Ad Creative Winners vs Losers: Hooks, Bridges & UGC That Actually Convert.

The Scaling Lab-Tried & True Media: Welcome back. This is part two of our Creative Breakdown episode. If you watched part one, you already know the deal. We're continuing to break down ads from the wild and showing you exactly how we think about creative, what's working, not working, and what we changed and test to drive better performance.

If you haven't watched part one, definitely go check that out. In this edition, we're going deeper into more examples, more formats, and more actionable insights that you can take back to your creative team and test today. Some of my favorite breakdowns are in this half, so definitely stick around until the end. Now, let's get into what you came here to see.

Ooh, next one. ⁓ I'm so excited about this. So I guess like a really quick shout out to Gundry, because I mean, these types of historical lessons, how our food has changed have been consistent drivers for basically the same gut offer that Gundry's had for years. And it's allowed him to be kind of at the top of the direct response ad game.

and Gut offers for a long time. So I'm already thinking like, this is going to be a history lesson. And he has had a number of these over the years that I've studied because they just crush. It's such a great visual too, just nailing the message and mirroring the message with two visuals that cover not only the oil, but also the body and this black and white and color image.

it just, it's perfect. I just think it pulls you in immediately with the yellow font on the black background and these images, like it's visually stimulating and pulls you in. Great job. Yeah.

Yeah. Let's take a look. Let's dive in. Watch what this oil does to your body.

Crisco was actually developed as a candle wax replacement. Crisco is an abbreviation for crystallized cottonseed oil. Cottonseed was never used on food before. In fact, it was an industrial solvent among other things.

During World War II, Dr. Gamble realized that you could put food coloring and tell people it was 25 seconds in and I just feel like I'm watching a documentary. Like, it's so good. ⁓ Yeah, mean, Golden Hippo does such an amazing job with these ads.

⁓ So yeah, I mean, I feel like this one's probably really strong. I mean, this is stuff that we didn't know, right? And it's kind of like, it scares you a little bit, because you're like, wait, crystallized cottonseed oil, food coloring to trick us into thinking it's butter, this idea that it was a mechanical solvent or whatever he said there, that it was used to lubricate machine parts, all of that is, and also the... It subtly says so many things, not directly, but indirectly.

With Procter and Gamble, it's like, yeah, big food, big companies, big business, whatever. All these things that we've associated with doing sketchy things for the sake of profits at our expense. ⁓ probably getting close to getting on a soapbox here, I think all of those things are present in those first 25 seconds. And I just feel like that's recipe for a winner.

Definitely high retention on this. The education really builds trust because when you're telling me something I didn't know and you're letting me in on insider information, automatically I trust you. so that other than just like teaching the concept, which will ultimately lead to your whatever you're selling, it's an easy way to build that trust with that authority figure fast. Yeah.

Yeah. Four and a half minute ad. I bet they've got a really high retention on that. A high average watch time.

because it's doing that. And this is a great example of a VSL ad that I think is probably doing really strong. I don't really have any critiques here. This is probably a winner, I'm sure.

I might have one critique if we watch a little bit more. A little bit more? Okay, let's. Yeah.

Generous grants to the American Heart Association for promoting Crisco as a heart healthy alternative to butter and lard. What's better, butter or vegetable oil? Neither. Number three.

Okay, right there. So the number three is what confuses me. I'm just like, my brain then stops following the script and you lose me because my brain is trying to process like, what is number three? What was, what are we talking about?

So there was two transitions there that felt unnatural. Yeah. That I'm happy you had us watch into this point because the what's better this or that neither. then number three, well, number three is different from, you know, neither.

And then wait, you know, ⁓ what did he say? Let's see. Yeah. Butter or vegetable oil.

it kind of sounded like from the positioning previously that he was saying that butter and lard were better. So maybe this is a valid question, but, yeah, I don't know that that, that part to me almost seemed natural, but then cutting into this seemed very unnatural. So I think that they maybe see a drop off there. I would probably smooth that out.

Yeah, definitely. Or add some context to what this list is. Cause if he's going number three, it's like the worst seed oils for you. You know, as the transition like a little bridge.

Yeah, it's almost like something's missing that just got lost in the edit. Yeah, that's all. Other than that, it's great. Cool.

Winner. Yeah, I'm happy you brought that up. Winner. Winner, winner chicken dinner despite the weak bridge.

OK, let's look at a loser. I'm happy you foreshadowed this with loser because now I don't know what to expect because I'm so used to Gundry ads just being great. could be a winner. Nobody bats a thousand, right?

