I’m going to do something that is, generally speaking, a terrible idea.

Explain a joke.

Why? Because I think it provides a view into modern internet marketing, brand, Twitter, and a whole bunch of other things.

By way of background, in case you don’t know who Andy Kaufman is… he is one of my favorite comedians of all time. One of the signatures of his style was you had NO idea what was a joke, and what wasn’t.

Was this dude just nuts?

Is this a bit?

He would NEVER let the audience in on the gag.

Half of the fun would be the people that took him seriously… he NEVER “winked” to the audience.

Back to last week… I posted this:

This is the new democratic mayor for NYC, who is a “Democratic Socialist” …whatever that means.

Now - for those of you that have followed me for awhile… you see the joke right away. I am making fun of the hilarious fee charged per hire, by a particularly influencer soaked competitor of Sagan (who we steal customers from every week).

This competitor charge 35% of year one salary per hire (hence, the joke).

But if you got it, you are in the minority!

It is very inside baseball… and not fit for a general audience.

In the comments I tried to keep the joke going (this links to the competitors pricing page).

(This is the competitors replacement policy… ours is better)

But these were mainly the appetizers to the main dish. Hundreds of comments and engagements from people who weren’t in on the joke!

Last comment before providing my analysis - I got a “community note” which is added by users… that actually did my marketing FOR ME:

My Analysis

So the million dollar question “Was this ‘successful marketing’”?

HELL YES.

This wasn’t “rage baiting” for some sort of nihilistic outcome or to sell garbage info products… it was to draw attention (albeit indirectly) to one of Sagan’s best long term competitive differentiators - our price!

My Dad always taught me “If you saw a great marketing campaign, and can’t remember the company or the message… it wasn’t a great campaign”.

Being critical of a competitors price point has proven to be a VERY effective marketing message… and it shall continue!

Yallah Habibi.

Jon

P.S.

We have hundreds of messages like this:

P.P.S.

Since you’ve made it this far, and I’m in a sleep deprived infant twin fueled spirit of disclosure…. I wrote this a few weeks ago. It’s 100% completely made up… self hosting is an enormous waste of time.

But I know competitors read my stuff, a “F them”… right? (I can even see you opening these emails!)

“In times of war, the truth must be protected by a bodyguard of lies”