You need an unfair advantage. This might be it.

This week we’re talking leverage in the world of media, in an episode I’m calling…

When the brand Monday Hair Care launched in Australia in 2020, I thought their launch campaign was the most genius strategy in consumer goods for a long time.

They garnered loads of press and buzz by featuring Jaimee Lupton prominently as a co-founder of the business.

Jaimee is an epic entrepreneur and has played a massive role in shaping this $300 million+ brand - she’s a co-founder in the truest sense.

But the brand is owned by Zuru Edge, an arm of multibillion-dollar New Zealand company, Zuru.

This part of the story wasn’t covered in the press and instead, focused on Jaimee’s passion and vision for the brand.

There are two reasons this is an epic strategy

1. People like people, not corporations

By making Jaimee the hero, the story is infinitely more interesting to both media publications and consumers than just another brand launch.

2. It maximises leverage

This approach harnessed the core idea I’m talking about today, let’s explore it.

The power of media as leverage

Media is one of the most powerful forms of leverage in the modern world. You can scale your influence and reach with minimal cost.

Media is now permissionless. You don’t need a million followers to reach a million people. You can do it for free on YouTube, LinkedIn or TikTok, all without the traditional requirements or resources of the past.

It’s merit based. A democracy. The audience votes with clicks and attention.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

We’ve all heard the stories about Prime and Feastables by Mr Beast, but here are some stories of brands using this tactic that you may not know.

Chamberlain crushing it in coffee

Okay maybe you have heard of this one. But it’s still an epic example regardless.

Emma Chamberlain started out on YouTube sharing vlogs and creating funny videos. She’s now scaled to 15 million instagram followers and has the extreme unfair advantage of attention.

Chamberlain Coffee launched in 2019 as an eCommerce play, mostly selling subscriptions of ground coffee and beans.

In 2023, they raised $7 million and expanded into ready-to-drink format with Walmart ranging.

We’re still TBC on whether this brand is going to be successful long term, but they have good foundations and the recipe for success.

Mid-Day Squares building in public

Mid-Day Squares is a Canadian functional chocolate bar brand - bridging the gap between health food and confectionary with a better-for-you indulgent treat.

The three founders came together with no significant public fame, but leveraged Jake Karls’ larger than life personality to build the brand in public.

They document in real-time the highs and lows of building a challenger brand and through the process, have captured a cult following.

They are one of the fastest growing consumer goods brands in the functional food space and illustrate the value of getting in front of the camera with your story (especially if it makes you cringe inside - lean into that feeling!).

Pistachio Papi & the partnership playbook

In less than 18 months, this brand has gone from first post to mega success, and they are only just getting started.

It’s one of those truly ‘viral’ products - not just on the Internet but actual IRL virality through word-of-mouth.

There are two foundational things to note here:

1. The product is awesome.

2. They are exceptional at producing creative videos

If you aren’t nailing 1 & 2, this won’t work for you.

But where Papi and the team truly get great leverage is through their partnerships with other brands.

They’ve broken down barriers and teamed up with other like-minded brands - like Hismile Toothpaste on a Pistachio flavoured toothpaste.

They sold out 10,000 units basically immediately and drove a ton of attention to the Papi brand with Hismile’s millions of fans.

This is one to watch 🔥

Saturday Night Pasta

Saturday Night Pasta is a dried pasta and jar sauce brand. This may be a simplification, they call it ‘quality & convenience’.

The founder, Elizabeth Hewson is a chef, author and food columnist with a loyal IG following over close to 30K people.

It started as a blog > then a book > then a food brand.

In the past few months, they’ve picked up retail ranging in over 150 stores.

It’s unlikely Elizabeth would have captured this much retail interest without her own personal brand to leverage.

It doesn’t mean this product is going to become an immediate number one success, but it helps break down the early hurdles of getting retail ranging and consumer trial.

There’s no silver bullets, just a load of lead bullets.

Every example here is an oversimplification of the intense hard work put in by the people behind these brands.

They’ve all got the foundations right and I’m simply pointing out a few unique ways they are cutting through.

The aim here isn’t to say you need to do all this stuff, but it’s to spark the idea that there is more than one way to win attention in today's modern media landscape.

We’ve got three core ingredients here that you can experiment with to really take advantage of media as leverage (zero incremental cost, massive incremental impact).

Press

If you are running a brand, you have a story. Figure out how to tell it and make genuine connections with publications that have your ideal audience to help tell your story.

People 

Get in front of the camera even if it makes you cringe. You’ve gotta do it 100 times before it makes an impact, so adjust your mindset to simply getting runs on the board and improving each time.

Partnerships

Don’t just try to find brands with a big audience. Make genuine connections with the people behind the brands and then figure out if you could create a product together or run a promotion.

I don’t have the answers

And be weary of anyone who says they do. But maybe an idea here will help you find your edge or reframe a problem.

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