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- BRAND SOCIAL PLAYBOOK: HOW TO BUILD A FOLLOWING FROM ZERO
BRAND SOCIAL PLAYBOOK: HOW TO BUILD A FOLLOWING FROM ZERO
5 real brands, 5 strategies, and what actually drove their breakout growth
Niall Ratcliffe
April 13, 2025
In partnership with
Morning!
I woke up at 6 am today, not via alarm, but because of the sun blaring through my vertical blinds that apparently stop 0% of sun from coming in.
Oh well, at least that gives me more time to write this playbook breakdown.
Today, we’re talking about brand socials. It feels like a dirty phrase everyone likes to avoid nowadays, but for me… It’s still one of the biggest missed opportunities in marketing.
Not because people don’t try, but because they have no idea how to get it right. Today, I’m going to give you 4 examples of great brand social playbooks.
Let’s get into it!
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
I used to think great brand content was all about ideas.
Big creative swings. Clever taglines. Viral moments you could never quite predict.
But over the past year, I’ve changed my mind.
Because the brands blowing up on social right now aren’t just chasing the next clever idea — they’re building on the last one that worked.
They find a concept that resonates, and instead of moving on, they double down. They turn it into a format. A world. A storyline.
They’re still creative — but their creativity is structured, not scattered.
In this week’s playbook, I’ve broken down 4 brands doing exactly that.
They’re growing fast, earning real attention, and doing it without massive budgets.
Here’s the 2025 brand social playbook:
Lesson 1: One Idea, Repeated Daily (SMASHD)
In April 2024, non-alcoholic cocktail brand Mixoloshe handed over their Instagram account to their new young intern, Nicole Wingard.
At the time, they had:
No followers.
No social presence.
And no playbook.
And Nicole… well, she’d just graduated from university and had 0 marketing experience.
So Mixoloshe had the absolutely crazy idea to give her full creative freedom on their socials.
No briefs. No brand guidelines. Just “Let’s see what you can do.”
Her solution: Smashing cans.
Literally.
Every single day, Nicole filmed herself destroying a can of Mixoloshe in a different way.
Sometimes with a shovel. Sometimes in costume. Sometimes in complete chaos.
It was simple, but it absolutely blew up.
Within just 60 days of her smashing a can every day, the account had over 500,000 followers, sales spiked by 800%, and Nicole became a main character on the brand's Instagram.
But the lesson here isn’t to start smashing cans, the genius of this came down to 3 things:
1. She gave the content a story.
She told followers she had 60 days to get 500,000 followers to prove her boss wrong. This instantly made the series less about a brand and more about a challenge and a story people could follow along with.
2. It was a viral, repeatable format.
Once people like something, they want more of it - not something new. Nicole didn’t chase fresh ideas every day. She picked one good idea… and committed to the bit (AKA she kept smashing cans).
3. It was raw and relatable.
The videos weren’t polished. They were filmed on her phone, in her backyard, with energy and chaos. It felt scrappy. It felt fun. And it made you want to root for her.
(That’s without mentioning the underdog element of the fact it was intern Vs boss - which people always love.)
Most brands are so focused on looking professional that they forget what people actually engage with: A good story, told consistently, by someone you can believe in.
That’s what Nicole gave them. And that’s why it worked.
NOTE: This social strategy worked so well that Mixoloshe literally rebranded to be called “SMASHD”.
Lesson 2: Have Your Own Show (Savannah Bananas)
In 2021, the Savannah Bananas — a small exhibition baseball team from Georgia - handed their TikTok account to a college intern named Savanah Alaniz.
At the time, they had no followers. No national buzz. Just a local fanbase and some guys in yellow suits trying to make baseball fun again.
But as TikTok exploded as a platform, Savanah had an idea: What if they leaned into TikTok trends with the team?
Her plan: They’d get the players to recreate trending videos - dances, skits, audios - but do it in the middle of the baseball game.
On paper, it sounds crazy, but it worked.
