What top 1% marketers do differently 🧠

The 5 best marketing ideas I saw this week

#1

How the top 1% of marketers think

Let’s play a game:

You’re the CMO of Polymarket. You want to run subway ads in NYC. What do you do?

Think about it for a second.

...

Many marketers would:

1. Google “best subway ad campaigns” for inspiration

2. Ask the agency for specs

3. Make something clever (or reuse an existing ad)

4. Put it up

5. Done

That’s fine.

Polymarket did something smarter… 🧠

They went and looked at how people REACTED to previous subway ads. And they found this:

I wrote about Friend.com’s subway disaster a few months ago. People hated the “AI friend” idea so much they vandalized almost every ad.

Now here’s where most marketers stop. 🛑

They see that and think: “Ok let’s not be controversial. Let’s make ads people WON’T scribble on.”

That’s level 1 thinking.

Polymarket went level 9000.

They looked at the Friend.com vandalism and thought:

“What if we WANT people to write on our ads?”

So they made ads that literally invite defacement:

Look at this beauty: controversial bets in big font, TONS of white space, and grid lines like a school notebook.

Polymarket basically said: “Write here. We dare you.” 💡

Now every time someone scribbles on a Polymarket ad → they’re making free content. Because people take photos and debate online.

The vandalism IS the campaign.

The big takeaway:

• ❌ Lazy marketers study other campaigns to avoid their mistakes.

• ✅ Great marketers ask: “Can I turn that mistake into a feature?”

My take: Next time you’re planning any campaign, go study how audiences REACTED to similar campaigns. If there’s a negative reaction that keeps showing up, ask yourself: is there a way to make that reaction work FOR me? The best marketers I know do this instinctively.

That’s the difference between good marketers and f*cking exceptional ones.

#2

This company tried one of my favorite marketing ideas… and blew it

Typos and “mistakes” in your marketing are incredible attention magnets.

It proves a human was involved.

But this week a major brand crossed a line with it (and got cancelled) ❌

Here’s the full story + the huge mistake they made: