This Is How Your Brand Needs To Tell Stories

Summary

Podcast Summary: "This Is How Your Brand Needs To Tell Stories"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Sweat Equity by Marketing Examined
• Hosts: Alex Garcia & Brian Blum
• Episode: This Is How Your Brand Needs To Tell Stories
• Release Date: January 21, 2025

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1. Introduction to Influencer Brands: Cortez vs. Trico

Discussion Points:

• Cortez and Trico are two prominent brands in the streetwear space, often compared due to their similar marketing strategies and product offerings.
• Brian Blum (B) highlights how Cortez has built a substantial following with over 1.7 million followers, fostering a die-hard community that fiercely defends the brand against competitors.

Notable Quotes:

• B (00:21): “I think he's a sleeper though. Like, I've known about Cortez probably in the range of like six to nine months, but then when I go to his account and it has millions of, you know, 1.7 million followers, you're like, wow. This is huge.”
• A (01:05): “That means crazy ride or die.”

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2. Viral Marketing Stunts: Strategies and Impact

Discussion Points:

• Clint, founder of Cortez, employs viral stunts to generate buzz and engage the community. Examples include letting fans design a collection and orchestrating interactive competitions.
• These stunts not only increase brand visibility but also involve the community, turning engagement into actionable outcomes.

Notable Quotes:

• A (02:16): “How can you kind of reverse engineer like a really strong moment for your brand? What do you got?”
• B (09:36): “Like super dialed. Absolutely dialed.”

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3. The Evolution of Storytelling in Marketing

Discussion Points:

• The shift from TV-centric campaigns to social media-driven storytelling has transformed how brands communicate.
• Brian Blum (B) emphasizes the need for brands to adapt to the new landscape where daily content can serve as multiple touchpoints with the audience.

Notable Quotes:

• B (03:25): “What I want to talk about is understanding, narrative building, what that is, how to do it, and essentially how the best brands master storytelling in today's landscape.”
• A (03:29): “Every day. It’s crazy.”

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4. Narrative Building: External vs. Internal Mission

Discussion Points:

• Narrative building involves crafting a story that resonates with the audience beyond just selling a product.
• External Mission: The public-facing narrative that consumers rally behind (e.g., Jocko Fuel's "Discipline Equals Freedom").
• Internal Mission: The company's operational goals and objectives.

Notable Quotes:

• B (24:00): “Brands need to establish what their external mission is. It’s the thing that you’re putting out into a world that people rally behind.”
• B (24:20): “When we talk about communication at scale, we have to be very clear about what we want to communicate.”

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5. Content Strategies: Touch Points and Content Pillars

Discussion Points:

• Marketing Touch Points: Every interaction point with the customer, now amplified through social media.
• Content Pillars: Core themes that support the brand’s narrative. For example, Car Detailing Company A uses reaction videos, song requests, ASMR cleans, and POV interior cleans to reinforce their "Ride with Confidence" narrative.

Notable Quotes:

• A (35:06): “So marketing touch points used to be billboards, commercials, newspaper ads.”
• B (32:58): “The third content pillar could be like ASMR interior and exterior cleans.”

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6. Case Studies: 2Js and Cortez Founder Clint

Discussion Points:

• Cortez’s Founder Clint: Utilizes interactive campaigns like design competitions and scavenger hunts to engage the community, leading to increased brand loyalty and visibility.
• 2Js’s Campaign: Collaborated with Lamine Yamal, a rising star at FC Barcelona, integrating the brand’s logo into his braces. This campaign leveraged a high-profile moment (El Clasico) to achieve virality and extensive reach.

Notable Quotes:

• B (12:16): “Like, super dialed. Absolutely dialed.”
• A (15:34): “Like this is a perfect example of how you want to handle backlash on social media.”

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7. Comparison: Brand A vs. Brand B (Car Detailing Example)

Discussion Points:

• Car Detailing Company A focuses on narrative-driven content that aligns with their mission, enhancing customer perception and loyalty.
• Car Detailing Company B solely relies on before-and-after photos, missing the opportunity to build a compelling brand narrative.

Notable Quotes:

• B (33:39): “Their content doesn't push any kind of narrative. They're really just trying to push a service.”
• B (34:30): “This is the world's going. Like when we see car detailing company A versus B...”

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8. Modern Marketing Practices vs. Traditional Approaches

Discussion Points:

• Transition from traditional marketing touchpoints (billboards, TV ads) to continuous social media engagement.
• Brands must create consistent content that resonates with their narrative to stay top-of-mind with consumers.

Notable Quotes:

• A (35:01): “Every sale still starts with marketing touch points.”
• B (37:08): “Brands don't want to invest that same amount of money into content.”

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9. Practical Takeaways for Brands

Discussion Points:

• Engage with Your Audience: Interactive and community-driven campaigns can foster loyalty and increase visibility.
• Consistency is Key: Regular, narrative-aligned content reinforces the brand's mission and values.
• Adapt to Modern Platforms: Utilize social media’s dynamic nature to create multiple touchpoints and engage continuously with the audience.
• External Mission Matters: Define a clear, rallying external mission that resonates with your target audience beyond your internal operational goals.