One video went viral. So she posted another. And another.
By the end of her internship, they’d hit 500,000 followers. Today, they’ve passed 4 million - making them one of the most followed sports accounts online.
But the success wasn’t about luck. Here’s the strategy that made it scale:
1. Trendjack the right way
Savanah wasn’t just copying what was trending - she adapted it. Any team could do TikTok dances, but what made it work was the fact that they had players rehearse it and then perform it during games - this was their unique twist.
2. Create recurring formats
Once something worked - like mic’d-up coaches or dugout dance routines - it became a format.
They weren’t reinventing content daily. They were building a world with familiar characters.
This is a prime example of not just jumping on trends, but translating them for your brand. Package them in a way that fits you and your audience.
Lesson 3: Build With Me (Mile Off Running)
Founder branding is all of the rage at the minute, and there is no better example of how to use founder branding to kick start your social following than Alice Rose Runner and Mile Off Running.
When Alice left her job at Dyson to build a women’s running brand, she didn’t start with a fancy logo or a big product launch.
She started with her phone, an Instagram account, and her story of quitting her job to pursue a dream. She explained who she was, why she was leaving her job, and her crazy dream of starting a female-led running brand.
At the time she got started, Mile Off Running hadn’t even launched yet - but just by sharing her own story, the brand had momentum, a growing audience, and a clearly defined story.
And it was working because Alice was doing something that so many founders ignore… she was making the journey the content.
No models. No polished ads. Just an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build a brand from scratch.
Her content strategy is split into three buckets:
1. The Journey
She shares why she left her job. What she’s building. Where it’s going.
It makes people feel like they’re watching the brand come alive - not just show up.
2. The Process
Samples. Moodboards. Colour decisions. Brand books. Every little milestone becomes a reason to post. She doesn’t wait until things are finished - she shares the building blocks.
3. The Story
Alice has been a runner for 13 years. She knows what’s missing in the women’s running market - and she’s creating the product she could never find.
That context is what makes people care.
She doesn’t need trending audio or a viral stunt. She just needs her iPhone - and a reason to press record.
Because when you make the brand journey the story, people start following for the same reason they follow creators - they want to see what happens next.
Lesson 4: Familiar Format + Famous Person (Merit Beauty)
“Get ready with me” videos are everywhere. But no one’s using them better than Merit Beauty.
While most beauty brands are chasing Gen Z energy and fast-cut trends, Merit did something totally different…
They put Martha Stewart in a “get ready with me” video.
No lights. No glam. No high-production set-up. Just Martha, her bathroom, and a single camera angle.
That video hit 4.3 million views. Then they did it again with Kelly Rutherford (aka Lily from Gossip Girl) - and it went even bigger. 13 million views.
But this wasn’t just influencer marketing. It was a brand play. And it worked because Merit understood one thing most brands don’t…
They used a familiar format to deliver a totally unfamiliar experience.
Their audience already knew how to consume “GRWM” content. But instead of showing another 22-year-old doing a makeup tutorial, Merit subverted the format.
And that’s exactly what the brand stands for.
Here’s how the strategy breaks down:
The Format
They didn’t reinvent the wheel. They used a format the audience already knew how to engage with. All they had to do was press record.
The Contrast
Martha Stewart. Kelly Rutherford. These aren’t beauty influencers.
That mismatch is what made the content stop the scroll. It felt different, but still familiar enough to watch.
The Brand Fit
Everything about the content matched the product.
No filters. No chaos. Just calm, high-end simplicity - which is exactly what Merit sells.
It’s a smart reminder for premium brands: You don’t need to build a new format from scratch.
Just find one people already love - and deliver something unexpected inside it.
That’s how you get attention… without shouting.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
Repeat One Idea Daily
Have Your Own Show
Create Build With Me Content
Familiar Format + Famous Person
I feel like every brand understands the power of social, yet so many brands get it so wrong. So hopefully this playbook can help you get it right.
If you found it useful, please share it with a friend!
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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