Let's see. Watch what breakfast does to your belly. You've been eating breakfast wrong your whole life and it is costing you your health. My grandkids have been telling me I look better than ever.

And this is my secret. Oh my God, is that grandma? Hi kids. Okay, mom.

I barely even recognize you. No, you look insane right now. are you one of them? Oh God, no.

It's a super simple Now I remember. Now I remember. Yeah, I can see what is up with this. I actually felt like this.

I love original B-roll and I feel like this kind of has that. Eggs always perform really well as a visual hook. ⁓ Yeah, getting into the AI Ted talk. know, it is what it is.

I don't think it's too bad. It's quick enough that you don't really pick up that it's AI. I got it. I thought this was authentic.

Yeah, I thought that was authentic. And then once it like pulls out or, you know, the bottom half dropped away, I could tell. And then this AI very clearly makes me feel at least previous one. Yeah, I'm not sure that this guy has grandkids.

Yeah, he's got gray hair, but you know, he looks like he might not even be 50. I think we don't even need him. I don't I don't think he serves any purpose. don't.

Yeah, it would have been better, I think, to not have that. He didn't add anything. And one other thing, the women, the TED talk ⁓ avatar was good, except I think the messaging could have been tighter and more specific rather than just saying you've been eating breakfast wrong and it's costing you your health. Like health doesn't motivate people like tell me it's costing me.

you know, a year of my life or costing me something's very specific, but health feels so general that it doesn't motivate me to do anything. So I think the script could be tightened up there. What do you think about the phrase eating breakfast wrong? ⁓ It's interesting.

I don't, I don't love that part. I don't love that part either, but at least it grabs, it does grab my attention. I think that the copy could just be tightened up there. Yeah, I think the focus being on that second part with health is more important.

I don't want to get too much into the weeds with this one, but I felt like, should I be eating with my hands? like, it just confused me. But I think that's kind of the point is like almost a confusing statement that catches your attention. ⁓ And then if that was attached to the specificity of something, like you said, more specific than health, I think that that would change.

we get into this little skit and it's like, the thing that immediately kind of Wait, what's going on here is like these two women almost look the same age for me. And one says grandma and the other one says mom. And so now I'm thinking about whether this is the daughter or not and how that's impossible. And I'm not paying attention to the message.

I think this is really interesting because we know car skits do really well. And so this whole like four people in a car thing kind of has like car karaoke vibes or anyway, I think it could work, but I don't know. They're just distracting for me because The beginning of it starts with grandma and mom, and then I start thinking about something else. Yeah, I love having four people in the car.

I do question the purpose of the guy in the back. He doesn't really say anything, but maybe that's okay. And I'm wondering who he is the whole time. Like, who is this random guy in the back?

But I do like having multiple people ⁓ providing context for the script. So I think the granddaughter looks like a granddaughter, but you're right. The mom is just way too young. And that casting makes a difference in believability because already we're just checked out.

like, there's no way this is the mom. And you lose our attention. But the grandma looks amazing. So she does pull you and you're like, what is this woman doing as a grandma?

She looks fantastic. Nice. So don't use generic terms like just health. Yeah, make sure bridges are tight.

I mean, that's something that we saw in the previous one that we felt was a winner, but also in this one, because that bridge with the guy just didn't make any sense, didn't add any value. And then I think similarly to the specificity point, the like kind of continuity, make sure you're not confusing people. And one, you know, make sure you're like really getting at something that people care about, but also make sure you're not confusing people with things unnecessarily. Because like I said, if I, I noticed that thing other people are too, and then people are going to drop off because it just seems confusing.

So yeah, I would expect that this is not performing nearly as well as the other, but with those tweaks, I think it could probably do pretty well. Yep. Alright, let's move on. What do we have next?

⁓ gosh, yes, yes. I used to only shoot liquid. We gotta play that one more time. And this is not funny.

used to only shoot liquid. Even the co-host couldn't keep it together. So good. It's brilliant.

I love that she feels so convicted about it. Like the other woman is literally laughing and she is stone-faced. Like she is cold. She is like, this is so important and starts getting into the like humine, know.

It's such a great split screen too. Yeah. use of a split screen. Yeah.

I don't know how I feel about listing off. Um, ingredients like that so quickly. It kind of for me feels like a tell. But maybe I don't know.

