Why Brilliant Strategies Fail

Editor's Welcome Note

Hey Pulsers 👋 Welcome to a new edition of The Marketing Pulse! After a short break, we’re back refreshed, refined, and ready to sharpen your strategic edge.

What we'll cover

• Theme of The Week

• Brand Campaign: Spotify Wrapped🎧

• 🌱 The Growth Lab

• Marketing Hits & Misses

• Spotlight Sessions

• 🎙 Community Corner

• Key Highlights

• Micro mastery

  • Giveaway

Theme of The Week

Execution Pitfalls

67% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution. 

It’s easy to overprepare, get everything “perfect,” and then lose all momentum when it’s time to actually execute. This is mostly because: 

• Everything feels urgent, so execution gets buried.

• The plan isn’t actionable enough.

• Ownership isn’t clearly stated.

• Teams track activity, not impact.

To stay prepared and execute efficiently, this framework is a solid guide. Especially since only 84.5% of strategic projects are ever completed.

Brand Campaign: Spotify Wrapped🎧

It's that time of year again, and almost everyone is anxiously waiting for their Spotify Wrapped. 

But, Wrapped isn’t just a year-end data recap. It’s a mirror Spotify holds up to every listener, and the brilliance is how it turns users into both the audience and the amplifier.

Why It Works

Spotify Wrapped shows that the win isn’t in the idea, it’s in the execution. It taps into identity, drops at the perfect moment, and lets people do the talking for you.

🌱 The Growth Lab

The Dark‑Social Share Trigger

Marketers in a recent survey estimate 47% of all online conversations about their brand happen in dark social channels.  

Most meaningful shares happen in private spaces like WhatsApp, Slack, DMs, and email. The smartest brands already build for it.

• Notion templates spread through Slack groups long before the brand went mainstream.

• Duolingo’s internal “share with a friend” milestones quietly boosted retention and virality.

Strategy is what you write. Execution is what people share, especially in the dark.

*UTMs are the little parameters you add to URLs to track where your traffic comes from.

Marketing Hits & Misses

HIT: Liquid Death

Liquid Death does a good job of reminding everyone that water can cause chaos if you market it like a rebellion.

• Their “Safe for Work” Super Bowl campaign turned everyday professionals (surgeons, pilots, and more) drinking Liquid Death into a hilarious, slightly rebellious spectacle.

• They leaned fully into their edgy persona, proving that even the weirdest humor lands when it’s unmistakably on-brand.
  

Takeaway: Fearless execution beats safe ideas every single time.

You can view the campaign here.

MISS: Poppi

Poppi tried to spark hype but ended up lighting the wrong fuse.

• Sending giant vending machines to influencers looked more wasteful than innovative, especially when customers expected a brand rooted in wellness to act with intention.
  

• By skipping community-first thinking, they missed a chance to place those vending machines in schools or public spaces where real people could feel the impact.
  

Takeaway: Spectacle without alignment doesn’t build loyalty, it builds backlash.

You can view one of the influencer skits about the campaign here.

Spotlight Sessions

In this week’s spotlight, I’m walking you through the tiny, almost-desperate move that kept Airbnb from quietly disappearing.

You’ll see:

• Why their strategy looked great on paper but couldn’t survive the real world.

• The hands-on move that finally unlocked traction.

• The execution principle every marketer should keep in their back pocket.

If you want a quick, memorable hit of “oh, that’s how you actually make strategy work,” this one’s worth your five minutes.

(I was a bit nervous during recording, could you tell?)😅

🎙 Community Corner

Welcome to my new favorite part of The Marketing Pulse. A space built for clarity, structure, and real execution. This is where you can:

• Ask questions

• Swap growth experiments

• Share wins and challenges

• Learn from people who are testing, building, and growing right alongside you.

And because I want this community to actually help you level up (not just consume more information), I’m gifting one core course this quarter. In March, I’ll choose one reader to receive it.

This Quarter’s Gift

Key Highlights

Micro mastery

If you can complete this week’s 3-minute challenge, your brain will never approach strategy execution the same way again.

Take the challenge here ⬇️

🎬 That’s a Wrap

The Bottom Line: A strategy is just a plan on paper until you make it happen.

Execution is what turns brilliant ideas into real growth and what separates strategies that fail from those that fly.

Before your next campaign, ask yourself:

• Can my team act on this strategy right now?

• Is there dedicated time blocked for execution?

• Does everyone know exactly what they’re responsible for?

• Are we tracking results that actually tie to business goals?

If the answer is “no” to any of these, execution is the weak link. Fix it before moving forward.

Bonus: Here’s a Notion tracker template to turn your strategy into action and execute effectively.

One more thing: Why did the marketing strategy break up with execution? Because execution kept saying, “We’ll do it later.” 😂

Till next time,
Faridah