THE AUDACITY
When was the last time you saw a Marketing stunt that made you go “wait… WHAT?”
Not another carousel post about “5 ways to optimize your funnel.”
Not another webinar about webinars.
I’m talking about something so ballsy, so counterintuitive, that it makes you question everything you thought you knew about performance Marketing.
Like spending $50,000 to drive traffic… to ChatGPT.
Not your landing page. Not a demo request form. Not even your own website.
ChatGPT.
And somehow, it worked.
Let me tell you about the day Vibe.co broke every demand gen rule in the book and came out winning.
ADWEEK, LED TRUCKS, AND CHAOS…
October 2025. AdWeek NYC. Midtown Manhattan.
While most B2B brands were setting up boring (and crazy-expensive) booths with branded stress balls and lukewarm coffee, Vibe.co had a different plan.
12 LED trucks. Circling the block. For 8 hours straight. On day 1 of AdWeek.
On the screens? A parody of OpenAI’s minimalist aesthetic with 1 simple message:
“What is the best CTV Ad Platform?”
“Ask ChatGPT” CTA: QR Code
If you thought this was a ChatGPT activation, you were fooled
No Vibe.co branding on the creative. No landing page. No “Book a Demo” CTA screaming at you. Or, worse, “learn more”
Just…a question. And a QR code that literally sent people to ChatGPT with a pre-loaded prompt.
The Marketing world collectively lost its mind.
CEO Arthur Querou tweeted about it. 32K impressions. Marketers DMing. Press coverage.
And here’s the kicker: the whole thing came together 2 days before AdWeek.
2. Days.
Jealous of how good this tweet hook is
WHY MOST BRANDS WOULD NEVER TRY THIS
Let’s be honest: if you pitched this in a meeting, someone would shut it down in 30 seconds.
“Wait, we’re NOT driving traffic to our site?”
“What about conversion tracking?”
“How will we measure pipeline?”
“What if ChatGPT recommends a competitor?”
“Legal is going to HATE this.”
And those are all valid concerns!
But here’s what most demand gen teams miss when they’re stuck in their performance dashboards:
When you’re in a pre-adoption market, awareness > conversion.
Vibe.co wasn’t trying to close deals with LED trucks circling Madison Square Garden.
They were trying to get into the conversation.
Because if marketers don’t even know CTV is an option for them to diversify beyond Google and Meta, no amount of retargeting pixels or landing page A/B tests is going to help you.
You can’t capture demand that doesn’t exist yet.
THE INSIGHT – GAMING THE ROBOTS
Now here’s where it gets tactical.
That QR code didn’t just send people to ChatGPT for funsies.
It sent them to ChatGPT with a pre-written prompt that asked the LLM to evaluate CTV platforms based on criteria scraped directly from Vibe.co’s own blog content.
This wasn’t just a stunt.
It was Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) in action.
Think about the flywheel they created:
- Seed the content: Vibe.co published blog posts positioning themselves as the leading CTV solution.
- Train the AI: The pre-written prompt used their own criteria to evaluate competitors.
- Drive interactions: Every QR scan = another signal to ChatGPT that people are asking about CTV platforms.
- Reinforce the loop: More queries = more chances for ChatGPT to scrape and cite Vibe.co’s content.
- Measure the lift: Now, Vibe.co can use tools like Profound to measure the impact on AEO and prospects’ response to “how did you hear about us”
So, yes, they were creating awareness. But they were also literally teaching AI to recommend them.
As Arthur put it in his follow-up tweet:
THE “META” PLAY: WHEN YOUR TACTIC IS YOUR MESSAGE
Here’s the genius part that most people missed:
Vibe.co used OOH advertising (LED trucks) to promote their CTV platform.
It was intentionally meta. Deliberately ironic.
They were proving their own point in real-time:
- Marketers are stuck in the same digital channels (search, social, programmatic display).
- Everyone’s fighting for the same eyeballs in the same oversaturated feeds.
- Sometimes you need to go OFFLINE to break through the ONLINE noise.
- CTV isn’t just another performance channel. It’s a TOP OF FUNNEL awareness play.
The medium WAS the message.
They were showing, NOT telling, that:
- There’s life beyond Google and Meta.
- Creative OOH can work for B2B (not just DTC brands).
- Brand awareness drives pipeline (even if you can’t track it in Salesforce day one).
In a world where every B2B SaaS company is running the same tired Marketing playbook, this kind of differentiation isn’t just nice to have.
It’s survival.
Plus, it’s designed to get MARKETERS talking. And if Marketers like 1 thing, it’s dissecting creative campaigns. (Guilty.)
Snaps snaps snaps
HOW THEY ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF
Let’s talk logistics, because this is where most “creative” campaigns die.
The Route Strategy:
- Timed to AdWeek’s first day for maximum foot traffic.
- Circled The Penn District in Midtown Manhattan, where all the events and happy hours were happening.
- 8 hours of loops = maximum repetition and visibility.
- Hit the audience when they were most receptive (between sessions, walking to meetings).
The Creative:
- 1 QR code tracked via Bitly (easy attribution)
- Clean, minimal design mimicking ChatGPT’s interface (instant brand recognition)
- 1 CTA, one question…no clutter, no confusion
- ZERO Vibe.co branding on the truck itself (the mystery was part of the hook)
The Timeline: This all came together 2 DAYS before AdWeek.
Not 2 months. Not 2 weeks.
2 days!!!!!!!
No committees. No legal reviews that take 6 weeks. No “let’s circle back after Q4 planning.”
Just a scrappy team moving fast + trusting their instincts.
(The fact that it was cheaper than a traditional billboard was just a nice bonus.)
