In this episode of Marketing School, hosts Eric Siu and Neil Patel discuss what they consider the most exceptional marketing campaigns of 2018. They highlight several high‑profile marketers—Billy Gene, Grant Cardone, Tai Lopez, Russell Brunson, and Ryan Deiss—examining the creative tactics each uses, such as Billy Gene’s Wolf‑of‑Wall‑Street style video ads, Cardone’s lifestyle‑driven personal branding, and Brunson’s repurposing of “spammy” tactics into legitimate funnel strategies. The hosts argue that marketers should evaluate campaigns based on tactics and target audience rather than personal bias, and they encourage listeners to adapt aggressive or controversial tactics into their own brand‑appropriate strategies. They also discuss the importance of staying top‑of‑mind through consistent, varied content and the role of open‑mindedness in remixing ideas. The episode concludes with a promotion for a software bundle giveaway (singlegrain.com/giveaway) and a call‑to‑action for listeners to tweet their interest.
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Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
And I'm Neil Patel.
And today we are going to talk about the most exceptional marketing campaign of 2018. Neil, what could it possibly be?
Well, we probably have different ones. What's yours?
I don't know. I'm waiting for you to go. All right.
So there's a marketer that I love. Some of you guys hate him. Some of you guys say he's spammy. And I'm judging just based on the marketing tactics.
Can I guess?
I don't know him that well, but go for it.
Can I guess? Billie Jean? Yeah.
I love his marketing videos. I kid you not, like, it's some of the best marketing videos that I've ever seen. I don't know how he comes up with them, but the guy's just super creative. The last video I saw of his was the Wolf of Wall Street one. I don't know if that was the end of 2017 or 2018. I think '18. And what it was is just like his crew going like, uh, and like just beating their chests and they did like a whole Wolf of Wall Street like play. And it was so effective. I was in Brazil and I was showing this to Empiricos, which is Agora Brazil. Agora is that like that info company that does hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars selling info products per year. And most of these people don't speak English yet they're like, oh my God, this is awesome. His marketing campaigns are working in a region where people don't even speak English and they're like, this is awesome, I got to buy this. That's effective.
Okay, well, here's who I got. Now you gave me one. Here's who I really like. And actually, when I— sometimes when I sit down and I eat lunch, I watch Grant Cardone videos. And here's why I like Grant Cardone so much, because he's so raw, he's so authentic, he's so him. And most people see him as he's this sales machine, right? Like, Eric, why are you talking about sales guy right now? We're on a marketing podcast. But he's— look, marketing is bringing people to the point of sale. He is built— he's built such a great following and great audience. And he has— look, he's got his 10X Conference, which I talked about Russell Brunson doing his bundling and selling $3 million on stage. He's got this cult following. He's got his sales organization. He's got hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate. He's got this crazy story growing up. I actually remember I watched the entire hour and a half of his interview, and he's actually crying on interview. He's vulnerable too. So that's why I like him. But also look at all the other stuff he's doing. He's got his 10X book. He's got He's got a 10X jet. He's got— he bought his own private jet. He has 10X, you know, on the back. And I think because he's contrarian with his points of view, he's like, yeah, like all you dudes that, you know, you charter your private jets and all that, you're all doing it for Instagram. You— this is why you buy a jet, whatever. And I'm like, oh, that reason actually makes sense. I've actually never heard that reason before.
Well, there's a reason.
The reason is because, because he does so many real estate deals face to face, he can literally fly wherever he wants and be back for dinner. He can do multiple flights a day. With Charter, you can't do that.
In theory, you can with Charter.
Well, his argument is that you got to wait sometimes and, you know. Yeah, you do.
But the cool part about Grant Cardone is if you ever follow him on Instagram, his wife also sometimes is involved in his marketing and they have like, they both embrace it. Like a lot of people say, hey, lifestyle marketing sucks. Like it's either for some people or it's either not. Like, I don't like it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't work. And there's You know, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I just don't like it. But I do believe he does a good job of embracing it, using it, and his family, you know, also embraces it. And it's like they do well with it and he doesn't rub it in your face being like, I'm rich and you're not. Tai Lopez also does a good job of leveraging lifestyle marketing.
