Contrarian Boxes

As we procrastinate eating a 🐸, we reflect on the things we don’t miss about going to the office.

The daily commute is definitely up there. We don’t think anyone should have to deal with the stress of congested traffic before they’ve had their second cup.

In the Netherlands, they tried to solve this headache-inducing issue with bicycles. There, more than 30 percent of all urban trips are made on old-school pedal bikes. 🚴🏼‍♀️

While we appreciate the solution and the sustainable benefits that come with it—having to exercise just to get to work isn’t exactly our idea of a tranquil morning either.

In the US, people clearly share our sentiments. Bikes are used for less than one percent of all urban trips.

Or is that because our bikes are tired?👇🏽

Imagine you’re looking for fresh ideas for your bike shop’s website content. You’ve heard all about this amazing new tool called ChatGPT and decide to give it a try. You input your prompt spinning the wheel of ideas.

Instead of a brainstorming session, the LLM goes on a deep philosophical tangent. One that makes you stop to reflect on whether it’s on to something despite the total fail. 😅

We’re all for using generative AI as a tool that makes your daily grind easier. However, this is another interesting example of why you shouldn’t put all your faith in the technology just yet.

So could this rather unique piece of copywriting serve as a powerful angle to address poverty and inequality? We’ll never know. 🤷🏼‍♀️

What we do know is that when Oatly launched their newsletter, their naming choice wasn’t a mistake.

The geniuses at Oatly—a Swedish oat milk brand—have done it again. Their recent campaign has us rolling. They leaned all the way in and plastered pop-ups in major cities around the world including London and New York City.

This contrarian campaign is perfectly aligned with the brand that’s trying to convince the world to start using oat milk in their coffee.

Oatly’s campaign was developed to announce the launch of their newsletter. So what better way to dehusk our expectations than naming it SPAM. 🤣

🤖 The Gist by ChatGPT: Contrarian thinking is like being the class clown of ideas. It's all about taking a step back from the popular crowd and saying "Hey, what if we do it this way instead?"

It's like playing a game of 'Yes, And' with the norm, taking what's expected and adding a big ol' twist. It's about not just accepting things at face value, but turning them upside down and seeing what falls out. It's like being the kid in school who raises their hand to ask "Why?" when the teacher says it's time to do something.

It's about finding the humor in the unconventional and never being afraid to make a fool of yourself in the name of progress. So embrace your inner rebel and start thinking contrarian today!

Oatly’s campaign is brilliant. It builds on irony to engage a savvy audience that is familiar with many of the overused nuances of digital marketing. 🥱

The audience is in on the joke and pokes fun at the tactics when reading the newsletter.

While we love it, this isn’t necessarily a novel idea. Fiction writers have been using this approach for a long time. Instead of trying to impress the reader, they make them feel clever. They let the reader figure out whodunnit just a few moments before Sherlock Holmes does. 🕵🏼

And if the reader feels good about themselves—surprise, surprise—they start to like you a lot more too.

How’s that for an out-of-the-milk-box marketing campaign?

And if you want further inspiration to launch your next product in a contrarian way, keep reading…

Sam Parr is like a magician who turns simple thoughts into stacks of cash. He’s known for launching—then selling—The Hustle to Hubspot for $27 million.

The Hustle is an epic newsletter that delivers business and tech news to over 3 million readers daily. He’s also crushing it with the podcast, My First Million with serial entrepreneur Shaan Purri.

While Sam’s not big on modeling, read on to find someone who you could say takes a very contrarian view on the subject. 🤯

We recently came across this story on Reddit and it blew us away.

For 5 years, Trevor Sweet—a 22 year old software developer— became a human hourglass. He’s been counting every hour of his life and organizing the data into categories:

When he posted his project to Reddit in January, it became a hit. People were fascinated and he was overwhelmed by the response. Trevor says he’s going to keep tracking his days because he sees no reason to stop.

If you're curious about turning your life into a color-coded masterpiece, then take a look at his post and the data. It's like next-level journaling with a geeky twist. And you get to pick the colors!

You might just surprise yourself with all the insights you'll uncover about where your time goes.