"A challenger brand is defined, primarily, by a mindset" 
 
Adam Morgan
 
Hi First name / friend, 
 
If you are on LinkedIn regularly then i’m 99% sure that you would have seen the work that Thursday are doing. Thursday, is the new dating app with a key point of difference that is only available on a Thursday. It’s fun it’s fresh and very reminiscent of early days Brewdog and a beautiful example of a challenger brand in action (I'm going to do a deep dive on them over the next few weeks)
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There is also another dating app that is coming on the scene The Sauce. They are also looking to disrupt the dating scene but are more conventional than Thursday, as they are available every day of the week, although they do use video to hook people in.
 
A few weeks ago, The Sauce bought a billboard and declared a dating war with Thursday. And whilst the majority of the internet (LikedIn) thought this was brilliant, I controversially did not.
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Don’t get me wrong, I love the tone, I love the spirit of oneupmanship, I love the line, but I think this misses the trick.
 
Thursday have done a phenomenal job in a short time frame of creating noise, they have thought about the share-ability of their executions- everything they have done is designed to envoke a reaction with the consumer to spread the story of their brand to more people. But most importantly everything that they have done has been grounded into the consumer and their challenges in the dating world.
 
However we do need to remember that whilst Thursday has been plastered across LinkedIn, it is an echo chamber and the likelihood is that the vast majority of people in the real world will have not heard about it- yet. (I am sure this will change very quickly)
 
If we were 2+ years down the line and everyone knew who Thursday was this would have been great, however in reality they don’t and therefore this joke will be lost on many people. They would have been far better at finding a way that addresses the problem of the customers and why The Sauce is the one to solve it.
 
This is a really good example of why you need to obsess about your customer and not the competition.
 
I would love to know what you think?
Purpose is not a marketing strategy.
science
Sprowt, is a marketing company that works with purpose-driven challenger brands, yet I don’t think that purpose is a marketing strategy. It’s a business strategy.
 
Businesses can and should be a force for good, and the brands of tomorrow will be the ones that believe in the triple bottom line, people + planet + profit. It should be baked into the business DNA, not just spoken about to win points.
11 words that stopped me in my tracks.
art
This made me stop and hold my breath- so simple and yet so powerful. Tony’s are on a mission to make 100% of chocolate slave free.
 
This ad invoked such an emotional reaction that it promoted me to have 6 separate conversations with different people about the brand and what they were doing.The secret of great marketing, make people feel something so that they do something about it.
 
The secret of great marketing, make people feel something so that they do something about it.
The curse of the never ending list.
heart
I would love to know if anyone has any tips on how to deal with the never-ending to do list? How do you prioritise, decide what is a must-do, should do and ohh that would be nice to do?
Have a great week all, and if you can think of anyone who would benefit from reading my weekly musings please pass them on, and the world needs brands that care.

Carly

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Sprowt is a creative studio that helps purpose-driven challenger brands that believe in the triple bottom line - people, planet and profit - stand out and scale.

We apply the tried and tested strategies of building memorable brands and then rip up the rule book to create disruptive brand and marketing strategies; growing the brands that matter into the household names of tomorrow.