Notable Quotes:

• B (35:01): “If you are trying to build a brand that people are getting like that have that cult following.”
• A (36:12): “It's gotta be modernity. Where like a company is active still.”

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10. Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Summary: In this episode, Alex Garcia and Brian Blum delve into the evolving landscape of brand storytelling, emphasizing the importance of narrative building in the age of social media. They explore how brands like Cortez and 2Js leverage viral marketing stunts and community engagement to create lasting impressions. The discussion highlights the shift from traditional marketing touchpoints to a more dynamic, content-driven approach that allows brands to maintain continuous engagement with their audience. Key strategies include defining a clear external mission, aligning content pillars with the brand narrative, and utilizing social media to create multiple marketing touchpoints.

Final Quotes:

• B (24:00): “This is how brands need to tell stories in 2025.”
• A (36:12): “It's gotta be modernity. Where like a company is active still.”

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Note: This summary focuses on the core content of the podcast episode, excluding advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections as per the request.

Transcript

[A]

Have you ever heard of this brand Cortez?

[B]

Yeah, because of that brand Trico that I talked about on the pod a few months ago. A lot of people will sometimes say that Tricko is trying to be Cortez or that he's kind of taking things from Cortez because, like, Trickco also does the mask. And I think he shows his face, but he still does like, the mask and all that. Whereas Tricko, like, never shows.

[A]

He's kind of like, in between. He feels like Ronnie Feig versus, like, Trico. He's like, in between. But I think he's founder Clint.

[B]

Yeah, I think he's a sleeper though. Like, I. I've known about Cortez probably in the range of like six to nine months, but then when I go to his account and it has millions of, you know, 1.7 million followers, you're like, wow. Like, this is a. This is huge. And then if I look at other people's, what I've noticed is he has a die hard community. Like the people that love his. The brand and his apparel and his pieces and collections, they ride or die for him. Because I will see on other streetwears content, I will see a lot of comments of like, you copied this from Cortez.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Whether it was Tricko, whether it was XYZ brand, a lot of people would like, chirp in the comments. I would say, like, that's a good indicator if you got a die hard fan base. If you're. If they're in other streetwear brands. Comments like, just saying, hey, you're jacking this from Cortez.

[A]

That means crazy ride or die. Yeah, the, the thing I wanted to talk about with him and something that people should be thinking about in, in 2025 is just viral stunts overall, like, he's done a really good job. The one you're about to make a video on, where he basically, like, is letting fans design a collection. Like, that's just another one in a long chain of viral stunts that he's had. And it all traces back actually to him getting sued for the Cortez name by Nike. Now their biggest collector's items are Nike collabs. So there's some really good lore there. It's really interesting. And then it's another thing that, you know, when, when I was doing some more research on two js like this basically this viral stunt and how to create a moment for your brand and tie it to other things. Something that people should be thinking about and how to do it at a small scale, like that's, that's really what I want to dive into today is like, you know, how can you kind of reverse engineer like a really strong moment for your brand? What do you got?

[B]

I love it. And I think about mischief so much in this, in this scenario where they know how to do this, I mean, to a T. It's a science for them. Whether it was like the big red boots.

[A]

Boots.

[B]

Yeah. You know, like, and. And they did that crossword puzzle or. No, I don't know if it was a crossword puzzle, but it was something where, you know, once you completed it, there was some cash out prize that they're always just hitting it, hitting the nail on the head there with like crafting these viral campaigns or viral products and like these moments for different brands. But what I got is how brands can tell great stories and how it shifted from the landscape in the past where it was TV centric and we created like these brand campaigns that lived on TV and how they had like these 30 second slots as to where it is now where you can technically have a 32nd slot every single day as many times as you want because of the landscape of social. And so what I want to talk about is understanding, narrative building, what that is, how to do it, and essentially how the best brands master storytelling in today's landscape. Because it's changed drastically in comparison to what it was 20 years ago with Just TV.

[A]

Yeah, totally changed. You have an at bat every day.

[B]

Every day.

[A]

It's crazy.

[B]

I saw a quote yesterday or the day before that was like every piece of content's a lottery ticket.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, where it's like, you can hit and if you hit big, your whole life can change your whole brain.

[A]

We definitely know who said that. Who said that?

[B]

I don't know, but I gatekeeping so hard right now. No, I'm not even trying to gatekeep on.

[A]

I know you're not intentionally, but I definitely think we know that person.

[B]

It's either saved on my Twitter or save. It's no, it's nobody like we're close with.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I will say that like it was somebody that was like a big, big name.

[A]

I think.

[B]

I honestly don't remember.

[A]

What do you think? What do we gotta do to detach our algorithms? Like, I feel like your feed is my. Like if someone just put our feed side by side, they would be too similar.

