these brands is like, if I post, um, this was a super interesting insight from the target team was, uh, most of Halloween candy sales happened the last week. And it's so much demand in FOMO for people to have to have that candy that they'll run. God, I hope I can talk about this publicly.

20:50

They'll run promo basically for the six weeks prior in September and first couple of weeks of October. So all the candy will be on promo, right? It's like, go get a bundle of Reese's and Hershey's and it's 30% off or whatever coupons, whatever. That last week, they don't have to promo because there's so much demand from, you know, late adopters. Um, can you imagine you fuck up all candy sales for target cause of this? No one starts shopping out the last week anymore. I just expose them like completely ruin them. Honestly, like I would be worried about that if it's not like more so just like the entire

21:25

content ecosystem is like, everything just gets washed away in two seconds. But anyways, um, and honestly, shout out the target team. If they're listening to this, that'd be fantastic. But that insight to me was really interesting because as we talk about like, how are we going to amplify seasonal moments? Easter candy is very similar. Uh, you know, where it's that last week rush. And I personally think what we're going to do is we're going to create content that'll say, you know, you never want to be the mom that misses the East, the Reese's eggs in her kid's basket, something like that.

21:57

I think if you post that content on October or on, let's just say Easter is on April 7th. I think if you post that content on March 10th, March 15th, I think that content will spike April 4th, three days before Easter. Like it will, it will spike at the right time. I think the algorithms are so smart that you want to put those urgency based creatives into the algorithm weeks before so that they spike at the right time. Um, and so again, just underscoring the importance of as you're a brand thinking about how you're going to activate these influencers, your own content like calendar, um, you know, the

22:37

participation mechanism, like you want to synchronize everything obviously around that like 48 to 72 hour window where you think you're going to peak, um, and make sure it all kind of is cohesive and goes together. And that's how you engineer a viral moment. Spot on. I think two parts, like viral content, viral moments, et cetera. It's all an art and science. Yeah. You can manufacture it. Yeah. Like in a, but you do have to, you truly have to understand like the strategy behind any of those things. Yeah. It's funny because like, it's, it's not just about, Oh, I think this is a good idea. Like that's not enough in today's age. No.

23:15

It's like, this is the idea that we're going to, we're going to, uh, we're going to create around. How do I pull levers in all these different areas to amplify that idea? Totally. Like that is the key here. Like I bet you American Eagle did go to all these different theme pages and had them talk about this weeks before that. Uh, before like it, you know, I really hit mass market, et cetera. Absolutely. 100%. Yeah. It's, it's in every PR agencies, you know, email inbox two months before the strict NDA. Um, you know, and I think you can shock and surprise people if you're at like a mass, mass, mass market level, of course.

23:50

But like, I want this information to be valuable down to the 5 million year brands where it's like, bro, run that seven step playbook. And obviously at each level, you are going to have to have some art, you know, but that is the science is those seven components. Um, hopefully, I mean, through this podcast, we've touched on every single one of those components on how to actually execute it tactically. But if you follow those seven steps, like you have a good chance, like you have a very, very good chance. 100%. Good episode. Two good episodes. Cool. All right. Well, if you enjoyed, as always, please like subscribe.

24:23

If you're not already subscribed, we know that most of y'all are not subscribed. Do your thing. That's cap. Um, what was something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving? Yeah, please. I guess this is the, uh, no, this is the, this is the December two episode, but we'll probably put this one out before my episode. Okay. So that it's, it's like we hit part one and then part two is right after. Cool. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right, y'all. Catch you next week. This year is a great question. Maybe the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle. I'm so pro, pro Sydney. Yeah. Big tits in America. It's sick. Um. Big tits in America.

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