#417 – December 8, 2025
Building Brands at the Speed of Life
Hello, fellow strategists! In this edition, we focus on connecting with key audiences at the pace of real life, finding the sweet spot for hooking their attention, making content sparkle while meeting the “so what?” test, and being responsive to clients and customers who value fast turnaround. Our related drill-down feature explores five pillars of the different approach needed to execute “fastvertising”. Enjoy, and happy holidays!
Quick Takes
Find the Sweet Spot Where Your Message Matters
Communications expert Lulu Cheng Meservey offers a pro tip: in one-to-many communication, “many” should be a clearly defined group — not the entire world. “The key is that ‘many’ can’t be ‘infinite,'” she says. “The many can’t be eight and a half billion people.”
Trying to address everyone dilutes your message to the point of meaninglessness. Instead, focus on a specific audience —company employees, robotics enthusiasts, or those concerned about a particular issue— and consider what unites them compared to others.
In an interview with Shane Parrish on The Knowledge Project Podcast, she observes that we often obsess over the wrong questions: Before we ask “Where should we post this?” or “Which channel is best?”, we should clarify why anyone should care.
Successful communication requires starting with the hook. Meservey visualizes the hook finding connection at the centre of a Venn diagram: your strategic message in one circle, the audience’s current interests in the other. Speak only from your circle, and you’re ignored; pander only to theirs, and your message loses strategic value. The hook lives in the overlap — you meet the audience where they already care, then guide them into your full narrative.
Once you decide how to hook your audience in that area of overlap, focus next on storytelling, then on the channel. As Meservey notes: “people tell other people because they can’t get it out of their heads.” In that way, the audience becomes the channel.
Responsiveness: When Speed Defines Value
In a world of infinite choice, responsiveness has become the ultimate differentiator. According to Jay Baer’s research in The Time to Win, customer patience has evaporated post-pandemic, and speed is no longer just a metric — it is a defining element of value.
Baer, a customer experience and digital marketing pioneer, argues on MarketingProfs.com that responsiveness is respect. When an organization, program or brand moves fast, it signals that it values the customer’s time. When it moves slowly, it feels like theft.
3 Key Takeaways for Your Strategy:
- The “First” Advantage: Speed creates a massive competitive moat. Baer’s data shows that 50% of customers hire the first business to respond, even if they are more expensive. You don’t always have to be the “best” to win the deal; you often just have to be the first.
- The Patience Paradox: Contrary to the stereotype of “instant gratification” youth, Gen Z is actually the most patient generation. It is Baby Boomers who are the least patient, likely because they have a different frame of reference for service standards. If your client base skews older, your window of time to respond is significantly tighter.
- Close the “Uncertainty Gap”: Responsiveness isn’t always about being instant; it’s about clarity. Anxiety thrives in the gap between a request and a reply. Even if you can’t solve the problem immediately, acknowledging receipt and providing a timeline (think of the “Domino’s Pizza Tracker”) satisfies the psychological need for control and reduces customer churn.
Clients and customers are willing to pay for speed. In many sectors, being the “fastest” is a more achievable and profitable strategy than trying to be the “cheapest” or the “best.”
Ann Handley’s Top Tips for Content With Sparkle
Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at Marketing Profs, has updated her 17-step “Writing GPS”, and you probably already follow many of the standard steps, but here are five quick ways to add more fizz to your writing:
- Start With “So What?” Once you’re clear on your goal for the content, be ruthlessly honest: why should your reader care? Every paragraph should answer this. If the answer is a shrug, cut it. (Step 2)
- Edit As If Writing to One Person. When you write to someone instead of at everyone, your tone warms up and your clarity sharpens. Picture a favourite client or colleague reading over your shoulder. (Step 8)
- Add Voice, Ginger, and Shine. This is Handley’s favourite step: don’t be shy about personality. Drop in a playful analogy, a surprising image, a turn of phrase that makes you grin. Bland writing never gets remembered; spirited writing does. (Step 9)
- Robot Edit, Then Human Edit and Read Aloud. Before you hit send, let an AI editing tool zap typos and tighten clutter. Then trust your own reading to judge what the robot got wrong. Machines clean; humans sparkle. And reading your final draft aloud helps you hear whether it reflects your own voice. (Steps 11 & 13)
- Make It Scannable. Most people skim like they’re late for a ferry. Break up walls of text with subheads, lists, and crisp sentences. As Ann notes: “White space ventilates your text.” (Step 14)
Think of these special steps as small but powerful habits that help your message land. They make your writing clearer, warmer, and easier for readers to absorb, keeping them engaged and leaving them feeling their time was well spent. The result will be better clarity and better connection, with no extra complexity required.
