You Had Me at TOF; You Lost Me at BOF

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of full-funnel marketing chaos in the wild 😵‍💫 .

It's not even bad creative, just creative in the wrong place. Like a six-figure video running as a cold ad with no hook. Or a “BUY NOW” carousel asking for money before anyone knows what you’re selling. (I won't name names...)

This is how I’ve started approaching it, after seeing a lot of creative (mine included) land in the wrong spot:

• TOF: This is your scroll-stopper moment. Doesn’t need to be fancy, just needs to make someone pause.

  Jones Road, Athletic Brewing, and Starface all get it. Weird lo-fi GRWMs, mood-forward visuals, frog memes in graduation gowns… whatever it is, it feels like them, and it makes people stop. That’s the whole job here.

• MOF: This is where it gets messy. I keep seeing brands recycle TOF content here and expect it to convert 👎 . At this point, people know who you are, give them something useful.

  Glossier used to be great at this: side-by-side demos, “why I switched” explainers, comparison content that made you feel smart and sold the product.

• BOF: This is NOT where you shout “BUY NOW” into the void. Retarget. Drop a review. Add a promo. Make the product feel like the obvious next step.

  Love what Ghia does here: it still feels like them, just with a little extra urgency.

Anyway... Just some stuff that's been keeping me awake at night 🤣 . The creative isn’t broken; but the mapping kind of is.

What’s the most out-of-place ad you’ve seen lately? Asking for a friend (and a media budget 😅 ).