Un-locking Creative Scaling With Statiq

This episode dives deep into creative strategy as the growth lever for DTC brands, highlighting why under-$10M founders should still lead creative, how one ad can truly unlock growth, and why fresh sourcing of ideas (outside Meta’s ad library) is critical. Simon Robert, CEO of Statiq, walks through practical frameworks: for sourcing creative ideas, balancing “on-brand” vs “sales-driving” content, creative testing cadences, and the importance of one winning ad over scaling 100 mediocre ones. He also touches on creative team structures, founder involvement, and the risks of outsourcing strategy too early.

This conversation is especially valuable for media buyers and operators who want to understand:

• When creative becomes the bottleneck.
• How to build a process for consistent winning ads.
• What channels and frameworks to use to source inspiration.
• How to balance branding vs performance in creative.

We also dive into these key takeaways:

• How often should teams be testing new creatives to find the next winner
• The risk of outsourcing creative too early instead of founders leading.
• Why this is the best way to structure internal vs external creative teams for scale
• Why it's better to find one killer ad rather than running 100 average ones

This episode is Sponsored by Statiq. The ad creative agency used by Hollow Socks, Jones Road, Hearth & Soil and many more. Book a call within the next 7 days to get €500 OFF your first month: https://bit.ly/ScalabilitySchoolStatiq

To connect with Simon Robert from Statiq send him a DM at https://x.com/Simon__Rob

 To connect with Andrew Foxwell send an email [e-mail]

 To connect with Brad Ploch send him a DM at https://x.com/brad_ploch

 To connect with Zach Stuck send him a DM at https://x.com/zachmstuck

 Learn More about the Foxwell Founders Community at https://foxwellfounders.com/

 

Episode Transcript

(01:02:07):
Like if you are under
eight figures a year,
the founder should
probably lead all that.
Like the founder is
probably the best person
to know about the creative strategy.
And it's probably also the
biggest lever for the business.
If that person can unlock
that next stage of growth,
it's going to change everything.
And it's been talked here,
it's been talked everywhere.
One ad can change your

(01:02:28):
business and life, a single ad.
You can find all
those inspos on Pinterest.
And one good way to start,
and that's what we do,
but also what the brands
who are listening to
this can do on their own,
which is to really get their
head out of the inspiration,
the meta library, pretty much.
And try and seek new
ways to seek content.

(01:02:49):
And actually
Pinterest is a very good one.
And that's how we were able
to provide very creative stuff
for Holo and some other brands as well.
It really started there.
Even the top ones, I think
this is where some brands
need to be a little bit more loose
with the like on brand shit,
which is the top ad that you have for us
is not even our socks.
It's an AI generated
version of our compression socks.

(01:03:10):
And it looks close, it
looks like really close.
It's not exactly it,
but the actual background
that it produced behind it and
just like the aesthetic of it
and just the way to show
the product looks great,
obviously is like eye catching,
and then it has like a
great testimonial on that ad.
There are a few others that
have like crazy backgrounds,
right, they're like desert backgrounds,
insane pattern backgrounds.

(01:03:31):
Like there's a lot of
creativity behind these.
These are definitely not
templates like you said
that you would just go to Atria or
Foreplay or whatever
and just rip from somebody else.
These are like net new concepts.
I think that's why they're working.
So I mean, I think I just
have to give you kudos for that
is like you're bringing
new things to the table
that aren't just
another ad with just like
four value props with arrows

(01:03:53):
that every single brand runs, right?
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
And now let's take a listen
to the Scalability School Podcast.
Welcome to the
Scalability School Podcast.
Special guest today, Simon from Static.
Recording live from

(01:04:13):
France all over the world,
not in Wisconsin around,
although he did come to Wisconsin,
which was pretty unusual.
Unusual.
Europeans in Wisconsin
since his war ancestors came.
Yeah, when you were growing up,
did you ever dream of
traveling to Wisconsin?
Actually, I kind of did.
So on TikTok, you have a whole trend
of America's nature kind of thing.

(01:04:34):
And I was seeing
these TikToks of Wisconsin
and the state of Washington as well,
Wyoming to like a bunch of animals.
And actually, yeah, I was kind of,
I kind of wanted to go
there to Chicago as well,
which I did.
So it was very cool.
Yeah, Appleton's
beautiful this time of year.
Great place.
It's gorgeous.
I don't know if I just want to go there.

(01:04:55):
(laughing)
It's just local humor
where we make fun of where we're from.
If you don't know Static,
Static is an incredible company
that really started in Simon,
talk just briefly about the company,
but it really started
doing just Static ads.
And now it's grown.
I mean, you're one of the
biggest players in the game.
It's grown significantly

(01:05:16):
and you're getting into video as well.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, you guys
have such a dialed in process
and you've taken on some of
the biggest brands in D2C.
So why don't you show
people a little bit about Static,
what you guys do?
Yeah, so the story is I
used to be a media buyer.
I was buying med ads
mostly for e-com brands.
And at the time I
thought video ads were amazing,
but they took forever to make.

(01:05:37):
And I was like, okay,
what's the quickest way to
get your message out there?
And I actually started to
design a bunch of static ads
myself for my units spend,
and they worked pretty well.
And so I called my
buddy Jules and I told him,
you know, I think we
have an opportunity here
to create an entire
content based on them.
We could deliver that
at scale, do a great job,
hopefully, you know,

(01:05:58):
work with the right people
and go from there.
And so we did and then eventually,
and now we're probably
shipping like three to 4,000
static ads per month.
And so we're thinking about the next step
and which video, video
ads and services recently.
That's awesome, dude.
Well, you know, people
come to the Scalability School
podcast, the tens of
listeners that we have
to really get into the tactics

(01:06:19):
and the deep understanding
of like what's working, right?
So let's just kick it off right away,
which is you're obviously
building and creating a ton
of ads.
And I think one thing you
guys have done incredibly well
is build this formula that to
a degree that seems to work,
you have a really good
understanding of what converts.
So what are the formats right now?

