Treat your brand like a Netflix series, not a 30-second ad

Darren Morris of Lucky Hustle came to the podcast with a trend, a money-back guarantee, and the best campaign results of his career. It starts with a Chinese phone brand and ends on top of the Drakensberg.

Xiaomi came to his agency wanting the standard launch: an event, a TV ad, applause. Darren's counter, backed so firmly by his data that he told the client "if this campaign fails, I'll pay you back every cent", was to treat the brand like a series rather than a spot.

The agency picked up a group of Gen Z podcasters, told them only what to pack, and surprised them with a two-day climb to the top of the Tugela Falls. These were people who, in his words, had "never even gone for a walk." The mission was to record Africa's highest-ever podcast at the summit, captured entirely on the new device in terrain that showcased exactly what it could survive. Post-production released the story in bite-sized episodes, day after day, building to the finale.

"There were multiple comments like: this is the best ad I've ever seen — because it's not essentially an ad. People hate ads. So don't make your ads look like ads and you'll be fine."

The result was his most successful campaign to date, and not on vanity metrics: "actual conversion, literally record-breaking."

Why it worked: the series method

The mechanics matter as much as the bravery. This wasn't a 30-second TVC chopped into cutdowns. Cutdowns repeat one message, while episodes advance a story people chose to follow. Here's the method:

1. One story, told fully. Plan the whole narrative first, as a documentary arc with a real finale, not a message repeated at different lengths.

2. Cut into episodes. Release in daily bite-sized pieces that each end wanting the next. Attention spans are the format rather than the enemy, and it's the same "if you want more, keep watching" hook creators mastered years ago.

3. Product as character, not hero. It appears because the story needs it. The client's instruction was telling: "Just tell the story. Our product will organically fit in." Confidence in the product is what makes this possible, and insecurity is what forces the logo into every frame.

4. Real people, real stakes. Creators genuinely experiencing something beats actors pretending to. The camera phone on the mountain outperformed the cinematic TVC.

5. The finale pays off. Engineer an ending worth waiting for: the record, the reveal, the summit.

The principle underneath

If the audience gives you their attention, they must get something back, whether that's entertainment, feeling or education. The marketing itself has to be worth consuming. That's the shift, from interrupting people to making something they'd follow for ten days.

It also solves an AI-era problem. When branded polish falls flat and platforms push authentic, human content, a real story with real people on a real mountain is the opposite of generic. It's the one thing a competitor's AI on default settings can't reproduce.

Try this week: take your next planned campaign and ask what the story here is that someone would follow for ten days. If there isn't one, that's the brief's problem. Storyboard it as six episodes and a finale before anyone mentions a 30-second cut.

Sourced from recorded, on-the-record interviews on the South African Digital Marketing Podcast. Every practitioner quoted above is named in the text.

First published on the SA Marketers' Circle.