“What would you tomorrow, want you today to do?”

I heard this on a recent Chris Williamson podcast and it is such a perfect framework to lead each day with. If your outputs are a lagging measure of your inputs it’s the things we do each day that determine or at least help shape our future.

So if stuck on a decision, when procrastination creeps in or if you’re about to break a promise you made to yourself, think: what would you tomorrow, want you to do today?

Tactics vs. Philosophies

It’s easy to get caught up in the latest trends and tactics, chasing one shiny object after another. However, the true essence of effective marketing lies not in the constant pursuit of tactics but in embracing enduring philosophies.

Marketing world is full of content about quick wins, instant results, and revolutionary singular tactics. Usually to sell YOU on something. The problem is that it often leads to a cycle of constant change and adaptation without a clear sense of direction. You’re throwing sh$t at the wall. Hoping something sticks.

A philosophy is not a fixed set of rules but guiding principle that adapt over time based on new data points, market shifts and your own beliefs as you gain experience. It keeps you grounded but allows for flexibility in the face of the constant change we all operate within.

When your marketing efforts are anchored to a philosophy and set of beliefs, you're not just reacting to the latest trend or algorithm change. It provides a consistent framework to evaluate tactics, ensuring they align with the core values and long-term goals.

What are the marketing philosophies and approaches YOU believe in?

Are your strategies and tactics anchored to them?

Or are you just throwing sh&t at the wall.

Don’t get sued!

This weeks Bitesized episode has just dropped and while perhaps not the sexiest topic, probably one of the most under-thought about aspects of digital and social marketing: staying on the right side of the law!

Robert Freund has established himself as one of the leading voices in the world of ecommerce and advertising law. In no small part due to his content game across Instagram and Twitter.

Covered in the episode:

• How Robert started his firm - helping creators and clients keep their money!

• Growing his Instagram to be the ‘go to’ legal voice for ecommerce and social media advertising

• Common themes of litigation in business

• Hierarchy of policies - FTV vs policies from platform / service providers

• Do you have the rights? Know the rules and regulations around content sharing and repurposing.

• The most outrageous lawsuits Robert's seen and worked on

• How to stay compliant without the legal bills

• AI and what the future of policies might look like around it

• + loads more…

Check out the full episode on the links below and be sure to give Robert a follow. You might regret it if you don’t.

YouTube | Spotify | Apple

Whitelisting doesn’t work!

A fashion brand we recently partnered with at flight performance was running zero whitelisted adds on Instagram. When asked why, the answer was ‘it doesn’t work’.

I really believe in, and the data supports just how effective whitelisting and spark ads can be when working with the right creators… especially in the fashion vertical (which makes up around 60% of our clients).

The right thing to do was a controlled spend test.

Success of creator content in your advertising comes down to the same philosophies as when producing net new ad creative:

• Who is the target audience

• What do they care about

• Am I capturing attention in the first 3 seconds

• Am I clearly showcasing the product, benefits

• Is my CTA strong enough

The debate will rage on around scripted vs non scripted content. For this we partnered with several creators and shot the content using our production capabilities and ran in our std META Ad account structure in a creative testing campaign first.

Analyzing Spend, Thumbstop, CTR and ROAS using our creative reporting tool Motion, the takeaways are pretty clear and thanks to the Motion Metric breakdown, super easy for our team and the client to digest and interpret.

The whitelisted ads drove a far higher Thumbstop, CTR and ROAS.

‘YES BUT ON LOWER SPEND’ I can hear you all screaming.

The whitelisted ads spend just under $100k in 30 days and drove a 2X ROAS on the first iterations of creative. This initial test proved whitelisting actually outperformed their other creative formats. Future tests are: at what spend threshold and through what further iterations of creative can we push too while holding and improving on these performance metrics.

That said, we don’t have to push spend. Think of it this way: we’ve been able to spend an ‘additional’ $100k against a format that’s outperforming their std creative, that is still driving above benchmark performance.

TLDR:

1. Don’t be so quick to say something doesn’t work until you’ve truly tested it and every variable.

2. Not every creative or format has to be pushed to the max: think of it as incrementally. Increase spend as a reflection of additional creative that meets the same performance targets.

3. Whitelisting and Spark ads work: as with everything, the creative has to be up to par.

Want this type of creative reporting? Check out Motion.

If you are a media buyer, creative strategist, brand founder or agency owner, your teams will thank you. Stop wasting time pulling manual reports, making assumptions on creative performance: Motion allows you to easily identify what creative is performing and breaks down all the key metrics of a creative and creative tests to know how to iterate and optimize.

Also, check out the episode of Bitesized I did with Evan Lee, who leads creative strategy and partnerships at Motion who gave a masterclass on producing and iterating on creative that converts. Links below

Spotify | Apple | YouTube

I was traveling last week to London, caught up with the UK team, saw some family and aside a few podcasts and finishing the Elon book, didn’t consume much content so my content recos will return next week along with…. BFCM, what are we seeing, what’s working, what’s not, are we up, down, flat on 2022: trends across 30 brands and millions in spend + prepping for the post BFCM Holiday and NY rush.

Thank you so much for reading.

-Daniel