(01:06:40):
KRSL, you know, UGC statics
and what's being overlooked.
What's working in that realm right now
that people can apply right away?
Yeah, so like, so
static ads, first of all,
static ads, they probably
work better in certain settings.
Right?
So like, for example, offer brands,
like, you know, AG1 is

(01:07:00):
probably the OG of these offer
type brands where you subscribe and save
and you get 20% off.
Well, if you can
somehow format your brand
to be an offer brand based,
and I think a lot of them can actually,
you're gonna rip with statics because
you're gonna be able
to drive a lot of
traffic at top with video.
And then you can close all that traffic
at bottom of funnel with static ads.

(01:07:22):
We work with a lot of these offer brands
and they work well with that.
Also, one thing that's
overlooked right now probably
would be design variations.
Okay?
I think a lot of brands are
still testing for copy tweaks.
And I think it's fine
testing them at a point,
like if you know your messaging already,
you're probably better off
going for design variations.

(01:07:42):
Okay?
So that's probably one
thing that's overlooked.
Also, you talked about concepts, right?
I think one thing that brands, you know,
not do wrong but could
improve is they think
of this process backwards in some ways.
So like they open an ad library,
they try and see what
the concept, you know,
a great concept, they see
one and they think, okay,

(01:08:03):
how can I fit my brand
into this concept inspiration?
Whereas it should probably be
thought the other way around,
which is what kind of
message do I want to deliver
to the world, right?
And then, okay, what's the
right concept that feed that?
You know?
So it's not really about
our comparative ads working
or is a product
benefit oriented ad better.

(01:08:25):
It's really about the process.
It's about, okay, what's my brand?
What's the message
that I want to deliver?
And then what's the
right concept for that?
So like, yeah, AI concepts are working
really well right now.
If you have a weight loss brand,
you should probably kind of
try and find some concepts
where you're showing an overweight person
versus an in shape person, right?
That's working really well right now.

(01:08:45):
It's a very aggressive
direct response message,
but that's working for sure.
And if it fits your brand's messaging,
you should probably use that.
So yeah, more than concepts itself,
it's more about actually
getting the process right.
And it starts with your
brand, not the other way around,
which is what I see
usually with maybe, you know,
seven figure brands-ish,
eight, nine figure brands,
they kind of get this right.

(01:09:07):
Yeah, we've talked
maybe a couple of times
on this podcast and I know
Zach has been on other shows
where like you've kind of like described
the static framework that you use,
where you come up with
maybe some different ranges
of people that you're trying to talk to
or you kind of pillar messaging
and you use static to kind
of prove out those concepts.
Simon, I'm curious, like,

(01:09:27):
what is the average client
coming to you asking for?
Like, are they, they kind of know,
it seems like you're
working with like big brands
for the most part.
So like, they come to you with like
pretty defined like,
hey, we know this works.
We're trying to just do more of this.
So are you taking
kind of the core message
and helping deliver on just
like a wider range of variations
within that core message?
Or like, what is the
average client asking you for?

(01:09:48):
Yeah, so like big brands,
I mean big brands like
eight to nine figure brands,
which most of our clients,
they usually work in cycles, okay?
So what they do is, let's
say a cycle is six weeks, okay?
Six weeks, okay, they're
going to use static ads
to try and find a new audience, a new
funnel, a new offer.
So like, they're going to
make dozens of variations,

(01:10:10):
testing a pink color background
with a woman oriented message.
And then they're going
to try a blue background
with a man oriented message.
And they're going to try
two funnels out of them.
Like, and the good thing with static is
they're super cheap.
I mean, they're
cheaper to make than video
was they get cheaper clicks

(01:10:30):
and they're easy to reiterate on.
So you can actually stop there.
And once you get some soft and you know,
some soft metrics hitting,
and then also CPAs that
are in line with your target,
and it starts scaling,
you can then pile up new
ad formats on top of that.
So like you have this kind of cycle
where brands use us a lot for these.
And then you have the other
cycle, which is, I don't know,

(01:10:51):
we have the fourth of
July ads offering, coming,
and like we need
hundreds of ads for that.
And when that happens,
it's really about scaling,
like a lot of assets.
Eventually, they are not going to make
some copy tweaks on them,
because like it's the
fourth of July offer.
You don't really need that.
I mean, to have so many to copy tweaks,
you just need to take the

(01:11:12):
evergreen stuff that's working,
probably add an American flag,
and you know, spin that
across your entire SKU set.
So like, yeah, I think
to answer the question,
I feel like they work in cycles,
cycles of iterations
to find new audiences
and cycles of optimizing for volume,
pushing out a lot of content out there.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
And there's a follow up
question, which is maybe for you,
but Zach, maybe for you as well.

(01:11:33):
You mentioned they're using static.
I think this was actually like,
so the average person
that's listening to this
is seven to eight figure range.
And what you said that I
think is really applicable to them
is they can use
statics to find and unlock
new concepts in messaging.
And that's like, sounds
like half of what you're doing
is just like trying to
unlock that new thing.
Do you have insight into
like how they're identifying

(01:11:55):
like what the concepts
should be in the messaging?
Like what is that creative
strategy and research process
that's kind of like
going into determining
who should we even
try to message to next?
And I have thoughts on this too,
and Zach, I'm sure you do too.
But I'm curious if like you
have insight into that process.
Yeah, so like, again, you
gotta start with your product.
So let's say you're a

(01:12:15):
coffee substitute brand, right?
That's what you sell.
You probably have a product
that based on its ingredients
that can solve a bunch of issues, right?
And some issues are more appealing
towards certain demographic,
some others to another demographic.
So like, let's say your
brand can solve energy issues,
anxiety stuff, you cannot

(01:12:36):
mention it directly that way,
but then, you know,
anxiety stuff, energy stuff,
judge related issues.
And you're like, okay, who's more likely
to experience that issue?
And let's do some basic thinking, right?
Probably on meta, if
you target gut issues,
you should probably target women.
Because, you know, there are

(01:12:57):
more problem aware than men
on that particular
issue, most likely, okay?
If you're targeting, I
don't know, energy or yeah,
energy levels, you're probably better off
trying to target men for some reasons.
Because overall, you may have more people
that are ready to
purchase for that issue, okay?
And so once you start

(01:13:18):
layering those ideas,
then you can start testing, right?
You can be, okay, what's the messaging?
So like, you can just
draft a bunch of headlines
on energy, on gut, et cetera.
You try and make them
fit to your audience.
Once you have those
headlines, like, okay,
how can I represent my product best?
And then you put it in a situation
where you can start bracing static ads.

