Monday Memo
A Byte of Knowledge
When you're building an offer, perceived effort matters more than actual effort.
Meaning...how easy something looks beats how easy it actually is.
And if it looks like work, they won't stick around to find out it isn't.
Take a weight loss supplement.
Same formula, but one comes as loose powder you weigh yourself, the other as a capsule.
Weighing takes twenty seconds.
Doesn't matter. The capsule wins by a landslide when it comes to sales.
Or packaging.
A pump bottle needs one hand and dispenses clean. A twist cap needs two hands and drips everywhere.
And that drip is enough to lose the sale.
Same with communities.
Ask someone to download a new app and create another login? Too much work!
But out the group inside Discord where they already hang out? Signups soar.
Nobody consciously registers this stuff. They just bounce.
So before you scheme up your next offer...
Cut every hassle your customer can picture. Even the tiny ones.
🚀 Whether you're selling a $50 supplements or a $10,000 coaching program – having these 5 'Copy Blocks' on your landing page could be the difference between crickets and an avalanche of cash flow.
Discover All 5 'Copy Blocks' Now
Something to Ponder
We Asked – AI Answered
Our Question:
"Psychologist Daniel Kahneman once said 'The Instagram Generation now experiences the present as an anticipated memory.' What does this shift mean for how brands should think about marketing?"
AI's Answer: Turning "Present Moments" Into Future Sales
🧠 The Science: Two Selves, One Hijacked System
We have two selves:
1) The experiencing self (lives in the present).
2) The remembering self (keeps score and tracks our life story).
The experiencing self processes about 3 seconds of "now" at a time, while the remembering self creates the narrative of who we are...and it's this remembering self that makes all our future decisions. Instagram has essentially hijacked this system by turning every experience into a performance for the remembering self.
We now live moments not for how they feel, but for how they'll look in our memory feed later.
The platform literally rewires our brains to prioritize "memory creation" over actual experience, which is why people spend more time photographing their meals than tasting them.
Reality Check: Most people don't just go to Coachella anymore. They go to have gone to Coachella.
📈 The Peak-End Rule
Your New Secret Weapon
People judge experiences based on the most intense point and the end, not the total experience.
Case Study: Eleven Madison Park charges $1000 for two people but cleverly leverages the Peak-End Rule with craft cocktails, kitchen tours, perfect plates, and ends with bottomless apple brandy and signature pretzels.
Result? Memory > Meal
🎯 The Memory-Formation Playbook
→ Design for the Screenshot
• Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.
• Glossier's new store features Instagram/Tik Tok-ready installations, Hollywood-themed designs as a nod to the Los Angeles locale, lighting and mirrors "optimized for selfies."
• The Museum of Ice Cream's highly Instagrammable nature means visitors effectively become unpaid marketers, generating massive amounts of user-generated content that provides free, authentic advertising.
→ Manufacture Memory Anchors
Connect new experiences with familiar concepts already in the brain through analogies...like describing Lord of the Rings as "Star Wars but with Dwarves"
Tactic: Nostalgia reduces stress and makes people more open to purchasing decisions.
→ Optimize the Ending
The ending of an experience is crucial:
- Amazon: surprise samples
- Hotels: checkout chocolates
- Restaurants: complimentary desserts
💰 Brands Successfully Adapting to the Instagram Generation
🎵 Spotify Wrapped
- Wrapped adds value by telling the story of each user's year back to them through their personal music tastes, evoking a sense of nostalgia and creating an emotional connection with the platform.
- On TikTok, the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped garnered 73.7 billion views in 2023.
- In 2020, Spotify Wrapped was responsible for increasing Spotify's mobile app downloads by 21% in the first week of December.
💄 Glossier
- Glossier's customer-led marketing strategy for Instagram showed an impeccable understanding of its buyer personas.
- 80% of customers are referred by friends, and 70% of online sales come from peer referrals.
- Stores function as content studios with selfie-friendly design, stickers, and knowledgeable staff who model routines on real skin.
🍦 Museum of Ice Cream
- Their first exhibit, for which they made thirty thousand tickets available, all priced between $12 and $18, sold out in under a week.
- Every single room, every prop, every color scheme is optimized for viral content creation.
- The last public valuation for the museum is listed at $200 million in 2019.
😈 The Dark Psychology: "Living for Later"
Living in the name of content is not nourishment for your body, but it IS nourishment for your brand.
The Instagram generation doesn't document life—they curate it.
Tactical Applications:
→ Pre-experience hype
When people expect greatness, they'll remember it as great regardless of actual experience.
→ Emotional peaks
Emotionally powerful advertising is more effective long-term than rational messaging.
→ Story-worthy surprises
Random upgrades, unexpected gifts, personalized touches
Thanks for reading the Monday Memo.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
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