02:08:27 · Jordi Hays, Will Mayer, John Coogan
[02:08:27] S0: The the the great the great idea is, like, let's make it impossible to sign up for a membership on January 1. Right? Like, that's the idea and that's what sticks with people. I don't even remember, like, a lot of the visuals, but to me that that's what made it a great campaign. [02:08:44] S7: Yeah. I think that we spent less than 1% of what we would normally spend on a January campaign that year for what we launched, which we don't speak January. It was just black and white text, which is why you don't remember it. But, like, brand actions, I think, cut through more than anything now. Yeah. Especially with, like, I feel like AI is gonna democratize creativity and skill Yeah. To so many people. That there'll be such an abundance of beautiful visuals over the next few years that, like, the concept and what the company actually does will probably be the most important thing. [02:09:09] S0: Interesting. What action are you willing to take? [02:09:12] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actions speak louder than words and maybe slop as well. How how do you how is working with Brian Johnson different? Because it feels like, Polymarket, it's sort of like a standard playbook. You have a celebrity. You have a video. It's going in the World Cup. It's like it's like standard inventory. Obviously, executed very well. But, with Brian Johnson, it's like this massive owned media influencer driven individual. He's huge on Twitter. It it just feels like a different company. How did you approach that? What'd you wind up working with him on?
02:09:12 · John Coogan, Will Mayer, Jordi Hays
[02:09:12] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actions speak louder than words and maybe slop as well. How how do you how is working with Brian Johnson different? Because it feels like, Polymarket, it's sort of like a standard playbook. You have a celebrity. You have a video. It's going in the World Cup. It's like it's like standard inventory. Obviously, executed very well. But, with Brian Johnson, it's like this massive owned media influencer driven individual. He's huge on Twitter. It it just feels like a different company. How did you approach that? What'd you wind up working with him on? [02:09:43] S7: It's massive. Him and Kate hit us up, like, probably late twenty twenty four, early twenty five because they heard we were focused on, like, building religions. Yeah. And the brief was basically, build a build a religion for Don't Die. [02:09:53] S1: That makes sense. [02:09:54] S7: So we spent a lot of last year. We had to, like, to basically collaborate with them on what the doctrine of Don't Die became. Yeah. A lot of the rituals around it. There's, like, a I don't know, like, five core tenants of, like, how to build a cult brand. And I think Brian's, like, done all of those completely naturally authentically on his own. [02:10:09] S0: Do you know Were you were [02:10:10] S1: you responsible for getting him on [02:10:12] S0: the cigarette box? You know about this? [02:10:17] S7: I was not responsible for that. [02:10:19] S1: In in France, they have pictures of, I think cancer patients on the on the boxes of cigarettes and one of them looks exactly like Brian Johnson.
02:10:19 · John Coogan, Jordi Hays, Vincent Weisser, Will Mayer
[02:10:19] S1: In in France, they have pictures of, I think cancer patients on the on the boxes of cigarettes and one of them looks exactly like Brian Johnson. [02:10:26] S0: Pulling this up. [02:10:27] S1: It's very funny. Yeah. We can share [02:10:28] S3: it with you and you [02:10:29] S1: can see. I I'm interested to know the the the five key, tenants of building a cult brand. But first, we'll show you the image of the Brian Johnson on the cigarette box. Can we zoom in there? It looks just like him to me. This one [02:10:46] S0: This would have been good guerrilla marketing. Yeah. You should have claimed credit. [02:10:49] S7: Yeah. I'm honestly surprised it's not, but yeah. Respect. [02:10:52] S1: But well, yeah. Walk us through the five tenants. How do they apply to Blueprint and beyond?