(01:13:40):
So it starts with your
product itself and what it solves,
then you can draw a bunch of conclusions
on which demographics can relate to that.
Then you draft some headlines.
The headline step is
actually very important.
And once you have those, you
can think about concepting.
And then you launch to production,
you don't sound meta,
you look at the data
and you start over again.

(01:14:01):
Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
I promise this will be my last follow-up
and I'll let somebody else speak.
It's interesting that
you kind of positioned
the way that you did.
And I wrote down each of those steps,
but like what you
said you started with is,
you have to think about
what problems your product
actually solves.
We recorded an episode yesterday,
I don't know when these
will come out in sequence,
where we talked about
one of Zach's recent tweets
where he kind of ranted.

(01:14:22):
And one of the first
things that he said was,
like your product
actually has to solve problems
because if it doesn't,
then it makes it really hard
to actually speak
about what you usually do.
And so I think that
that's a really interesting
starting point.
But the other point that
I wanted to make is like,
the way that this might
show up in your ad account is,
you've been trying things
for several months in a row,
and either row as is
constantly decreasing
or spend is decreasing,

(01:14:42):
but you're kind of like
flat and you're stuck.
And so what the solution is to that is,
in a creative sense
potentially is going back
and doing this
process that you suggested,
which is listing out all
the problems that you solved
that maybe you're not
currently speaking to,
and then coming up with
a plan to build statics
around that messaging.
So it is for anybody
that's struggling with
maybe plateauing in the ad account.

(01:15:03):
This is one of those
things that you should be doing
is just following the exact
process that you laid out.
Yeah, 100%.
And if nothing is working,
you should probably think
of a bigger swing to make.
You can actually change the entire
website if you have to.
Once you have the
formula of your product,
I mean, I say formula
because we have a lot of
how can ones brands, but
once you have your product,

(01:15:24):
you can market it in very different ways.
Even for example, let's take Holo, right?
You guys sell socks.
You can market it for winter
activities through the winter
and then probably summer activities
follow through the summer.
And it's probably two
very different demographics.
I mean, I don't know
how different they are,
but like, you don't mind what I mean?
You can make bigger swing.
You can change the landing page.

(01:15:45):
And eventually if nothing is working,
you could probably
have a product that sucks.
I don't know, but like if
really nothing is working,
you should probably think
of re-doing it entirely.
But yeah, you can do a lot of things
before setting
everything down, of course.
Yeah, I mean, I think
going through the process
you talked about is huge.
I think that's one of

(01:16:06):
the things that makes you
really unique in the
space that you have walked
so many brands through
this successfully and growing
and you're being put against
other people in the marketplace
in terms of ad creators.
And you seem to have a good sense of,
you know, the visual cues
that signal DR intent to meta,
which I think is a big part of it.

(01:16:26):
What are some of those that you've,
and you can even talk about
the ones you've integrated
for Holo, right?
Because obviously it's six out.
Static has been
working in Holo's account,
which Zach will speak to.
Yeah, so like the way
I'd say we stand out
and also the way you can stand out
is to be very creative with your stuff.
But like, if you do like everybody else,

(01:16:46):
you go into Foreplay
or Atria or whichever,
you know, iLibrary tool you're using
and you try and fit your
brand into an existing concept
and that's all you do,
you're probably going to struggle.
You kind of need to get
your head out of those
inspiration library from time to time.
Look at organic things
like go to Pinterest,
try and find very creative ideas

(01:17:09):
and try and think differently.
I think that's where it
starts to kind of have,
to kind of provide meta
with a different concept
than what everyone's doing.
For example, let's say again,
let's take the coffee substitute brand
because it's a great
example, you see it to understand.
You go to Pinterest and
you write mushroom, right?
You just do this.
You're going to have so
much creativity in front of you

(01:17:31):
to try and take inspiration from.
You can do illustration stuff,
very different than what
the competition is doing.
No one is doing
illustrations on meta right now.
You can also, I don't know,
place your product in a forest
and having weird mushrooms
growing around it, et cetera.
You can find all
those inspos on Pinterest.

(01:17:51):
And one good way to
start, and that's what we do,
but also what the brands
who are listening to this
can do on their own,
which is to really get their
head out of the inspiration,
the meta library, pretty much,
and try and seek new
ways to seek content.
And actually,
Pinterest is a very good one.
And that's how we were able
to provide very creative stuff

(01:18:12):
for Holo and some other brands as well.
It really starts there.
What are you looking for in Pinterest?
Literally just unique visuals
that you don't see in
ad accounts otherwise.
It's like you're going
there because you know
that people on Pinterest
are not staring at ad accounts
all day trying to recreate
and not talk to everybody else.
So you're looking for a
unique visual in that, right?
Is that what you're looking for?
Exactly.

(01:18:32):
You're looking for something unique.
And it's not because it's on Pinterest
that it's not going to work.
What you want is a great visual
that delivers your message across.
Then you can performance it, right?
You can add a direct
response headline if you want.
You can add a bunch of product benefits.
You can slap your offer into it.
It's not because it's on Pinterest

(01:18:54):
that it's not going to work.
You just have to
reunite both worlds, right?
And it's the same.
It's actually the same for videos.
I'm not sure if we want to
switch to videos right now,
but I do have a great example for it.
Simon, I think we
should get into the work
you guys have been doing for Holo
and just talk about
that a little bit more
because we can
actually share some numbers

(01:19:14):
and talk about what's going
on and all that good stuff.
For what it's worth,
hired static, I think it's
been like 30 days at this point.
Is that sound about right?
Maybe a little bit more.
We have definitely found some winning
ads, which is awesome.
I mean, we have one ad that alone is
spent like nine grand,
another one that spent six
grand, another one at four.
So I mean, these are individual ads,
not like all of the ads.

