Holiday gift snooping, F-bomb subject lines, and an AI country hit somehow all end up in the same conversation, and Jay Schwedelson has opinions. From Lowe’s genius decoy gift boxes to a wildly misjudged suit sale email to a simple subject line trick that quietly spikes opens, this week is part marketing therapy, part pop culture catch-up. If you’ve ever wondered where the line is between clever and cringe, or how targeted your targeting should really be, this one will get you rethinking your next send.
Best Moments:
(00:20) Lowe’s leans into holiday chaos with free decoy boxes so parents can hide gifts in plain sight from snooping kids.
(01:25) A suit brand fires off a Black Friday email with a “grow the f**k up and buy a suit” subject line that explodes into a full-blown PR apology tour.
(03:02) Double personalization in subject lines like “pet parents of anxious dogs” or “mid-market CMOs Q1 pipeline fix” quietly crushes with big open rate lifts and way better qualified clicks.
(04:18) Jay breaks down why narrowing your audience with ultra-specific segments may lower volume but massively upgrade intent and sales potential.
(06:05) An AI-generated country song hits number one on the Billboard charts, and Jay questions whether machine-made music should even be allowed on human charts.
(05:12) Streaming recs get personal as Jay walks back his early take on Netflix’s The Beast in Me and admits he still cannot bring himself to care about Stranger Things or the Taylor and Travis wedding frenzy.
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Transcript
Jay Schwedelson: We are back for what's up this week from the Do this, not that podcast. This is the short episode of Breakdown. What's going on in business and marketing and pop culture. Let's jump into it. So are you one of those people. When someone buys you a gift, you try to snoop around and see and try to find the gift and open it secretly to see what it is.
Jay Schwedelson: Well, if it is, if you are, you stink. But Lowe's, the, uh, home improvement store, they did a survey and they found that 57% of kids found or opened the presence that somebody got for them early that are in the their home. So what they did, which is kind of a cool marketing tactic. They went ahead and they made these giant boxes for loyalty members only, where the boxes have like things on the outside that say like coffee maker or whatever, and you go and pick them up for free.
Jay Schwedelson: And then you shove your presence that you got for your family in these boxes. So nobody wants to open those. Um, part of their survey off also found how many times on average, uh, do you. Gen Alpha humans, young people ask about presence, uh, during the holiday season. It's 51 times. What type of survey is that?
Jay Schwedelson: How did they find out that data? That's weird. Um, there was an email marketing fail. Oh my goodness, this was ridiculous. Um, so this, uh, suit company, um, sent out this email they were trying to promote. These, uh, suits that you wear, you know, like men's suits that you would wear or whatever, and they decided that they were gonna really be edgy.
Jay Schwedelson: This is the problem. Sometimes when people try to be edgy, they go too far and they don't understand what funny is. So they were trying to do this big suit sale and they were trying to give 45% off. So when they sent it out, they put in the subject line, this is not a joke, this was the subject line to this really large email they sent out.
Jay Schwedelson: Grow the and then f dash dash k up. Grow the f dash dash k up and buy a suit that was their subject line, and then you open it up. There was no context whatsoever. And it said, here's the 45% off Black Friday, uh, suit deal. Well, this blew up sideways. The New York pops picked it up, it got picked up everywhere, and then by 8:00 PM that night, their CEO had to send out an email saying, we apologize.
Jay Schwedelson: We're so sorry. You know, I don't know why the, uh, everyone's radar on what is like edgy and fun like. I, what is the meeting that goes on there? Hey, I got a great idea. I think we're gonna get a huge open rate. Why don't we put the F word in our subject line and and insult everybody? 'cause that's gonna get people to wanna buy a suit.
Jay Schwedelson: What is wrong with people? How is that what you come up with? This is ridiculous. Anyway, what else is going on? Speaking of email, there is some new data from World Data Research on a tactic. That crushes it right now and is something that you probably haven't tested and it could not work better for business and consumer marketers, and that is double personalization in the subject line.
Jay Schwedelson: What does that even mean? So if you were to get a subject line that said something like. Pet parents of anxious dogs. Here's some calming treats, right? Pet parents is one segment, right? Another segment is that it's you have an anxious dog. Those are two different personalizations, very specific things, or mid-market CMOs.
Jay Schwedelson: Q1 pipeline fix. Mid-market is the size of the businesses you go after, and the CMO is the title or job function you're go after. It is double personalization, right? Home cooks who meal prep. Beauty fans with sensitive skin. You're not saying beauty fans and you're not just saying people with sensitive skin, you're saying beauty fans with sensitive skin.
Jay Schwedelson: Right. Finance teams at high growth startups, when you do double personalization, you're including two elements. In the subject line, consumer email, open rates go up by about 29% and business to business. Email open rates go by, up, by, up by about 24%. Ooh, I just like tweaked out. I don't know what just happened in my brain.
Jay Schwedelson: Said the same thing three times. Cool. Anyway, that's kinda like double personalization to say the same thing three times. No, but this idea is great because what you always wanna bake into your mind is, um, the sooner you tell somebody who they are. The faster they wanna engage. And if with double personalization, which is more than just that single personalization, they're like, wow, this is really for me and for you, you may get a lower open rate, a lower click through rate by doing this, but anybody that reacts to this consumer or business is so much further down the funnel.
Jay Schwedelson: They're like a more qualified opportunity because they have narrowed down on who they are, and you've narrowed down on who you're trying to reach. So this is a great one. If you're really trying to convert some new leads, new pipeline, new sales. All right, let's get into some ridiculous things. What is going pop culture wise?
Jay Schwedelson: Well. I had put in my newsletter that I, I tried The Beast in Me on Netflix. That's the show with Claire Danes and I, I quit after 20 minutes and I got slammed saying, it's a really good show. You need to go back and watch it. So that's what I did. I went back and I'm now almost done with the Beast in me on Netflix, and I, I, I need to undo what I said.
Jay Schwedelson: I was wrong. I usually am wrong. It's very good. The beast in me is very good with Claire Danes. It's like a psychological thriller. I give it. It's worth watching. It's not gonna give you the holiday vibes, I'll tell you that right now. But it's worth watching. I have yet to jump into Stranger Things. I'm having a really hard time caring.
Jay Schwedelson: I don't know why. I mean, uh, I know I should care. I don't know if I should care. Maybe I should care. Another thing I don't know, I have to get on board with, get excited about, but I'm not there yet. There's a lot of talk about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey have picked their date and their location.
th,:Jay Schwedelson: It's called Walk My Walk. It was released by an a IR artist called Breaking Rust. It hit number. One on the Billboard Country charts. This was not made by a human. Now I went and listened to it. It was good. It was, I mean, if somebody told me that was made by a human, I'd be like, yeah, I believe you. Why would I not believe you?
Jay Schwedelson: But this I, I, I think we gotta do something. I think Billboard, whoever else does any other charting, I don't think, this is my opinion, we should allow AI generated songs to be factored in. To the charts. I mean, maybe they have another chart. I don't know. But I didn't like it because what if you don't know?
Jay Schwedelson: Right? The whole thing stinks. It just stinks, takes jobs away from people and I don't know what to tell you. So, um, yeah, that's what's going on. Listen, I hope you're having a great start to the holiday time of year. I hope getting some rest. I hope that you are also still grinding. Uh, I kind of grind right until about the 20th.
Jay Schwedelson: That's really when I try to push as hard as I can, so I'm still in it. Um, I appreciate you drop me a comment on this thing. Leave me a review. Let me know what you think of all this stuff. Hit me up with an email. DM me, go to jay schon.com. You're awesome. See you later.