The Secret Behind Self Deprecating Ads

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In Partnership with Insense

Combining UGC with paid ads gave Maty's 12x more reach. Here's the mechanic.

Most brands treat organic content and paid ad creative as two separate jobs, different briefs, different creators, twice the work for what's really one story.

Insense is built for both sides: source creators for organic content, and once a piece is already proving itself, repurpose it into paid ad creative through Partnership Ads or Spark Ads no new sourcing cycle, just activating what's already working.

Maty's used exactly this: creator content that ran organically and was repurposed into TikTok Spark Ads lifted reach 12x, with a 4x higher CTR than branded content alone.

Source from 100,000+ vetted creators, get content back with lifetime content usage rights, and go from brief to delivered assets in weeks.

Trusted by Strawberry.me, Bending Spoons, Wellhub, PetLabCo, and 3,500+ brands are using Insense to make organic and paid work together, not separately.

Book a strategy call by August 14th for $200 platform credits for your first campaign.

🧠 The Psychology of Stealing Thunder

Stealing thunder is a persuasion technique where you reveal negative information about yourself before someone else does. Admitting a flaw first builds trust, controls the narrative, and often softens the impact of bad news more than staying silent ever could.

1️⃣ Why It Works
When you own a flaw first, you appear transparent and credible. Research on attorneys found that revealing damaging information about a client before the opposing side did significantly reduced its negative impact, and even boosted trial outcomes.

2️⃣ Not the Same as the Blemishing Effect
Stealing thunder means owning bad news before anyone else can use it. The blemishing effect is different: a small flaw revealed after a positive impression has already formed. Both build trust, but timing changes everything.

3️⃣ Turn a Flaw Into a Flex
Volkswagen's "Think Small" campaign embraced the Beetle's tiny size instead of hiding it, framing it as easier to park and more practical. What looked like a weakness became one of advertising's most iconic strengths.

4️⃣ Own It in Personal Branding
Comedians and public figures often joke about their own flaws before others can. This self-deprecating honesty builds relatability and likability, turning perceived weaknesses into stronger personal brands.

5️⃣ Turn a Competitor's Strength Into Your Angle
Avis famously used its second-place status against Hertz to fuel the "We Try Harder" campaign, turning an underdog position into renewed profitability after over a decade of losses.

The Takeaway
Owning a flaw before someone else exposes it builds trust and gives you control over the story. Nobody's perfect, but admitting it first can turn a weakness into a genuine selling point.

📝 Use Manus to Write LinkedIn Posts in Your Voice

Struggling to turn your expertise into LinkedIn posts that actually sound like you? Manus offers a smarter approach, building a workspace that interviews you, extracts your voice and ideas, then drafts posts you can refine. Here is how it works.

1️⃣ Start a Manus Project
Begin by telling Manus to interview you about your expertise. Share links to your public writing samples, like past X posts, so the AI can learn how you naturally express yourself.

2️⃣ Answer the Interview Questions
Manus asks one question at a time. Respond with an unstructured brain dump of your thoughts, without worrying about polish or organization. The raw material matters more than the delivery at this stage.

3️⃣ Let Manus Extract Your Voice
The AI identifies your strongest ideas, evidence, and phrases that sound authentically like you. It saves these as idea cards and builds a voice profile based on how you naturally communicate.

4️⃣ Review the Drafted Posts
Manus turns the best idea cards into LinkedIn drafts. Review each one, flagging what genuinely sounds like you versus what feels too polished or still needs work before it is ready to publish.

The Takeaway
Manus turns scattered thoughts into consistent, authentic LinkedIn content by learning your voice directly from you. Instead of generic AI-sounding posts, you get drafts built from your own expertise and phrasing, ready to refine and publish.

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