(01:19:36):
So we're talking, you know,
multiple tens of
thousands of dollars in spend
from static's work, which is incredible.
And an incredible ROI,
especially based on your fee structure
and kind of how that's been going.
The metric that we look
at also just to like shares
like a North Beam one day clicks.
Anything above a one for us is like a win
that usually backs into,
and we've done a lot of
analysis to say that this is like

(01:19:56):
a two plus NC ROIs if we can get a one
on North Beam one day clicks.
I'm looking at a ton of ads
that you guys have made for us.
To your point about like
inspo and just new ideas,
a lot of them are AI
based, like you said.
Oh, even the top ones,
I think this is where some brands need to
be a little bit more loose
with the like on brand shit,

(01:20:16):
which is the top ad that you have for us
is not even our socks.
It's an AI generated
version of our compression socks.
And it looks close.
It looks like really close.
It's not exactly it,
but the actual background
that it produced behind it
and just like the aesthetic of it
and just the way to show
the product looks great.
Obviously it's like eye catching
and then it has like a
great testimonial on that ad.

(01:20:37):
There are a few others that
have like crazy backgrounds,
right?
Dessert backgrounds,
insane pattern backgrounds.
Like there's a lot of
creativity behind these.
And these are definitely not templates.
Like you said, that you
would just go to Atria
or four player or whatever
and just rip from somebody else.
These are like net new concepts.
I think that's why they're working.
So, I mean, I think I just

(01:20:58):
have to give you kudos for that
is like you're bringing
new things to the table
that aren't just another
ad with just like four value
props with arrows that
every single brand runs, right?
That everyone tries to copy.
I mean, you have to
comment that, you know,
the French are known
for innovation in design.
Simon, you're kind of on brand with this.
I also assumed that
you've only had pastries today

(01:21:18):
just like being French as well.
Close to it.
Yeah.
The one thing I did want to ask you about
that I thought was interesting is like,
so there's some language
that you guys have used
in the ads that you've made for us
that are just brand new ideas, right?
So we've talked a lot about
like getting Inspawn the visual.
I'd love to understand
how you're getting Inspawn
like the copy that you're using

(01:21:38):
and like the
headlines and stuff like that.
So tell us more about how
you think about the copy.
Yeah, to be fully honest,
I'm not sure if we're
going to be able to run that,
but you'll let me know.
You guys run, you guys
write the copy for us.
Are you aware of that?
Sure, I didn't know that.
No, yeah.
So yeah, I'm not gonna try
and bullshit my way into this.
I mean, it's actually
not part of our offering
and we don't write copy for many reasons,

(01:22:01):
but I also feel like copy
actually should be known
to the brand.
A few months ago when we started,
we tried and do copy services as well.
And I think that's a relevant one.
The truth is our copy was us.
Copy is actually very difficult to write.
And like if you're trying to externalize
your entire messaging to any agency,

(01:22:22):
it's probably not gonna work
because copy services are, I mean,
great copy services
should and are very pricey.
And in some extent, you
breathe your brand 24 seven
and we believe that
brand should own that.
And so that's why we
actually separated both
and we own creative direction.
So like we put out great new ideas

(01:22:42):
and you guys match us with the
appropriate copy for that.
Right, that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, I mean, I think
the one thing that I was
even mostly trying to get at was then
just like the creativity
that comes with the copy, right?
So like we have some language here.
It's like torturing your
feet is just a big headline.
I've never seen an ad
that we've done with that.
But then like the visual
that you guys came up with
that was AI generated that
ties into torturing your feet

(01:23:04):
is just super punchy, right?
It's not a photo that we would just get.
It's not a photo we
would get from a customer.
Like I think that's where the special
also statics comes in, right?
Cause like, yeah, okay.
If we are writing the
copy, which is news to me,
I did not know that.
That you guys have full
creative freedom though
to just like let it rip
with that concept, right?
So I think that's--
Exactly.

(01:23:25):
How are you?
So another question I
have then based on that.
So for brands that are,
what are the brands that
you feel like get the most
like spend out of your ads?
Like what are they allowing you to do?
What are they doing?
What are you doing uniquely for them
that are the ones that are getting the
most volume of spend
versus some that you're
like, we tried our best
but it just didn't work out.

(01:23:46):
This episode is brought to you by
the Foxwell founders membership
that Andrew and his wife, Gracie run.
It has been absolutely pivotal for not
just the Homestead team
but the Easy Street Brands team.
We've had, I don't
even know how many members
are currently in there that
are part of our ecosystem.
But when it comes to
anything from learning ads
to understanding what's going on,
to building an agency,
to knowing retention,

(01:24:07):
it's been absolutely useful for our team
when they get stuck or they
need help to just go there
and resource all the other experts.
So definitely would recommend it
for anybody that's looking
to take it a step deeper,
try to get a little bit more
knowledge on growth marketing
and all the world DTC is.
Yeah, I think one of the
most incredible things about it
is you can just like
open up the Slack group
every single day.
You can pin your favorite channels

(01:24:28):
for the topics you care most about.
And like every day there's gonna be
somebody who just like,
because they want to
contribute something valuable
to the group, you can go
learn something every single day
and it's gonna be extremely useful.
There's some ballers in there.
They just get like the
benefit of learning from that.
Like for the costs, like
you couldn't pay them that
for their time, but
through the membership,
like you get access to

(01:24:49):
some incredible people
and tons of resources.
Yeah, I mean, I think the
biggest resource to me too
is like the events that, you know,
Foxwell Founders does.
They've been able to do
some even in Wisconsin,
even in the boring state of Wisconsin,
which is pretty awesome.
Getting people together in person
and able to have really
just like honest conversations
of what's going on,
what's working for them now,
you know, where
they're at in their business

