What EXACTLY is ‘Villain Marketing’? transcript

How do you turn half the internet against you and build a $300 million brand in the process? By understanding something [music] about human psychology that most companies never will. David Protein figured out how to do something almost impossible. [music] They made the internet angry and turned that outrage into hundreds of millions of dollars by using a five-step villain marketing playbook. David Protein realized something terrifying about the modern internet.

Attention matters more than approval. And once you understand that, everything about this brand starts making sense. So today, I'm breaking down how David Protein weaponized controversy, internet culture, identity, and social media algorithms to build one of the most talked about brands on the internet into [music] a $300 million machine. Controversy is the strategy. The first thing you need to understand about David Protein is that the internet thinks this brand is ridiculous.

And honestly, that's probably exactly what they want. Because every time David launches something strange, the same thing happens. People get confused, people get [music] angry, and people start arguing. And somehow, David gets bigger. At first glance, that makes no sense. Until you realize the goal was never to make everyone agree. The goal was to make everyone react. And that canned cod campaign is the perfect example. >> Introducing cod 2.0.

Other companies have limits. At David, we have none. >> [applause] >> Let's be honest, nobody was sitting around begging for canned cod. David knew that. That's why they launched it. Because your brain ignores normal. Another protein bar? You scroll past. Another fitness ad? Skip. Another healthy snack? Pass. But canned cod? Now your brain stops. Now people are curious and now people are talking about it. And the second people start talking, the product stops becoming a product.

Now it's content. Now it's bar on TikTok. Now fitness influencers talk about it. Now people defend it and now people make fun of it and now the internet does the marketing for you. And that's where things get really interesting. Because this isn't actually a canned cod strategy. It's a distribution strategy. [music] And every single reaction creates another layer of distribution and distribution creates money. David understands something most companies are terrified to admit.

Negative attention spreads fast [music] and sometimes it's faster than positive attention. Why do villains win? Before we get any further, David didn't invent this. Look around the internet. Ryan Air, Liquid Death, Duolingo, Logan Paul, even Elon Musk. All of them understand the same thing. Traditional brands try to be liked. Villain brands try to be impossible to ignore. In today's attention economy, being ignored is far more dangerous than being disliked.

People don't share things that aren't interesting. People share things that make them feel something. That's why villain brands often grow faster than hero brands do. And David Protein may be one of the best examples of this happening in consumer products right now. The TikTok Shop multiplier. This is where the story gets really smart because controversy alone doesn't create a $300 million company. Controversy creates attention and TikTok Shop turns that attention into an army.

Think about what happens. David launches something controversial, creators react to it and other creators react to those creators. Comments explode and the algorithm pushes it further. Now you have thousands of creators that have a reason to talk about the brand. Not because David paid all of them, but because controversy gave them content and TikTok Shop gives them a reason to monetize that content. Which is why I call it multiplier.

Every creator becomes a salesperson, an affiliate, a marketer, an asset for paid ads, a distribution channel all at the same time. This is why TikTok Shop is so powerful. The controversy fuels the content, the content fuels the creators and the creators fuel the sales and the cycle keeps growing. All right, so we're on TikTok Shop for David Protein bar and as you can see here and we scroll, there's lots of creator videos tagging it.

Here's some of the controversial stuff right here. David Bar nutrition lies. This person's literally talking about how the nutrition labels are infactual in his opinion. Well, that got a lot of engagements and it drives direct attention for David Protein. Same thing, the news is also talking about a lawsuit with David Protein, which is another controversial thing that's ongoing. We then have other videos of people talking about David Protein Bar.

And as we scroll down here, this one has 157,000 likes, more attention for this brand. Another person saying why you should avoid the product. And then this person says the viral David Protein Bars are lying to you. And as we keep going, here more influencers talking about the product. It's just engagement, attention over and over again, which is just building up the overall awareness for this brand. Well, what does David Protein Bar do to monetize all of this?

Well, they seed creators with tons of products where they directly tag the product in the video. So, creator sees this video and even if they don't watch the controversial one and they engage with it, well, they're being followed up with a TikTok Shop video directly after this, which is going to drive up conversions and sales, which is why David Protein Bar is getting a ton of attention and is able to monetize itself effectively because they have tons of creator videos seeding their products making content around their product and why it's amazing.

