We’re back – and this month’s marketing thoughts are brought to you by hot farmers, Mormon TikTok drama, and the meatball pie I didn’t know I needed. From viral book deals to rebrands that forget the customer, it’s been a month of big reminders about one thing: audiences matter. Who they are, what they care about, and how you actually show up for them.
Let’s get into it.
The Hot Farmer Book Deal (And Why Audience = Leverage)
Luke Bateman is a hot farmer who loves books and went viral on TikTok for saying so. Within three weeks, he’d landed a book deal (actually, 2). As far as we know, it wasn’t a polished pitch or years of writing experience that sealed the deal – it was his “good vibes” and a viral following.
Unsurprisingly, the internet exploded. Especially BookTok authors – many of whom are from minority groups – who’ve spent years honing their craft and building platforms, only to watch a good-looking white guy with no writing experience leapfrog into a deal. And their frustration? Completely fair. Because the system is skewed. Visibility and opportunity aren’t handed out evenly. They never have been.
But what this moment also highlights – uncomfortably, but undeniably – is just how much audience has become the currency of everything. Publishers aren’t just buying books; they’re buying built-in demand. If someone has 300,000 followers who might pre-order on day one, that’s seen as lower risk than a brilliant manuscript with no online footprint.
It’s the same reason Hailey Bieber’s brand, Rhode, sold this week for $1 billion (yep, BILLION). Not because the skincare products themselves are groundbreaking – they’re solid, sure, but they didn’t reinvent the wheel. The value came from the audience. She had millions of followers, a loyal fanbase, and a brand people were already obsessed with before the first product even dropped.
That’s the difference. Attention isn’t just a nice-to-have – it is the commercial value. You’re not just selling a product anymore. You’re selling access to an audience that already wants in.
And I see it all the time in marketing. People build the product or service first, and then think about the audience. But by then, it’s an uphill battle. The audience is where the leverage is. If you’re building something new, don’t wait until launch to find your people. Start with them. Build for them.
Teach Us Consent Actually Got It Right
Remember that milkshake ad? Of course you do (I personally try to forget it). It tried to explain consent through drink metaphors and weird stares and somehow made everything more confusing. It’s a textbook example of what happens when a campaign is created for young people but not with them.
That’s why the new “Teach Us Consent” campaign actually lands. It sounds like something young people might genuinely stop and listen to – because it was built around them, not dropped on their heads from above. Reels that look native to your feed. Podcasts with creators you already follow. Printable posters that don’t scream “this was designed by a 58-year-old comms director who once used Canva.”
It’s not preachy. It’s not cringe. And most importantly, it’s not trying too hard. The agency behind it said it best: “Instead of preaching to Australia’s youth, we worked incredibly hard to hear them first.” That’s the bit so many campaigns skip – the listening.
You don’t need a full-scale national campaign to take notes from this. But you do need to know who you’re talking to – and show up in a way that makes sense to them. If your audience is more likely to listen to a TikToker than a health teacher, then maybe your strategy needs to match that.
Kudos to the team behind this one (Not Another 👏👏). More of this, please.
Mormon Wives & the Power of Previews
If you’ve been anywhere near TikTok lately, you’ve probably stumbled across Mormon MomTok. The vibes are chaotic. The drama is eliteeeeee. But the reason it’s everywhere right now? We saw it unfold in real time.
The cast were teasing hints for months – cryptic comments, messy unfollows, weirdly vague videos. And now there’s an actual show to go with it. The timeline is backwards: the content came first, and now we’re getting the context. It’s Kardashian-era storytelling, rebooted for TikTok.
Brands should be paying attention. This is exactly what audiences want. The build-up. The behind-the-scenes. The “wait, what’s happening here?” moments. We don’t just want the glossy ad at the end – we want to feel like we were there from the start.
This is why creator-led brands are doing so well. Why employee-generated content outperforms polished videos. And why “we’re thinking about launching something” sometimes gets more engagement than the actual launch post. People want to feel in on it. Like they’re part of the journey – not just a customer at the end of the funnel.
So the next time you’re tempted to wait until it’s perfect to post? Don’t. Show the process. Tease the launch. Share the mess. Your audience doesn’t need a finished story – they just want to be along for the ride.
PS – If you haven’t watched it yet and feel like some bingeing, it is absolute trash perfection. Highly recommend for brain rotting.
Only IKEA Could Do This – And That’s the Point
To celebrate 50 years in Australia, IKEA is giving away meatball party pies tomorrow. One day only. Ten stores. Completely free. It’s weird. It’s unexpected. It’s perfectionnnnn.
Because they could’ve done a generic sale. A commemorative tote bag. A nostalgic video montage. A “celebrate 50 years with $50 off Aussie’s favourite items” campaign. They made a meatball pie. Their audience is loyal, quirky, and mildly obsessed with IKEA food. This wasn’t about going viral. It was about doing something only IKEA would (and could!) do – and giving people a reason to talk about it.
That’s the bit I think we forget in marketing sometimes. We chase trends, chase cleverness, chase what other brands are doing. But the magic is in creating something that feels so specific to you, your brand, your audience, that no one else could’ve pulled it off.
Not every brand has IKEA’s budget. But every brand can think like this.
What’s your meatball pie? What’s the tiny, joyful, weird, or wonderful thing only you could do – that your audience would screenshot, share, and say, “yep, this is so them”?
Find that idea. That’s the one worth running with.
Branding ≠ Your Favourite Colour
Lastly, a reminder for anyone working on branding now (or soon): it’s not just about what you like.
Lately I’ve been deep in branding projects, and this same thing keeps coming up – people choose colours, fonts, and styles because they like them. Which is fair. It’s your business. It should feel like you. But here’s the thing: it’s not just about you.
Great branding lives in the overlap – the sweet spot where your taste and your audience’s expectations meet. Think of it like a Venn diagram: one circle is you, the other is your customer, and your brand lives in the middle. Too much “you” and it might not land. Too much “them” and it starts to feel like you’ve built something that doesn’t even feel like yours.
I get asked all the time if The Social Lab’s bright, GIF-filled, rainbow branding works for corporate clients. My answer? Not all of them – but the right ones. The ones who get the jokes and want colour, not another navy deck with a three-phase funnel (no offence to navy).
And that’s the point. Your brand doesn’t need to appeal to everyone. It just needs to resonate clearly with the people you actually want to work with.
So if you’re picking colours, copy, or a tone of voice, ask yourself: do I love this and will it land with the people I’m trying to reach? That overlap – that’s the bit that turns nice branding into EPICCCCCC branding.
And that’s the wrap! If there’s one thing tying it all together, it’s this: give people what they want. Whether it’s drama, meaning, meatballs or main character energy – the internet rewards content that hits.
P.S. I got a reminder of that this week – posted some stone house reno content on TikTok and accidentally hit 500,000 views and 16K additional followers in seven days (a very happy accident!). If you know any homeware or hardware brands keen to sponsor a reno account with three months of content locked and loaded… send them my way. Preferably DeWalt. Thanks in advance from me and my now very interested in TikTok husband.
