When Linus Tech Tips launched their TrueSpec USB cables, they launched it with a video that goes deep into the issue with most USB cables, and how they spent years designing theirs. Linus himself covered the certification testing, the copper gauge, the strain relief at the connector, and the years of back-and-forth with manufacturers to get a cable that does what the label says.
And it’s not a commercial — at least it doesn’t feel like that to me. It’s closer to a mini-documentary. No attempt to lure you with a discount or price offer, or anything lifestyle. It works because Linus is handing you the same reasoning he used to build one, and letting you draw your own conclusion.
I’ve seen this pattern before, and it’s shaped how I think about marketing ever since my first job out of school. This marketing works especially well for tech products with a story to tell.
Vandebron
Vandebron launched in 2014, and as ‘the marketing team’, we just visited farmers and interviewed them why they produced renewable energy and what else was on their mind. It was just explaining, but if done well, people call it marketing (and a few months later, we won the Dutch Marketing Award for Launch of the Year).
GoEast Mandarin
Years later at GoEast Mandarin in Shanghai, one of the best-performing pieces of content we ever published wasn’t a testimonial reel or a discount push. It was a breakdown of how we got our NPS to +84 — the actual mechanics. Another piece that worked well was how to know whether you’ve found a good Chinese teacher. These articles read less like a marketing page and more like an internal ops memo we’d decided to publish.
Also our new campus, we just introduced it with images of us moving classroom materials:
Pimax
Now at Pimax, the same instinct applies. When we explain how a headset is actually engineered — why a lens was chosen, why a hinge works the way it does, what a spec sheet number actually means for the person wearing it — that does more than a sales campaign built on urgency and discounts ever could. (That’s why I love to work with engineers and software developers more than salespeople.)
Catering to a high-interest audience
None of this is an argument against TV commercials or big traditional campaigns. There’s real value in them, especially for FMCG companies that can afford it. Yet most companies can’t. There’s also paid advertising on Google or Meta’s platforms, but I’ve seen for many companies that this is squabbling over who can get the best cost-per-click margins and marginal ROI.
My favourite method has always been explaining things well. And you don’t need to fully do that yourself; users, or media, or content creators gladly help with this. Just look at how much energy is poured into reviews and discussions on Reddit or Discord, or how professional tech reviews have become (video of Ogeh Ezeonu beneath). And when it’s all done and explained well, it becomes the best marketing you’ll do.