The Refraction Ad Strategy

Welcome to a space where every edition delivers insights, strategies, and inspiration to fuel your advertising brilliance. 🤯

🔮 Real-Time Refraction: The Strategy That Makes Trends Work 

Marketers love to chase cultural relevance. A trending sound, a political meme, a viral apology   and suddenly, every brand is reacting.

But here’s the truth top performers already know: brands that mirror culture blend into the feed. Brands that refract it bend the narrative in their favor.

Let’s talk about Real-Time Refraction, the strategy that stops you from reacting like a follower and positions your brand as a forecaster.

Refraction in Action: Aviation Gin’s Peloton Response

In 2019, Peloton dropped a holiday ad that sparked public backlash   portraying a woman’s fitness journey as a “gift” from her husband. Twitter roasted it. News cycles picked it apart.

Most brands watched from the sidelines. But Aviation Gin moved fast   and refracted.

They didn’t make fun of Peloton.

They hired the same actress and dropped a satirical ad titled “The Gift That Doesn’t Give Back.”

It reframed the moment   shifting the cultural conversation from outrage to redemption.

Why it worked:

• It refracted emotional context (shock, discomfort) into humor and closure.
• It aligned with Aviation’s edgy, self-aware tone.
• It didn’t ride the moment   it redirected it.

Result: Over 10M+ organic views, headlines in Forbes, Fast Company, and CNN, and a masterclass in real-time brand narrative.

Use this to:

• Decode why a trend is resonating emotionally
• Check if your brand’s tone can filter it authentically
• Shape a message that sounds timely and timeless

🛠 Operationalizing Refraction (High-Level Playbook)

1. Assign a Trend Strategist: One person who tracks emotions behind headlines, not just keywords.
2. Run Weekly “Emotion Syncs”: 15-min team sessions to map what the audience feels, not just what’s trending.
3. Build a “Narrative Bank”: Pre-write refracted responses to likely future events (elections, layoffs, pop culture cycles) to reduce lag.
4. Design a Refracted Creative Layer: Have your performance and brand teams co-create a reusable “refraction layer”   visual and copy templates with emotional triggers pre-built in.

Final Takeaway: In a world where every brand’s racing to post first, the smartest brands don’t rush; they reshape. Refraction turns noise into narrative. It puts your brand at the center of cultural movement without ever chasing it. The next time a trend hits? Don’t echo it. Refract it. That’s how brand gravity is built.

Together with Levanta

PPC costs keep rising. Affiliate marketing gives you another path.

If you sell on Amazon, you’ve seen it firsthand—PPC costs are up, and returns are getting harder to justify. But there’s a smarter way to scale without burning through budget.

More sellers are shifting to affiliate marketing—a model that brings in external traffic, boosts your organic rankings, and only costs money when it drives a sale.

How?Amazon rewards sellers who drive traffic from outside platforms—like blogs, review sites, and social posts. That traffic helps your listing perform better and convert higher.

The result:

✅ Lower ad spend
✅ Higher rankings
✅ More sales

Levanta has put together a free guide that breaks it all down:

• How to set up an affiliate program that works
• Which networks are best for Amazon sellers
• How to find quality affiliates
• Common mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Get your exclusive guide now!

🚀  Reel of the Day

The idea of losing something we value is far more emotionally charged than gaining something new. 

A guy leaves his jacket on a chair, and we immediately wonder — “what’s going to happen?” This open loop keeps the viewer watching till the very end.

The twist where the jacket gets “stolen” and worn by another character before being reclaimed is unexpected. This plays into surprise, which heightens engagement and memory retention.

There’s zero dialogue, and yet the reel communicates everything through body language and action.

The jacket is showcased on the second character, who admires it — this is the desire builder. He feels cooler, more stylish, elevated. Then he runs — because it’s “too good not to steal.” That becomes the subconscious message.

The caption “LOVE FOR FLAW” frames the entire reel retroactively. You only fully get it after watching, and that delayed clarity creates a “reward loop” in the brain. 

Broader Insights:

This reel succeeds not because it shouts “buy this jacket,” but because it makes you want to be the guy who gets chased for it. It blends loss aversion, identity signaling, tension, and cinematic flow into a compact, high-impact narrative. It’s not about showcasing clothes. 

Thanks for reading this edition! Keep pushing boundaries, testing ideas, and staying inspired. See you in the next edition with more ways to ignite your marketing success. 🥰