Social Star

Another month, another superstar ⭐

This month’s Employee of the Month goes to Pearly Vong!

Over the past few months, Pearly has been absolutely crushing it across her client accounts while continuing to step up wherever needed. Whether it's taking on new projects, navigating change with ease, or supporting her teammates through the ups and downs of agency life, Pearly always shows up with a positive attitude and a willingness to help.

One thing that stood out in the voting was the impact she has on the people around her. She's often the person teammates turn to for advice, encouragement, or simply a listening ear when things get tough.

And if the votes are anything to go by, Pearly is officially "the GOAT." 🐐

Congratulations, Pearly 👏

And the star of the month goes to…

Adnan!

After Cassie took out February’s Employee of the Month, Adnan Hussain has officially gone back-to-back and claimed BOTH March and April. That’s elite form.

Adnan has been absolutely everywhere lately - balancing high workload, onboarding BYOB, another job, and somehow still showing up every day with energy, professionalism, and a smile on his face (plus the occasional questionable joke).

From managing complex accounts and navigating scope creep, to bringing fresh ideas and positive energy into the team, Adnan has consistently stepped up wherever needed. The best part? He does it all without complaining and always with a willingness to learn, improve, and support the people around him.

One thing the team kept mentioning in the votes was how resourceful and dependable he’s been. Whether it’s clients, internal projects, or helping the team through busy periods - Adnan just gets stuck in.

Also… being described as “a TANK” in the voting might be the highest honour anyone has received at Social Star.

Congrats Adnan 👏 Well deserved.

"What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it." - David Ogilvy

He said this decades ago, while most brands still haven't figured it out.

Today, I'm going to say something that'll annoy a few designers - Your brand doesn't have a design problem, it has a words problem.

I've sat across enough briefs to know that most founders obsess over the wrong thing. The logo, the colour palette, or the most common hump - the font. And meanwhile the copy on their landing page reads like it was written by a very polite robot with nothing interesting to say.

Here's what nobody tells you - there are decades of cognitive science sitting behind the words that actually make people stop, trust, and buy. And most of it never makes it into a single marketing brief.

Loss aversion. Processing fluency. Social proof. Anchoring. Isolation. Open loops.

These aren't dirty tricks.

They're biases that our brain has which impact our decision making. And once you understand them, you'll never be able to look at a bad piece of copy the same way again.

I've broken all six down in the carousel - what the bias is, why it works, and what it means for the words your brand is putting out into the world.

Swipe through to read, and maybe save it as well? These could come in handy the next time you're staring at a blank document wondering why your last campaign looked great, but did absolutely nothing.

And if you spot one you've already been using without realising - drop it in the comments. Curious to know.

- Sabari