The Take Timeline

Creative

How the cowboys’ take on Creative has evolved.

1. 2026-01-09high confidence 90%

   Testing creative against a structured framework beats random experimentation because it provides guardrails and clarity.

   If you have this framework that you can test against, then you know exactly you got some guard rails.

2. 2026-01-09moderate 72%

   CTV ads can be effective by simply cropping and resizing existing Meta ads, without expensive commercial production

   CTV ads don't need to be this really super polished commercial that you spend $100,000 on. We're just straight up taking their meta ads, cropping it, and resizing it and shortening it for CTV.

3. 2026-01-20moderate 65%

   Thoughtfully edited content that tells a meaningful story demonstrates more craft and effort than raw unfiltered content

   you take your entire day and then cut that into something that is meaningful that makes a point that tells a story... That to me reads as effort. It reads as craft

4. 2026-01-20moderate 72%

   Unfiltered, raw content with visible mistakes is more authentic than polished, edited content

   don't even edit it. You make a mistake, you drop the camera... You got to put it up regardless. That is the true authenticity

5. 2026-01-23moderate 55%

   AI video editing tools like Remotion using Claude are making traditional video production approaches obsolete.

   video editors are cooked. I made this for Polymarket in 30 minutes. Took four or five prompts.

6. 2026-01-24high confidence 90%

   Founders should focus on iterating quality creative rather than posting high volume of static ads.

   And I'm like, 'No, bro. That's not what this is anymore.' Like that's not what it is anymore.

7. 2026-01-28moderate 65%

   Rage-baiting and controversial content is an effective marketing strategy for driving engagement and viral growth

   a little rage bait can go a long way... he poured it into his lawn mower which made EVERYBODY UPSET... I love this.

8. 2026-01-29moderate 60%

   Direct personal customer outreach is among the most effective marketing tactics.

   Why not pick up the phone and call your top 100 customers? ... unbelievable is their top performing ad of the entire year... a phone recording of them calling their customer

9. 2026-01-30high confidence 85%

   Marketing to women requires different messaging than men because women don't need agitation about their appearance—they already self-critique daily.

   As mentioned above, they're already staring in the mirror and twisting the knife every morning... Do they need intense agitation? Probably not.

10. 2026-02-05moderate 60%

    AI video generation tools like Sora and Claude enable DTC brands to create professional launch content without hiring influencers.

    I saved myself some money. I didn't have to hire an influencer

11. 2026-02-10moderate 55%

    Authentic customer testimonials are more effective marketing than brand-created claims and should anchor packaging and messaging.

    We didn't come up with any of this, right? We let the players tell us. We're having actual customers give us the marketing material. We're not we're not dreaming it up.

12. 2026-02-11moderate 72%

    Tech Twitter embraced Anthropic's Super Bowl AI ads while mainstream consumers showed significantly less enthusiasm.

    We all loved them. They were incredible, right? Mass public did not.

13. 2026-02-13moderate 72%

    AI-generated content is approaching viability for marketing—B-roll, creative testing, and gap-filling—especially valuable for testing ad hooks before committing to human creation.

    At some point, the AI becomes not slop... we're approaching a level where it is actually a pretty viable option... test a bunch of creative that you spun up in AI and then sure okay let's make some real creative

14. 2026-02-17high confidence 92%

    Ads with strong visual hooks and curiosity elements drive more engagement than basic product showcases

    now one thing that this obviously has in favor over your ad is strong visual hook... To me, it's just IT'S A NOBRAINER... Mine incites curiosity. It's pushing people to click through

15. 2026-02-21moderate 60%

    Google's Pomelli Photoshoot feature saves weeks of time in product photography iterations

    The amount of saved time is weeks... your manufacturer can just keep that sample and then it's like, 'Hey, you know, I actually wanted to tweak this thing here, tweak this thing there.' Okay, great. We made the adjustments. Great. Send me that photo.

16. 2026-02-21moderate 78%

    Most marketers discuss psychology-based strategies but rarely implement them effectively in actual advertising

    all of Twitter is talking about psychology, but we're still not seeing it come out in advertising easily.

