Don't Create Ads. Create Content.

This week, YOU, , are joining 1000+ people who’ll get this first edition with a new style.

I’m trying to turn this into a newsletter that’s more example-led with insights ranging from marketing and advertising to copywriting, messaging and positioning.

The first edition has turned out to be pretty exciting.

Let’s get going!👇🏻

A trend I've been noticing with social ads recently: Rawness

Sure, UGC and high production ads still work. So do statics.

But the ads that are really scaling right now are the ones that don't look like ads.

The formats that used to go viral earlier perform "meh" for most brands today, unless it's a really good creator or a script.

If you want to scale with social ads in 2025, you need to treat ads like interesting content that people would like to watch anyways.

Let me give you 3 examples...

Ad #1 Calling + Surprising a Customer

This one's from Moonbrew.

The ad is about a person from the brand’s team calling a loyal customer and surprising them with a care package.

Some things I noticed:

→The ad feels super raw and unscripted

→Hook is fantastic. “Calling a customer who placed her 16th order.” It’s a unique situation because it's kind of a cold call and we want to know what happens.

Plus, 16th order shows that at least someone is obsessed with the brand so it might be worth checking out.

→While the conversation feels wholesome, the customer is dropping subtle hints about the benefits and how the product is a part of her lifestyle now.

My advice: If someone on your team can do this for real, great. If not, keep the brief for both creators low-key. Don’t give them a word-to-word script and let the conversation flow naturally.

Ad #2 Podcast Style

This one’s from Upkeep.

It positions Upkeep as the superior option to Excel.

The ad is stealthy. It sounds like the usual banter between colleagues and yet it has all the persuasive ingredients that make it high-converting.

Previous state of the customer, problems of failed solution, benefits of the current one—the whole works.

My advice: Make sure the pointers from both creators feel real. It’s a podcast ad so make it feel like both sides have a strong argument. 

Like this one had the free v/s paid angle which was addressed quite well.

Ad #3 Street Style Interviews

This one is by Airalo App.

Street interviews are a fun piece of content. Again, because of the same excitement of the unexpected, like cold calling a person.

And particularly what I like about this ad is the messaging. It doesn’t introduce the actual product until 10 seconds.

Instead, it starts with the angle of a travel hack, then goes on to talk about e-sim as a solution and then sells you on the implementation with an app.

My advice: This could’ve been better if we could actually see the creator asking the question and instead of the unexciting b-roll, we could just see little pop-ups on the screen.

When you commit to a non-ad ad style, you gotta go all the way.

Takeaways

1. We’re living in the era of raw content. As AI takes over our feeds, we’ll be begging to consume something that’s real.

2. Take inspiration from organic content. That’s how you can ensure that you’re testing a concept that’s pre-validated in the market of attention.

3. When working with creator-heavy formats, don’t script your ads to death. Always leave room for improv and let the creators surprise you.

That’s it for today!

What do you think about stealth ads and today’s newsletter?

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