That’s one way to get to the Garden
THE RESULTS: WHEN $20/SCAN BEATS YOUR CPL
Cost per scan: ~$20
For comparison, most B2B companies are paying:
- $50-150 per LinkedIn lead
- $100-300+ per qualified demo request
- $500-2000+ per closed deal
Vibe.co paid $20 to get a hyper-targeted Marketing decision-maker to:
- Stop what they were doing
- Pull out their phone
- Scan a QR code
- Actively engage with their pre-written prompt
- See ChatGPT recommend their platform
That’s not a run-of-the-mill lead.
That’s a qualified, self-educated prospect who now associates Vibe.co with innovation and creativity. Because you know the Marketers who saw this were intrigued.
But the real ROI wasn’t even in the scans.
The Earned Media:
- Arthur’s tweet: 32K+ impressions, hundreds of engagements
- Press coverage from AdExchanger and industry publications
- DMs from other CMOs asking about their tactics
- Word-of-mouth across Marketing Slack channels and group chats
- Content for future sales conversations (“Remember those trucks at AdWeek?”)
They turned a $50K activation into a multi-month conversation starter.
Arthur’s follow-up tweet said it best: “Would/Will do again.”
*New Yorker Voice* Best city in da world, bay-bee!
THE CATEGORY CREATION PLAY
Here’s what separates good marketers from great ones:
Vibe.co wasn’t just selling their CTV platform.
They were selling the IDEA that you should be using CTV in the 1st place.
This is category creation 101.
Most of their target audience – heads of growth, performance marketers, demand gen leaders – are still stuck in the Google/Meta duopoly.
They’ve never even CONSIDERED CTV as a viable channel.
They think it’s too hard to access, too expensive, too hard to make creative for, impossible to target or do attribution or prove ROI. (all false, BTW).
Trust me, I’ve seen this 1sthand over the past 6 months.
So Vibe.co’s challenge wasn’t:
- “Why choose us over Competitor X?”
It was:
- “Why should you try CTV at all?”
The LED trucks weren’t about immediate conversions.
They were about shifting the conversation.
Getting marketers to:
- Notice CTV as a category
- Ask questions about it (literally, via ChatGPT)
- Remember Vibe.co as the brand that made them think differently
That’s top-of-funnel done right.
Not leads. Not MQLs.
Mind share.
WHY THIS WORKS IN 2025 AND BEYOND
Let’s talk about the bigger shift happening right now.
The game has changed.
Your prospects aren’t just Googling anymore. They’re asking ChatGPT. They’re querying Claude. They’re using Perplexity to research vendors.
And, I say this with love, but most B2B brands are still optimizing for 2019.
Smart marketers are already pivoting to:
1. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
While your competitors are still fighting over SEO rankings, your prospects are getting their answers from AI.
The question isn’t “Will this matter?”
It’s “Are you going to be the brand the AI recommends?”
By the time most brands figure out they need to optimize for LLMs, Vibe.co will already own the conversation.
They’re not waiting for the future. They’re building it.
2. Earned Attention Over Paid Impressions
Nobody talks about your LinkedIn ad.
Everybody talks about 12 LED trucks asking ChatGPT which CTV platform is best. Especially Marketers at AdWeek.
1 is forgettable.
The other is a story people WANT to tell.
In a world where ad blockers are standard and banner blindness is real, earned attention is the only currency that matters.
16,000 people came to AdWeek this year, BTW
3. Channel Diversification
When everyone zigs (digital ads), you zag (LED trucks at industry events).
CTV itself is the perfect example. Most marketers haven’t touched it yet, which means there’s still white space to dominate.
The channels that feel “risky” today are the channels that win tomorrow.
THE LESSON: BORING Marketing IS A CHOICE
Let’s do the math on what Vibe.co DIDN’T do with $50K:
The “Safe” Play:
- LinkedIn ads → Lost in the feed against 47 other CTV platforms
- AdWeek booth → Booth #47 with branded mints nobody wanted
- Sponsored content → Scrolled past in 0.3 seconds
Expected result: A few leads. Maybe. Zero stories.
The Vibe.co Play:
- 12 LED trucks asking ChatGPT which CTV platform is best
- A campaign people are STILL talking about
- This newsletter, where they let me do what I wanted & write a story actual Marketers would care about.
They chose “creative risk” over “safe.” And got attention in exchange.
They just did it.
Your Marketing isn’t failing because you don’t have enough budget.
It’s failing because you’re spending that budget on things nobody will remember.
Being different doesn’t require millions. It requires:
- Guts – Taking risks your competitors won’t or can’t
- Speed – Moving fast (2 days!!!) not committee-ing it to death
- Conviction – Trusting your gut when the ROI model doesn’t exist
- Thick skin – Being okay with mixed reactions
As Arthur put it: “Don’t do boring Marketing. Be different.”
But most marketers won’t.
Because being different is scary.
Your CFO asks “Where’s the ROI model?”
You can’t point to case studies that prove it’ll work.
You might fail publicly.
So you default to safe. Another LinkedIn campaign. Another webinar nobody attends.
And wonder why your pipeline is flat.
Here’s the truth:
You know what’s scarier than failing publicly?
Being invisible.
In 2025, boring Marketing = invisible Marketing.
Vibe.co spent $50K on LED trucks.
Their competitors spent $50K on LinkedIn ads nobody remembers.
One brand is “those crazy people with the trucks.”
The other? What was their name again?
Safe and forgettable. Or bold and unforgettable.
Which one are you?
Get in loser, we’re doing non-boring Marketing.
The team at Vibe.co is building this playbook. If you’re ready to make your ads as unforgettable as your ideas, start here.
