It's Monday. Time to put your marketing spidey-sense to the test.
This Week's Prediction Challenge:
UGG just wrapped their "Feel House" pop-up in NYC's Meatpacking District (Oct 24-28). Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Lil Yachty, and ASAP Ferg showed up. It's now in its fourth year and has become a "fundamental" part of UGG's marketing mix.
Before this: Los Angeles, Seoul, Chengdu. Multisensory retail experiences, curated by artists and free to the public.
The pattern? Legacy brands are going experiential. The Global experiential marketing spend hit $128 billion in 2024. That is mind blowing!
Now every "boring" brand is watching nervously.
What happens next week?
A) Another legacy brand (Timberland? North Face? Crocs?) announces their own experiential pop-up
B) A direct competitor (Birkenstock? Allbirds?) does a "roast UGG" counter-campaign online
C) UGG doubles down—announces Feel House becomes permanent stores in 3 cities
D) Fast fashion (Zara? H&M?) tries to hijack the trend with a cheap knockoff pop-up
Reply with your prediction. Closest guess gets crowned Friday + a shoutout in next week's email.
Last week's winner: Preyaansh predicted "Duolingo shows up with an espresso-slinging owl yelling 'You didn't finish your lesson.'" Still iconic. Still waiting for that café.
Meanwhile, today's breakdown:
Tesla doesn't advertise.
Instead, they give existing customers rewards for referrals.
Refer 5 friends → Get free Supercharging for life.
Customers became salespeople. For free.
The 59-sec takeaway:
Referral programs work when the reward feels like status, not cash.
Tesla didn't offer $100. They offered "free Supercharging for life."
Same cost to them. Way more valuable to the customer (exclusive benefit).
How I'd use this:
Instead of "refer a friend, get $10," try:
"Refer 3 friends → Get early access to our next product"
OR
"Top 10 referrers get their name on our thank-you page"
Status > money for most people.
For Under 59, I could do: "Refer 5 people → Get a 30-min marketing teardown call with me"
See you tomorrow,
Pavan
P.S. What's your prediction? A, B, C, or D? Or tell me which brand you think will go experiential next. The weirder the guess, the better.
Status is a feeling. You can't visualize it.