How to ruin a product launch in 60 seconds 🧨

5 marketing ideas you should steal this week.

Happy Monday!

Every week I send you the 5 most interesting marketing moves I spotted in the wild. Quick real examples, the stuff you can steal tomorrow.

Let’s go ↓

#1

Your CEO is not an influencer (please stop trying)

McDonald’s CEO posted a video trying their new Big Arch burger. He called it “this product” (not burger), held it like a science experiment, couldn’t smile, and took the TINIEST bite imaginable 🫣

The internet destroyed him.

Burger King’s president then posted himself devouring a Whopper (sauce on his cheek), and Wendy’s president jumped in inhaling a Baconator. Full CEO burger war.

Credit where it’s due: McDonald’s official page then called it a “product” again (on purpose). A wink at the meme.

That part was actually well played.

But the damage was already done.

And the real question is: who approved that original video?

A room full of marketers probably watched that video and said “Wow, it’s perfect!”

I’ve been in those rooms. The marketing team can tell something’s off. But the CEO just filmed it, he’s proud of it, and now you’re supposed to give “feedback”. Good luck.

My take: The best marketing teams I’ve worked with are the ones where someone can say “this is NOT good” without it being a career move. That’s rare. And that’s why most CEO content is mega-cringe to watch.

What to do instead? 🧠

1. Find a superfan or power user. Invite them to be the first person in the world to try your new product. Film their real reaction. That’s content people actually want to watch.

2. Just hire an actor (like burger brand A&W did).

#2

This company DOUBLED its Google searches in 24 hours (zero ads)

Look at this:

Behind that spike is a marketing idea so simple you’ll be mad you didn’t think of it first.

This company just took a small chunk of their ad budget and did something SO OBVIOUS that most brands would never think of it. 13+ million views in 24 hours, Google searches more than doubled, all organic.

Here’s what they did ↓