PETIT POT, AND
THE YEAR WE
STOPPED chasing
FOLLOWERS.
THE YEAR WE
STOPPED chasing
FOLLOWERS.
A French dessert brand. A platform that rewrote its rules. The content engine we rebuilt around it.
[ 01 ] THE SETUP
INSTAGRAM broke
ITS OWN RULES.
There was a year when Reels took over. The algorithm was rewritten three times. Followers stopped meaning what they used to. Most boutique CPG brands lost reach and did not know why.
Petit Pot – a small French dessert brand competing for fridge attention against bigger budgets – could not afford to wait it out. They needed to grow without throwing money at it.
So we built them an answer. Then we rebuilt it mid-year. Then again before the holidays. Then we taught them how to keep rebuilding it themselves.
[ 02 ] THE INSIGHT
STOP chasing
FOLLOWERS.
chase THE ALGORITHM.
– CSC STRATEGY MEMO
[ 03 ] THE WORK
SEVEN MOVES, IN real time.
Strategy is not a deck. It is a list of decisions you are willing to make on Tuesday and unmake on Friday. Here is the list we made for Petit Pot – and remade – across the engagement.
01
KILLED EVERY GIF. REPLACED
WITH Reels.
When Meta absorbed every short video format into Reels, we converted the entire Petit Pot content library overnight. No mourning the GIF era. The platform had moved; we moved with it.
02
DOUBLED THE REELS cadence.
From 1-2 Reels per week to 4-5. The algorithm was rewarding volume of native short-form video. Our job was to ship enough surface area to give it something to reward.
03
15 SECONDS. No exceptions.
We tested length and the data was uncompromising. Sub-15-second Reels outperformed everything longer. We made it a rule, not a guideline.
04
FACES OVER food.
Founder and team Reels became a top-performing pillar – outpacing the product hero shots we had assumed would lead. The brand got more human; the engagement followed.
05
ONE PARTNERED GIVEAWAY PER MONTH. Never two.
Partnered giveaways were the biggest follower-growth lever and the biggest brand-dilution risk. We held the line at one per month. Discipline beat volume.
06
BOOSTING AS A DISCIPLINE, not an afterthought.
When we boosted six posts in a month, metrics climbed. When boosting paused, metrics fell within thirty days. We treated boosting as a non-negotiable line item.
07
BUILT A PACKAGING LAUNCH AROUND THE new playbook.
The new packaging launch was the proof. We staged six boosted posts, three collaborator posts, and a coordinated giveaway – and produced Petit Pot’s highest-engagement month.
01
KILLED EVERY GIF. REPLACED
WITH Reels.
When Meta absorbed every short video format into Reels, we converted the entire Petit Pot content library overnight. No mourning the GIF era. The platform had moved; we moved with it.
02
DOUBLED THE REELS cadence.
From 1-2 Reels per week to 4-5. The algorithm was rewarding volume of native short-form video. Our job was to ship enough surface area to give it something to reward.
03
15 SECONDS. No exceptions.
We tested length and the data was uncompromising. Sub-15-second Reels outperformed everything longer. We made it a rule, not a guideline.
04
FACES OVER food.
Founder and team Reels became a top-performing pillar – outpacing the product hero shots we had assumed would lead. The brand got more human; the engagement followed.
05
ONE PARTNERED GIVEAWAY PER MONTH. Never two.
Partnered giveaways were the biggest follower-growth lever and the biggest brand-dilution risk. We held the line at one per month. Discipline beat volume.
06
BOOSTING AS A DISCIPLINE, not an afterthought.
When we boosted six posts in a month, metrics climbed. When boosting paused, metrics fell within thirty days. We treated boosting as a non-negotiable line item.
07
BUILT A PACKAGING LAUNCH AROUND THE new playbook.
The new packaging launch was the proof. We staged six boosted posts, three collaborator posts, and a coordinated giveaway – and produced Petit Pot’s highest-engagement month.
[ 04 ] THE NUMBERS
A FEW THAT tell the story.
PISTACHIO LAUNCH · ONE REEL
SINGLE PRODUCT REEL
TOP ENGAGEMENT REEL
SINGLE BOOSTED GIVEAWAY
The honest read: not every metric improved every month. The algorithm punished pauses in boosting. Reels fatigue was real. Some partnerships dragged followers down before they grew them back.
What did not drop was the discipline. Petit Pot ended the engagement with a content engine they could keep tuning, a clear set of formats that worked, a quarterly KPI rhythm, and an audience trained to engage – not just scroll.
[ 04 ] THE NUMBERS
A FEW THAT tell the story.
PISTACHIO LAUNCH · ONE REEL
SINGLE PRODUCT REEL
TOP ENGAGEMENT REEL
SINGLE BOOSTED GIVEAWAY
The honest read: not every metric improved every month. The algorithm punished pauses in boosting. Reels fatigue was real. Some partnerships dragged followers down before they grew them back.
What did not drop was the discipline. Petit Pot ended the engagement with a content engine they could keep tuning, a clear set of formats that worked, a quarterly KPI rhythm, and an audience trained to engage – not just scroll.
[ 04 ] THE NUMBERS
A FEW THAT tell the story.
PISTACHIO LAUNCH · ONE REEL
SINGLE PRODUCT REEL
SINGLE PRODUCT REEL
SINGLE BOOSTED GIVEAWAY
[ 05 ] SELECTED OUTPUT
WORK that shipped.
[ 06 ] WHAT WE TOOK INTO THE PRACTICE
MODERN SOCIAL ISN’T A STRATEGY
YOU SET. IT’S an engine you tune.
Pick a content discipline. Ship it weekly. Read the response honestly. Adjust before the platform adjusts on you.
That is the operating system we built for Petit Pot. It is the one we now build for every consumer brand we work with – because the platforms will keep rewriting the rules, and the brands that win are the ones whose content engine was already designed to flex.
Strategy that ships. Then ships again next week.
IF YOU’RE TRYING TO GROW SOMETHING worth growing, WE SHOULD TALK.
[email protected]NTA BARBARA · LOS ANGELES · DENVER