Maybe I'm just too sensitive to this stuff because I like know it's an ad. What do think? think this woman can pull it off. This talent can pull it off.

but not everyone can pull it maybe? The confidence, the authority. You just want to listen to her. And I do agree that the second podcaster did a great job because she doesn't really say much, but her whole The whole purpose of her is to just have an expression to react to the main speaker and she does it brilliantly, right?

If she was just sitting there without any expression, we wouldn't believe this is even a real podcast. then other lady never says anything? I think she's just reacting. And again, just does it perfectly.

What else? Yeah, amazing hook. I don't know if I have anything else for this. Like I'm so stuck on this hook.

I just want to play it over and over again. It gives me a belly laugh. ⁓ I was just going say props to them for being willing to test that. You know, I think some people would be scared to test something like that, but you know, it's, they don't want, it's not on brand or whatever.

So this is a great example of something that like might feel risky, you know? And I would say this probably is working really well. There's another line buried later, maybe towards the end. It says, so if you're squirting and not in the way you want to darling, try them.

So some great one liners in this script. And the only improvement I would make is she talks about the beef organs at some point mid ad and shows them on the screen. They're really tiny, hard to see. I think I'd work on that visual and making it larger.

Otherwise I would just cut it. Yeah, I saw it somewhere else. ⁓ here. Yeah, it's these.

Yeah. Yeah, though, if you're watching on a phone like here, we've got it on screen phone. It's gonna be super small. Exactly.

Text everything looks like it probably a screenshot from the website. But yeah, just impossible to see. You could probably do these. I've actually had someone test this when I made this observation about something else.

You just show one at a time so that you can make it bigger and then just have them swipe through. Yeah. So I think that would be one way to test this out would be to do that. Okay, so winner for sure.

Great. Yeah, like I'm like just on the hook alone winner. Like, and then you added the squirter line. I mean, come on.

They could test that as a winner. All right. What do we have here? Here's your mom and here's some traumas I endured.

Agent mom traumas. If you know, you know, first off, whenever I had cramps on my period, normal moms would be like, Hey, here's some Tylenol, here's some medicine. But my mom would be like, Hey, here's some beef liver. Like straight up cooked.

beef liver. The smell alone literally made me want to gag all the time. And she would force it down my throat saying, well, this has vitamin A, vitamin B, iron, it has everything that you need, honey. And then she'd go into the whole Chinese medicine thing about how eating like nourishes like.

So if you eat liver, that helps with liver. Yeah, what's working? So I'm a really big fan of this film principle or film approach called Pope in the Pool. ⁓ She's grading a carrot.

We've probably seen this in some other ads or maybe we're going to see it in some coming up. And this is super common ⁓ in advertising because like we were even in content in general, right? Like we need to get people through kind of mundane topics sometimes. And so we do something like cutting vegetables or in this case, she's, you know, peeling a carrot ⁓ or maybe you're, you know, this is kind of the principle of get ready with me.

It's like you're doing something while you're explaining something. And so you kind of stick around. for the action and you absorb the education. And so that married with a kind of backdoor personal story.

And she's almost presenting it as like trauma, difficulty, almost like she's ranting and complaining. And she's, you know, layering in how her mom is talking about how these vitamins help her with cramps and help her with this and that, female hormones. And so it's gonna lead to... how, my mom was actually right.

Mom's a genius, you know, and now I take Primal Queen and I don't have to do all that stuff my mom used to force me to do. ⁓ Anyway, is that kind of on track here? Yeah, I think the trauma pulls us in because we're all boyers, like we've said many times, and nosy and want to know what's happening in other people's lives that we may not actually see on the surface. And so she's sharing ⁓ her own trauma ⁓ and it just pulls you and you stick with the story to find out.

how it plays out. And she also speaks to what we're all thinking as she's talking about beef organs. You know, we're like, ⁓ that's disgusting. That's gross.

She's not telling us no, no, no, no, they're delicious. She's agreeing with us and then giving us ultimately the product. So she's allowing us to kind of lean in and agree with her and ⁓ ride along with her rather than disagree. So I it works really well.

I do think you could probably test a cut down of some sort. found like there was some repetition. I felt like I was going in circles a couple of times in the script, but you if it's working great, it might be worth just testing a cut down to see if you can reduce some of the repetition. Yeah.

Three minutes feels long for a story like this. I would expect her to start to get to the point, probably somewhere around 40 seconds and like kind of bring it home somewhere with it between like a minute, minute 30. ⁓ so I totally agree with you. I'd love to see this as a cut down version.