[B]

The thing I bet I did now is I actually just use my marketing examine feed. I rarely use like my Alex Garcia feed Smart and my marketing examine feed. I only Interact with brand content.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so if I go to my explore page there, my explore page is just like everything brand social related.

[A]

Yeah, that's smart. And that's honestly something that is not talked about enough is training your algorithm and like where your brand account should sit. I think a lot of founders make that mistake is they'll kind of scroll as if they are themselves on their brand account. And so that explore page that reels feed, you know, it's giving signal to algorithm, the algorithm that those are other things you're interested in even if it's a brand account. And so it's important to only engage with things that are like interest aligned for your brand brand while you're on that page.

[B]

When, when I go to the brand account, when I go to marketing examiners account, I'm literally going with the intention of I'm here to learn, I'm here to get inspiration, I'm here to like pull different ideas and save and like do that versus when I'm on my page as much as I still follow brands and I get brand content, there's the variety of everything, right? There's, yeah, there's my friends from high school, there's friends from here, there's influence, whatever it is. Like there's just so much different content. Whereas like the brand page is just. Is sick.

[A]

Yeah, I made a mistake one time. I was trying to build a faceless content swipe file for everybody. So I just kept engaging with like these headline product demo videos and for about a day and a half, that was all I could see. It was just widgets, TEMU widgets. And it was like I, I was so radicalized. Almost like my almost had to buy everything. Everything felt so convenient. It's like, oh, do I need this light for my bathtub? I don't even use that bathtub seemed cool. Well, cool. Yeah. What I want to talk about today is this Cortez founder. He does some really cool viral signs. And then it tied into when I was looking at the two Js and what they did with Lamina Mall, which might have been the best one of 2024. If like, you know, you're looking back at it, talking about what kind of impact that made. And another big thing, shout out Jordan Rogers, because he puts out a lot of good content around how sports marketing is, you know, creates these successful campaigns. And he talks about how there's a hero, a product, a moment and a medium. And it's interesting how yes, that applies to sports, but you can also apply that to your brand. You can also apply that to, you know, all these different stunts. It's a good place to just start when you're thinking about, well, how is this campaign going to get executed? Because if you combine those with some of the more deliverable, esque things of scope related to a campaign, then you can have, you know, a really, really solid rollout. So the Cortez founder hosted a design competition on Twitter where his fans would submit their designs. In exchange, he would pay him $5,000 if he chose to use it. And he did it after someone basically was clowning his collection. They were saying, this is whack. You've lost your touch. So I said, you know what, fashionista? Come get it. Do your thing. You submit your own. He gave people an opportunity to show that they could do better. So now he's crowdsourcing designs and he has this unlimited upside opportunity where if he chooses one and he can actually integrate it into his collection and it drops, great, win, win. But above all else, he just forced a bunch of eyeballs onto his designs. Like good public, like good publicity, bad publicity, the same thing these days. Like, as long as you're getting eyeballs, then it's really beneficial to the brand. Especially when you're in this streetwear, disruptive space, because ultimately the eyeballs are gonna like you or hate you regardless. Like, so, you know, he's just accumulating those eyes on his brand. And, you know, I think it's a perfect example of how you want to handle backlash on social media. Because if at any point you're getting chirped or if you're, you know, people are clowning you, then it is important to engage with the dialogue. But you as the creator or the brand owner, whoever it is, you have to keep it lighthearted and you have to almost like be playful about it. Because when people are making these really mean spirited comments, they're not thinking any way about it. They're. They're typing that on their phone with a blank face, expression on their face. You know, it's not like they're actually yelling at you, but the words may elicit that negative emotion. And a lot like this really freaks people out. I think in brands, like a lot of the brands that we work with, if we post something controversial, they get a little spooked. They're not used to having any heat in the comments. They don't really want that. And I think in today's day and age, it's important to engage with those comments in a way that shows a clear stance that you're taking. So, so what he's saying here is like, yeah, I make designs, but you can make designs too. If your designs are up to par, then I'll use them. Go for it. And he's giving people this opportunity to create something for him, but he's also showcasing how hard it is and he's amplifying the talent of those that follow him. So you mentioned earlier, he's done a great job building a die hard community. This is just another long list in his record of viral stunts. His founder, Clint, he's a marketing genius.

[B]

Like super dialed. Absolutely dialed.

[A]

Like they sell out of every collection. He's gotten over 2 million followers for the brand. And his marketing strategy is all based on disruption and rebellion against convention. So probably the most unconventional thing he's doing is sending his fans on side quests. So this design one is an example of a side quest. But he's also had a bolo competition where he had all these people bring old hoodies for a chance to. He, he sent them on like an Easter egg hunt. He sent them on a scavenger hunt throughout London where they had to go like, pick up clues and like it was basically his gamified experience. And then at the end of the rabbit hole, he was having a meetup where he was auctioning off 50 hoodies. He had like 600 people come to the actual auction off, which is crazy.

[B]

When you actually think about how many people that is. That is a lot of people showing up.

