One brand got millions of views. Another got people to sleep on sidewalks. The line I saw at The Grove LA said more about marketing than any dashboard ever could...

Two brands, two different approaches = one lesson about what drives people to act. 

This summer almost everyone saw a video with the Jet2 Holidays audio trend. It's popped up everywhere...your friend's vacation fail video, that random reel about Monday mornings, basically any content where someone needs a punchline. Millions of views, countless shares but most of those same people can’t tell you what Jet2 actually is. Their connection was more with the trend than the brand.

Then there's Pink Palm Puff. Never heard of them? You're probably in the majority. But last week at The Grove in Los Angeles, I watched people sleep on concrete and stand in line for more than four hours just to buy a hoodie…a hoodie from a brand that most of the world has never heard of.

The difference? Jet2 created a viral moment. Pink Palm Puff created a community.

One brand got everyone to sing along for fifteen seconds. The other got people to give up their Saturday, their comfort, and their actual time standing in a line that wrapped around an entire shopping center. I still cannot get over how far that line stretched and how impressive Pink Palm Puff's marketing clearly is. 

Pink Palm Puff didn’t need everyone to know their name. They wanted the right audience to know them and feel like they belonged to something worth waiting for. They built slowly focusing on creating experiences and stories for their community because they knew that when you make people feel seen and understood, they show up for you. This is true of brands, leaders, friends…pretty much everything in life. 

The Jet2 approach works for brand awareness, top of funnel, the marketing metrics we've been trained to chase and it gets everyone in the B2B community buzzing.  Meanwhile, Pink Palm Puff's community has brand connection…to a level that has them organizing their weekends around the brand. They're taking photos of themselves in line, turning the wait itself into content, wearing their purchases like badges of honor. This goes far beyond “marketing.” This is the feeling of belonging. This is exactly how Taylor Swift built her empire. 

I don’t believe you can growth-hack your way to having people sleep on sidewalks for you. I also don’t believe AI-generated content will lead to the kind of loyalty that makes someone proud to wait in a four-hour line and want to share it on social media. Maybe most brands are looking for a quick fix for the next earnings call but I believe the ones who focus on community will be the ones who will have the best earnings. 

The tools and platforms will keep evolving. The algorithms will keep changing. The trends will keep trending…until they don't. I should know, I spent the last 20 years shaping what America pays attention to. Here is what I learned…the brands that understand how to make people feel genuinely connected to something bigger than a transaction, those are the ones building something that lasts beyond the next viral audio.

Both approaches have their place. But only one creates the kind of connection that makes people set their alarm for 5 AM on a Saturday. Only one builds the kind of community that markets itself. Only one turns customers into storytellers who can't wait to share why they waited.

The simple truth: people show up for what feels real, what makes them proud to belong, and what they believe in enough to spend hours waiting in line for.

The winners across the board are the ones who are all about the power of connection.