6 ways brands use creative indulgence to attract fanatical followings

The wrong audience won’t get it or won’t care, but the right one will laugh, clap and love you for it. Create for the latter.

Indulge me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about some of my favorite brands, what draws me to them, and what gets me excited about basically everything they put out.

I think I’ve boiled it down to an idea — creative indulgence — and from that idea have built a hypothesis, or a rule of thumb:

The key to creating an addictive brand is to get creatively indulgent.

Let me explain by talking about sunscreen and notebooks and water and burgers. But first…

What does it mean to get creatively indulgent?

Creative indulgence is devoting 150% more creative brainpower, resources and verve into a brand campaign than seems reasonable. Creative indulgence is doing something so ludicrously steeped in niche references and meticulous attention to production value that it functions as a borderline piece of art in and of itself.

Creative indulgence is creating words, images and interactive digital experiences that maintain rigorous fidelity a very specific style that you just…