[A]

It's a ton of people just from one post. And. And so these side quests, you know, another thing he did like to promote his, he was putting out a bunch of jerseys for Cortez and he did a jersey swap basically. So he did a situation where if you had a Germany national team jersey or any team's jersey from the Bundesliga, one or two, you could come in, give him that jersey and then he was going to swap it and give you a Cortez jersey while supplies lasted. So like another great way to just engage the community with a limited edition drop that. Like you can't get this product unless you know you're going to participate in the challenge.

[B]

There. There was a brand. So next week we're going to what's called Wadapalooza. I don't know if you know what that is, but it's just like a CrossFit competition. It's very similar to CrossFit games three or four years ago. Again, very irrelevant brand. But Reebok did that. If they had like this truck parked outside of Wodapalooza and they were. Had a shoe that was launching. And so if you came up to that. That. That truck and you brought your CrossFit shoes that you were wearing and you, like, gave them to them, they would then give you the new pair of. I think it was like, Reebok Nanos or some shit like that. And they gave you the new pair and it, like, created this whole moment where like everybody. Not everybody, but a lot of people were now outfitted at the event all weekend in their new Reebok Nanos because basically they got outbid by one of our clients now as the. As the main sponsor for Wadapalooza. But pretty interesting play and very, very similar.

[A]

I. I mean, that's. That's hilarious because that's such elite marketing execution. Reebok's just so whack, they can't even overcome it.

[B]

So I had the. So we're going to Waterapalooza next weekend, and we're working with. With Tyr to launch a specific shoe at the. At Waterpalooza. And I was kind of thinking about, like, running that same game plan back.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, not that we were involved with the first one, but, like, coming.

[A]

If you did it, you'd probably have to acknowledge it. You know, like, it'd have to be almost like a play on words of like, whatever their marketing language was used at the time. You'd almost have to, like, roast theirs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, maybe come get a shoe you actually want.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And don't, like, throw out right after that.

[B]

I mean, that might. It might have been like four or five years ago. So it's. Reebok hasn't been involved, I feel like with CrossFit since.

[A]

Well, and anything pre Covid might as well have not happened.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In the general conscience.

[B]

So we might be in a good place.

[A]

But please, YouTube don't censor that. I didn't mean it.

[B]

Keep it ripping.

[A]

Yeah. So everything that he's doing has kind of the components of a successful marketing campaign. So these are the four elements of a successful marketing campaign. They're the hero. They're a moment, a medium, and a product. So when you have those four things, that's how you put together a successful campaign. And Two J's actually did this. So they did a collab with Lamine Yamal, who's, like the. The best star on Barcelona. He's the hottest young star on Barcelona, and he notoriously has braces. And so two Js is this jewelry company. You know, they they sell bracelets, earrings, nose rings, whatever. And so what they did is they. They had this signature. Two stars is their logo. And they put those two stars in Barcelona. FC Barcelona, red and blue as braces on lamine Jamal. So it's a product he's known for. It's a hero in Lamine Yamal. This, you know, superstar. The moment is El Clasico. He wore these in FC Barcelona versus Real Madrid's match, which is the biggest match of the year in soccer and a medium which obviously turned into, you know, how was he going to promote it? Well, I mean, he's like, flexing him on any goal or any close up. He's smiling at the press conference. But most importantly is like, their campaign rollout was super dialed here. So, you know, it had two teasers where they were acting like they were. They were like, this is coming. Three launch posts. So I think that's something too that more people should think about with any marketing campaign is, you know, there's obviously the static image post, maybe there's a lifestyle and maybe there's a video. But, like, you should always have the maximum amount of posts coordinated around the launch. And then the last one, which I think most people end up not actually implementing, is the recap. So it was like a what a moment. And it was a black and white shot of lamine, like, on the field. It had much less to do with the actual promotion of the product. And when you combine all those things together, it creates this viral hero marketing campaign. I mean, the numbers back it up. It got 3 million likes across, like six posts on 2J's Instagram alone. They weren't even collab posting with lamine. And that's crazy for a brand that has, you know, 500,000 followers. Like, that's true virality, you know, probably touched around 100 million impressions on social, who knows? I mean, El Classico gets tens of millions of viewers every time. So, you know, when he was flexing it on the. On the tv, who knows how many, like, grandparents are seeing that being, like, why does it. Why are his braces red and blue?

[B]

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[A]

I. I haven't.

[B]

Okay, so Puma, they had a shoe that was like, launching. And so at the press conference, they had him wear contact lenses that had Puma, the Puma logo on it.

[A]

That's sick.

[B]

And it was basically that. That same element where biggest, you know, biggest screen, everybody, all eyeballs are tuned into the Olympics and they were able to kind of hijack this moment. Yeah, look it up, look up. Just like Puma contacts, Olympics. It's sick. It's an iconic thing that was. That they did. But if you look at all those elements that you were mentioning, like the hero, the moment, all that this is, this plays into that same aspect and it still goes viral to this day. Like, if. Can you imagine if social was around back in 1996? Like, this is one of those stunts that would have absolutely taken off, but absolutely it, you know, it wasn't relevant. Like, you just had to be watching TV and possibly like, see it in the newspaper for it to. For it to crush. Whereas, like, something like this now would go bananas.