(01:25:09):
and knowing that there's
gonna be, like Brad said,
some real killers in the
space in this membership
that can help and are
willing to take the time and help.
So that's been a huge
part of why a lot of our team
have really enjoyed it as well.
And the applications are now open
if you're looking to
join, so make sure you--
Foxwell Founders, yeah,
foxwellfounders.com.
Go check it out, go fly.
What are the brands that
you feel like get the most

(01:25:31):
spend out of your ads?
Like what are they allowing you to do?
What are they doing?
What are you doing uniquely for them
that are the ones that are getting the
most volume of spend
versus some that you're
like, we tried our best,
but it just didn't work out?
I mean, again, the creative stuff.
Like the ones that are willing to try
very creative concepts, creative ideas,
not only layout, you gotta

(01:25:53):
think outside of layouts.
So like you gotta think outside of,
okay, this is an ugly ad,
this is a comparative ad.
This doesn't really matter.
It's really about the main idea
that you're trying to deliver.
And if the brand is fine
with trying out new ideas,
new settings, they're
probably going to perform better
with us, that's one thing.
Then, and it's kind of a

(01:26:14):
global branding decision,
but you should probably frame your brand
as an offer brand.
Even, I mean, probably
any brand, any product
can become an offer,
actually, that's what I think.
And your statics are gonna work better
if you can have an offer behind it.
If you're just selling a product
and it doesn't really have an offer,
it doesn't have to be a

(01:26:35):
bobo or a percentage offer,
subscribe and save, but
it has to have this twist
where you're more entitled to buy.
And your statics are gonna
work better eventually also.
So two things, you're
willing to try creative ideas
and you're able to frame your brand
into an offer environment.
That's probably the two
answers that I have for this.

(01:26:56):
And then your testing
metrics, your testing metrics.
Sorry, sorry, for
example, I think the best way
to test statics right now and
to find the most performance
out of your set of static ads
is to brief net new concepts.
So like different stuff, let's say you
brief five per week,
five net new concepts, very different.
And then within each
concept, you do variations

(01:27:17):
of targeting different demographics.
So you'd have one
concept, three demographic,
so three different design variations.
And then you can also
have three different
headline variation, one per variation.
So you end up with a set that has a lot
of different concepts, each
of them has design variations
and appropriate copy.
And this is how you can

(01:27:38):
really test at scale new agencies,
but also find winners, work on evergreen
and keep the ball right.
And you're putting, just
to be clear as an answer,
how do you suggest people test this?
I mean, a lot of people
that are coming to you
are probably spending a decent amount,
but are you suggesting
that they just throw it all
in a new ASC or in
the existing or, I mean,
it depends on the buyers, I suppose,

(01:27:59):
in the accountant
situation, maybe you're letting them
decide that.
Definitely depends on the buyer.
I'm an ABO guy, but I
would run my tests with ABO
on an ABO setup.
So like, for example,
you'd have either you have
all net new concepts, no variations,
competing within each
other in a single ABO ad sets,

(01:28:21):
so like three to five net new concepts
competing within each other.
That is if you have a logo jet,
low is different between brands,
but like if you spend less
than 100K a per month on meta,
you're probably better off
working on bigger swings.
So like don't spend money and time
figuring out variations.
Just spend money and time on getting
those net new concepts
and make them compete within each other.

(01:28:42):
If you have more money to spend,
you can probably dilute that ad spend
across multiple ABOs and try
and deep dive a little more.
And if you have more money,
if you're spending above
100K per month on meta,
you can have one ABO per concept
and that ABO includes all the variations.
And then you have a third way,
which is less preferred to me,

(01:29:03):
but if your account
works with an AAC setup,
you can actually do that,
is you can use the big
boy, the big boy setup,
having a lot of
variations and put it all in an AAC
and you know, hope something sticks.
Okay, that's the third way.
Personally, I prefer testing ABO
because I feel like
it's also a mindset shift.
Okay, when I test ABO,

(01:29:24):
static spends money on ads as well.
So I know and I test ABO as well.
When I spend money on an ABO setup,
it's actually a lot of money, right?
You're spending a lot of money behind it.
And so if it doesn't work,
next time you go into the account,
you're gonna be more
thoughtful about your testing.
You're gonna think twice, right?
If you put everything
into an AAC with a low budget

(01:29:46):
and if you're a small
brand and you're starting out
spending less than 100k per month,
it may not be so much
worth it to do this.
Because if it doesn't work,
you're not really going
to know what didn't work
and it's not gonna be
a huge loss for you.
So you'll be like,
"Meh, that didn't work."
So that's why I like ABO because it
forces me to be good.
It's pretty much that.

(01:30:07):
Yeah, I mean, there's
so many different ways
to think about it, but I
generally agree with you.
I think it's tough.
I mean, especially if
you have a lower budget,
which I think a lot of people live in,
especially that are
listening to this podcast, right?
So a follow up, another question I have,
you're exposed to a lot
of creative strategists
and a lot of creative strategy process
within different organizations.
I think that one of the
things that every brand

(01:30:28):
is trying to figure out
right now is how do we
make the process?
So you talked about like,
here's how you
develop different personas,
get inspiration from different places.
How do you make the process
of doing creative strategy
briefing faster and better?
Because I think there's a
big hang up in a lot of that,
that brands don't have,
the owners are doing it themselves.

(01:30:48):
Or they're, you know what I mean?
They're trying to find a
CS that they're doing this
or the agency is doing it.
And the agencies do varying jobs,
like jobs of varying
degrees of good jobs of this.
And so I'm just curious,
you're exposed to a lot.
What are those that are
doing it really successfully?
What are they doing?
And let's just focus
on the ones that aren't
the biggest brands in the world,
because clearly like
the ridges and everybody,
they're gonna have like 10 CS people.

