OpenAI stole YouTube's 2012 playbook (and it's working) 🏆

Plus 4 more "stupid" ideas that made millions this week

This week I found an AI fish tank going viral, physical gifts from OpenAI, and the smartest website footer I’ve seen all year.

Let’s dive in.

#1

This company added “ask AI what it thinks about us” buttons to their website

Check out Youform’s website footer:

Most companies would never do this. What if the AI says something bad?

But here’s the genius part: The prompt Youform feeds to the AI is primed to get positive responses.

So it LOOKS like they’re being brave and letting AI judge them freely. But they’re actually using basic prompt engineering to stack the deck in their favor.

After a bit of research, I found that Crisp does the same trick:

My take: This is excellent marketing. They get all the credibility of “we’re so confident we’ll let AI judge us” while actually controlling the outcome through the prompt. People trust AI more than marketing copy, so when ChatGPT says nice things about Youform → it works better than testimonials. And I guess many users won’t notice the prompt was designed to get that positive response.

#2

OpenAI started mailing physical coins to their power users

YouTube’s play button made creators obsessed with hitting a 100k milestone.

Now OpenAI joins the club.

The marketing logic is simple: It’s cringe to celebrate API usage, but a physical trophy gets photographed and posted.

My take: Physical rewards work because people brag about them. Digital badges die in email. Physical trophies live on desks. If someone’s crushing it with your product, send them something their coworkers will ask about. The social proof from one LinkedIn post of your trophy is worth 50 case studies.

And these customers will NEVER churn from a product that celebrated them.

#3

Nespresso turned decaf into Russian roulette

Six capsules: Five are regular coffee. One is decaf.

You don’t know which one until you drink it.

Here’s the trick: If you can’t tell which one is decaf → they just proved their point. Their decaf tastes identical to regular.

Instead of saying “our decaf tastes great” in an ad, they made you prove it yourself. And because it’s a game, you share it.

My take: Turn your product claim into something customers can test. Don’t say your tool is fast - let them race it. Don’t say onboarding is easy - time them. Don’t say decaf tastes good - hide it in a box. When people prove your claim themselves, it sticks. When the test is shareable, you get free marketing.

#4

Someone made a programming book in dark mode (and developers love it)

Black pages. White text. Exactly how developers actually read on their screens.

The author knows his audience worships dark mode. So he made the entire book match their IDE.

Is it more expensive to print? Probably. Do developers lose their minds over it? Yes.

My take: Find the one weird thing your audience obsesses over and build it into your product. Devs love dark mode. Marketers screenshot everything. Designers zoom in to check padding. Whatever your people do compulsively - exaggerate it. When your product reflects their identity back at them, they feel seen. That’s half the sale right there :)

#5

Draw a Fish is teaching us exactly how to do viral marketing

You draw a fish. An AI judges if it’s really a fish. Then your fish swims in a tank with everyone else’s. People vote on the best ones.

That’s it. That’s the entire product. It got 2 million users in a week.

It’s like a competitive Microsoft Paint.

My take: This is exactly what I’ve been writing about - mini-tools beat free trials and mini-games are the hottest marketing trend. Draw a Fish proves the formula: Let users create something in 30 seconds. Add an AI judge. Make creations public. Add voting. You’ve built a content machine where users entertain each other while you do nothing.

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This week’s pattern: The best marketing makes people participants, not spectators.

Draw something. Open something. Click something. Risk something.

Stop explaining your product. Start making people play with it.

See you Thursday ✌️

Tom

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