[A]

Yeah, no, it was. It was unbelievable. And, you know, so many more brands should look at that level of alignment. You know, 2J is a Spanish brand. This guy has braces. It's kind of unconventional. It feels novel. No one's ever put braces on a prominent athlete like that. Right. Like that. This is the first time this has ever happened. And so you just strike gold when you. When you actually have a nose for these things. Compared to just pumping out, you know, content after content about the product and, like, you know, if you're just pushing your jewelry all the time, it's like, it's going to be hard. But if you can get, you know, buy in from someone prominent around a centralized, really popular moment and then have the medium execution, which I think what is different about what Jordan talks about with Medium is for sports marketing campaigns in particular, that's like, you know, the medium is a billboard or the medium is a commercial. Right. When you're a brand thinking about this on social, like your medium, you should almost be thinking about that as like static image posts and reels. Like, you should be thinking about medium as a form of deliverables. And that's the portion of that campaign that you're mapping out. So with this one, for example, again, it was six posts, two teasers, three launch, one recap. That's what you should be thinking about with your rollout rather than like, oh, we're just going to put it on a billboard then. Finding the hero, you know, that's a big part of it. It's hard, but if you can get to them, then it's going to be really valuable.

[B]

Hey, the flywheel's working though, right? The Instagram to podcast the Flywheel. The Flywheels cooking.

[A]

You know, sometimes you got to, you got to dig back in. I mean, I should have had a feeling that you were going to get on Cortez soon, bro.

[B]

I've had, I haven't written it.

[A]

I've had him on my radar for like, it's just not a brand for me. I was aware of his drop, like the recent drop, and I went to the site because it's password protected site, which I always hate, by the way, even though I get that it's like exclusive and shit. I'm like, dude, let me just browse, you know, let me come and hang out.

[B]

I had. So you saw the Nike collab that they had, and there's like a track jacket that's like all black, but it has like these curves and shit on it. And I was so close to purchasing it, but it was like 6, $800, like on Grailed. And I was fighting between. And I think this kind of told you I'm trying to be a lot better about not just dropping thousands of dollars on clothes. Yeah, trying so hard to not do this.

[A]

I mean, my entire clothing budget goes away on January 19th.

[B]

Yeah, you better go all out this.

[A]

I'm gonna be buy TikTok Shop products for the first time. My broke ass. I'm about to go on there and get that $10 hoodie, you know, the.

[B]

Quarter zip one or whatever. Everybody's pushing, everybody's pushing.

[A]

I put a trench coat on there for eight bucks. I was like, y'all got me up. This is crazy. Like, and that the, the thing we should be banning is that it shouldn't be banning the actual platform.

[B]

But anyways, I, I saw it was like six or eight hundred dollars. I was like, either A, I'm gonna buy this one piece or B, I could go On Grail. Then find a bunch of ALD pieces.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For like 600. And I did that. I went the ladder. I got, like, the New Balances. I got the. The new balance, like 1000s. Then like, these track pants that are sick. What are the. The baseball jersey. A few things.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Anytime. So here's. Here's my thing. Anytime I. I plan travel that I know I'm gonna be filming, I have to buy fits for that. It's like, we're going to Miami next week, but Rudy's going. Charles will be there.

[A]

I mean, particularly. Particularly, like, Miami fits, too.

[B]

Yes. But it's also like, we have six. Six clients that are going to be at Wadapalooza.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So Tier is like the main one, right? It's Tier Waterpalooza. But then, like, Jocko and like, all these other brands are going to give.

[A]

Out the client list. Yeah.

[B]

I was like, Let me just stop. Like, I just mentioned, too, that, you know, we've. We've already.

[A]

You. You know, if we were actually. If we were like, really, really popping, you'd have like 15 listeners would DM them and be like, hey, I heard you're working with Alex Garcia. Do you need any?

[B]

Yeah, do you need any. Do you need a closer?

[A]

Yeah. Do you need an appointment setter?

[B]

It's like, you know what, dude? Sell supplements.

[A]

I'm replying to all those DMs on Twitter now.

[B]

You need them.

[A]

I need some damn appointments. Book my calendar. It's over.

[B]

But, yeah, I was just like, man, like, we're gonna be meeting with all these clients, shooting all this. This content. I need to have the right fits.

[A]

Yeah, you certainly do. I mean, it's. It's something I'm. I'm proud of is I have yet to repeat a fit on this podcast where we're 63 episodes deep.

[B]

You really haven't.

[A]

I think I did early, early days. I threw on the carte blanche shirt like, twice. And you know who called me out for it was one of your ex employees. And who. That was one of the. It was Daniel. Daniel was like, you're wearing that carte blanche shirt again. I was like, damn, bro, get off my shit.

[B]

Same outfit every single time in office.

[A]

Yeah. Well, cut that kid.

[B]

No, leave that shit in.

[A]

Anymore. What, he's not watching this pitch anymore.

