If you are beginning off the yr with a number of professionals difficult explosive expansion in 2026, you’ll be able to like this writer’s refreshing take: “Your logo does not wish to be beloved by means of everybody. Although you’ve got captured simply 3% of the marketplace, your logo can keep alive.”
Whilst I am mindful “staying alive” is extra disco anthem than advertising and marketing function, her level holds: Seeking to attraction to everybody in 2026 is not going to paintings… and it additionally does not wish to.
Crafting sturdy advertising and marketing that resonates with a devoted team of fans is healthier than Hail Marying your logo on a billboard in Instances Sq..
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Jemma Wu
Built-in Advertising and marketing & Partnerships Strategist
- Amusing truth: Joined the founding crew of the moment attractiveness logo By no means Have I Ever with a bunch of buddies from the inventive trade. In simply two years, absolutely bootstrapped and constructed from scratch, they scaled the emblem into shops like City Clothing stores, PacSun, and International Marketplace, whilst attaining $1.5M in overall DTC and wholesale gross sales.
- Declare to repute: Helped manufacturers together with The Peculiar, CeraVe, TikTok Store, and Crocs succeed in a median 51% gross sales build up inside six months thru original target audience connection and completely built-in advertising and marketing campaigns.
Lesson 1: Nice advertising and marketing lives on the intersection of seeing the wooded area and analyzing the bushes.
Wu approaches TikTok movies and model thru the similar lens.
“Coming from a clothier background again within the day, I used to be a doer. Now, every time I see one thing, [whether it’s] advertising and marketing content material or a garment, my first response is: ‘How did they make this? What gear did they use? How did they reduce it? What’s the attitude they used?‘”
The ones questions have served her smartly in advertising and marketing. She’s very detail-oriented, and cares as a lot concerning the sensible execution of promoting as she does the high-level imaginative and prescient.
It is a lesson we will be able to all lean into in 2026: Positive, the slide decks and Zoom conferences full of buzzwords like omni-channel expansion have a time and position, however each leaders and ICs wish to take duty for figuring out the nitty-gritty that is going into advertising and marketing.
As soon as you’ve got ironed out the big-picture imaginative and prescient, it is price taking a while to invite the second-, third-, and fourth-level questions that assist create sturdy advertising and marketing content material. Whether or not you are main the marketing campaign or in-the-weeds, you will have to care simply as a lot concerning the tone, replica, and visuals as you do concerning the high-level messaging.
Lesson 2: Original neighborhood trumps follower depend.
Target market measurement does not topic just about up to target audience hobby does.
All through her time as advertising and marketing director at a TikTok Store spouse company, Wu as soon as generated $350k in income on an eight-hour livestream with writer Avery Turbines (a 90 Day Fiancé alum).
Turbines has kind of 500k TikTok fans. Not anything to sneeze at, however simplest part the target audience measurement of any other influencer Wu labored with who had 1m+ fans — and simplest generated $5K in six hours.
Turbines can have appeared like a much less optimum funding on paper, however she delivered 70X extra income in comparison to the higher-profile writer.
Turbines was once tasked with promoting a fragrance package deal… to a TikTok following who’d by no means had a possibility to odor the fragrance in actual existence. Speak about a tricky promote.
And but she was once in a position to rack up $350k in gross sales by means of interesting to her target audience’s pursuits and making authentic connections with them.
As Wu describes it: “She knew what her target audience sought after. No longer everybody loves vanilla — like I individually would now not use that. However [Mills knew] her target audience is loopy about it. She’s a just right salesclerk.”
The lesson here’s twofold: 1) Accept as true with smaller-scale creators who’ve engaged audiences fairly than just chasing vainness metrics, and a pair of) as soon as you’ve got employed that writer, allow them to lead the display. They know their target audience higher than you do.
Lesson 3: Were given a small funds? Flyers in Washington Sq. Park paintings, too.
“I do know what it is love to paintings with a $1 million funds. You’ll be able to ask helicopters to turn up, automobiles, love it’s a way display. However while you do not need that funds, there are many loose techniques.”
Wu as soon as requested other folks to position flyers round New York Town, telling other folks a few loose contest in Washington Sq. Park. Folks confirmed up, somebody hosted the competition, they usually were given lots of loose content material from it.
If you are now not as keen on in-person advertising and marketing occasions, believe those low-budget virtual advertising and marketing actions which can be in large part loose:
- Newsletters (ahem, ahem)
- UGC campaigns
- TikTok vids
- Visitor-starring on trade podcasts
“For small manufacturers, it is extra about producing buzz inside your neighborhood. There are such a lot of issues they may be able to do this are loose for advertising and marketing.”
