Mod3 Earle DisruptiveBrands

PAUL EARLE | BRAND DISRUPTION PLAYBOOK | OCTOBER 22, 2021
HIGHLY
CONFIDE
NTIAL
DO NOT
PU
SHARE O BLISH OR
UTSIDE O
ABINBEV F
IN ANY W
AY
PLAYBOOK FOR BRAND DISRUPTION

OCTOBER 22, 2021
P. Proprietary
1 & Confidential.
PROPRIETARY ANDAllCONFIDENTIAL
material property of| Earle
DO & Company
NOT Inc., OR
PUBLISH © 2021,
SHAREall rights
OUTSIDEreserved, except where
OF ABINBEV INnoted
ANY otherwise.
FORM
Hello!
P. 2 PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL | DO NOT PUBLISH OR SHARE OUTSIDE OF ABINBEV IN ANY FORM
Oi! Tudo bom?
OUR ADVENTURE TODAY
Quick intro
A new world order
“The Disruptor’s Playbook”
Break 1
Productive Anomaly
Break 2
The Art of Noticing / exercise
Intro for context,

in two minutes
A DIFFERENT KIND OF GROWTH ENGINE
E&Co. is a futures lab committed

to helping our partners win in
this entrepreneurial revolution.
UPSTREAM MAGIC VENTURES LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Full suite of strategy, naming, story and design We opportunistically create our own properties, then We provide people with tools, perspectives,
services, helping clients create the future. partner with entrepreneurs and strategics alike. and inspiration for their innovation journeys.
+ Growth stage + Growth stage

companies companies
Properties of E&Co/Country Mile LLC and its partner entities

In a prior adventure, we
led the team that created
this brand, from scratch.
It will sell over 1MM cases

this year.
OUR QUEST FOR MAGIC
Love deficit
Cultural relevance
Compelling authentic Purpose
Breakthrough Design
Contemporary business model
“Je ne sais quoi”
We are proudly located a

stone’s throw away from
Northwestern University.
Cool spot, and lots of
trendsetters… bonus.
OUR EXTENDED TEAM

IS AN INTENSELY
NETWORKED
ECOSYSTEM
A New World, New Hope
We are in the
midst of a full
revolution in
throughout
consumer
products
How can I take as

much share from
AB InBev as
possible?
New Product Adoption Over Time
New ideas can

gain massive
traction instantly
What the heck is

going on here?
WEL
L OV
$ 12 ER
BILL
(ON ION
PAP
ER)
REDACTED
REDACTED
REDACTED
What does all this mean for you?

(hint: a lot)
The “Disruptor’s Playbook”:

Five markers of disruption
1.
Radical Differentiation
“Just being better is not

good enough. You have to
be radically better.”
SETH GOLDMAN
Holy s—t! Some Agency Parlayed An Easy

Brief Into Years Of Big Fees… For This?
A peek at the consequences of group-think, bad protocols, and waste
The disruptors’ training grounds

Jaime Schmidt / Schmidt’s: Range of jobs, including selling hot dogs to drunk people
Justin Woolverton / Halo Top: Unhappy and disillusioned associate at a law firm
John Foley / Peloton: Barnes & Noble
Tim Brown / Allbirds: Professional soccer player
Ethan Brown / Beyond Meat: Organization for Security and Cooperation, Bosnia
David Batstone / REBBL: Ethics professor, social advocate
Peter Rahal / RXBAR: Foodservice; practically lived at a CrossFit gym
[Jeff Raider, Livio Bisterzo, Eric Ryan, Craig Dubitsky: serial entrepreneurs, but no category experience]
[Sheryl O’Laughlin & Seth Goldman: ringers]
RADICAL DIFFERENTIATION + YOU
How does your brand stand out now?

How should it in the future?
What are the “rules”… and are they really rules?
In what ways can you behave like an outsider?
2.
Constant Experimentation
(or, “Strategy ex-post facto”)
CONSTANT EXPERIMENTATION + YOU
What are your brand’s roots as a trail blazer?

