The Truth About Ad Creative No One Wants to Admit

Some people will tell you ad creative is king in DTC.

It’s not.

What if I told you a company that launched in 2016
just sold for $1.35 billion—with ads that look like they
were shot on a webcam in one take?

No fancy editing. No big-budget production.

Just a known actor
reading a script off his phone.
And it worked.

Mint Mobile doubled down and kept running

low-budget,
unconventional ads
that broke every marketing rule.

↳ A Super Bowl ad about chunky milk
↳ A $130K newspaper ad vs. a $5M Super Bowl Ad
↳ And an old commercial flipped upside down for the Super Bowl pre-game show.

They ignored every marketing "best practice."

And yet… they grew over 90,000% in five years.
So, does that mean this “ugly” ad format is what's working right now?
Also, no!

Take GoTreads,

a brand that's been around since 1975,
selling the same product for decades.
But then, they ran a high-production, cinematic ad—and suddenly, sales shot up 4,300%

Same product.

Same marketing team.
But after a simple high-production ad,
sales skyrocketed.

So, what did both of these brands have in common?

↳ It wasn’t quality.
↳ It wasn’t format.
↳ And it wasn’t budget.
↳ It wasn’t a known actor.

It was a clear, compelling message.

But this is where most brands get it wrong:

They either obsess over quality...
Or they obsess over quantity...

But they don't realize that advertising is just distribution.

And even if you have millions of ads running
or you have the most beautiful, high-quality ad running

If they have the wrong message

They WILL FAIL!