Weekend 1's Best Marketing Stunt
Girls just wanna attend Milkchella.
Hi friends! I hope you’re having a super day. Today, we’re doing a Pulse Check on social sentiment around Milkchella as we wrap up Coachella weekend #1. If you’re wondering what tf Milkchella is, keep reading.
Checking In
I’ve been marinating in my routine for the past few weeks before I start spending a lot of time with my bestie, Delta Airlines, on my spring tour to three countries and five cities. Most of the travel is for exciting celebrations and personal things/projects, so I’m feeling really thankful. I’m feeling extra prepped after soaking up travel tips from
and her Window Seat community. And I just got my Oura Ring 4 (10% off discount for you if you want to join the club!), so I can keep an eye on my health while I bop around. It only feels fitting to check out my own data if I write a newsletter about research, right?
Full review on the ring coming in a few months! I already have lots of thoughts…
Coachella Milkchella
Coachella content flooding your feeds and Tax Day; the guarantees of American life in mid-April.
As we wrap up weekend #1, I’ve gotta say… the only differentiated content I’ve seen rising out of Coachella Valley and onto my FYP has been Milkchella; the Costello sisters’ pink and red campaign promoting their bikini brand Strawberry Milk Mob’s next drop slated for April 16th.
“my poor poor bank account” - TikTok comment
I’ve checked the pulse on the three of Strawberry Milk Mob’s TikToks below, and I must say, I’m impressed (in comparison to other repeated brand marketing efforts at Coachella).
TL;DR: Milkchella has created a textbook-worthy example of how to create a highly engaged, emotionally activated audience with fomo-driven excitement, readiness to spend yesterday, and fan-girl praise. Comments prove that this campaign is creative and aspirational, and I have no doubt that the April 16th drop will bear the delicious fruits of this Milkchella labor.
Between 76-89% of feedback for all three videos consists of sentiments that:
This campaign is genius
People are begging for an invite to Milkchella
They’re ready to spend when the drop hits on April 16th
Pulse Check #1: We are loading BABY
Pulse Check #2: Traffic jam pov
Pulse Check #3: Vision to Execution
If you just read all the data and are thinking, 1) “what is protein bor?”1 and 2) “what is mewtew2?”, I promise you’re not alone. More info is in the footnotes at the bottom.
If I Were The 4th Costello Sister at Milkchella, I’d Be…
Rewarding comment culture by turning comments into creative. The pool floating TikTok got a comment that said, “Need to remake the Elle Woods Harvard Law interview video from Legally Blonde”. I’d do exactly that, and then send the commenter a PR package for the great idea.
Inviting and crowdsourcing future ideas. I’d be captioning TikTok’s with questions to gather feedback for future product and marketing efforts.
How To Copy + Paste Into Your Business
Show the dream life your product unlocks. Your consumer doesn’t want the product - they want the life they think it gives them. When it comes to marketing, you need to build the scenes behind what your offering delivers. Think about real use cases. Putting your shampoo in the shower for a product shot doesn’t move the needle. Show a user getting compliments on her hair in real life or prepping for a big presentation at work and how she made her hair look great.
Fan-fictionize your brand. Put your own spin on cultural events with a made-up name and tie it back to your brand. Think about upcoming events and popular holidays that get a lot of traction within your target audience, and think, “How can I make this mine?” Then, create a whole world behind it with merch and document the crap out of everything.
Making business-ing look fun. Lean into BTS content and show how you’re making it all come to life. Your audience is craving that duality of the actual product you’re offering as well as the process to create it. Give them a peek behind the curtain!
I research what makes people reach for their wallet to support your brand and tell their friends to do the same. If you want a pulse check on something like:
What you should create more content on vs which topics aren’t resonating with your audience
How your followers feel about a new collab you did
What it’s like to experience your customer journey from an unbiased POV
What product features you should prioritize building next
…slide in my DMs on Substack, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Talk soon!
I spent more time than I wanted to figuring out what this means. I’m still relatively unclear, but urban dictionary helped to clear things up a little bit. TL;DR: it doesn’t mean anything.
The “mewtew build” comments are typically used to describe women who have a high waist-hip ratio by comparing their body shape to that of the Pokémon Mewtwo. I also just learned what this meant.
So exciting! Have so much fun on your travels.