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🪩 Volume 122 | February 4, 2026

 

This week, as a “what the heck worked in the last year” study, I pulled together a breakdown of my top-performing LinkedIn content as a founder of a disruptive marketing agency.

 

WHICH, COOL, BECAUSE the posts that traveled furthest just validated all my wild-n-cuhrazy thoughts that the less safe, polished, or strategic-sounding posts are the ones that create a ruckus. (AKA, widespread reach and… sales). Below, you'll see the posts where I fully committed to sharing my own POV… even when (especially when) it felt very uncomfy to say out loud. 

 

 

This week’s newsletter is about what happens AFTER you have a POV… and whether you’re actually willing to disrupt the norm with it. Ready? Let’s go:

 

 

 

 

Last week, we talked about having a POV (LINKED HERE if you have FOMO or missed it). This week is the uncomfortable follow-up question most brands avoid:

 

Are you willing to share your POV and shake up commonly held beliefs? Because that's where the marketing magic happens.

 

A POV that never leaves your internal docs and conversations isn’t a POV at all.

Two brands get this deeply right heading into the Super Bowl.

 

 

Tree Hut’s Super Bowl campaign is… unsettling, dystopian, and mildly disturbing.

 

Like I watched and was like “am I supposed to be this uncomfortable?” LOL BUT THAT was exactly the point.

 

The creative leans haaaaaaaard into their long-standing platform: “Uncontain Yourself.”

They turned it into a living, breathing, felt experience. The ad doesn’t gently suggest self-care. It confronts the idea that we’re all supposed to stay contained, polished, and palatable.

 

Which makes it risky, AND weird AND absolutely aligned with the brand’s POV.

 

Truth be told, making people uncomfortable signals you’re onto something in one way or another. I give this an A+.

 

Then there’s Grubhub.

 

Their entire Super Bowl campaign ladders up to one thing:

 

They're eating the fees. Liiiiiiiiterally.

 

TALK ABOUT A DOUBLE ENTENDRE!!!!

 

They are making a STRUCTURAL change to the business and launching it through marketing because WE ALL KNOW the fees on some of these platforms are outlandish.

 

And with that, Grubhub is openly calling out what everyone already hates about food delivery apps. ($18 to deliver some McDonald's? You've got to be kidding me.)

 

 

As Grubhub’s CMO said, this is a category-disrupting benefit and a fundamental shift in how they plan to market.

 

The ad isn’t the flex. The decision is.

 

The fine print: It’s for orders over $50, which please, in this economy? SO EASY to hit $50. I can’t even walk out of a restaurant for under $50. SO YES they’ll still make money… on the lesser orders. And we cannot forget: Platforms like Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Doordash make most of their revenue by charging restaurants commissions. It’s the DELIVERY AND SERVICE fees that they charge consumers, that they’re promising to back off of.

 

I totally nerd out over how companies make money, so this one is really neat to learn about. I might be switching, too!

 

 

They started with:

THIS is their edge. Safe campaigns might get polite applause. Disruptive ones get remembered—and talked about—long after the confetti settles.

 

If your POV doesn’t change how you build, price, communicate, or show up…

It’s not a POV, it’s branding garnish. Stand for the damn thing!!!!! And let it shape your marketing.

 

Most brands at this stage don’t need more ideas; they need the confidence to stand behind one.

 

When commitment wavers, it shows:

The HARDEST part is knowing something is off without being able to friggin’ name it.

 

Soooo0o0oooo I built a quiz :)

 

Its job is NOT to tell you what to say—but to surface what’s actually getting in the way of sales momentum: hesitation, a lack of differentiation, unclear value, or a POV that hasn’t been fully activated yet.

 

 

You can take it here → it's only 3 mins of your life, promise

 

Duolingo x Bad Bunny → I am dying at how Duolingo tied Bad Bunny’s halftime show back to the app. Their IG bio saying, “You have 8 days to learn Spanish for the halftime show, don’t disappoint me,” made me do a lil chuckle. This is what happens when a brand understands its role in culture instead of obsessing over what “worked."

 

Graza’s reality-TV TikTok →This video alone told me two things: Their company culture is absolutely lit, and they deeply understand their audience. I watched it no fewer than four times, and it somehow got better every time. It’s also the only reason I know they have mayo now—and I’m already on their email list and getting texts. That tells me this wasn’t a launch tactic—it was an attention grab first, and a product announcement second. Brilliant.

 

Skims’ ugly Nike shoes → If you bought these, I'm sorry but I HAVE to share the Live Slack reaction from my team: Did these actually sell out… or did they just make it look that way? Answer: Unfortunately, I think they did. They're horrendous, they're $150, and they're proof fashion has absolutely brainwashed us. The Kardashian chokehold on consumer behavior deserves its own research grant.

 

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Next week, once the Super Bowl dust settles, we’re going full funnel.

 

We’ll break down which brands didn’t stop at the ad (my fave!!!!!!!!) Yes, the ones who carried their Super Bowl moment across email, landing pages, social, and offers like absolute pros.

 

The BEST brands this time of year, the ones who really win the marketing game, are the ones who knew exactly what to do after everyone stopped watching.

 

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