How did it get there? Who did it?
How to “open up” your brand for the future?
Where? With whom?
3.
Model dynamism
P. 47 PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL | DO NOT PUBLISH OR SHARE OUTSIDE OF ABINBEV IN ANY FORM * Inspired by Foley session
DYNAMISM + YOU
How can you really nail contemporary commerce?

What might be a “hardware + software” model?
Reframing your brand as a platform = _______?
What gets you the cover of Fast Company?
[YOUR
B RA ND
& MUG
HE RE ]
4.
Purpose
Hmmm…
What?!?!?
Good ice cream is too
NO B.S.
The razor business sucks caloric.
(especially YOU, Gillette)
The vitamin aisle is

Humans should hideous. (And I’ve
not be trafficked done this before.)
Home exercise equipment

Plant-based protein is better sucks
(oh, and veggie burgers: you suck)
What do these famous brands have in common?
Jack Jim Johnnie Evan George Julian
P. 57 P AGE 57 AND CONFIDENTIAL | DO NOT PUBLISH OR SHARE OUTSIDE OF ABINBEV IN ANY FORM
PROPRIETARY
BIG NOSE KATE™

WESTERN WHISKEY
A brave and adventurous blend

honoring the old west’s baddest bird,
and unsung heroes everywhere.
Deal me in.
PAGE 61
PURPOSE + YOU
What do you stand for? (Hint: more than food)

Who is our foil? (Hint: not in Nielsen reports)
How can you be a brand to join? (Hint: not just buy)
What is right to do, but against our own interest today?
5.
Curiously strong
“Curious” = weird
You must fight the

“De-weirdification” police
THIS IS NOT ON LIST OF KNOWN
APPEALING FRAGRANCES
AMATEURISH. WE’RE PAYING

FOR THIS? WHO’S THE
AGENCY?
WHAT THE HELL IS

THAT?
WHY IS THIS NOT

CENTERED?
OH WOW, YOU DEFINITELY CAN’T SAY THIS
Congratulations!
Weird wins throughout

popular culture
THREE (PRELIMINARY) MARKERS OF GOOD WEIRD
Markers Outcomes
Arresting
1. Discontinuous
2. Brazen Provocative ü Engages emotionally
ü Super catchy
3. Cooky
“Stomachy”
HEY YA!
Markers Outcomes
Arresting
1. Discontinuous (totally)
2. Brazen (very) Provocative ü Engages emotionally
ü Super catchy
3. Cooky (slightly)
“Stomachy” “There is this quirky half-
measure (2/4) in the 4th bar
of the phrase, creating a
highly unusual resolution.
It’s friggin’ weird, man… and
P. 76 PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL | DO NOT PUBLISH OR SHARE OUTSIDE OF ABINBEV IN ANY FORM total badass!”
“Usually, if we made a
mistake, we’d keep it!”
- Paul (the one from Liverpool)
“Space Hippies,” by Nike
What the wha?
Huge on the “Oh no you didn’t” quotient…
Stage gate
Stage gate
Strange gate
Inspire surprise and delight
“You did WHAT? No way!”
t he
mp
Stu rum
W.W.O.D.? D d!
N er
(What would Outkast do?)
CURIOUSLY STRONG + YOU
What is a little weird, in a good way?

What doesn’t fit?
What would Andre 3000 do?
How can we be TPIHSTWYWAFSRHTD*?
* That Person In High School To Whom You Were Attracted For Some Reason Hard To Define
Synthesis and action
EXTERNAL MARKER HOW YOU CAN ACTIVATE IT
1. Radical Differentiation Let the R&D dogs eat! Bust design orthodoxies. Embrace naiveté.
2. Constant Experimentation “Planning.” And how about some Design DOING?
3. Dynamism Uh, yes. Be both physical and digital, and approach “retail” holistically. What’s the model?
4. Purpose Find a problem and make it personal. Take a stance. And you’re all potential Founders.
5. Curiously Strong Embrace things that conventional research rejects. Weird rocks!
NO WAY!
As leaders, there is a huge

