I Spent 30 Days Figuring Out Exactly How Tesla Pays $0 For Ads But Stays Ahead

How to build a brand without a CMO, marketing team, or marketing budget.

Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

Tesla spends $0 on ads.

• It has no CMO
• It has no ads team
• It has no ad budget

And it has no problem getting love.

Love from Gen Z. Love from Millennials.

Love from Gen X. Love from Boomers.

Basically — love from everyone — except the president.

Tesla is the fastest-growing brand in the world!

As a marketer who advocates marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing, my curiosity drove me crazy. I needed to understand the deep logic behind Elon’s wild $0 ad spend strategy in a world where everyone is spending billions on advertising.

So, I decided to micro-stalk Tesla for 30 days.

Micro-stalking mission objectives:

• Learn how Tesla stays ahead
• Learn where to spend money instead
• Learn how to do marketing without ads

Little did I know it would be the most life-changing 30 days of my marketing career. It opened my eyes to…