The 6 ways brands go viral, gifting explained, and the hidden gems of university archives
branding MAHA, the EMV wars & the legendary CRM of Supreme
Good morning! Christian girl fall is in full effect, the Italian mafia has infiltrated the NBA and Clayton and OJ are mirroring how the elites shop in London.
In this HYPER we wrote out the definitive guide to how brands can make top of funnel content. Forward this to your boss, because if you don’t get realistic about this now, you’re likely doomed to cultural insignificance for the remainder of the current era (no pressure). In addition we explore the archives of the UK, discuss the state of Supreme in 2025 and look at campaigns in prediction markets, health and more.
Let’s get right to it.
A free guide to scaling your holiday gifting program
If you’ve been following along, we’ve already covered how to structure your influencer program and how to whitelist creator content.
Now let’s talk about one of the most underrated growth levers in influencer marketing: seeding and gifting.
Seeding is simply about sending free product to creators with no strings attached, but when done well, it’s an art form, and the best brands treat it like relationship building, not free marketing.
If you’re on the fence about this approach, just remember that you’re not just getting your product into someone’s hands. You’re giving them something to experience, to talk about, to share naturally if it resonates.
Seeding (when done the right way) becomes a top-of-funnel flywheel that fuels both organic reach and paid content. It’s how you discover your next wave of brand fans and your next batch of paid creators.
Some questions that might pop up:
How do you do it right as a philosophy?
How do you find the right creators to seed?
How do you manage logistics at scale?
And how do you measure whether it’s actually working?
Josh and the team at Aligned Growth Management (who’ve worked with Ghost Energy, Hexclad, FabFitFun, Owyn, Heart & Soil, and more) once again created another banger free guide breaking down everything you need to know about building and scaling a seeding program, including:
The difference between gifting, seeding, and paid influence
How to find and vet creators who actually post
The right way to pitch and personalize outreach
How to track results and turn successful seeds into partnerships
Common mistakes brands make (and how to avoid them)
If you want to kickstart a program that can have real holiday impact… start today, and use this free guide, or chat with AGM directly.
This segment is in partnership with Aligned Growth Management.
The 6 ways to go viral
Marketing is inundated with executive requests to the social team to go viral. Well, here is the definitive list of how to actually do it. Pick one of these… or fail.
This list exists because I am also always in this scenario. Why can’t our content do 1m views? How can we go viral with no budget? Does our social team suck?
To succeed in social, you need FRAMEWORKS, you need to present things back to executives in ways they understand, force choice versus a wide open void that lets anyone think they’re savvy enough to be able to have an input (they don’t).
The only 6 ways brands can make huge top-of-funnel content are
Humor - skits, jokes, pranks, memes. This is the easiest method, but it leads to the fewest conversions at the bottom of the funnel. Most brands don’t care.
A thoughtful, produced, episodic or conceptual series. Opal did this on a secondary account recently, which is a nice touch brands should try.
Truly creative, social-first art-directed conceptual campaign. What The Ordinary just did is a great example. But you need social media-savvy people in charge of all decisions. All three of what I mentioned are crucial.
SOCIAL FIRST. No people involved who aren’t actual social killers
ART DIRECTED. Needs real execution with creative, not just a fancy budget
CONCEPTUAL. Beauty and production aren’t enough, it needs an idea or a through line that isn’t basic.
Personality - an expert personality on camera doing “viral” takes or excellent explainers, this is your best option with a lower budget, we have brands smash with this in cut30
Spectacle - massive oversized items, ridiculous takeovers, incredible locations, but the bar for this is rising. Best in class example (also influencer collab).
Influencer collab posts - pay to play and still needs a great idea, but why influencer driven brands always have a leg up, they can generate these on demand.
If you do not pick one of these strategies and commit to it, you will not find viral success. If you need the playbook, it’s above.
For any interested in content strategy and formats in general, especially expert and person brand-driven, our next Cut30 starts Tuesday.
The Rise & Fall of Supreme
In this video, I walk through the arc of Supreme's meteoric rise, how it sneakily still put up massive revenue numbers, and has maintained relevancy as the Hypebeast era closes.
Overall, it’s an interesting case study, especially in people management and using the brand as a vehicle for community, from which I feel we can all learn a lot in the modern era.
Related, an interesting piece on the Supreme x Tyshawn Jones lawsuit.
What a university’s fashion archive looks like
And how modern brands use it for research.
A few weeks ago, Clayton was in London to check out the largest menswear archive in the UK. It’s run by Professor Andrew Groves, who has amassed thousands of pieces over the last decade in building the arcade, and who also has an impressive archive of Stone Island technical outerwear.
Clayton wrote some thoughts about what it was like visiting the archives, things he learned about the product, why almost everything we wear is a reference from the past (especially military products), and more. Here’s the full piece, check it out:
Marketing observations on the internet this week
There’s probably an entire HYPER about prediction markets coming soon, but someone on Kalshi’s creative team has been reading Ogilvy, and it shows.
I enjoy the rebrand of Equip - mostly because while the MAHA, anti-seed oil, natural foods movement, and brands like Ballerina Farms (shout out Sam from Cut30 for that viral vid!) have become startlingly prominent in culture… the look has yet to be defined, and I feel this branding is the first approach to it I’ve found that has legs.
An excellent example of how creatives and agencies can make BTS content that works for them and their clients.
The “CPG as merchandise” trend is alive and well in London.
The EMV and seeding kit wars continue, Dior claiming the current crown.
Hyper reports
Check out our market reports. We spend many hours researching markets, categories, and brands & products within the consumer space so you don’t have to.