Create Your Own Ad Inventory
Find overlooked contexts where the customer's need is already salient
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 96%
Create Your Own Ad Inventory starts by rejecting the assumption that a campaign must live inside Facebook, Google, or another established channel. Instead, identify the physical or digital moments when the customer's problem is already vivid, then create placements in those environments. Hims used gyms, nightclub bathrooms, and urinals because men were already thinking about appearance there. Distinctive creative, including the brand's cactus imagery, made the message memorable while supporting a broader goal: remove stigma and normalize discussion of men's wellness. The mechanism links context, salience, and creative. Context puts the message near the need, salience makes it immediately relevant, and playful creative turns an uncomfortable subject into one people can acknowledge and discuss.
Origin
Joe Spector described how Hims rejected traditional advertising boundaries and created placements in gyms, nightclubs, bathrooms, and urinals on Coffeez for Closers.
Core principles
- 01Traditional advertising channels are boundaries, not rules
- 02The strongest placement meets customers where the problem is already salient
- 03Unexpected creative can make a taboo subject easier to discuss
- 04A brand can create useful inventory where no standard inventory exists
How to run it
- 1
Find the salient moment
Identify when and where the intended customer is already thinking about the problem. Anchor the campaign in that existing attention rather than trying to manufacture it elsewhere.
Pro tip Look for contexts where customers naturally notice the gap between their current and desired state.
Watch out Do not confuse a captive audience with a relevant one.
- 2
Map overlooked spaces
List physical and digital surfaces around that moment that competitors ignore. Treat those surfaces as potential inventory rather than accepting the standard channel list.
Pro tip Observe the customer's real environment before choosing placements.
Watch out A novel placement without contextual relevance is only a stunt.
- 3
Fit creative to context
Design a message and visual that can be understood immediately in the chosen space. Make the creative distinctive enough to interrupt familiar surroundings.
Pro tip Use the environment as part of the message rather than adapting a generic ad.
Watch out Provocation that humiliates the customer works against trust.
- 4
Normalize the conversation
Frame the problem in a way that makes it easier to acknowledge and discuss. Use humor or directness only when it reduces stigma instead of trivializing the need.
Pro tip Ask whether the customer leaves feeling understood rather than exposed.
Watch out Sensitive categories require more care than ordinary attention campaigns.
- 5
Scale what earns attention
Compare placements and expand the contexts that reliably connect the problem, audience, and brand. Keep creating inventory instead of reverting automatically to conventional channels.
Pro tip Evaluate each placement as a distinct context, not merely another impression source.
Watch out Do not preserve novelty after the placement stops serving the customer moment.
In the wild
Hims advertised in gyms, nightclub bathrooms, and urinals—places where men were already thinking about appearance. The campaign used memorable cactus imagery and direct messaging instead of relying only on conventional Facebook and Google ads.
→ The brand created new advertising inventory while making men's wellness easier to discuss.
Common mistakes
Defaulting to standard channels
Restricting the plan to familiar ad platforms can separate the message from the moment when the customer feels the problem.
Using novelty without relevance
An unusual placement earns little durable value when the environment has no connection to the customer's need.
Turning stigma into shame
Provocative creative fails when it embarrasses the customer instead of normalizing the conversation.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for consumer brands with a clear problem, a defined audience, and permission to use unconventional placements responsibly.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for brands whose placements would invade privacy, intensify shame, or create regulatory risk without a clear customer benefit.
From the transcript
“there are no rules, make your own rules, create your own uh in this case, you know, create your own spaces, create your own opportunities”
“We created our own ad inventory out of nowhere”
“let's get rid of this stigma. Let's normalize the conversation. Let's make this something easy to talk about.”
From the episode
Joe Spector on Building Hims, Dutch & the Future of Telemedicine