Can you give me examples of businesses that have succeeded using entertainment-first content?

Several major brands prove this works: BarkBox has over $500 million in revenue and their entire Instagram is dog memes—not a single product photo. Liquid Death (just water) got to a $1.4 billion valuation by hiring comedy writers and only posting content that passed one test: ‘Would somebody share this?’ Scrub Daddy’s CEO confirmed demonstrable sales growth from meme content alone. In the art world, Frieze magazine got to 160,000 followers from art world memes, then transitioned to real gallery exhibitions. A ceramics artist named Sarah got 16 million views on one entertaining pottery video and went full-time. The pattern is clear: entertainment is the vehicle, not the destination. They’re selling reach, and people follow the voice, then buy the product.

Asked by an artist wanting proof that entertainment content works · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2026-03-30