The Post That Turned Vampires Into Leads | Messaging Case Study
This Halloween post didn't just get laughs—it got hundreds of comments, captured qualified leads, and fueled a six-figure course launch.
Welcome back to Behind the Message, our series where I share the thinking behind some of my favorite messaging projects.
By 2017, I had become comfortable with bigger opportunities and more diverse industries. After working with a celebrity nutritionist, I moved on to something completely different.
That’s when I started working with Rafeh Qazi, founder of Clever Programmer.
"Qazi" is a computer programmer who had built a solid online course business teaching Python to beginners. He had some traction, but was hitting a revenue ceiling he couldn’t seem to break through.
We’d already done a couple of successful launches together. But now it was time for another launch, and we were both stumped.
Creative paralysis had set in. What new angle could we take? How do you make computer programming feel fresh and exciting when you’ve already covered the basics?
We were both living in LA at the time. One afternoon, we were hanging out at my place, talking through ideas for his upcoming launch, and nothing was clicking.
The conversation drifted away from business for a bit. Qazi started showing me Facebook’s new augmented reality camera feature in Messenger.
You could hold up your phone, and it would transform you, turning you into a wizard, a scuba diver, and all sorts of wild effects.
They had some monster filters for Halloween, which was just around the corner. That’s when it hit me.
“Qazi, grab your phone. Let’s try something.”
We took a picture of him right there using one of the Halloween filters. He ended up looking like a lion with this perfectly ridiculous expression.
I wrote the copy on the spot:
"Holy crap, I just looked at the calendar and Halloween is right around the corner… 🎃💀😈
You know what’s SCARY? Being a Python newbie and feeling absolutely TERRIFIED by all the MONSTROUS tutorials you see. 🧛
They’ll suck the energy out of you like a VAMPIRE leaving you as white as a GHOST. 👻
Here are 5 BITE-sized tutorials for you so you can SLAY your Python projects like Van Helsing SLAYED Dracula… 🧄
If you want me to send you it, type your favorite monster below in the comments! 🎃🔥⚡"
This playful Halloween filter helped generate hundreds of leads for an online Python course
We posted it immediately, and the response was instant.
Hundreds of comments started pouring in. “Vampire!” “Frankenstein!” “Gremlin!”
People were having fun with it.
More importantly, we generated hundreds of new leads, people who engaged with that post and then joined his email list.
Those leads converted beautifully during his upcoming course launch, which did over six figures in revenue.
Looking back through the Five Lightbulbs lens, this worked because we nailed Lightbulb 1, the frustration his audience was really feeling.
Most programming educators focus on the obvious problem: “You want to learn to code.”
But Qazi's audience had a deeper frustration: they were overwhelmed.
The tutorials felt monstrous and intimidating, and they were scared of looking stupid.
By acknowledging that fear and making it playful rather than shameful, we created an instant connection.
What struck me most was how this broke us out of our creative rut.
Sometimes the best marketing ideas don't come from brainstorming sessions or competitor research. They come from stopping, playing around, and remembering that marketing is supposed to be human.
By now, I'd worked in dozens of industries, and I'd learned that the foundational messaging principles work everywhere, with any audience, and with any offering.
At this point in my journey, my messaging skills were becoming more sophisticated. I began to move from headlines and lead magnets to positioning entire businesses.
The remaining four case studies will focus on what I've found is the most powerful of the Five Lightbulbs: Lightbulb 3.
Talk soon,
Billy