A coffee shop just schooled 99% of tv advertisers

Saw an instagram reel yesterday that made me go "oh... oh that's clever."

A small coffee shop in cape town just schooled 99% of tv advertisers without even trying.

Which is a little embarrassing for the tv advertisers, really.

The reel was dead simple.

stellskicafe

8,295 followers

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Shows a rainy day outside Stellaski cafe and coffee.

Text overlay: "I wonder if it's warm inside?"

Then cuts to "the warmth:" showing everyday wholesome interactions and the many different moments that happen daily in a cafe.

People laughing, conversations over coffee, the cozy atmosphere.

That's it.

It stood out to me because they didn't sell coffee.

They sold the feeling of being somewhere warm when it's cold outside.

They sold belonging.

They sold the experience you're actually buying when you walk into a cafe.

Because let's be honest - you're not really going for the coffee.

Half the time it's mediocre anyway.

You're going for the vibe.

For the excuse to sit somewhere that isn't your house.

For the background noise that somehow makes you more productive than complete silence.

The results:

• 44k likes

• 300 comments

• Over 4k shares

Cost to make? Basically not much at all.

Cost to post? Zero.

Meanwhile, some marketing exec is probably in a boardroom right now explaining why they need another £2 million for a campaign about how their instant coffee "awakens the senses" or whatever nonsense they're peddling.

Most marketers show what is, not what could be.

They showcase the product, not the transformation.

They list features like they're reading a shopping list to a brick wall.

There are a thousand reels stellaski could have made.

• Menu showcase

• Meet the team

• Best sellers, opening hours, the wifi password

But does that give you a burning need to visit them?

Probably not.

Does the longing for the emotion they're selling?

Yeah, at least for me.

Makes me want to book a flight to cape town just to sit in a corner with a laptop and pretend i'm a character in a nancy meyers film.

All anyone is ever trying to do with marketing is show someone what 'could be'.

How others have what they could have.

The life they could be living.

The feeling they could be experiencing.

Stellaski gets this.

TV ads are harder to watch than a root canal.

More often than not boring enough to make paint-drying look like an action movie.

Make you work harder than a sudoku puzzle to figure out what they're actually advertising.

"Brand awareness" is not an excuse to put out content so poorly conceptualised it makes you question humanity's creative capacity.

Meanwhile, small companies thinking like creators are proving they get it better than billion-dollar corporations:

They know people don't buy products, they buy better versions of themselves.

They buy the story they want to tell about their life.

This reel probably took a day or so to film and edit.

Yet it's more effective than campaigns that take months to plan and millions to execute.

Because it understands something fundamental about human nature.

We don't want to be sold to.

We want to be understood.

We want someone to get why we'd rather pay £4 for coffee than make it at home for 20p.

This is the creator mindset in action:

Stop thinking about what you're selling.

Start thinking about what your customers are buying.

Stop talking about your product like it's the most fascinating thing since sliced bread.

Start talking about their life.

The future of marketing is found in understanding that everyone is trying to feel something.

Connection, warmth, belonging, status, confidence, peace.

The illusion that their life has a soundtrack and good lighting.

Whatever it is - that's what you're really selling.

The product is just the delivery mechanism.

The excuse to feel the thing they actually want.

My question to you…

What feeling are you selling?

And are you actually selling it?

Or are you just listing features like you're dictating a user manual and hoping people figure it out themselves?

Because Stellaski cafe just proved that small businesses with zero budget can outmarket corporations with unlimited resources.

All they need is to understand what people actually want.

Which isn't coffee.

It's warmth on a rainy day.

It's the feeling that maybe, just maybe, life could be a bit more like the movies.

Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱

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