I'd be surprised if they didn't have one, ⁓ that they tested. ⁓ cause that's definitely a great strategy. think a quick aside is, know, if you've got a three minute script or if you brief a creator that does a longer form out like this with the first person story, ⁓ you know, cut it down, test that three minute ad as a two minute, as a one minute, as a 45 second, and you know, see which one performs best, ⁓ rather than just lean on the original content. Yeah, and we didn't see the part where she introduces the ingredients, but she does it, ⁓ or the nutrients.

She does it in a very natural way, which I think is hard to pull off, but she does it well. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Nice. Well, I like that one. I mean, I'm a fan of Pope in the Pool. I like that she kind of went the backdoor approach of, you know, throwing shade without going too much deeper into it.

I would probably say winner. And I, what do you think? I'm saying it's a winner. I'm with you.

I think it's a winner. Yeah. Awesome. Let's look at a loser though.

Too many winners in a row. We need something bad. No, we don't want too many winners. is just aging?

Well I'm 55 isn't that normal? No it's not normal. But my doctor said... doctor said it's just aging because they don't know how to fix it.

Look at this your body's inflamed everywhere all the time and you know why? Because you're... What do mean? She's so angry.

She's so angry. love it. think I know where they were going with this. you know, ⁓ I have seen a couple of ads like this that are the debate format.

And I know it kind of is representative of like something that's kind of trendy on YouTube right now with the one versus many debate format. ⁓ Yeah, I'm curious your initial impressions. kudos to this woman who's yelling and like has this rage because I think she did a great job doing that. I don't think that's what people engage with.

⁓ If anything, most of us, if we hear yelling and like feels very confrontational, we want to get out of there as quickly as possible. It doesn't make you want to lean in because this woman is yelling at you. So I feel bad for the other woman she's yelling at. It doesn't feel like a debate.

It just feels like I'm being screamed at. Like I'm actually being screamed at. I don't understand what the piece of paper is that she's like throwing across the way. I kind of lose all the messaging just because I'm not rooting for either of them really.

I'm just kind of confused as to why she's so mad at this woman who looks like she could be her mother maybe. So I would say like, it's not the rage and yelling is not working in this particular format. I'm totally aligned with you. And I think the one versus many format works because it is a debate.

And so, you know, If this was, again, she's talking about her labs and she's talking about how the doctor says it's just aging and things like that. so thinking about how to make this more aligned with the one versus many and not a podcast, I think is the way to go here because my interpretation of that one versus many is that, you know, you've got two people who are on opposite sides of the fence and they're kind of arguing with each other. And so if that was the case, this anger would come off so differently.

So the other woman just seems so shut down that it just, has a really odd dynamic. And like you said, it feels uncomfortable. Now, if you were to take the other woman and be like, ⁓ she's representing kind of the big pharma solutions to how to deal with menopause or, you know, these things that, and, and, think, I think it would hit better. Yeah, that would be great.

Especially if like the one verse many you see in these types of ads, or even if you go. search these types of videos on YouTube, you can see that there's an audience around them. And this feels like they tried to take that and adapt it to a podcast and it just didn't work or they interpreted that format as a podcast and it really just doesn't land. ⁓ It feels too angry.

⁓ I mean, there's enough anger in the world. We don't need more of it. And as it we're watching. Yeah.

So we're going to say that this one's a loser. Yep. They can't all be winners. Like you said, let's move on.

Love this one. Yeah. Cool. Rise needs to fire their accountant because the math is not math.

I thought I was just getting two bags of that mushroom coffee, but I opened up the box and I was shocked. They gave me all this stuff for free. Look at what we got here. There's limited edition peppermint mocha creamer.

Ooh, this smell like sweet coziness. The latte topper looks yum. Can't wait to try these out. They're handmade acacia jar and scoop.

You can feel the quality. The coffee travel sale with medium roast, dark roast and creamer. I'm bringing these on my trip this weekend. Look, I really don't understand how they're making money off of this.

Such a great talent. I love him. He's so good. want to work with him.

He's so good. So good. So authentic. It's UGC style.

love the Christmas stockings in the background. It feels like we are in his home and he did just receive this package. It's all believable. We're buying into it.

⁓ I trust this man. I love just some of the one-liners about, this smells like sweet coziness. It's just great copy, great execution. Yeah, yeah.

So I was a really big fan of this ad because it is a UGC example of a promo ad. So instead of just like throwing up statics and letting your evergreen UGC like do its job, this company actually went for like a holiday sale UGC. And this guy's execution starts with controversy because where I would expect someone to kind of run at the camera with like, you would not believe the deal that's going on right now. You know what I mean?

