Visual References — viral patterns to learn from

The agent is calibrated against three reference posts that have already gone viral in adjacent niches. The patterns below are validated by reach, not theory. Echo the structure, never the specifics.

R1. Caleb Watson — "I BEAT CANCER 3 TIMES"

The post: carousel cover image of him in hospital chair, mask on, IV-port visible. Headline overlay: "I BEAT CANCER 3 TIMES. THE FIRST THING I FIXED WAS NOT MY TREATMENT. IT WAS MY INFLAMMATION."

Performance: 425K views, 7.8K likes, 1.7K comments, 6.7K shares, 10.5K saves. April 15.

Why it worked: - Personal arc as authority. "3 times" is the receipt no other coach can copy. - Contrarian on slide 1. "Not my treatment. It was my inflammation." Flips the reader's default. - Real photo, not stock. Hospital chair, IV in arm. Cannot fake. - Cover does 90% of the selling. Body slides quieter; cover IS the post. - Single emphasis word, orange. "INFLAMMATION" carries the line. Restraint. - Author badge embedded in image ("Caleb Watson · 3x Cancer survivor · Fitness & Health Coach") so reach beyond followers still knows who.

For Gustavs's voice: the H1 carousel "I went bankrupt in 2017. Built a $100M e-comm engine since." is the structural twin. Apply same beats: - Personal arc → bankruptcy 2017 (his "3x cancer") - Contrarian → "Most coaches won't tell you what actually mattered" (his "not my treatment") - Real photo → his receipts (paused payouts, $1.15M month, ROAS days) - Cover dominates → CTA + body slides quieter - Single emphasis on cover → 1–2 lime phrases max - Brand badge → t.me/gustavsgotauts footer top-right

R2. AJ Ellison — "I AM AN IFBB PRO AT 50"

The post: carousel cover, side-by-side back/front pose photos. Headline: "I AM AN IFBB PRO AT 50. THESE ARE THE ONLY 5 SUPPLEMENTS I TAKE. NOT SPONSORED. MY OWN MONEY."

Performance: 299K views, 11.4K likes, 2.6K comments, 6.6K shares, 10.9K saves. April 2.

Why it worked: - Authority age stake ("at 50") is concrete and rare. - Specific count promise ("only 5") creates scroll-incentive — the curiosity gap is "which 5." - Trust hack ("not sponsored. my own money.") preempts the default skepticism. - Two photos, not one. Front + back. Visual proof of the claim. - Red emphasis on "THE ONLY 5 SUPPLEMENTS I TAKE" — exactly one phrase, exactly one color.

For Gustavs's voice (H4 / H7 / H8 hook formulas): - Authority stake → years building, dollars tracked, founders coached. - Specific count → "the 4 numbers I check before 11am." - Trust hack → "I run my own ads with my own money. Nothing here is sponsored." - Visual proof → real screenshot (not portrait — receipt screenshot for him is the equivalent). - One emphasis phrase per cover. Lime, not red.

R4. @wealth · composite-imagery + bottom-yellow-headline (different school)

The grid: 6+ posts on the @wealth Instagram. Pattern repeats with discipline.

Visible examples: - "Netflix Wins Bid War and Buys Warner Bros for $82 Billion" — Netflix logo + WB shield + 6 actor portraits + Squid Game / GoT / Wednesday characters composited into one hero. - "The Richest People to Have Ever Lived" — Rockefeller (b/w) + Musk (color) + Augustus (marble) split into 3 vertical thirds, with Mansa Musa + Nicholas II as circular insets. - "The Most Expensive Things Humans Have Ever Created" — B-2 bomber + Zumwalt destroyer + Mars rover, 3 vertical thirds. - "Animals That Came Back from the Brink of Extinction" — orangutan + whale + sea otter composited into one nature scene. - "Michael Jackson Is the Most-Streamed Singer on Earth Right Now" — MJ silhouette + giant #1 typography + crowd silhouettes. - "We're Actually Going Backwards in CGI Quality" — split panels of Davy Jones (2006) vs flat-CGI Flash (2023) vs T-Rex (1993) vs Doctor Strange (2022).

Performance signal: the account runs entirely on this format and has built six-figure follower counts on it. Pattern is validated.

