@omar.creo

What they said

Dialogue between two people in a dark room (a thumbnail strategist and a creative). The critique and changes, in order:

1. "Ad" is a limiting factor and minimises the TAM (total addressable market). They want as many brand owners as possible to watch, so remove "Ad" from the title.
2. "Spawning $100 million brands" sounds interesting but has no clear benefit.
3. In the thumbnail it is hard to tell what is going on. The person (subject) is not needed because he takes attention away from the aspirational brands, the main anchor points.
4. The text promises an outcome, but how to make it "impossible to ignore"?
5. Idea: replace "Ad" with the news hook "Grüns' exit for $1.2B" (shown: Axios Pro, "Scoop: Unilever values greens supplement maker Grüns at $1.2B", Apr 9, 2026). "Hot story, and honestly most people are going to click for Grüns."
6. Keep "Strategy" in the title because it signals the video is tactical.
7. Widen the TAM: make it actionable for every single D2C brand (title becomes "The $1.2B Funnel Strategy Every Brand Should Steal in 2026").
8. Thumbnail: they recall an old outlier video from over a year ago with a great composition ("How AG1 Makes $600M/year", about 20,393 views on screen, $600 MILLION/YEAR with AG1 products on a shelf).
9. Take the aspirational brands (Grüns, Mars Men, Create, etc. as product tubs on a wooden shelf) and blow them up as the main focal point.
10. Add a "dream transformational outcome": "from zero to $100 million", a giant contrast (before/after text "0 -> $100M").
11. Final: they "cooked". A panel at 58 s shows watch-time share per version: "0 -> $100M The $1.2B Funnel Strategy Every Brand Should Steal in 2026" at 37.8% (marked Winner), "We are here... The NEW Way Brands are Scaling to $100M (ad funnel masterclass)" 28%, "The Ad Funnel Strategy That Keeps Spawning $100M Brands" 34.2%. Note: figures read from small text.

• Also shown at 34 s: video chapters "1:27 Grüns' Playbook for Scaling a Business", "5:08 IM8's Funnel Architecture", "8:53 Mars Men's Emotional Identification".

Try this

• Creators and marketers: Remove words that shrink your audience. If a title says "ad" but all brand owners are your market, take it out.
• Borrow a live news hook: Tie your topic to a current story or brand that people already want to read about.
• Thumbnails: Make the aspirational outcome the focal point. Show the product or brand you want people to dream about, with a clear before and after, such as "0 to $100M". Remove anything that pulls attention away.
• Test titles and thumbnails: Run at least three versions and compare the watch-time share. A small gap like 37.8% against 34.2% can be noise, so wait for a clear result.
• Look back at your outliers: Reuse the composition of an old video that did well.
• Agencies: Showing a real ideation session as content demonstrates your thinking and attracts clients.

Links

• YouTube thumbnail A/B test (watch-time share is YouTube "Test and compare").
• Axios Pro article on Grüns ($1.2B).
• @stevenbaterina (credited), channel "Sweat Equity".
• Brands referenced as examples: Grüns, AG1, Mars Men, Create (Create creatine), IM8.
• No tools named in speech.