17. 2026-02-21moderate 55%

    Bright, even neon-level colors dramatically improve product sales and visibility without risk of overdoing it

    Brighter colors move more product. It's almost impossible to overdo brightness in our experience. Even if it verges on gaudy neon, it works.

18. 2026-02-25moderate 62%

    AI should be used as a tool in human-in-the-loop workflows to enhance creativity while maintaining authentic voice and quality

    The magic of that is that it is James. It is my brain. It is my thoughts. It is just my new paintbrush.

19. 2026-02-25moderate 75%

    Manufactured viral campaigns based on UGC lack authenticity and don't resonate with audiences

    they just tried to kind of manufacture this virality and tried to almost will it into existence... It just didn't work at all.

20. 2026-02-27moderate 55%

    Founder content with personalized messaging beats high-volume ad production; focus on three distinct ideas rather than excessive volume.

    just start with yourself. Just put the camera on and just have that conversation... don't focus on volume. Focus on I want three very different ideas and angles.

21. 2026-03-11moderate 60%

    Joe Putnam argues virality isn't purely luck-based — identifiable levers like Jonah Berger's 'six buttons of buzz' (e.g. taboo, humor) can systematically raise the hit rate of content going viral.

    there is surely we can do something that would make it more likely... the six buttons of buzz

22. 2026-03-17moderate 66%

    Because everyone is now more performative and camera-conscious online, ad creative angles need to account for how people's forward-facing self-image has become a bigger insight driver than before.

    people are more egotistical and selfish and their forward-facing appearance matters more than ever... how does that impact like the creative we have?

23. 2026-03-19moderate 75%

    Founder-led ads are close to a universal winner that almost every brand should test, because founders can speak with an authenticity about their product that no one else can replicate.

    there are few people on the planet who can speak as passionately and relatedly about your product than you

24. 2026-03-19moderate 60%

    Meta's Andromeda algorithm change is forcing brands to abandon iterative ad variations in favor of truly distinct creative angles, which is ultimately good for advertisers because it forces better creative diversity.

    creative is more important than ever and we can't just do iterations of ads. We need to have completely different angles, complete be truly creative diverse

25. 2026-03-21moderate 62%

    People don't skip ads just because money is behind them; well-crafted creative like Progressive's campaigns gets watched voluntarily, proving ad quality beats ad-avoidance psychology.

    you're playing against human psychology if you think people would just hate ads for for the reason because there's money behind it... Progressive has done a great job of this of relating to people

26. 2026-03-25moderate 65%

    Dismissing viral AI-generated content as lowbrow is a mistake when it's driving tens of millions of views.

    that thought and opinion should be thrown in the trash... because it's getting 13 million views per video

27. 2026-03-26moderate 60%

    Even in the AI era, effective brand copywriting still requires writers grounded in fundamental copywriting principles and deep, up-to-date brand voice guidelines rather than relying on AI tools alone.

    the people on our team who are writing copy they are rooted in they do understand the fundamentals of copy so the Ogilvy's the kind of copywriting handbook all these like really important resources

28. 2026-04-03moderate 55%

    Political donation marketing and D2C performance marketing require fundamentally different creative psychology, since donations are driven by urgent emotional/news-cycle triggers while D2C purchases are driven by aspirations and pain points.

    Often times with donating you have this this very emotional thing that's a political, you know, topic... Whereas in uh in in like D2C performance marketing it's like you you really try to understand these different customer personas and then like the they kind of either like aspirations they're they're wanting to purchase or the the pain they're trying to solve.

29. 2026-04-03moderate 60%

    Effective YouTube ad creative should start as an MVP that you build and iterate on, rather than a single polished attempt.

    I'm a big believer, you know, this you start where you can and and you build an MVP and that's true with creative as well.

30. 2026-04-09moderate 65%

    Investing team time into long-form branded content like a podcast carries a steep opportunity cost against Meta ad output, and it's still unproven whether that trade pays off.

    for the amount of time it takes to produce one YouTube video, they could do 100 ads for Meta. So, there's definitely trade-offs, right?

