When an organic post achieves significant viral reach, it has proven its creative resonance. Repurpose that exact video as a paid ad, adding a subtle call-to-action. It will often outperform meticulously tested performance creative because its engagement is authentic and pre-validated by the algorithm.

Let the market validate your ad creative. Post content organically and when a video goes viral, repurpose it for paid advertising. Tweak the validated creative by adding a direct call to action, like a price overlay, to convert brand awareness into sales performance.

Brands jumping on viral memes may see a temporary spike in views, but it's a hollow victory. Consumers remember the trend itself, not the brand's participation in it. This common social media tactic fails to build brand equity or impact the bottom line.

Startups can appear much larger by purchasing the smallest possible unit of a large-format ad (e.g., a Times Square billboard for two minutes), capturing high-quality photo/video, and then amplifying that content across all owned digital channels like LinkedIn and email.

For digitally native DTC brands, OOH advertising serves a crucial role in building trust. A physical billboard signals permanence and legitimacy, assuring consumers that the company is a real, tangible business, not just another transient Instagram ad.

Legacy beer brand Heineken quickly launched a responsive ad campaign directly trolling the viral "Friend" billboards. This "meme-jacking" allows them to tap into a current cultural conversation, generating significant attention and signaling they are culturally aware, likely at a high ROI.

Instead of creating ads from scratch, identify top-performing organic content and repurpose it for paid campaigns. The viral creative has already proven its appeal (brand building); simply add conversion-focused elements like banners and direct copy to drive sales performance.

When launching creative campaigns, Wiz uses unique domains (e.g., Cisotopia.com) rather than company subdomains. This makes the project feel like an independent, fun creation, not a direct marketing play. The intentional disconnect from the corporate brand piques interest and makes people more willing to engage and share.

Gary Vaynerchuk predicts that brands will stop creating Super Bowl ads from scratch. Instead, the new creative brief will be to identify the highest-performing organic social content from the past year and run that proven, unedited creative ('black bars and all') on the biggest stage.