Why it works: - Composite hero imagery. Each post is a multi-image collage that visually proves the claim before the text says it. The Netflix post puts every WB property in one frame — you see the scope before you read it. - Topic-driven, not personal-arc-driven. Different from Caleb (R1). These posts have no author face. Authority comes from the audacity of the claim + the composition. - HUGE bottom-anchored yellow type. All caps, condensed sans-serif, lemon yellow (~#F2D517). Always bottom of frame, always 3–4 lines, always full-bleed width. - 4:5 portrait aspect. Instagram's new max-canvas, gives ~25% more vertical real estate than 1:1 square. - Hairline brand wordmark ("@wealth" or similar) above the headline as a subtle author signal — small, low-weight, not the anchor. - No sub-headline. No body slide preview. Cover IS the post. The carousel's interior is text-heavy informational; the cover sells the whole carousel on its own.

For Gustavs's voice — when to use this style:

NOT for personal-arc carousels (those use R1 Caleb-style — his face is the asset). Use R4 for: - Topic-driven listicles with verified numbers: "The 5 E-Commerce Founders Who Crossed $100M Solo" (composite of 5 founder portraits) · "The Most Expensive Meta Ad Campaigns of 2025" (composite of brand logos + screenshots). - Comparison posts: "Shopify vs Amazon Seller in 2026" (split-panel hero). - "Did You Know" trend pieces: "What Changed in E-Commerce in 2026" (collage of icons + numbers). - These map to a new archetype A6 in the cabinet — see wiki/content/archetypes.md Phase-2 expansion list.

Tooling requirement: This style requires composite-image production. Three paths:

1. AI image generation (e.g., GPT-Image-1, Midjourney, Imagen 4) — generate or composite multi-subject heroes from text prompts. Fast iteration, lower production cost. Risk: synthetic-looking output if not curated carefully.
2. Designer with Photoshop/Canva collage skills — manual cutout + composite. Highest quality, slowest cadence, requires designer hours.
3. Hybrid — AI for first draft of the composite, designer polishes. Probably the right Phase-2 path.

Status: documented but not yet implementable in our current renderer. The PIL renderer handles single-photo cover treatment (Caleb-style, R1). Multi-photo composite is out of scope for tonight. Phase-2 task: integrate an image-generation MCP (Codex CLI / OpenAI image API / Midjourney via API) to produce composite heroes on demand.

Anti-patterns specifically for this style: - Headline placed top or center — breaks the rhythm. Always bottom. - Mixed-case body text — breaks the loud-poster register. ALL CAPS or nothing. - Soft pastel imagery — fights the high-contrast spectacle. Saturate. - More than 4 lines of headline text — breaks scan rhythm at thumbnail size.

R3. Gustavs's own — "OUR FIRST $1M+ MONTH"

The post: cover: black bg + portrait cutout right + headline + Shopify gross-sales screenshot ($1,151,379 / +196%) + lime accent on $1M+ MONTH.

Performance: in-market organic, archetype A1 (build-in-public numbers).

Why it worked for him specifically: - Real receipt, not narrative. - The lime ONE phrase is the entire post. - Portrait cutout makes the post feel personal not corporate. - No call to action — the receipt IS the call to action.

Pattern to repeat: every body slide that references a specific $ figure or %, embed the actual screenshot as a strip behind it, not as full-bleed. Text on top dominates, screenshot below grounds.

Patterns the agent should bias toward

Based on the three references above, the LEARN pass should weight these patterns higher when generating new hooks:

1. Cover-dominant carousels. Optimize for the cover slide carrying 70% of the persuasion weight. Body slides reinforce, never solo.
2. Single biographical fact + contrarian frame. "I [did X]. Built [proof]. The thing [most people] miss is [Y]."
3. Specific count + trust-hack. "Only N. Not sponsored. My own [money/data/numbers]."
4. Real receipts as emphasis backgrounds. Slides that name a specific number ($810K, 5.92, 95%) embed the actual artefact as a strip behind the text. Inline-strip pattern, not full-bleed.
5. Restraint on emphasis. ONE phrase per cover slide carries the lime. Two max. Never three on a body slide.
6. Author badge on every image. t.me/gustavsgotauts footer is the brand mark — it's what makes a non-follower recognize him on the second post.

Patterns to avoid (anti-references)

• Listicle without lived weight. "5 tips to grow your store" reads like a generic course peddler. Every list must trace to his specific experience.
• Quote-card aesthetic (motivational image with vague affirmation). Caleb didn't go viral on quotes; he went viral on receipts.
• Multiple emphasis colors. One accent only. Lime. The brand discipline is the brand.
• Stock imagery. A stock business person at a desk kills the post.
• Aspirational hooks without numbers. "Build wealth" is not a hook. "$1.15M month" is.

The agent reads this file on every generation. New patterns get appended here as fresh winners surface in performance.md. Old patterns get marked retired if they stop performing.