(01:31:10):
100%.
Actually, so maybe controversial,
but like if you are
under eight figures a year,
the founder should
probably lead all that.
Like the founder is
probably the best person
to know about the creative strategy.
And it's probably also the
biggest lever for the business.
If that person can unlock
that next stage of growth,
it's going to change everything.
And it's been talked here,

(01:31:32):
it's been talked everywhere.
One ad can change your
business and life, a single ad.
So like you're
probably better off working
on this yourself, honestly.
If you try and hire yourself out of this,
at this stage, sorry,
you're not gonna have the money
to hire the best, probably.
Or the best, they won't work with you,
because maybe they work on
a percentage of ad spend.

(01:31:53):
And if you spend less
than 100K per month,
they may not look at you
like an interesting class.
That's the truth, right?
So what I think is if you're
under eight figures revenue,
you should probably
figure it out yourself.
Like as a founder,
you built this product,
you know why it works.
You should probably work on it.
A great example of that.

(01:32:13):
Let's say you wanna
make a bunch of videos.
But by the way, founder-led
videos are crushing right now.
They are doing amazing across the gals.
I saw this guy, Zach from
Hollow, I saw an ad from them.
It was like really, it was cool.
It was really interesting.
So yes, but yes, founder-led videos
are actually super helpful for sure.
Yeah, so my answer is you should probably
do it yourself.
And yeah, stop thinking about the brand

(01:32:36):
and the message you wanna put across.
And I actually have a
great example for this.
I think Andrew, you're
into golfing, aren't you?
Probably.
I'm terrible.
I'm not good at it.
No, okay.
You're not good at it.
No, but I mean I know about it.
I'm terrible as well.
Yeah, I'm terrible as well.
But I've seen golf courses.
Let's say you have a golfing brand.

(01:32:57):
Like you said Gears or whatever.
All right.
Love it.
And you're like, you wanna try and find
a new video concept.
The way you shouldn't go about it
is open an ad library and try and find
a good concept.
That's not the way.
You should probably think about, okay,
where does the
conversation happen for my audience?

(01:33:17):
Is it on the green?
Maybe.
Maybe it's a great idea.
You could start with that.
But maybe you can also
find some better stuff.
Maybe great conversation about golfing
happen at the Glove House restaurant.
At the restaurant,
they're all sitting together
after golfing and they
have an hour long conversation
about golf.
Can I recreate that setting?
Can I do it myself?

(01:33:38):
Can I put a bunch of people
talking about golf together
in a restaurant, giving
them mics, recording that
and have an hour long of raw content
about my golfing brand?
That's the kind of ideas
probably only a founder can find
because if they hire an agency for that,
they will never have the budget for it.
But they can probably find
a way to be scrappy about it
and deliver themselves.

(01:34:00):
So that's kind of the way to go.
Don't try and find the
concept to fit to your brand
messaging, but think about your brand.
Where does the conversation happen?
And then create concept around that.
And the more organic it looks and feels,
obviously, the better it's going to go.
And then you can spin up B-rolls on top
of that conversation
and introduce your
products and show it in action

(01:34:22):
and have a bunch of
weird video footage going on
and create an action ad.
And that could rip or not.
And then you move to the next thing.
So what's your core creative stack
that you guys are using, right?
Figma, Adobe, and where
do people lose efficiency
and the file handoffs
and all this kind of stuff?
I think working with a partner.
Yeah.

(01:34:42):
So our stack is mainly Adobe
and Figma for putting things
together.
Adobe is for product composition,
so mixing backgrounds and
product making sure it's beautiful
and it's well-lit and
it's well-integrated.
And Figma is for displaying copy and
receiving client feedback.
So like, feedback is for
scaling copy and assets.

(01:35:03):
And Adobe is for core design production.
One thing about this, you're
better off having everything
in one place.
And we use Adobe a lot,
and especially Adobe Firefly.
They are AI-generated,
creative tool built in.
And it's great.
And it's really good.
Same thing for assets libraries.
We use Freepeak.
We use Envato.

(01:35:24):
Freepeak AI is actually amazing.
No one is talking about it.
I feel like in our industry, everyone
is chasing the next thing when it comes
to tools and whatnot.
But the old players are
doing very good at this.
And so we try and
limit the number of tools
we use to make sure we stay efficient.
I'm actually messing around a lot.
I've been messing
around with Jiminy this week.

(01:35:45):
And it's amazing.
You can create some really cool stuff.
And we do use it for hooks, for example,
for hook generations.
It's great, but it's very slow.
And it definitely slows you down.
So you really need to find that balance
between speeds and new.
And I try to find the right balance.
Adobe Enigma is the perfect setup.
And then you can add

(01:36:05):
some tools on the sites.
So let's switch over
to talking about video.
And let's talk about what you're seeing.
Obviously, you've been getting into this.
I mean, a company's name's Static,
so I don't know what
you're going to read.
But your static's in motion or something?
I don't know.
Just brainstorming here.
But I think there's--

(01:36:25):
I'd be curious about the
systems, the production
techniques, the hook
frameworks that you utilize to scale
and not just look
good, utilizing the video
what you guys are doing
that's really killing it.
Yeah, before you answer that, why video?
I mean, you kind of
alluded to it earlier.
Statics are great for
testing and getting some insight.
But ultimately, it's probably the scale.
So I guess what led to
that before you do that?

(01:36:47):
Sorry, Andrew.
Cut you off.
Yeah, so the thought process behind this
was, I guess, an average client at Static
probably spends 30%,
40% max on their ad spend on static ads.
And I love static ads for all the reasons
that we stated before--
super cheap, cheap clicks, ability
to iterate, some decent performance,
et cetera, et cetera.

(01:37:07):
But to achieve true scale, you probably
need some video formats
as well in the metrics.
So for us, it was the
natural next step into the process.
And we were able to
find a nice offer that
is very similar to
Static in which we still
have some kind of inputs in footage
selection, for example.

