Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) is the greatest marketer alive today.
Here are 6 things I learned from studying his work:
1. Insert yourself into the narrative
In the "2020: A Match made in Hell" ad he used Taylor Swift's not yet released re-recording of Love Story. When all the press was talking about Taylor re-recording her masters just the fact that Ryan used the song become noteworthy.
This is the same thing that @DHH and @jasonfried did by publishing a story about Bezos invested in Basecamp on the day that Bezos became the richest man in the world.
The conversation was already happening, they found a way to insert themselves into the narrative.
2. Own the equity
Ryan's biggest wins are for Mint Mobile & Aviation Gin, which he owns. Maximum Effort—his marketing company—does ads for other brands, but the most value from promoting companies where he owns equity.
Remember that Match ad? He's on their board of directors.
3. Move fast
In a world of quarterly planning & annual goals Ryan does something he calls 'fast-vertising' to ride current cultural waves and get attention.
When they had the idea to use the Monica Ruiz (from the Peloton ad) in an Aviation Gin ad they turned it around in 36hrs.
When a Sex in the City episode killed off Mr Big with a heart attack after a ride on a Peloton their stock price dropped.
But the combination of their experience moving quickly and doing crossovers enabled Maximum Effort to come to Peloton's aid with a new ad showing him alive
The day Winnie-the-pooh copyright entered public domain Ryan used the IP to create a "Winnie-the-Screwed" Mint Mobile ad.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman hate each other. Or at least they pretend to. This fake feud has enabled them to create a lot of hilarious content promoting each others companies.
5. Be the face
Ryan is able to be the face & voice for so many ads. Sure, it helps that he's already a famous actor & comedian who is love-able on screen, but that's a skill he learned.
Adam Lisagor did the same thing as the spokesperson for so many videos by Sandwich Video.
6. Not everything has to be expensive
Some ads are a simple voicemail recorded to Mint Mobile customers. Comedy writing & a screencast is all that took. Others are just a public letter.
He'd prefer to spend on great writing than expensive productions.
That's great, but there's a broader trend you should be aware of:
We looked at data across over 4 billion emails sent to see how iOS 15 is affecting open rates: the average has increased from 30% in August to 34% in November.
Apple released Mail Privacy Protection in iOS 15 which automatically loads the pixels in an email to prevent senders from collecting any info about the receiver.
Open rates are calculated by embedding a tiny pixel into the email logging an open when the pixel is loaded.
Since Apple is automatically loading pixels regardless of subscriber behavior, emails are appearing to be opened whether they are actually opened by the subscriber or not.
With about 63% of iOS users running iOS 15 we expect those open rates to continue to climb with installs.
Did you know that 50% of motels in the United States are owned and operated by people of Indian origin?
This is the story about a Patel Motel Cartel and it's my favorite example of hard work, community, and investing profits to build wealth.
In the 1950s families from India started to immigrate to the US. Because it was so expensive they often relied on money from family to help with travel expenses and getting settled.
Once in the US they got jobs, earned more, helped another family member make the same move.
Up until now it's a normal story of family helping family.
Until these two twists:
1) the money was never repaid, but always paid forward. 2) they pooled more money for a down payment on a small motel.
We've all heard it. But what if your current project actually is a failure and you should move on?
How do you know when to shut down or double down?
Here's the mental model I used to answer that question for ConvertKit (now $29M ARR):
In 2014 I was at a crossroads. I'd been working on @ConvertKit for 18 mo and we were at just $1.4k MRR.
@hnshah called me out on it: “Admit that ConvertKit is a failure and shut it down. Move on to something else. You’ll be successful at whatever you do, so start something new.”
It hurt, but he was right. Our revenue peaked a year earlier and was on a steady decline.
This isn't the shape you want on your revenue graph.
When you're looking for a new role make sure to join a company that is Remote First.
🌐💻
Before checking the "Remote" filter on a job board would cut the list down by half. Today most roles are remote friendly.
But remote doesn't mean the same thing at every company. Understand the difference between companies that are Remote First & those that are Remote Forced.
Remote first companies:
1. Focus on async communication: They understand that communication doesn't have to happen in realtime.
Often the best communication is async: someone can create a post or video when it's right for them & everyone else can consume it on their schedule.