[B]

No. I feel like they do.

[A]

I fight.

[B]

Yeah. Out of, like, just being able to be like, oh, that's cap or that sport, you know, like that kind of for sure.

[A]

Like, whenever I've gone through, like, like separation with, like, a partner or, like a business partner or even sports team, whatever. Like, the year I graduated from Trinity, of course I'm, like, checking the scores of the basketball team the year after we go, and they take that L. And I'm kind of like, yeah, y'all need.

[B]

I'm glad they took that. Yeah, yeah. Like, when I left this high school, the high school that I was at fba, and then I transferred to Golden Gate the next year or that my senior year, so that the year after I left, they went. They were one game away from state, so they lost in whatever, like, regional finals. And I remember, like, putting a Facebook status that's just like, hahahaha, like, type shit. Even though we were three and seven, like, Golden Gate was. Yeah. And I just remembered the same thing. I would be checking all the scores. Like, I just wanted them to take L's, consistent L's, but we're past that. We've grown.

[A]

Yeah, it's. Man. I would say being petty.

[B]

Being petty, that's one of the things.

[A]

I've always respected about Sampar is his stance where he was like, yeah, like my middle school girlfriend that broke up with me. Like, that's why I'm successful, you know, like, that chip on my shoulder.

[B]

He's definitely. He's petty. But he admits it. I'm petty. I admit it.

[A]

Like, for sure, I'm extremely petty.

[B]

I'm. Yeah. Very, very petty.

[A]

Yeah, it's. I mean, you can't. It's hard to not be petty and, like, be in business. Like, people screw you over so much. But, like, the thing is, it's kind of like we were saying with Cortez Psych. You know, you can be petty, but you can't be spiteful. Like, you can't actually care, because once you start caring, then that. That's kind of. Yeah, you come off like a loser.

[B]

But couldn't agree more.

[A]

All right, so what do you got?

[B]

So what I want to talk about is how brands can master storytelling in 2025. And again, the landscape has changed drastically from TV to now social. You could put out stories every single day, and you don't have to pay for them through the same lens where tv, you had to pay for every slot that you had. Right. Every opportunity, get in front of somebody, you had to pay for it. And with Social, it's free now.

[A]

Right.

[B]

We can put out as many stories as we want. But great brands tattoo your brain. What this means is they tell stories over and over again that pull you in, and they repeatedly tell A specific message indirectly or directly, over and over again until they form a narrative in your head. Right. Nike did it. Apple did it. These brands consistently were like, okay, we're going to create this narrative, and then we're going to, like, impose this narrative on you until you have a specific perception of our brand. Right. When we talk about storytelling in 2025, it is key to understand what is that narrative that my brand is putting out there. Again, talking about Jocko Fuel, and I talked about this a little bit. The narrative that they're trying to put out is discipline equals freedom. Right? That's a stance that Jocko takes, and that's the stance as a brand that they want to take. And so when we think about this overarching narrative, we have to then think about how do we tell that story directly and indirectly through our content, over and over again. Because narrative building is the ideas, the values, and the perception you want to imprint on your ideal customer's mind. And it's really the core of any effective content strategy, especially when we're talking about brand building, when we're talking about, hey, I'm creating. I'm thinking about this through the lens of brand marketing, and I'm creating specific types of content because I'm trying to form this brand perception. And again, like, when we think about communication at scale, we have to be very clear about what we want to communicate. Like, there's this very famous Steve Jobs quote and, like, kind of video just in the marketing world where he's like, he mentions it's a noisy and busy world. And so you have to be very clear about what you want people to know about you. That was in the 90s.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