(01:37:27):
But we still give brands the
ability to direct the scene,
if I may.
They still preference in some capacities.
For example, if they want to use a
certain type of talking head
or a roll, they can still do it.
And they can still tell us about it.
But we still have an input
on the B roll side of things
and footage selection, which is, I think,

(01:37:48):
the great compromise between the brands
seek net new raw content.
They create a huge library of content.
They upload that into
their video library.
They keep on seeking new reels.
And on our end, we scale that production.
And so you have a kind of a party setup,
which works really well.
Yeah, I'm thinking about an example,
literally, right now,
where we've had footage for

(01:38:09):
a client for probably months.
I know because I
actually filmed part of it
because I happen to have the product.
And we just added a
couple of headlines to it.
And all of a sudden, it's ripping.
And we, like, months
ago did nothing as is.
And I feel like a lot of
brands build this insane library
and just don't do a
great job of continuing
to go through it, which
is one of the core things
that we do.
It sounds like what
you guys do is just like,

(01:38:29):
how can we repurpose
this a million times over?
I think the trap that you can fall into
with doing that, though,
is you just make
these mini iterations that
aren't actually meaningful.
And I know I'm really diverting away from
Andrew's original question.
So I'm sorry.
Is there one when you think about
iterations specifically
for video content?
Are you pushing brands to say, cool,

(01:38:50):
you've got all this footage.
But we shouldn't just
be changing the headline.
We need to be thinking about, here's
the visual hook that's
currently working on this video.
And I'm kind of alluding to
the framework that we use,
where it's like, the average person
that's actually watched this,
there's only 25% of people
that have stopped and watched
this in the first three seconds.
So we changed the visual hook in a very
meaningful way that's
still relevant for the rest of the video.
That gives us a whole

(01:39:11):
basically net new ad.
Like, how are you
coaching people through what
to focus on when
iterating on videos, if at all?
Yeah.
So the way we're
coaching them is brands--
so they work in cycles as well, just like
prosthetics, actually.
They should be seeking
intentionally new B-rolls
all the time.
OK?
It's actually-- you have to breathe

(01:39:31):
B-rolls intentionally,
just to make sure everyone--
we're on the same page here--
a B-roll is a supporting footage.
That means it's
usually not someone talking,
but it's a product in use
or something weird happening
with your product.
Like, again, if
you're in the coffee space,
you can just take a white
T-shirt and spill coffee
all over it.

(01:39:51):
You can check a Monster Energy.
You can be very
creative with those B-rolls.
And if you are
intentionally briefing them,
you can create a huge library of them.
Because they are actually very cheap
to get from the creators,
you can also do them yourself--
a lot of them.
Right?
And so you do a bit
every month, and you already
have a lot to work with.
And you create new angles out of them.
So I don't know.

(01:40:12):
I'm taking my coffee,
and I'm drinking it,
and I'm making a weird
grimace space of like,
because it's beer, and it's not good.
And then it gives you
the jitters, the coffee,
so you check the Monster Energy,
and then you're traveling.
You can be very creative with that,
and it's very cheap to do.
And you have to be intentional with them.
So I'm like, hey, guys, please

(01:40:34):
brief new B-rolls every month
and do this consistently.
And then you have the
A-roll talking heads,
which is much harder to get, and it's
also more expensive.
So how do you think about it?
You should be-- again, if
we take the thought process
that I introduced before
with the golfing example,
if you think about your

(01:40:54):
brand and you're like, OK,
where does the conversation happen,
and you uncover a bunch of settings,
a bunch of situations, then
you have to think about, OK,
can I do this myself?
OK, yes, I can do it myself, so I can get
some A-roll going on.
Can a creator do it?
Yeah, OK, they can do it, so
I'm going to hire some creators.
And then should I
hire an agency for that?

(01:41:15):
So for example, if you think the
conversation happened
in the street, and you
want to have street interviews
footage, chances are you
cannot really make that happen
with a creator.
Chances are you're not
going to go there yourself, OK?
So probably you're better
off hiring an agency for that.
So yeah, you should think
about A-roll content in cycles.
So probably every two or three months,

(01:41:36):
you get an increase of new A-roll content
of people talking, OK?
And then every month,
you get new results.
And if you do that
consistently, every quarter,
you're going to have new content to make.
And you don't even need to think about
what's my next angle,
because it's going to be there anyway.
You're going to have so much content,
it's going to be there.

(01:41:56):
And the tools out there right now, the
video library tools,
they allow you to tag
automatically the content too.
So you can just open the library,
you can hire someone for
it, or you can do it yourself.
But you can open the
library, put some clips together,
use AI for hooks, and keep
on spinning new video ads
all the time.
And you're actually making big swings.

(01:42:16):
It's not because you go
only B-rolls and AI voice
solver that it cannot work.
It can actually work very, very well.
I've seen six figures
ad spend on AI voice
solver, simple script, and a bunch of
B-rolls on the back end.
And this is life changing
for a brand, life changing.
And everybody can do this very easily

(01:42:38):
with a bunch of B-rolls.
So yeah, the answer is be
consistent and intentional
with how you brief B-rolls.
And then think about the messaging
that you want to put across, and try and
get new role talking
head content every month.
And then you'll be good to go.
Yeah, I mean, I think a
big theme of this podcast
is really from you is what
you've seen in terms of--
obviously, you have a visibility into

(01:42:58):
massive ton of accounts.
And what's working for
them, they're telling you,
you're guiding a lot of
this process, obviously,
for them in building their ads.
And a lot of it is utilize
the creation of a lot of B-roll,
and have that, and have also
the same thing with statics.
Like have more, and
think outside the box.
And you can be the one in charge of that.
You don't necessarily have to
do these incredibly polished

(01:43:18):
pieces, which is good.
I think another thing
you talked about with video
is hire agencies to get
the specific content, street
interviews, organic style, podcast style.
Don't purchase finished ads only with
agencies or creators.
Make sure it includes--
100%.
100%.
Close celebrity author
figures into whitelisting deals.

(01:43:39):
Seek tons of hooks.
And then your video
production process, video library
of A and B-rolls, plus
script, plus AI fit, voiceover,
plus editor and static.
The last one is the one I want to ask
about, which is Batpiece.
So they have A and B-roll
stuff, the script generally,
and then you guys are
putting it together.
That's really the magic.

