Lulu Cheng Meservey

Episode #185

EVP of Corporate Affairs & CCO at Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard (formerly Substack)

🎯Product Strategy⚡Execution📈Growth & Metrics

📝Full Transcript

11,846 words

Lulu Cheng Meservey (00:00:00): I often say to find your audience's cultural erogenous zones. So what it means is people have things that they either care about or don't, and you're not going to change that. So it's a huge lift to try to change someone's worldview or their passions. It's a light lift to take the thing you want to talk about and just shape it into, to fit into their worldview or their passions. There's not always a fit. (00:00:33): There's going to be people who are just not your natural audience, and you should know that and not waste your time. But if your natural audience cares about X and you're offering Y, then it's your job to create the API or to create the bridge from X to Y. With messaging, it's not build it and they will come. It is so hard and you'd have to be superhumanly gifted to the extent that I can't recall seeing in my entire life, where you create a message and a story so powerful that someone who didn't care at all before suddenly makes that their passion. It's so much easier to take what they're passionate about and understand it, and then convince them that if they care about that then they should care about your thing because of this connection. Lenny (00:01:18): Welcome to Lenny's Podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard won experiences building and growing today's most successful products. Today, my guest is Lulu Meservey. I met Lulu while she was head of comms at Substack, where she was infamous for taking big risks and bold stands, and as a result creating a lot of attention for Substack, and other companies she's represented. Lulu is definitely the most innovative and interesting comms person I've worked with. (00:01:46): She's currently executive vice president of corporate affairs and chief communications officer at Activision Blizzard. And she writes what I'd say is the best newsletter on PR and comms strategy, a newsletter called Flack. In our conversation we ...

💡 Key Takeaways

1Startups must take risks of commission rather than omission; playing it safe lets the status quo win.
2Do not try to change your audience's worldview; find what they already care about and bridge your message to it.
3Use the Concentric Circles strategy: secure buy-in from employees and power users before pitching the general public.
4Apply the Pressure Equation (P = F/A): To increase impact (Pressure) with limited resources (Force), you must decrease your target audience size (Area).
5Founders should 'go direct' and build their own distribution channels on platforms where they are naturally talented (text, video, or audio).

📚Methodologies (3)

Cultural Erogenous Zones

by Lulu Cheng Meservey

🎯 Product Strategy

Instead of trying to force people to care about your specific product (a heavy lift), identify what they are already passionate about (their cultural erogenous zones). Your job is to build an API or bridge connecting their existing passion to your offering.

Core Principles

1.Identify the Passion: Find what your audience already deeply cares about (e.g., free speech, national security).
2.Build the Bridge: Create a narrative connection between their passion (X) and your product (Y).
3.Accept Reality: Don't waste energy trying to change someone's fundamental worldview.

"It's a huge lift to try to change someone's worldview... It's a light lift to take the thing you want to talk about and just shape it into fitting into their worldview."

#cultural#erogenous#zones

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Concentric Circles Distribution

by Lulu Cheng Meservey

⚡ Execution

Visualize distribution as concentric circles starting from your desk. You must win over the inner circles (employees, investors) before moving outward. The outer circles look to the inner circles for social proof and validation.

Core Principles

1.Sequence Matters: Go in order—Self/Founders -> Employees -> Investors/Power Users -> Influencers -> Public.
2.Employee Buy-in: If employees aren't excited, the public won't believe the hype.
3.Control the Narrative: Each layer acts as a filter; misalignment in the center causes chaos at the edge.

"If employees are not saying that [it's great], then people are going to look at employees and say, 'Well, they would know... so if they're not excited then why would we be excited?'"

#concentric#circles#distribution

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The Comms Pressure Equation

by Lulu Cheng Meservey

📈 Growth & Metrics

Based on physics: Pressure = Force / Area. To increase pressure (impact), you can either increase Force (money/effort) or decrease Area (audience size). Startups should drastically decrease surface area to apply maximum pressure on a niche.

Core Principles

1.Decrease Surface Area: Don't target 'everyone.' Target a specific group of diehards.
2.Apply Force: Focus all resources (content, ads, time) on that narrow target.
3.Create Diehards: It is better to be someone's life partner than everyone's casual acquaintance.

"If you decrease the surface area then with the same amount of force you can apply more pressure."

#comms#pressure#equation

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