2025 gotten a little louder. It's gotten like, there's. It's gotten extremely louder. Right. It's extremely noisy. It's extremely busy. And so when we think about, hey, if I have eight seconds today to talk to you and to communicate with you or at you, I have to be very clear about the message and the story that I want to get across so that I'm forming the right perception of my brand. Because I don't know how many strikes at bat I'm going to have with you if my first piece of content as a brand hits the Explore page and I get in front of all my ideal customers and I don't put the right story out there that's not working in tandem with what I'm trying to tell them, teach them before them. I'm wasting content. My content doesn't have a Purpose. When we think about content pillars and we think about this overarching brand narrative, we then have to think about, okay, what are the content pillars that we're going to create that are going to serve this narrative? But then how do we attach purposes or a purpose to that narrative? That's where it's super key. And so this is how brands need to tell stories in 2025. So brands need to establish what their external mission is, right? Internally, most brands have an internal mission of like, oh, I want to be the best brand in the world or I want to accomplish xyz. But in reality, you need to also have an external mission. That external mission is the thing that you're putting out into a world that people rally behind. I'll give you the probably the most used example that I use when it comes to this, but it's bpn, right? BPN probably has an internal mission that's something around creating the best fuel for athletes all around the world to help them optimize their performance. Something along those lines and some jargon to the public eye. Their external mission is Go one more. I'm not as a consumer or as anybody else that's a consumer. If I hear that other mission, right? Or their internal mission as a company that they rally behind, that doesn't. That doesn't fuel me up, right? Like, that doesn't get me excited about the brand. That doesn't make me feel any kind of way. It's just like, cool, like, I respect it. You're trying to make good products. As a consumer, if I hear Go one more, I now think of myself through that same lens. And through that looking at it through the lens of what are the values that they're communicating that I resonate with. And so then I understand the story of what Go one more is, right? And so it's key to have this external mission that you're putting out into the world that allows your customers or your potential customers to rally behind the way you find what that external mission is. It's really the intersection of these three elements. One, it is your mission. So taking your internal mission and understanding how you craft it in a way where you can craft it into something that is external that people could rally behind. The second part is, what do you believe in? You have to have something specific as a brand that you believe in that you know other people will believe in, right? This is. This. This. It's very. We could think about this through, like a very simplified version with religion. Like with religion, somebody believes something. And a lot of people believe that same thing. And so therefore, they congregate around that belief. And in branding, like, to just take it to the business side, you have to have something that you believe in as a brand, set of values, standards, a mission, whatever it is. And then you have to position it in a way that then your consumers also believe in it and want to help achieve it. Then the third is you then have to position it in a way that gets people to rally behind it. And that you have to think about that aspect through the lens of something that they want to be. Become some kind of values, something along those lines that make somebody look at it and be like, that's me. And so when they buy the product. When they. When they buy. Yeah, when they buy the product, they use a service, whatever it is, they're thinking about it through the same lens of, like, identify as, like, the person that feels connected to this thing, right? And so that, like, achieving that, doing that and telling stories in that way is narrative building. And so what I want to do is essentially, I'm going to go through, like, an exercise, right? So based on the content, which company is building a brand and which brand is just selling a service? So we're going to take two companies here. Let's look at Car detailing company A, okay? Car Detailing company A. They internally, their narrative is ride with confidence, right? They're trying to tell the world, like, hey, what we want you to do is we want you to ride with confidence, okay? When you get your car washed by us, when we detail it, we want you to leave here, put that music on, Be purely vibes, right around the street with your window down, like, feeling like you're in a movie, right? And then we think about the content. So if we look at. Then the content that this company is putting out, are they bringing this to life? So let's say their content pillars are reaction videos, right? Like a reaction video of somebody seeing their car after it just got detailed and them driving away in style. And then the company overlays, like, some, like. Like music, right? Like, Today Was a Good Day by Ice Cube, right? It's Brian riding away. That shit bumps.

[A]

Not in the Tiguan.

[B]

Not in the T1, not in the Tika. The second series could be like a series where they ask the customers what song they're going to. What's the first song that they're going to play after they hop into the whip, right? After they hop into a clean whip. Very similar to as soon as I Got My Car Detailed. I'm always Playing like a song. I know I'm a bump because I just feel right in it.

[A]

Well, you know, so you know, to creating like something that's socially native. That's a piece of content that's been going viral quite a bit. Is those street interview style. Like asking a college kid what they're listening to.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or asking someone, you know, this other content and then they'll play the song and then the person walks away and then they just rinse and repeat. It's so simple. Like the creator is literally just asking the same question to five different people and then playing the song right after. Now what also brands are doing is or not brands creators are doing is they'll say, you know, what's your favorite song right now? And then they'll have the song show it to the next person and be like, is this song good? And they'll be like, oh yeah, it's good. And then they'll ask them their favorite song and like kind of rinses and repeats and so immediately when you say, you know, what's your clean car song? That's a. It feels socially native. Like my brain can connect to those other two things that I've already seen. And that pattern matching is what's going to really make me watch it. Because all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I've seen some good content where this similar premise I enjoyed and so now it's applied to cars. Cool. You twisted it 3%. I'm in. I'm here to get the same kind of enjoyment out of it. So it's great for sure.

[B]

The third content pillar could be like ASMR interior and exterior cleans. Right. That just dissatisfaction from that. And then the fourth could be like a POV interior clean series. Right. Like a kind of before and after. But that's Company B. Right. Those are their content pillars. They're always putting those out. And they match that narrative of ride with confidence. Right. If you look at each one of those ideas, it indirectly kind of portrays that idea of writing with confidence.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now if we look at car detailing Company B, their content is just before and after pictures. That's all it is. It's before and after pictures of their service, essentially them detailing the cars profitable boomer vibes. That's it.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Their content doesn't push any kind of narrative. They're really just trying to push a service. This is the differentiation and essentially what narrative building is not. When we talk about car detail in Company B, this is where the world's going. Like when. When we see car detailing company A versus B and you have the decision and they're both in the same city and they're one mile apart. Chances are you're going to go to car detailing company B because you have some kind of perception about them if you consume their content. Right. And this is how, when we talk about modernized storytelling, this is what it is. It is understanding. I have to form some kind of perception in somebody's head. I'm not just creating good ideas because they, they're good ideas. You have to have filters for what are good ideas. Match to the narrative that your brand is trying to create. If you are trying to build a brand that people are like getting like that have that cult following.