(01:44:00):
Or like, how does that
process work to make something
really great for folks?
Yeah, we're putting it together.
Once we have
everything, we pretty much have--
we have video editors who
are kind of strategist as well.
They wouldn't write copy.
They wouldn't write the script, but they
can understand what performs, how to
transition clips properly,
and where should clips go, which is--

(01:44:21):
it's like basic, but
it's how you put together
and how that performs.
OK?
So yeah, that's pretty much it.
It's really about seeking
the content, being intentional,
and then either you brief
it specifically to an editor
that you hire in the house
or you hire someone like us
to do the job for you.

(01:44:41):
It's pretty much about that.
And when it comes to authority figures,
you guys have been talking about
whitelisting already
quite a lot, but I feel
like authority figures
are a different kind of edits, usually.
It's more organic.
It looks more organic, at least.
And you probably need to
be less heavy on the editing
when it comes to whitelisting.
OK?
So you'd probably give more freedom

(01:45:03):
to the authority figure
that's working for you.
You'd probably give them more freedom,
because they know their audience.
So yes, it's going unpaid,
but it's a different kind
of video editing setting.
It's a different thing.
One thing I'll say is I
think we should transition
into the final episode of
the-- or the final segment
of the podcast, which we
always get into, which is beefs.
And we all have

(01:45:24):
different opinions about this.
I want to ask Zach a question as it
relates to the working with you guys.
Zach, obviously, you have your own
internal creative teams.
Then you have a team like
Static coming in and doing stuff.
What are the beefs that you
have in terms of what others have
done and how they produce
creative and make it great,
versus what Static has done and what the

(01:45:44):
difference is there?
I think it mostly comes
down to just creativity
and new ideas, right?
So it's just hiring an agency to just
repeat the same playbook
over and over again.
And maybe we've kind of
talked about this as just--
there's no point, right?
I mean, you've kind of buried a concept.
Like, if we have--
we had one concept
that would always work.
We hired a few
creative agencies early on,
and they would just take that concept

(01:46:05):
and iterate on just that one
and apply it to other things.
And it didn't move the needle, right?
So I think the one thing that
Static's done is they take--
they take bigger swings on the visual,
on the just overall
aesthetic of these ads,
and don't just take
templates and rerun it.
So my beef usually comes
down to just almost laziness
and trying to templatize creative, right?

(01:46:26):
I think that that's where some of these--
there's other things out there where you
can buy 50 templates
and just run those for your brand.
It's less about the
template, as Simon has said.
Historically, I agree
with him entirely there.
And it's more about the
concept and the creativity
that goes in that's going
to actually get the attention
of someone while they're scrolling.
That's my perspective on it.
Yeah, I mean, I think, Simon, my beef
that I hear a lot in
creative strategy discussions

(01:46:47):
is, well, I wanted to create new stuff,
and so I went to the ad library to look
at what my competitors were doing.
And you've obviously talked about that.
And that's not necessarily a
bad thing to get a baseline,
but it's also like you're
building off of others' ideas,
and you're not
necessarily thinking creatively
on your own, which I think
has been a big theme of what
you guys do, which is really special.
And it's clearly
something that sets you apart.
My beef is like the original.

(01:47:10):
That's an important point,
because if you think about how
people interact with ads,
like if I go to Hollow's website
right now, my feed and my store
replacements and my reels
for the next seven days are
going to be socks competitors.
And if your ads look the
exact same because you stole
from each other, it's
probably not going to do anything.
Like, it's really hard to break through
when I see the comparison

(01:47:32):
ad, but the exact same visual
side by side.
So yeah, that's a point
worth thinking deeply about.
Yeah, 100%.
Awesome.
Well, Simon, I'm so
glad to have you, man.
Thank you for being here.
And I do want to say, as a, you know,
just a transparent nature,
Static and Simon has
sponsored this episode.
However, we only take
sponsors from those places

(01:47:52):
and vendors and people that
we work with who drive results
across brands that we've seen.
I've seen it personally
in Foxxl Founder Members.
Simon doing great work and
his team doing great work
at Static, obviously
Zach seeing it with Hollow.
Brad is cheap, so he
doesn't have any money.
I've referred, I know,
I've referred people.
I've now referred people.
He's actually, yeah, that's true.
He's a big referral guy.
Big referral guy.

(01:48:13):
Have to get back to you on that.
Yeah, the reality is that Brad is smarter
than Zach and I both.
So that just, I mean, we're
at the end of the podcast,
but that's the truth.
So if you, you know, we
just want to be transparent
about that, but you know,
we stand behind the work
that you guys are doing and obviously,
we appreciate the partnership.
And yeah, if you have
questions on any of this,
you can obviously hit

(01:48:34):
Simon on X is a good place.
You can also reach out to
Andrew at Foxxldigital.com.
I'm happy to connect you with Simon.
And I'm sure there's
some sort of special deal
for podcast listeners that
they'll cook up for you guys.
100%.
So I appreciate it, Simon,
and thanks for being here, guys.
Thank you guys for having me.
Hope you enjoyed it
and you had value from it

(01:48:55):
and I'm happy to answer
any questions you guys have.
(upbeat music)
The only way that we grow this podcast
is by you sharing it with your friends.
Honestly, like reviews kind of don't
really mean anything
too much anymore.
They're really
meaningful, but they don't do a lot
for the growth of the podcast.

(01:49:15):
And so sharing YouTube
links, sharing Spotify links,
sharing Apple, whatever we call it under
the podcast app now,
anything you can share,
the better we're going to be.
Guys, anything else
you want to say on this?
Yeah, please go check us out on YouTube,
rack up those views for us.
We'd love to see it.
And then subscribe.
Make sure to
subscribe on YouTube as well.
And I relentlessly

(01:49:35):
refresh the YouTube comments
because it dictates my
mental health for the day.
So please say
something nice about all of us.
Thank you everyone.
Thanks everybody.
Thank you for listening, honestly.