31. 2026-04-16moderate 70%

    The grandma-narrated hat ad is borderline deceptive (gray-to-black hat) but will still convert extremely well and scale fast in the ad account.

    Does this mislead? ... I would argue this is like maybe gray to black hat, but like this is absolutely going to print.

32. 2026-04-16moderate 60%

    AI-made founder-led ads reliably drive down CPCs and CPMs and can realistically deliver around a 4x ROAS.

    Chris just showed you a great founder ad that was made with AI... I actually truly believe you'll get a four ROAS out of it.

33. 2026-04-23moderate 75%

    ChatGPT Images 2.0 collapses what used to be an ungodly-long manual design process into a one-shot, two-minute brand site generation.

    This used to take an ungodly amount of time... And now he just one-shotted it. I think I don't know how long that image generation took. Probably maybe 1 to 2 minutes at most. That's unbelievable.

34. 2026-04-29moderate 60%

    Using AI-generated people in ads carries real FTC risk specifically when the content could mislead viewers into thinking it's a real person.

    if it's not an actual person and it can kind of if it can mislead then you're in trouble

35. 2026-04-29moderate 62%

    Hyper-specific product videos answering nuanced customer questions get few views but drive outsized sales compared to broad top-of-funnel content.

    these videos might not get a ton of views, but they drive a ton of sales

36. 2026-05-05high confidence 85%

    Aidan argues that when branded content underperforms, the root cause is almost always weak ideation/concept rather than poor execution.

    it just comes down to the mere fact it's not the execution or poor execution it's poor ideation

37. 2026-05-06moderate 62%

    Dynamic/personalized ad creative naturally outperforms generic AI-generated static ads, so leaning into a distinct anti-establishment brand voice is what will move creative performance.

    should we be surprised that like our DPA crushes compared to like a bunch of shitty statics? No, maybe not, right?

38. 2026-05-07moderate 65%

    The best market research for writing effective marketing copy is to personally buy and use the product, treating it like a method actor preparing for a role.

    how do you like market research? And I'm like you go buy the product, that's what you do... you're kind of like acting like a Daniel Day-Lewis method actor.

39. 2026-05-21moderate 68%

    Nike's Drake x Kevin Durant shoe-reveal ad works because the two goofy decoy shoes comedically anchor the audience so the real shoe reveal lands harder.

    You throw two decoy shoes out there to make it even funnier and then when you throw out the real shoes it's like oh obviously those are sick cuz the other two are so goofy. So you just were anchored to these other goofy two shoes.

40. 2026-06-04moderate 75%

    The 'mad ad' format—posting raw, righteous frustration instead of a polished pitch—is a proven, replicable marketing formula, as shown by the Helaina founder's post going viral en route to a Nestlé partnership.

    She followed a specific formula that we recently covered on the show which is basically you make a mad ad, you make an angry ad.

41. 2026-06-05Predictionmoderate 60%

    The rage-bait 'yapper' content format is running out of road because the quality of takes has gotten so bad that it may need a correction, even though it's still fun for now.

    we might need to like potentially figure something out here cuz people can't just keep having these kind of takes... I'm ready for the next format

42. 2026-06-06high confidence 80%

    Nike Football's 'Rip the Script' is an exceptionally strong, high-production ad, evidenced by 11 million views in its first 24 hours.

    in the first 24 hours of being released, has 11 million views on YouTube... It's a crazy find. It's a crazy find.

43. 2026-06-10moderate 76%

    End cards are an underrated creative element that can drive a large share of a video ad's performance.

    the end card is definitely powerful, dude. Like like 30-40% of like just what is happening there is coming from the end card.