[A]

Right.

[B]

We talk about that, that a lot. And so from that lens, you have to be thinking about it like that. I need a form of perception. What are the content pillars that I'm going to create that serve a purpose to form that perception. And then internally you have to have your internal mission and your external mission. Your external mission is that narrative. And then you always have to be filtering your ideas through the lens of is this hitting that, is that, is this amplifying that narrative? Yeah, because if it's not, it's not really a good content idea for your brand.

[A]

Exactly. Every, every sale still starts with marketing touch points.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

So marketing touch points used to be billboards, commercials, newspaper ads. And what would happen is if you're a local services business, like these car dealerships or like these car detailing, I would see it in the newspaper, I'd see it in a billboard by my house. So all of a sudden I know I need my card detailed. I'm going to go. Because at any given time, people are not necessarily in the market for your service. And so you need to be hitting them with touch points so that when they are ready to buy, they think of you first. What social allows people to do is create those touch points so that you're on someone's feedback all the time. Like if you're a content forward brand, if you're creating content that they enjoy, that's an even better touch point than anything about a billboard. Like that's the equivalent of people who were making hilarious billboards back in the day who had like great copywriting skills and made you chuckle while you're on the freeway. You know, it's a completely different mindset. It also gives this, I think it gives a perception of modernity. Modernity. Modernity.

[B]

I never heard that word, modernity.

[A]

No, it's gotta be modernity. Where like a company is active still. Right. Like they're not stale. If you have a good marketing strategy, you probably have up to date services as well. Like you're probably doing the best practices and today you're not doing what was working in 1995. And so it gives a higher level of perceived value when you are content forward. But I think the biggest thing to what you're describing is just the marketing touch points. So many people disregard that because we live in this one day click roas world where you just turn Facebook ads, someone sees your pair of shorts and then buys. It's like that is really a relic of the last 10 years. That era is already gone. And so now you should be thinking about your social strategy as a series of marketing touch points to get in front of people so that when they think of buying the right thing, maybe they just got paid, maybe they just needed to fix their windows. Whatever it is your product or service is, you're top of mind.

[B]

This is a conversation I've been having more and more with brands about the fact that like a brand will invest 20, 30k into email and SMS because you can push an email and SMS and be like, look, I sent this email, I made this amount of money, right? When you really think about it, that email, that SMS you may be sending 10 to 12amonth, right? As for like a larger brand, they're probably sending 10 to 12, maybe 15amonth as and that's 12 to 15 touch points. But they're sales driven touch points most of the time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When we think about content, you can put out a hundred touch points, you could put out 30, you could about 50. But brands don't want to invest that same amount of money into content. The fact that I can have as many touch points as possible and some of those touch points are going to be not only to people within our ecosystem, but to potentially people completely outside of our ecosystem. It's frame breaking to think about.

[A]

It's frame breaking. You know who is so close to realizing this too is retail brands. I think Olipop and Poppy broke everyone's brain with what they did on social and their ability to create retail foot traffic demand through social media is something that almost every brand that's on a shelf in a ton of stores nationwide is starting to think about. And I think they're also realizing that the social media manager of, you know, 2010 to 2020, even 2022, call it like pre reels, basically that person no longer has the skillset to grow your account they do not have the strategy, direction, art direction. They don't have any of the stuff that can actually drive foot traffic. I think about this with Kettle and Fire. Like, our. One of the brands that we're helping out. Like, you know, what we're trying to do is when someone goes to Whole Foods and they're walking through aisles, obviously Kettle and Fire is there against a generic brand. But if Kettle and Fire stands for something like the depletion of our soil and they're trying to promote regenerative agriculture and fix American farmland.

[B]

Narrative building, baby.

[A]

All of a sudden you're looking at, you know, Whole Foods 365 bone, broth and kettle and fire for $2 cheaper. And you're like, well, I kind of like these guys, so I'm going to support them. And, you know, they stand for something that I care about.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And it's so easy for so many of these brands because someone like them, they have a founder that's very outspoken.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, oftentimes, all of these things that lead to a brand being worth nine figures have already been stated, but they just haven't been modernized for social. And, yeah, I think that car detailing example was a cool idea. That was. That was cool.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Yeah, that was cool. That's for your YouTube video. Huh?

[B]

Newsletter. One of the newsletter. But it is. It is going into the YouTube.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

The flywheel's kicking, bro.

[A]

Flywheels.

[B]

The flywheel's kicking. I gotta wrap this up.

[A]

Cool.

[B]

Because we have a call, too.

[A]

Well, yeah, I mean, again, if you're still here, please review the podcast.

[B]

Please, please review the podcast. Like, subscribe, as always.

[A]

You know. You know what we need from you.

[B]

So Brian's looking for a job now.

[A]

Yeah. I'm Team Fries in the back starting on Monday. So, Team Fries, you know, if you see me at your local McDonald's, leave a tip. That's all I ask for. All right, later.

[B]

Peace out.