And then you have tons of other creators where they've driven up tons of controversy getting all the attention. So, people are discovering it and then they're buying it from the actual influencer videos where they tag it. It's a pretty effective strategy that's ongoing for them, whether they wanted this attention or not. Every controversial campaign ultimately leads somewhere, a product page, a landing page, a subscription, a checkout, an offer.

[music] And that's where the real genius shows up. And all this attention that David Protein is driving from the controversial attention from the creator videos and migrating that content into ads has to lead somewhere. And when we go to the landing page from where all this traffic will eventually end up getting funneled into, we have our product landing page here, which is their core product, their David Protein Bar.

And they're not just selling you a single protein bar. They know that in order to increase AOVs, they're going to sell you a full carton of bars, which automatically puts you at $39. Not only that, they force subscription on first load. So, rather than you just buying it once, they're automatically [music] opting you in to a subscribe and save 10%. It's the default option. They don't want you to just buy one bar or buy once.

They want you to buy the full 12-pack and opt into subscription [music] immediately off of your first purchase. So, that way they stack their AOV's and get recurring revenue from the get-go. This is very important because this allows them to get recurring revenue on autopilot. And on their page, they've gamified a lot of this. They have all of the breakdowns in their imagery. They have the UGC videos that you just saw on TikTok or an ad.

They show you where you can buy it in store. They even say if you buy four cartons, you're getting one free, which is going to boost their average order value and help their LTV's in the long-term. And as we continue to go down here for other questions people may have, and then they have all their amazing reviews. So, whether you saw negative attention, you're getting validated while other people are saying otherwise on their actual product page.

So, this is all very important for whenever you go to actually buy the product on subscription. Well, what ends up happening is they're going to give you a gold mystery pack so you can discover the product as well. And then they incentivize you even further. If you add in two cartons, well, now you're already at $70 in your cart value. This is on delivery. You're getting free shipping. You may end up getting three cartons for a free gift and then another fourth carton as well that you've earned where you can add this in for another flavor to try.

And before you know it, you've already spent $105 >> [music] >> and you're being billed every month. And in this case, we're already up to 140. So, they already understand how to get you to go from a single bar to 12 bars [music] to multiple cartons and get it on recurring every month. Before you know it, people are literally buying 36 boxes of these every single year just from doing these simple steps that they've gamified.

The best modern brands understand all of this. And Groom does it. Even olive oil brands do it now. This is where I think most people misunderstand David Protein completely. People think, "Oh, they're just good at social media." No, [music] they understand attention loops, and most brands create ads that are meant to be ads, TikToks that are planned or scripted. David creates moments for the internet. It's a playbook that streamers [music] have been using for years.

Everything they do is made for you to pick a side, and once you see this, everything makes sense [music] about David Protein. The COD campaign, the creators' reactions, the ads, [music] the controversy, the TikTok shop push, the Expo West stunt, none of it feels random anymore. It's all one massive [music] plan to become the villain, because the machine works like this. Step number one, you create controversy, and the internet reacts.

Step number two, the algorithm distributes, and your [music] creators amplify. Step number three, your attention grows, and your funnel converts. [music] And step number four, revenue increases, and revenue creates bigger campaigns. [music] And step number five, the loop repeats over and over. The brands winning today are not necessarily the companies with the best products. They're the brands that best understand attention [music] psychology, internet culture, and the product is almost secondary.

And David Protein may be one of the clearest examples of that happening in real time. You know, maybe David Protein isn't actually a protein company. Maybe they're an attention company disguised as a protein [music] company. And if that's true, then David Protein isn't the real story. It's the warning. Because the future of marketing may not belong to the brands everyone likes. It may belong to the brands nobody can stop talking about.

And whether people love David Protein or absolutely hate them, they're still feeding the machine, and that's exactly why it works. Now, if you think that's crazy, wait until you see how David Beckham and I mate [music] charged nearly eight times more than AG1 and built a $120 million a year brand in less than a year.