How Dupe Became The Internet’s Favorite Shopping Hack

Brand Dive

Great product? Check. Solves a real, universal problem? Check. Authentic, engaging social content? Check. Let’s dive in.

Sometime in early 2024, Bobby Ghosal launched a new tool we didn’t know we desperately needed until now. That tool was dupe.com, a seemingly simple and innovative solution that allows shoppers to find premium look-alike products (aka. dupes) for low prices. Designer chairs, luxury fixtures, and couches that would normally cost an arm and a leg? No more.

We came across dupe.com on TikTok, it was a viral video filmed by Bobby on an iPhone, greenscreen, and handheld microphone which garnered 1.7 million views, 185K likes, 94K bookmarks, and 50K shares as of June. Impressive.

Bobby begins the video by opening up about a furniture price scam he fell for (a feeling consumers know too well), so he built a tool to fight back against that.

Then, he shares his wonder product—simply add “dupe.com/” in front of an online product link and it’ll showcase a wide range of similar products that are up to 80% cheaper than the designer tag. No friction, no app, no email-sign up. Dead simple.

At Assembly, we’re on a mission to help creators and brands create more content. There’s tons of insights we can draw from Dupe’s social marketing playbook that can easily help any brand grow on social, let’s dive into it!

Insight #1 — Create A Villain, Make Yourself The Hero

In every piece of content, @dupedupedupe creates a villain that the audience rallies against. In this case, it’s high prices on designer furniture. Dupe showcases how their product solves this problem. This, obviously, is easier said than done but any brand can leverage common problems in their industry and speak to how their service/product/feature solves that issue. For example:

[Problem] Having to manually comment on all your brand posts after posting -> [Solution] Assembly lets you schedule comments and likes so you save time.

[Problem] Coding my own personal website is hard -> [Solution] Squarespace allows you to make no-code websites that are designed well.

Assembly’s founder, Karine Hsu, talked about how legacy social media management platforms were all missing crucial features leading her to eventually build the platform she always wanted.

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Let’s be honest… niche features for social media management platforms aren’t going to be universally shared like Dupes, but that piece of content addresses a core problem that your target audience might experience and that in itself is valuable.

If you’re creative, you might be able to paint a villain that’s beyond product but something that speaks to a universal human struggle.

Consider Dove’s Real Beauty Campaigns that champion against unrealistic beauty standards, CPG Brand Omsom’s advocacy for AAPI representation, Vrbo’s campaign messaging emphasis on pricing transparency and consistent experiences (clearly taking a jab at widespread problems in the short-term rental industry).

Insight #2 — Creating Killer Hooks

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See something interesting? Bobby uses sticky notes in 4 out of 8, basically half of the top most recent videos. His sticky notes are a unique visual hook that gets readers to stop scrolling, read, and process. Even the text on the sticky notes are written from the POV of a disgruntled customer, not a brand “corporate” voice.

A generic brand would’ve written, “our tool helps you save money with this shopping hack.” Dupe writes “My interior designer just showed me this… umm.. WTF?!,” a night and day copy difference that connects with the target audience.

Dupe’s other content features green-screen product demos featuring the founder himself. We could dive more into each video but that would take forever. Instead, do yourself a favor and watch his videos here. Here’s why we think Bobby’s content sticks:

Bobby’s tone, cadence is passionate, quick, and feels authentic. He has his own personal stake in the problem and him setting out on a solution to solve it is commendable. He generally starts his video with a hook of a story about how he fell for a furniture pricing scam thus leading him to build Dupe. See this video here.

“I fell for a classic furniture pricing scam. It really upset me and I wanted to fight back. Let me show you what I built.” Proceeds to show a product demo.

Dupe generally leans into those two content pillars. Founder, personality driven content as well as sticky note content. There’s a great lesson in there: if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it. In other words, repeat what works.

Here’s a simple strategy for finding great personas/creators for your brand socials:

• Align with creators who authentically align with your brand such as Plot Workspace and Mila Holmes or Playbook.
• Have team members be crucial pieces of your communication strategy (and let their personality shine)!

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