02:10:57 · Will Mayer
[02:10:57] S7: Yeah. I think it it comes down to, like, five core things. The first being doctrine. So having, like, identity before features Okay. Which is, like, what is the sacred text that everybody abides by? Most brands have a tagline, but what can actually be, like, truly enforced and felt by the community. Brian's done this incredibly well. Think of things like most, religions have commandments or tenets. Mhmm. Brands have, like, think different or Mhmm. Just do it. Mhmm. You have longer forms of doctrine, like the Technological Republic by Alex Karp Yeah. Or, like, zero to one. Brian used to write under the moniker zero all the time, so he's been primed for that. The second is ritual, which, like, again, Brian through the dinner series for Don't Die Dinners did such a beautiful job at. You guys have a ritual here every day, five days a week. Yeah. But, like, what are the initiations into your brand or into your community? Yeah. And it's basically forming, like, a ritual that becomes a habit that becomes identity over time. Like, you buy a pair of shoes, you join a run club, you are a runner. The third one is symbols and language. So, like, how can you take elements to create in groups versus out groups? What are the key features that signal people who are insiders versus outsiders to your brand? CrossFit has, like, it's not a workout, it's the WOD. With Equinox, we never said gyms, we would say clubs. Yeah. So elements like that are super important. The Catholic church used stained glass windows to educate an overwhelmingly illiterate population in the twelfth century to indoctrinate them into the church. Interesting. That's like another form of symbols for that. The fourth is a charismatic leader, which again, you have in Brian, you have in folks like Palmer Lucky Yeah. Where you almost icon yourself.
02:12:33 · John Coogan, Will Mayer, Rodrigo Liang, Jordi Hays, Tucker Brown
[02:12:33] S1: Mhmm. [02:12:33] S7: So like Palmer, goatee, Hawaiian shirts, flip flops, things like that are so incredibly important. And then the fifth one is an enemy. I think, like, every brand needs a nemesis. It a lot of people use, like, competitors. Apple started as IBM Yeah. With the, like, 1984 campaign. [02:12:49] S4: Yeah. [02:12:49] S7: But over time, it evolved to the concept of conformity. Because when you get bigger than your competition, that enemy loses power. But if it's, like, an overwhelming thought that can never truly be defeated, the enemy always keeps power. If you were [02:13:02] S0: doing a brand for the dog breed golden retriever and you needed to figure out an enemy for the golden retriever, what what would let's let's workshop some. [02:13:11] S1: The tennis ball. [02:13:13] S0: No. It's not the tennis ball. It's not [02:13:14] S1: the tennis ball. [02:13:15] S0: Because that's your friend. That's the thing that you wanna that's the thing that you wanna that you're desperately trying to find and get. [02:13:20] S1: It's hunger. I don't know. What do think? [02:13:22] S7: It could be hunger. For for my Australian Shepherd, it's like every single loud car, so [02:13:25] S6: I would say, like, the opposite of peace. [02:13:27] S7: And in defining your enemy, you define yourself. Yeah. So, like, I'd be interested who are who's your enemy? Who's, like, the nemesis of TPPN right now? [02:13:35] S0: Oh. We we've actually
02:13:35 · Jordi Hays, John Coogan, Alana Palmedo, Vincent Weisser
[02:13:35] S0: Oh. We we've actually [02:13:37] S1: mean, we've mapped this all out. We actually did this experience. And, yeah, I mean, it was, geopolitical near peer rivals, who you can guess. And then we had a bunch of, like, more satirical ones like Like our allies. People who block data centers. Like, we we love data centers, that whole thing. [02:13:52] S0: I mean, yeah. That that was that was early on. We would do things more like who were who were our allies. Like, if someone would mention private equity, we would just like, you know, clap. [02:14:02] S9: Yeah. Yeah. [02:14:02] S0: Yeah. Because that was like no one ever is like standing [02:14:04] S1: up for private equity. Short sellers. We hate short sellers. That type of thing, you know. [02:14:08] S3: Of course. [02:14:09] S1: Yeah. The yeah. We have a sheet, the terms and memes. [02:14:12] S0: How do you how do you think about scaling what you're doing, you know, in a in a craft business? It's it's exceeding it's been done. Scale's been done in in in the creative field with with with agencies, but oftentimes, it's at odds with great work. But how do you think about it?