44. 2026-06-11moderate 60%

    Top-performing D2C brands test roughly twice as many ad creatives per week as the average brand, and raw 'average' ad-count stats should be read skeptically since mean and median can diverge significantly.

    we're looking at close to 200 new ads per week uh on the top performers... if you ever see average, always be a little skeptical of these numbers

45. 2026-06-19moderate 72%

    Every piece of content needs a testable thesis behind it (format, hook, pillar) because volume alone doesn't increase views, and unexpected breakout hits validate the need to keep testing.

    everything just has to have kind of a thesis to it and you're testing something

46. 2026-06-24moderate 65%

    Meta's Ray-Ban glasses launch video was a missed creative opportunity for not featuring Kylie Jenner, who helped design some of the new frames.

    I think that was something that maybe they could have played up a little more here... Probably just throw some meta glasses on her and have her talk for about 15 seconds

47. 2026-07-02moderate 70%

    The classic 'identify the pain, amplify it, close the gap' copywriting formula works on men but backfires on women by triggering a psychological safety gate instead of persuading them.

    identify the pain, amplify it, close the gap. That works for uh Jim Bob down the street. Works on men. On women it closes what I call the safety gate.

48. 2026-07-02moderate 65%

    Most brands mislabel simple talking-head car videos as effective 'Yapper ads,' but that format alone doesn't make a UGC ad actually work.

    Sitting in your car and holding the product yourself is not what equals a Yapper ad.

49. 2026-07-02moderate 60%

    Real creative research today is scanning TikTok for what's organically resonating rather than digging through competitors' ad libraries.

    I bet you the brand that is your competitor is not making ads like that... open up TikTok and see what's working. What are people sharing?

50. 2026-07-15moderate 55%

    A Santa Cruz snack brand founder argues his Meta ads perform well not because of targeting tactics but because the product itself is a novel 'pattern interrupt' that makes people curious.

    the product itself is the pattern interrupt because people haven't seen anything like it... naturally they're like, 'What is that?'

51. 2026-07-21moderate 65%

    Brands should dynamically vary ad creative by location and audience aesthetic to improve return on ad spend.

    be dynamically changing the content that's then running out through ad channels to drive greater... profitable return on ad spend

52. 2026-07-24moderate 55%

    A single high-concept prop-driven ad hook (a pair of scissors demonstrating the product) was the breakout creative that drove Corduroys' sales.

    These scissors made me a millionaire.

53. 2026-07-24moderate 75%

    Two recent ads stand out and read as 'anti-AI' specifically because of their unusually high production value amid a flood of low-quality AI-generated ad content.

    I also think both of those ads, they're anti-AI because of the super high production value and high production quality of both of those ads. So, they really stick out in kind of the sea of slop of a ton of different AI ads.

54. 2026-07-24moderate 68%

    Telehealth ad creative should show gradual, realistic progress rather than blunt before/after split screens, since slow-reveal transformations are harder for Facebook's ad review to flag.

    Facebook ad compliance before and after like split screens and stuff like that they don't like. But if you're showcasing progress slowly, it's very hard for the ad platform to sort of determine what you're showcasing

55. 2026-08-01moderate 70%

    Friend's new wearable commercial reads as sad rather than exciting, even though the underlying product may genuinely help lonely users.

    I find it very sad and like it To me, it doesn't like excite me to use the product, honestly. But, I can see how it would be very winsome and helpful for certain people.

56. 2026-08-08moderate 60%

    Most brands are underinvesting in creative storytelling and copywriting, and that gap is where a sophisticated, high-taste creative approach can differentiate an agency's work.

    brands are almost lacking in the creative content, storytelling side of things. And not only the creative graphic design and the content, but also copywriting, too

57. 2026-08-08moderate 65%

    A cheap, funny video ad that clearly ties back to the product's actual function is highly effective creative, especially for a tech/software brand.

    It's a perfect tiein and just enough wink wink and funny where it's like, great, home run

58. 2026-08-11moderate 75%

    Colin thinks DoorDash's awkward, authentic-feeling ad humor stands out against AI-generated content and should be built into a recurring series.

    This is super authentic, real emotions. I love this. This will stand out right now among all the AI slopification.

59. 2026-08-14moderate 70%

    Colin holds up the Gruns 'hot girl tummy issues' static ad as an example of visceral, highly attention-grabbing creative.

    Look at how visceral this static is... Okay, very uh attentiongrabbing.

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