This guy starts with like, they need to fire their account. And then it turns into a benefit for the viewer. And that was so much more of an interesting way to approach the viewer than, hey, you won't believe this sale that's going on. Especially the way he like layers in all of these extra things you get.

I thought it was just getting these two things, but I got all of this. The math is not math-ing. Yeah, I love this ad. Yeah, he's showing us everything.

He's actually smelling it. We feel like we're opening it with him. And I like that it does start with almost like some anger, right? It's like, this is crazy.

As opposed to the one we just looked at that was anger the entire time. This is just starting with the anger to kind of grab our attention. Like, why is he angry? What's wrong?

And then quickly shifting into this is amazing. That was a really good shift and love the background music too. yeah, yeah, absolutely. Shout out to this guy doing a really interesting and unique.

⁓ unboxing video for a promo with Rise. That one's solid. Okay, let's check this one out. If you fart and it smells like you pooped yourself, your face is always puffy and brown with no structure to it.

You're constantly bloated, even if you eat something small, like a banana. And even if you get eight hours of sleep. you still wake up with no energy, but I'm not blaming you, because they used to be me. I had a bowling ball for her face and I was constantly bloated.

And don't even get me started on how bad my adult acne was. It wasn't until I started drinking rice mushroom coffee every day that I finally noticed a difference. It's got six adaptogenic mushrooms that have been- Thoughts? ⁓ I think she was going for poop in the pool by cutting bananas.

I like that there was actually purpose with it. ⁓ even though that doesn't really matter, meaning, know, when she dangled the banana, overall, ⁓ don't want to sound judgmental, but the execution just feels a little bit weaker. to me, ⁓ didn't grab my attention like the other one did for sure. And I know this isn't a promo ad, so it doesn't come out hot.

Doesn't feel as solid. The is great. then later she's actually using the knife to show the product on the knife. ⁓ so I think.

The use of the knife is really interesting, but you're right. Like we don't know like why is she chopping up the banana? It doesn't quite make sense logically as we're watching too. ⁓ So I think it's harder to stick with her.

Yeah, like I like that part. So she's using the knife in multiple ways to keep us all interested, but it's almost like it doesn't come from real life. We can't follow along with what she's doing necessarily. It's a prop for the sake of being a prop.

Yeah, I actually almost said that when I, on that previous ad when I introduced the ⁓ Pope in the Pool concept, ⁓ that I often see people doing it when they're chopping. And I think they do that because there's this idea that you want to see if the person's going to cut themselves. So it feels a little bit dangerous. feel like, I don't know what it is about the attachment to knife or the attention that knife gives, but it like...

brings this danger element that makes us want to watch. So I think that was probably a really smart choice on her part of using that. But it just didn't do enough for me. Maybe if she was chopping the banana, you know, like in making a smoothie and just doing it the whole time.

But since it's almost like start, go or stop and go, it doesn't quite work. But yeah, solid hook and almost there. Pretty close. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe if she was making an acai bowl, I would have paid more attention. Well, at least we have context for that. We're like, ⁓ that's what she's doing. yeah, yeah.

I mean, and which would be a great point, right? She's making her breakfast smoothie or making her breakfast bowl and having her cup of mushroom coffee, as opposed to just like cutting a banana to get our attention, which I think is a great point about Pope in the Pool is you're not just like mindlessly doing something. We don't know if that other lady who was grating carrots is like making a recipe. But if you're doing something towards an end, like get ready with me, it feels more natural and pulls people in better than if you're just doing something for the sake of doing something.

doesn't feel just has to be believable. We have to buy into it. Right. It doesn't feel like good idea.

I will say the product placement. if you go to the beginning, I don't think we see the product yet. Right. No, no.

And then it just pops up like right here. It just pops up at like 23 seconds. Yeah, that's right. I did notice that.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway. I wonder if they tested it.

in the scene from the beginning and how that performed. yeah, did. I did think this was like good use of, probably filtered photos she took the same day, but, know, good use of like original images to kind of point out the problems. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was maybe doing some volume, but this is definitely not like a scaling ad.

Yep. Okay. So some room for improvement. Well, low testosterone says about you to everyone around you.

He's always tired. Is he sick? He should work out more. at that beer belly.

Remember when he used to have energy? Your wife notices, your kids notice, your coworkers notice. Low tea isn't just affecting your energy. It's changing how the world sees you.

But you can change that perception really quickly. Mars man. What are your thoughts as a? Yeah, I'm in market.