opportunity before you
You now have the

playbook. Use it!
Postscript…
MATERIAL FINANCIAL EVENTS POST PROFILE
Acquired by Edgewell
for $1.4 Billion * Massive IPO
* But feds say no
Massive IPO
Acquired by Wells
$50MM+ raise at
Massive acquisition $1.5 Bn valuation; Acquired by
by Colgate-Palmolive IPO coming soon Unilever
DESPITE THE VIRUS, THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES; SO MANY MORE NEW BRANDS TO LOVE …
But wait a minute…
OUR YOUR QUEST FOR MAGIC
Love deficit
Cultural relevance
Compelling authentic Purpose
Breakthrough Design
Contemporary business model
“Je ne sais quoi”
X3
OUR ADVENTURE TODAY
Quick intro
A new world order
Break 1
Productive Anomaly
Break 2
OUR ADVENTURE TODAY
Quick intro
A new world order
Break 1
Productive Anomaly
Break 2
Productive anomaly
(It’s getting weird)
100% ARE THIS…
“We are the best country in the world at being

average. We are very average at being awesome.
And… because of what we are doing to our kids,
I think we’re getting to a world where we’re awful
at being awesome. At differentiating.”
MICHAEL LAZEROW
Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce
“Instead of trying to get our kids to fit in, we should

help them celebrate their differences. We should
help them feel comfortable with who they are and
teach them that weird is good and normal is boring.”
KYLE LACY
Successful People Stay Weird
Once we enter the professional

world, we encounter massively
powerful forces of “normalization”
But here’s the thing…
Weird is awesome
PAUSE
Think about someone you

knew as a kid who was a little
unusual… and ended up
being great. Let’s talk about
him/her as a brand.
Let’s unpack “weird”
SO, LET’S SEE HERE…
Weird is:
• Differentiated
• Supernatural
• Vaguely magical
• Tied to powerful folklore
Reminder: Three
markers of weird that
wins*
*In theory
THREE (PRELIMINARY) MARKERS OF GOOD WEIRD
Markers Outcomes
Arresting
1. Discontinuous (totally)
2. Brazen (very) Provocative ü Engages emotionally
ü Super catchy
3. Cooky (slightly)
“Stomachy”
We can apply this

framework to the
consumer world
Weird pays: retail price of a 7 oz

box of Magic Spoon is…
$10!
Hello, Dottie.
Original art by Michael Koelsch
briefed and commissioned by
Public Interest LLC / Dottie May’s
Oil on canvas
© 2021
Exercise!
What’s weird
to you?
PAUSE
You are all weird hunters now.

(1) Walk around wherever you are for ten minutes.
(2) Photograph a few things that are a little strange,

and very awesome.
We will share it out
We’re going down a rabbit hole.
Who is the
creative force
behind High Key?
Behold… The Trickster!
A few of
many many
famous
Tricksters
PAUSE
What would a Trickster

do to your category?
Get involved!
ZonkeyProject.com
P. 155 PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL | DO NOT PUBLISH OR SHARE OUTSIDE OF ABINBEV IN ANY FORM Visual credit Brooke Barker & Boaz Frankel
X3
OUR ADVENTURE TODAY
Quick intro
A new world order
Break 1
Productive Anomaly
Break 2
Notice what you notice.
— ALLEN GINSBERG, “COSMOPOLITAN GREETINGS”
Lift Up Thine Eyes

Norman Rockwell (1957)
What’s wrong
with this picture?
Lift Up Thine Eyes

Lift Up Thine Eyes

Our decreased level of

observational engagement is a
global emergency.
à This spells opportunity for those who go through life differently.
100*
Percentage of innovators over the course of human history, in any kind of
endeavor, who are deeply plugged in to the world around them.
* +/- 0
Lift Up Thine Eyes

Thank you, Aishwarya Iyer

Thank you, Coulter Lewis

“We learn to accept things as
‘normal’ that are not normal.”
Our life experience will equal what we

have paid attention to, whether by choice
or default
—WILLIAM JAMES
Aside from a healthy fulfilling life,

why is awareness so important?
“There are no new

ideas. Only new
combinations of
existing ones.”
You can’t connect dots if

you don’t have any.
Engage your senses and

start collecting them.
World-changing brand
ideas are discovered
more than “created”
Record what you notice!
“To get to one song,

