149: Cadence Is Selling a Discount When They Should Be Selling a Differentiator

The hydration ad that leads with price instead of the one thing competitors can't copy.

Hey everyone, Chase from CreativeOS here. Let’s dig into this ad creative from Mars Men together.

Cadence is in one of the most competitive categories in DTC.

Electrolytes. LMNT is there. Liquid IV is there. Nuun. Hydrant. DripDrop. They all have athletes. They all have lifestyle photography. They all have some version of "complete electrolytes."

And Cadence's answer to that competition is: Bundle & Save — $135 crossed out, $86.07.

That's not a strategy. That's a white flag.

Here's what went wrong — and what the real ad is hiding in this one.

What you'll learn:

• Why leading with price puts you in a race you can't win

• What the Lululemon collab in this photo is doing wrong

• The one differentiator Cadence has that the ad never uses

Discounting on cold traffic tells new customers your product isn't worth full price.

The price is the second thing in this ad. Right after the question hook.

"Bundle & Save $135 $86.07" is a value signal — and value signals attract value buyers. Those are the customers most likely to churn the second LMNT runs a sale.

Price-leading works for warm audiences who've already decided they want the product and just need a reason to act. For cold traffic, it answers a question nobody asked yet. The customer doesn't know if they want Cadence.

Telling them it's 36% off doesn't solve that — it just tells them the brand is willing to compete on margin.

The electrolyte category leader doesn't discount on cold traffic. They justify the price.

"Complete Electrolytes. Naturally Flavored." is not a differentiator — it's a category description.

The feature list: Complete Electrolytes. Naturally Flavored. Support Recovery. Reduce Fatigue.

LMNT could run this list. So could Liquid IV. So could the store brand at Whole Foods.

Features only convert when they're genuinely unique to your product or when the category norm is the opposite of what you're claiming. "Non-toxic" works for Our Place because most air fryers are Teflon-coated. "Naturally Flavored" doesn't move the needle for electrolytes because the whole category has moved there.

The list is there because the product needs claims. But none of these claims are reasons to choose Cadence specifically.

There's a Lululemon logo on the shirt and nobody's talking about it.

Look at the model's shirt. Lululemon collab — the logo is right there.

That's a brand signal with real cultural weight. Lululemon's audience overlaps significantly with the performance wellness customer Cadence is targeting. An endorsement or partnership with Lululemon would be the most credible thing in this ad.

Instead it's a detail in a dark lifestyle photo that most people won't notice.

If Cadence has a Lululemon partnership, that needs to be the headline. Not a design choice. Not a subtle Easter egg. The headline.

"The electrolyte LMNT users switch to when they actually start training with Lululemon" — that's a community signal that no feature list can replicate.

The ad that worked, working harder.

Not because you need more ads — because the one that worked deserves a second life.

Faster. Sharper. Built around how winners actually compound — in loops, not launches.

Feed it your best-performing ad. Get the next generation. Same DNA, new angles, ready to test.

Iteration Engine. Image-to-image. Built-in brand memory. The ad that worked, working harder.

CreativeOS is where winners become systems.

Try CreativeOS free → 

3 Ways This Ad Could Be Even Stronger

1. Move the price to the CTA, not the headline. The discount belongs at the bottom, as the reason to act after desire is created. A stronger structure: problem hook → what makes Cadence different → "and right now you can bundle and save." The bundle offer becomes the closer, not the opener. Same information, completely different psychological position.

2. The feature list needs one specific differentiator. "Complete Electrolytes" means nothing. "The only electrolyte without [specific ingredient that LMNT or others use]" or "X mg of sodium per packet — more than [competitor]" means something. Find the one specific, provable thing Cadence does differently and put it in the list. The rest of the features can stay — but one anchor claim that creates genuine contrast would make the whole list land harder.

3. Make the partnership the point. If there's a Lululemon relationship here, it needs to be front and center. A logo on a shirt is a hint. A partnership should be a proof point: "Official hydration partner of Lululemon" or "The electrolyte the Lululemon community trusts." Third-party credibility from a brand people already love converts better than any feature claim.

What This Teaches Us About Creative Discipline

Cadence is competing with a discount when the electrolyte category doesn't buy on price.

LMNT built market share with zero discounting, ever. Their positioning was "real athletes don't drink sugar water" — a specific claim about a specific customer with a specific reason to pay more.

The discipline Cadence is missing here isn't creative. It's strategic. Before you can make a great ad, you have to know what you're actually selling and to whom. "36% off electrolytes" is not that answer.

When you lead with price, you tell the market you don't have a better argument.

Find the better argument first. The price can close it.

How to Apply This Week

1. Pull any ad in your account leading with a discount and ask: what's the argument this discount is replacing? Whatever you find is the real ad waiting to be written. The discount becomes the CTA, not the hook.

2. Audit your feature list for real differentiators. Cross off anything a competitor could also claim. What's left is your actual creative brief.

3. Look for your hidden Lululemon. Is there a partnership, a community endorsement, or a third-party signal in your brand that's being treated as a detail instead of a headline? Borrowed credibility is often the strongest claim in your entire arsenal — and it's easy to bury.

Keep Creating,

Chase

P.S. - Sign up for our events calendar so you can get access to all the experts we work with helping you build your creative intelligence in real time.

P.P.S. — A few friends have been working with Automatic, an AI integration agency, on custom automations and internal systems. What they've built is genuinely impressive. Worth a look if you're trying to turn AI into real operational leverage instead of another tab open in your browser.