Like, I mean, like this is me, dad, ⁓ husband, ⁓ you know, ⁓ struggling to get to the gym, not a lot of time, you know, and yeah, anyway, like I'm this company's demographic for sure. ⁓ And so yeah, I like the approach that they take. to what low T says about you to everyone around you. Not a big fan of the belly grab at the start, but I guess it does kind of really hit the main pain point that aging men have, especially as they get into their late 30s and 40s, which is like struggling to stay lean, even if they've gotten athletic build and weight.

I definitely was a fan of the hook and I really like how this guy did like mixed format, how it's like green screen. into like him on screen with some B-roll. B-roll is very aligned with the problems that he's talking about. So I actually felt like this was pretty engaging.

I mean, it's something that if it was in my feed, I'd probably watch a little bit because as I said, like I am their demographic. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I like the angle of this is how the world sees you and approaching it from that angle is really interesting. ⁓ And I felt like the B-roll was also engaging and I liked the authority, the floating head authority figure throughout too.

You know, he builds trust. did feel like, let's see. Yeah, I did feel like because it is a green screen like floating head here in almost the same position and here, I didn't get a good transition to the kind of like what people are saying about you. So that's something that I could see being improved.

And because it's at three seconds, it's inside those first five seconds. Like I know, you know, hook rate, three seconds, et cetera, but it is that transition point because it goes into the next. ⁓ bit, I think that could be tightened up where either they move his position or something. I don't know.

⁓ Also, snacking didn't really resonate with me in terms of being tired. So that's maybe one bad example of the B-roll that's aligned. So this part right here, which is crucial for transitioning past three seconds, I thought could be improved. But outside of that, I think it's pretty solid.

Yeah, that guy almost looks like he just came in from working out. Not that he's You know, like he looks fit. Like he looks like he he's doing well. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Straight up. Like where did this guy go?

He used this guy. Anyway. Yeah. That guy's great.

Let's go to the next one because I know you have a lot to say about it. If you fix this, everything will get back. Yeah. You stopped it already.

Yeah. Well, what a handsome devil. I'll go ahead and give him a compliment. Your sleep, your recovery, your mood, your energy and your confidence guys and more importantly your overall lifestyle.

As a man there's a couple of things you need to do especially when you're hit your 30s right? Drink less, you need to work out, you need to get eight hours sleep. What are we talking about? That's not enough and let me tell you why.

Women talk about this almost every day with their hormones but men for whatever reason it is they don't really talk about it. Testosterone guys, your testosterone crashes. There we go, he finally said it. We're 25 seconds in, he finally said testosterone.

So I'm not a big fan of this hook because if you fix this, then what do you say? If you fix this, everything will get better. That's so generic. That's so generic.

have no idea what he's talking about. Yeah, and he opens the loop and he doesn't make good on that for another 23 seconds. mean, like that right there, I mean, if you're sticking around because the guy is handsome, then I mean... Maybe that's enough.

His jawline? He's kind of dreamy. Chiseled jawline. the square jaw, he's got the green eyes.

He's like, yeah, yeah, he's kind of scruffy. This guy definitely just left the gym. I don't think it's enough. It's not enough.

And so a generic hook, not saying enough. And then I'm not really a big fan of him saying, oh, yeah, but women do this all the time. But guys, for some reason, we just don't do it. It's like, guys don't want to be women.

So saying that like women do this and this is good. It's like, I don't know, there's some, to me it just doesn't really make sense. doesn't land. so, and, and and the hormones that women are talking about are not the hormones that men are talking about.

it just created a lot of dissonance for me, ⁓ really early on. And then when he finally got to testosterone, like he already starts listing out a bunch of other behavioral benefits and then he drops testosterone after that. So, you know, it just is. Way too deep for me to assume that this could be a winner at all.

That's 50 % through the ad. It's 25 seconds, way too deep. What about you? What do you think?

Just generic, yeah. You've already said this generic language. I don't even know. When he talks about improving lifestyle, what does that even mean?

There's so much that goes into lifestyle. So being more specific and dimensionalizing that for this audience, tell them what it means to them. Why should they care about that? Did you mention the age timeline yet?

We didn't even get to that. ⁓ my gosh. So yeah, let's see. sometimes it's not your fault.

I was so skinny in my 20s. I just did not look after. So this guy definitely looks like he's in his 30s. Definitely looks like he's in his 30s.

