Authenticity can't be scripted...

Most brand partnerships feel forced.

Inauthentic.

Like watching someone read a ransom note on camera.

But there's one company that figured out how to make advertising feel like genuine recommendation.

And in doing so, they became the number one bestselling mattress in America.

Think back to the early podcast sponsorship boom when you had Casper mattress everywhere, all the time.

(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Casper is a direct-to-consumer mattress company. They heavily invested in podcast sponsorships since launch, using it to completely take over the millennial listener market. And it worked a charm. They had a ~20% increase in sales and a ~30% boost in brand awareness during their podcast campaigns)

They did as well as they did because it never felt annoying.

Casper got that your brand message matters less than how it's delivered.

Instead of handing hosts a rigid script, Casper gave them the key messaging beats and product information, then said: "Do your thing."

They gave the ad reads to the podcast hosts.

They let them translate the brand in their own voice.

Yes, they had the essential points that needed to be covered, but every time you heard it, it felt authentic.

Of course you knew it was an ad, but it felt like it was authentically translated through the host's personality.

And that gave it real power.

When your favourite podcast host genuinely seems to endorse something in their own words, it feels like a friend giving you advice.

That's the difference between co-creation and forced messaging.

One builds trust, the other destroys it.

Fast forward to now, and most brands have

doubled down on control.

• every word scripted

• every message approved by legal red tape

• every authentic moment sucked out by committee

The result? Influencer marketing that feels like... well, marketing.

Your brand isn't what you say about yourself.

It's how other people talk about you when you're not in the room.

Casper trusted creators to translate the brand authentically because they understood that trust is the currency that actually converts.

My advice?

Stop trying to control every word your brand sends out into the world and start focusing on finding the right people to tell your story.

Then… get out of their way.

Audiences today can smell inauthentic content from miles away.

And authenticity can't be scripted.

But it can be enabled.

By the way, I talked about this and a lot more with Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba on the The Bottleneck Podcast!

If you fancy watching the full thing, click here.

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

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