If you're in the US, welcome back after a long Labor Day weekend. I hope you had a nice break. For others, you have already caught up to work, and that’s not bad either.

I’m going to try something new with this newsletter, but before I go into today’s edition, first, I would like to welcome 56 new subscribers to the Fresh Salmon community since the last edition. This newsletter began with no audience and no existing email list, so every subscription gives me an energy boost to keep going.

Swipe Files

Each marketer keeps a collection of screenshots, tweets, blog posts, thoughts, YouTube videos, etc. for inspiration or future reference. This is a good repository for all the information you might have needed.

Over the years, my own collection has also grown. Thus, I will share some of my favorite inspirational content from my Swipe Files. Many of you will find it useful and entertaining.

You know I’m all about Edutainment

1) Copy vs. Creative: Which is More Important for Ads?

There is nothing I love more than this post by metadata [dot] io.

Just imagine B2B ads with no copy.

It is true that people read. It even applies to ad copy.

It's just that they don't read what they don't find interesting.

There's no doubt that good creative will make them pause while scrolling to take a closer look.

It's the copy that makes them think - and what makes them click.

2) Pop Culture in Marketing

While watching famous films or listening to popular music, we tend to idealize them and create memories. 

Our brains construct a direct connection between a celebrity's value or a famous movie character’s presence, and the brand when they are used in advertising.

For brands looking to make an impact and sell big, popular culture can be an amazing tool. Take advantage of trends without losing your brand identity. Be relatable and trendy.

Raid Bug Spray did an awesome job with this advertising campaign. 

In this creative, there is no copy aside from the printed brand name on the spray bottle on the right-bottom.

They did an excellent job referencing Spider-Man, who is a personified spider avatar.

Spider = Bug. Reid is advertising Bug Spray. Their claim is - get rid of every bug in your homes. Kill’em all.

The suggestive image works great for their claim. 

What a bold and brilliant take, isn’t it?

My Real World Example

In 2015, I was leading the marketing team for a health-tech company. It was a HIPAA-compliant text messaging application for medical practices to communicate with their patients. 

To attract prospects to our booth, we created postcard-shaped handouts for one of the medical conferences. On the back of each postcard, there was a prompt to visit our booth, and a special offer.

Initially, I didn’t think they were good, but it turned out people really liked them. 

Here are a few of the ones we used:

3) Communicating Emotions

Heinz's creative is similar to Reid's with a large image in the center and a little copy along with the brand name at the bottom.

Heinz is advertising their Hot Ketchup in this campaign. 

It's great how this advertisement verbalizes emotions through creative.

The ad helps to verbalize the emotion of Smokin Hot Ketchup by putting Hot Ketchup with smoking matchstick. 

Well done, this is simply a masterstroke!

Interesting Thing That I Read Last Week

Jill Rowley, a 22 years SaaS veteran, early employee at Salesforce (first 100) and Eloqua (#13), shared this really interesting post on LinkedIn. 

This post was pointed to the podcast by the folks at PartnerHacker. 

Canceling the Funnel

Wow. This one was pretty awesome. 

A mind-blowing conversation that will truly make you say, well, F*ck the Funnel!!

This episode talked about the challenge of visualizing ecosystems, discussed influence model, and somehow ended up in a full-on anti-funnel exchange.

This is the first salvo towards discovering replacements for the funnel as a mental map of our markets and processes.

Put aside 45 minutes and listen to it here. It won't disappoint you.

Good Marketing Tweet That I Noticed Last Week

Meme of The Week

What Do You Think?

This brings me to the end of this edition of Fresh Salmon.

Let me know what you thought of today's newsletter. The switch to this format has not yet been made, but I think I'll increase the frequency with one newsletter based on this format and the other based on a long-form post about one specific topic. 

Also, I am active on Twitter and LinkedIn, let’s connect?

Cheers,

Vivek

PS. I love you ❤️