He's speaking to men who are in their 30s. I think that's what he says here. Your testosterone crashes in your 30s. And then he goes into, when I was in my 20s, I was so skinny and literally says, and that's when I found Marsman.

So the last thing I'll say about this is the timeline. If you're in your 30s and you're speaking to guys who are in your 30s, like you did not find this product 10 years ago. I'm guaranteeing you this product was not around 10 years ago. I don't think, you know, great product.

I'm sure it's helping if you're taking it for, as a testosterone booster, but this timeline of, and like, He looks he's speaking to 30 year olds. He talks about being in his twenties and he says, when at that time I found so skinny in my twenties, like just did not look after myself. And that's when I found Mars man. So that to me is so targeting 20 year olds for this product.

Maybe 18 plus like nowadays, you know, like the messaging around low T is like hitting guy and teenagers are doing all kinds of Stuff to get bulky and big ⁓ and low T is kind of an epidemic, so to speak. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're just targeting 18 plus. I'm not sure. But even so, you're right.

needs to be in his 20s to talk about how he was skinny in his 20s and then started taking this product. Rather than talking about something from 10 years ago, that doesn't have the same impact. People are like, I don't care what you did 10 years ago. Tell me what you did yesterday.

Yeah, yeah. So in the car testimonial is definitely a format that works. And I think if, you know, shout out to this brand for like getting some talent that has good delivery, know, looks good on camera, like shout out to him for picking some golden light hour. But what I would say is like, if you fix this, then these specific things will change.

And then ⁓ getting into the fact that it's testosterone faster, hopefully within 10 seconds, and saying something that aligns more with the pains of how men in their 30s ⁓ are trying these things and not succeeding about the lifestyle stuff, and then talking about how when he was in his 20s, he was doing all of these things and he felt like a god. You know, I was so skinny and da-da-da-da-da, so I started working out and I started taking supplements and I felt like, you know, I felt amazing.

But then I got into my thirties and it just all went downhill. And you know, recently I found this and that's when everything changed. Right. Yeah, it totally is a script rewrite.

mean, I that's the only way to make this work is a total script rewrite. But the good news is again, the talent is working. He's great. And the format in the car is working.

The lighting is working. You just need a script rewrite. Yeah, 100%. Thanks for interpreting all my babble.

Great. So we've got a Neutropix brand here. Let's check this one out. I was forgetting little things, but worst of all...

I was avoiding time with my kids on the weekend because I just didn't have energy. solid connection to a pain point that I a lot of moms, parents in general, are feeling. So relatable. It's when it really scared me.

I started to ask myself, is this just getting older or is it something worse? And most people just accept this. Right. But I discovered there's more to it.

As we age, our NAD levels drop, which can cause brain fog, low energy and slower thinking. And that's the powder, isn't it? Yeah, that's right. It's a form of vitamin B3 and you take it as a supplement.

The one I use is Ageless NMN by Simply New Tropics. Yeah, that's great. Feels like a natural product placement. go ahead.

She's perfect. She's perfect. I like the placement of the microphone, the angle that she's looking at down. And I like even that her outfit is branded with the green from the product.

She just has great delivery. I trust her because she's speaking the language of the market, which I'm also in. ⁓ I feel like she's a real, you know, she's a real mom and she's got the solution here. Yeah.

Yeah. And having it off camera, whether this is a real podcast or not, I'm not sure. ⁓ but the background to me like screams that it is real rather than like, if there was just lighting and plants, know, the books specifically like it, yeah, it does make it feel more like it's real. Cause you know, perhaps these days people are a little bit more skeptical of whether or not.

podcast is real because we've got so many you actors just doing fake podcasts but regardless like I just wanted to add that to the the points that you were making ⁓ about the set and yeah it just it feels good and she's great talent. Yeah, excellent winner. Yeah, winner, winner chicken dinner. No need to go too much more into that.

That hook was fire. ⁓ supplement ad. Don't you dare swipe past that. What the?

Yeah, time travel. We need to talk about yourselves. You can't be me. You look 70.

NAD plus not Botox. You're NAD. Okay. Anything you want to?

Well, the hook is not really a hook. The hook was what did she say? you know, this is another supplement ad. Like that doesn't tell me if this is for me, if it doesn't speak to a problem I might have.

⁓ It doesn't really, it just sets the context, but again, it's a hook, not a scene. Yeah. Yeah. With the text on screen, I felt like it could have been more aligned to that.

If she was all like, I wish I had a way to know if this supplement would actually help me or something like that. And then poof, the time travel thing and like talking about it. because it says POV your future self, what did it say? Hey, let's go back.