Right. I think also like these guys, if you look at the Billy Gene, you look at Tai Lopez, you look at Grant Cardone, they're very good at staying top of mind. Billy Gene by running ads and constantly changing up copy. Or creative, I should say. He's got like The Wolf on Wall Street. He's got this, this, this is Sparta kind of thing as well. But Grant Cardone and Tai Lopez are really good across the board. YouTube. Grant Cardone's actually got multiple shows where he does with different people. He does it with his wife. He does it with one of his team members as well. He's just got so many different things going on. When you talk about a pillar of consistency, he is the guy to look at right now because he does so many things and he does them pretty well.
Yeah.
And he's got a pretty good team around. I talked about like his studio setup. Like, he's just got so many different things. Go check him out.
Well, if you think about Billy Gene and Grant Cardone, what do you think there's one thing that they have in common?
They can be abrasive and rub people the wrong way.
And they both leverage lifestyle marketing to the— I don't know, to the extreme, but pretty hard.
Like make money online?
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay. Now, here's the thing. A lot of people listening will be like, This sucks, this is stupid, it's scammy. I know our audience, right? We're going to get a lot of that.
Yeah.
But a lot of us are not their ideal customers. So when you're looking at marketing campaigns, don't just look at it whether you like it or you hate it. Look at it from a tactic standpoint. What can you learn from their tactics or their strategy? And also look at it from a perspective of who are their ideal customers? By thinking about marketing from that perspective and having that mindset, when you're running your marketing strategy, you can end up being like, hey, here are the tactics that I can take from Billie Jean or Grant Cardone or whoever and adapt it to my business and still fit in, you know, the same type of persona or attitude or culture or whatever you want to be or message that you want to get across without rubbing your audience the wrong way. And I got this from Ryan Deiss. I was in Austin, he was doing all this email marketing stuff. He was even telling me, he's like, dude, some of this is aggressive and spammy. But he's like, you know what would be cool? Taking these tactics and applying it to a business like software. He's like, you could crush it. And you know who did that? Russell Brunson. He took a lot of the spammy tactics that people are saying like, oh, these are sketchy, you shouldn't do this. And then applied it into a field that's more quote unquote, has more longevity or more legitimate. And his income exploded and the business grew fast. Not just fast to a point where, you know, people in his own industry were like, oh, this is cool, this is amazing. He surpassed pretty much most of them, if not all of them. And people looking in the normal tech space or even in Silicon Valley, you know, who fund software companies are like, oh wow, this is amazing. And the point I'm trying to get across is look at these campaigns, look at these tactics, look at these people. Don't just judge them saying they're spammy or they suck. Just look at their tactics and see if you can take some of those strategies, apply them to your business in a way that fits your brand, your image, and go from there.
Yeah. Our main point is, the final thing I'll add is be open-minded. Just because someone's marketing rubs you the wrong way, if they keep— if you actually end up watching most of it, it probably means it's working on you. So, figuring out how you can make it your own. It's just like looking at, and I'm not calling these guys, I'm not associating them, I'm not calling them black hat, but if you look at Black Hat SEO, for example, There's a lot to learn from the people that are doing black hat SEO. It's how do you make it form into a white hat way and make it work for your business? There's always different things. Neil and I talk about how you can easily kind of imitate or copy what other people are doing, but when you make it into your own, it becomes original. You're not necessarily copying anymore. You're just coming up with a new idea. That's how new ideas come about all the day— all the day— all the time. And that's why you listen to this podcast, to get new ideas from the stuff that we're sharing every single day. Anything else from your side?
Nope.
All right, so one more reminder. If you guys are interested in a software bundle where Neil and I are getting, you know, our favorite tools together and we're bundling it for you and figuring out how to give you a better offer, tweet at me @EricOsu, E-R-I-C, O as in orange, S as in sugar, I-U, and say, yes, I'd like the bundle. And that way we can figure out if we want to spend the time and effort on it. And before we go, the current bundle or the current offer is singlegrain.com/giveaway to check out marketing goodies that will grow your business. And we'll see you tomorrow.
