A series where we round up the texts worth stealing.
This month the best material didn’t come from my own inbox or phone. It came from a supermarket, a pizza place, and a 170-year-old denim company that picked a fight with FIFA. This edition works a little differently. We found four of the summer’s sparkliest marketing moments and figured out how you’d run the same idea. We’ll break down why they work so you can steal the idea (ethically) for your own text program!
Levi’s Picked a Fight With FIFA (and Won)
Brand: Levi’s
FIFA’s sponsorship rules meant Levi’s Stadium had to lose its own name for the World Cup, downgraded to the deeply forgettable “San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.” Levi’s could have sulked about it. Instead, they covered the signage in a white tarp cut into the exact shape of their batwing logo, so the “hidden” logo was somehow more visible than before. Posted it with a wink and garnered millions of views, a viral “nobody’s gonna know” joke, and a limited tee that turned the whole bit into a product.
Why it works: turning a restriction into a bit is funnier than pretending the restriction doesn’t exist. Levi’s didn’t fight FIFA in public, they simply out-joked the situation, which reads as confident instead of petty.
The steal: you’ve got a rule you can’t say out loud somewhere too. A discount your finance team capped at “informal.” An early-access list you’re not technically supposed to publicize. Text it like a secret. People love being let in on something more than they love a straightforward code.
Aldi Rebranded a Tub of Butter for One Game
Brand: Aldi
Ahead of England’s World Cup quarter-final against Norway, Aldi temporarily renamed its own butter. Nordpak became “ENGpak,” splashed across store screens, out-of-home ads, and social, built to last for one game only. A packaging pun with an expiration date.
Why it works: Nobody’s excited about a butter pun. Everybody remembers a butter pun that only existed for ninety minutes.
The steal: rename something for a stupidly short window and text people while the window’s open. “For the next 3 hours, the Large is now the Jimothy. Reply JIMOTHY to lock in the upgrade free.” Nobody’s opening email fast enough to catch a joke this short-lived. Texts are the only channel built for a bit with an expiration date this tight.
Little Caesars Built You an Apartment
Brand: Little Caesars
To promote a Spider-Man movie premiere, Little Caesars and Sony built a full walk-through replica of Peter Parker’s apartment for fans to visit, hang out in, and post from. A pizza chain treated a fictional superhero’s living room as more valuable than another banner ad.
Why it works: most people won’t remember your ad. Most people will remember the day they stood in Spiderman’s living room for a pizza brand.
The steal: you probably can’t build an apartment. You can text your most engaged subscribers a heads-up about something happening somewhere real, with a reply-to-RSVP built in. A pop-up, a tasting, a launch party in the parking lot. A text with a real address and a real window beats another 15%-off code, every time.
The Takeaway
None of these campaigns started as an SMS idea. Strip away the stadium tarp and the movie-set apartment, though, and what’s left is a short list of moves any brand can run through text: a constraint played for laughs, a deadline short enough to feel urgent, a specific scarcity, and a reason to physically show up somewhere. All four fit inside 160 characters. SMS is exactly the channel built for this kind of move.
Want to start building campaigns like these? Mobiniti gives you the tools to run all of it without needing an enterprise contract or a team dedicated to babysitting it.
Start free, and send something worth me screenshotting and writing in my next marketing roundup!