Your future self mirror. But it's still not speaking to the problem. Like I'm still not even sure I watched this multiple times. What is the problem that she's even trying to solve here?

It's not clear. Until we get to Botox, until the her future self, which her, this could have been done really well if she was acting both parts in like more of a skit. where she was playing her older self and had like a gray wig on. And we did it in a playful way where it's really clear she's talking to her older self.

But I think they missed an opportunity by bringing in this other older talent to be her future self because it obviously isn't her. It looks like maybe a mom. So it's very confusing. like, ⁓ is this your mom you're talking to?

⁓ no, it's your future self. It just doesn't quite work, but it could have if they just used her for both roles. So more specific to the problem faster and talent selection. Sounds like this could have turned this loser into a winner.

Yeah. Stronger hook and call out the problem so people know what you're talking about. Yes. Yeah.

Nice. All right. Well, we made it. We're to our last one.

no way actually foreshadowed this. in United States of America and the men deserve to not be wearing polyester or plastic. Well enough of your conspiracy theories, okay? Basically what it is is customers come to companies like us because we offer quality at affordable prices.

Yeah, 100%. I love this. So really quick, just jumping into, you see the people in the background? Yes.

This is representative of that style. I mentioned one to many debate style where the other brand didn't pull it off so well. So this is 100 % that and so it looks like a better execution of it, but let's get deeper into the ad. ⁓ last year I finally we had a baby now why because I go work out and brands like yours are leeching this into my body do you hear yourself you're talking about natural ingredients right you know how expensive it is to make things with hemp and bamboo it is so fucking expensive if we use that we would go bankrupt well so the American male has to pay the ultimate price because what is too expensive you greedy companies to give a shit about our health and look you've been talking a lot tell me one t-shirt under fifty dollars that does what you're claiming come on you've been so much show There he goes.

This is great because naturally into the product. They're debating about two different ideas, right? It's an actual argument. Whereas the one we looked at earlier where the woman was just shouting at the other woman, they weren't having a debate.

There was no back and forth. It was just her berating the other person. This they are angry. This is emotional, which is why it's amazing to watch.

But they have something they're arguing against. Yeah, perfect. ⁓ call it I wanted to make was where confrontation draws you in versus confrontation turns you away. If you just see someone berating another person, it's a major turnoff.

You want to defend that other person. Whereas this, you're kind of like, ooh, grab your popcorn. I want to see them put the gloves on. And then you kind of naturally pick sides through it.

It also educates you about the potential dangers of some of these. ⁓ materials and then show me one t-shirt under $50 like I guarantee you what comes next is the introduction of the product which I think is like organically grown hemp t-shirts we have to watch it because it's yeah yeah yeah sure enough so much show me I'll show you yeah I'll show you here you want to see this one right here underdog Go ahead. Check it out. That's 51 % hemp, 31 % bamboo and 18 % organic cotton.

All right. I got zero plastic fibers and a lifetime guarantee. Go check it out. No, no, I don't know.

just look. it to me. Put on my balls. Smell my balls.

Lifetime guarantee. That's right. All teachers come with a lifetime guarantee. That is I wasn't expecting smell my balls at the end.

So that was a nice surprise. Yeah. Well, hopefully they have underwear because that's where it counts, right? He's talking about having a baby.

Anyway, yeah, definitely a solid ad and I think a way better execution of that debate format. So you like but you actually like both of them, like even though I agree with the argument and I want this guy to be able to have kids and he has the more emotional story. I'm also kind of like cheering on the other one, too, because he's doing a great job of building the argument. And he also is just doing it in a way that is kind of fun.

And you're rooting for. him as well. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, it's a strong line in the sand, right?

Where even if you don't have a problem with the synthetic shirts, you might be interested in trying this brand out because they've made a compelling argument and they hit you with a lifetime guarantee, which sweetens the deal. It's also playful. It's playful. It makes you smile.

That means a lot to an audience. know, if they end up watching the ad with a smile on their face, like people remember that. That's a good one to end on. So that was a great one to end on.

And I think there might be some stuff that we missed throughout all of those. I know we went through quite a few, had some recommendations, found quite a few winners, quite a few losers, some things that we didn't really like. So if we missed something or if you would have tested something different or made another suggestion that we missed, you can leave that in the comments below. Thanks for being with us on another episode.

Make sure to subscribe and hit that bell icon to get notified when we release new episodes. If you like what you're seeing here on the scaling lab and with no further ado, we'll see you in the next one.