Bruce would write
one hundred songs.”
CLARENCE CLEMONS
Bruce’s notes that

eventually led to “Born
to Run.” At least five
different artists are
mentioned here! He is
connecting dots to
create something new.
This is literally
impossible if he is
disconnected from what
others are doing.
It only took
Elton John
three minutes
to write “Your
Song"
It only took
Elton John
thirty years
to write “Your
Song"
Build inventory
On design discovery
Practically everything
you experience is
design stimulus
On discovering names
Practically everything
you experience is a
possible brand name
Your radar must be constantly up and active
Landing a great name also

requires straight up, flat out,
plain old effort (and lots of it)
The one question in evaluating design, of anything:
How does it make you feel?
Emotion is the
ace of spades.
“Form follows function,
but both report to
emotion.”
WILLIE DAVIDSON
Source: Harley-Davidson
Let’s become
Ninjas of Noticing
Assignment!
Walk around for 20 minutes.
Notice what you notice.
Your checklist
1. Find something to complain about

2. Notice one “out of place” NOT NORMAL thing
3. Notice with a sense other than sight
4. Learn one thing from a stranger (by asking or
observing)
We will share out and discuss

Start making connections,

and you’re ready to create
giant new brands. (Or,
recognize them in others)
To the future!
Keep in touch.
Paul Earle / Earle & Company EarleAnd.co

909 Davis Street paul@EarleAnd.co
5th Floor M: 312-371-0218
Evanston, Illinois USA 60201 LinkedIn: paulearle

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PAUL EARLE | BRAND DISRUPTION PLAYBOOK | OCTOBER 22, 2021

PLAYBOOK FOR BRAND DISRUPTION

Oi! Tudo bom?

OUR ADVENTURE TODAY

Intro for context,

A DIFFERENT KIND OF GROWTH ENGINE

E&Co. is a futures lab committed

UPSTREAM MAGIC VENTURES LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

+ Growth stage + Growth stage

Properties of E&Co/Country Mile LLC and its partner entities

It will sell over 1MM cases

OUR QUEST FOR MAGIC

We are proudly located a

OUR EXTENDED TEAM

A New World, New Hope

How can I take as

New Product Adoption Over Time

New ideas can

What the heck is

What does all this mean for you?

The “Disruptor’s Playbook”:

“Just being better is not

Holy s—t! Some Agency Parlayed An Easy

The disruptors’ training grounds

RADICAL DIFFERENTIATION + YOU

How does your brand stand out now?

CONSTANT EXPERIMENTATION + YOU

What are your brand’s roots as a trail blazer?

How can you really nail contemporary commerce?

The vitamin aisle is

Home exercise equipment

What do these famous brands have in common?

Jack Jim Johnnie Evan George Julian

BIG NOSE KATE™

A brave and adventurous blend

What do you stand for? (Hint: more than food)

You must fight the

AMATEURISH. WE’RE PAYING

WHAT THE HELL IS

WHY IS THIS NOT

Weird wins throughout

THREE (PRELIMINARY) MARKERS OF GOOD WEIRD

“Space Hippies,” by Nike

What the wha?

Huge on the “Oh no you didn’t” quotient…

Inspire surprise and delight

“You did WHAT? No way!”

(What would Outkast do?)

CURIOUSLY STRONG + YOU

What is a little weird, in a good way?

Synthesis and action

EXTERNAL MARKER HOW YOU CAN ACTIVATE IT

2. Constant Experimentation “Planning.” And how about some Design DOING?

As leaders, there is a huge

You now have the

MATERIAL FINANCIAL EVENTS POST PROFILE

* But feds say no

But wait a minute…

OUR YOUR QUEST FOR MAGIC

OUR ADVENTURE TODAY

OUR ADVENTURE TODAY

100% ARE THIS…

“We are the best country in the world at being