The Unicorn Rule: Why The Lad Collective Publishes 15,000 Ads to Find 10 That Work | #639

The Lad Collectivehas shipped roughly 15,000 ads in four years. Around 10 of those have been unicorns. Mark Broadhead, Head of Creative and Growth, runs the Meta engine behind one of Australia's fastest-growing bedding brands, now 200,000 customers deep and expanding into North America.

Mark joined as the founders' first employee, moving from his own vintage clothing business into the warehouse in Logan that The Lad Collective was running out of at the time. Four years later, he sits across creative, paid media and the brand's creative testing system. He's also one of the few people in ecommerce posting honest thinking on Meta account structures and AI in production on LinkedIn, which is what made him a must-have guest on the show.

This episode picks up from The Lad Collective Story with founders Bill and Ed Ovenden in episode 160. 

Today, we're discussing:

• Why Mark doesn't study other bedding brands for inspiration [11:50]
• The Unicorn Rule: 15,000 ads, 10 hits [27:3]How The Lad Collective uses content pillars to scale one idea across many formats [36:20]
• 205 live ads, 260 campaigns, and the move toward 1,000 live creatives [18:08]
• The customer-driven UGC pipeline that feeds itself [40:39]
• The role of AI in ad production with Higgsfield and Kive [46:46]
• The Robert Irwin partnership and what it means for the US push [44:48]
• Working with Shelley Craft and how big partnerships balance the lo-fi brand [42:30]
• Why Mark will put almost any piece of content into the ad account [41:18]

Read the full Showpo case study from our partners at Convert Digital → convertdigital.com.au/showpocasestudy

Use the code from our partners → 🛍️ Shopify | 📧 Klaviyo

Connect with Mark Broadhead | Explore The Lad Collective

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