Cal AI · B2C · photo calorie tracking app
Schedule a reality-TV star's posts just before and after her new season airs
Very low CPM for a famous creator; no exact figure
What they did
What happened
In their words
Alfie Dickens - Meet The Marketing Genius Behind Cal AI
Alfie Dickens… sure there's been a lot of like products that have been made to help people with Hyrox, whether it's like to help them train for a Hyrox or to help them compete better when they're doing a Hyrox. It could be like gloves or something. You know, I don't know. But it's always super vital in business to look at what's trending right now. I think that's probably one thing that Cal AI did so well throughout, is like always trying to hit the trends.
Alfie DickensFor example, I I go back to the Mormon wife, Jessi, that we worked with. We tried to time her posts so that a couple of them came out just before the new season, and then a couple of them came out just after the new season was released. And I think it was like season 3, um, and it was huge at the time. Everyone was talking about it. So everyone would go on their pages. And like, you'd expect her to be like a super expensive brand deal, cuz she's so famous. But because we timed it so right, the CPM was actually really, really low, because everyone was going on her page anyway.
JosephI was thinking about that with like Love Island, cuz like, you know how like the they you know how they always do the reunion like a multiple weeks later with Love Island, or like uh Love Is Blind, or any of like the dating shows, and because they want to give it a chance for like drama to to stir up on social media, and then by the time they do the reunion, there's been like 8 weeks of drama that they can like blow up the show again like on …
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Agree with a creator's view boast, then guarantee 700-800K views when they claim 1MGuaranteed a profitable CPM on every deal; creators couldn't back down
- Have 25 hired assistants each email 100 creators a day~220K creators contacted, 2-3K signed; roughly 1 signed per 1,000 emailed
- Let AI answer creators' email replies and hand warm ones to a managerAssistants' job ends at the first email; no results reported
- Pitch 'keep making your normal videos, just sneak us in', then ask for a callCalls ~10x the chance of signing; the pitch often lowered creators' prices
- Have creators show the photo-scan naturally in the first 15 seconds, with no scriptCalled one of the biggest rules; no numbers
- Pay big lifestyle creators to scan their breakfast in day-in-the-life vlogs, 4 times a monthMost profitable content; one video drove hundreds to thousands of promo code uses
- Buy only very cheap views at first, then pay more per deal once people know youDeals got more profitable over time, not less
- Test creators beyond fitness: moms, comedy, and fitness sub-nichesMixed: some moms profitable at $10 CPM; comedy got views but low intent
- Pay recipe, cooking and mukbang creators to promote a calorie trackerDidn't convert; cut early. Healthy-meal videos only okay
- Pay a Love Island contestant for day-in-the-life videosStarted well but underperformed; viewers mostly came for his partner
- Pay creators $100-200 when a friend they refer signs a dealReally helped; got direct numbers and deals around talent agents
- Give outreach assistants monthly prizes for most creators contacted or signedKept assistants motivated; no numbers
- Befriend creators' managers, then ask to add the creator to the group chatLanded deals with a TV star; guest calls relationships the key
- Sign a second creator in the same niche as your best oneDidn't work at all; the first creator made $100K profit in a month
- Have a UGC creator post on the brand's own page, and restart as influencers get pricierPaused while influencer CPMs were cheap; now restarting for cheaper views
Tags: timing, tv-talent, trend-jacking