8020Info Drill-Down
Fastvertising: Quick Response Catches the Wave
If traditional advertising is like planning a dinner party weeks in advance, “fastvertising” is more like jumping into a lively street conversation the moment it starts. It’s a real-time, culturally tuned approach to communication designed to land right now — while everyone’s still talking about the moment.
A classic example: Oreo’s “Dunk in the Dark” tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout. Within minutes of the stadium lights going out, Oreo posted a simple image: a lone cookie fading into darkness with the line, “You can still dunk in the dark.” No big budget. No long production cycle. Just a relevant, clever response that rode a wave of nationwide chatter. The result? More buzz than most million-dollar Super Bowl ads.
That one post proved that if you can respond in real time —smartly, sensitively, and in the tone of the moment— the audience becomes the channel, spreading your content for free.
The 5 Pillars of Fastvertising :
As HBR explains in Marketing at the Speed of Culture, adopting this approach requires a shift in mindset. It identifies five key factors that distinguish quick response advertising from traditional communications:
- Speed is Crucial: If you miss the moment, you’re not part of the conversation. You have minutes or hours, not days, and must react to events as they unfold, before the audience has moved on.
- Relevance Beats Polish: In this model, audiences respond to authenticity and timeliness over high-end design. If the content resonates, they will do the distribution work for you.
- Teams Operate in Real Time: A traditional linear workflow is too rigid and slow. Success requires small, cross-functional “swat teams” with the authority to conceive, approve, and publish content instantly. The key decision-makers must be in the room together.
- Tone is Everything: Speed shouldn’t mean carelessness. The best examples use humour, humility, and a distinct “human” voice to create a sense of shared experience. It requires reading the moment effectively to ensure the tone lands correctly.
- Failure is Cheap: Because the cost of producing this content is low, the risk is minimal. It allows for iteration and experimentation. Not every post will go viral, but the low cost of “missing” makes the high reward of a “hit” worth the effort.
Fastvertising isn’t just about being funny on social media; it’s about organizational agility. And yes, it can feel uncomfortable if you typically manage risks with multiple layers of approval. But the ability to listen, trust your team, and act decisively may create more value than your media budget.
It might be worth asking: How could you prepare your team to seize opportunities that show your brand is awake, paying attention, and part of the culture your audience lives in?
For Your Reading List: Branding with a Behavioural Edge
Brand strategists, program managers and leaders will enjoy Hacking the Human Mind by Richard Shotton (author of The Illusion of Choice) and MichaelAaron Flicker who explain how to reverse-engineer brand success. They connect behavioural science secrets to 17 of the world’s best brands — from Guinness to Red Bull, KFC to Snickers and Apple to Kraft Mac & Cheese. What is it about Amazon that pulls us back again and again? How does a two-minute wait make Guinness taste better? Why do we pay more for water than we know it’s worth? The compelling storytelling makes this an easy read and the quick, actionable insights make the reading worthwhile for any decision-maker.
Closing Thought: On Persuasion
“If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason.” — Ben Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanack.
AI Disclosure: This newsletter was hand-crafted and personally curated. In addition to using online research tools, the author made some use of ChatGPT, Gemini Pro and Evernote AI for polishing the prose and headings.