Nutter Butter, a 55-year-old brand, successfully engaged a younger audience by embracing absurdist, meme-style humor. This risky strategy, while potentially alienating some, is effective for generating deep brand love because it requires taking a bold, creative stand.

To be memorable, marketers should pivot from purely digital tactics to quirky, offline activities like pop-up stands or unusual collaborations. These offline events generate buzz that can be amplified online. If an idea doesn't seem slightly risky or unconventional, it's likely not bold enough to capture attention.

Inspired by protein brand David Bars selling frozen cod, Stuckey's could create a strange product like pecan nut milk. The goal isn't to build a new revenue stream, but to generate conversation and press as a marketing tool, driving attention back to the core brand and its key attributes.

Observing a competitor's dystopian ad campaign, Dan Siroker realized the worst outcome for a startup isn't bad publicity, but irrelevance. Controversial marketing, even if it gets negative reactions, can generate crucial mindshare and get people talking, which is a prerequisite for user adoption.

When Facebook was a startup, Sean Parker hired David Choe not just to decorate, but to create art that would "scare investors." This strategy used raw, aggressive murals to establish an anti-corporate, punk-rock ethos, filtering for stakeholders who embraced a disruptive and unconventional culture from the start.

The IVF company Nucleus ran a subway campaign with provocative slogans like 'Have your best baby' to deliberately anger a segment of the population. This 'rage bait' strategy manufactures virality in controversial industries, leveraging negative reactions to gain widespread attention that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.

Rapper LL Cool J, a FUBU partner, wore a FUBU hat in a Gap ad and slyly inserted the brand's slogan—"For us, by us"—into his rap. The Gap's marketing team, lacking cultural context, didn't notice and spent millions airing the ad, giving FUBU massive, free exposure that a typical endorsement deal could never achieve.

Instead of a standard celebrity ad, The Gap produced a full-fledged music video with the group Cat's Eye, generating 500 million views. By creating culture (art, music) instead of just sponsoring it, The Gap transformed its marketing from an expense into a viral entertainment asset, driving its best growth in years.

Michael Dubin spent 8 years doing improv comedy purely for fun, with no thought of its business application. This seemingly unrelated skill became the cornerstone of Dollar Shave Club's viral marketing, proving that personal passions can unexpectedly become powerful professional assets.