Internal · Launch Marketing Plan
For David Winstein
A 90-day plan to put Get Puppetty in front of senior care activity directors in Conejo Valley and adjacent Southern California metros. Two channels, one small budget, and a workflow that doesn't ask David to become a content machine.
01 — The strategic insight
The mechanic — face becomes puppet, puppet becomes character, character tells a story — is a perfect carousel. Slide one: real person. Slide two: their face on a paper body. Slide three: them holding their puppet self, grinning. The viewer has to swipe to complete the joke, which is exactly the behavior the Instagram algorithm rewards.
The mechanic is also a perfect short-form video. Three seconds of face → puppet → laugh stops the scroll because it pattern-interrupts. The payoff lands inside Instagram's three-second hook window, where Reels are won or lost.
David has the rare luxury of a brand whose core differentiator is photogenic by definition. He doesn't have to manufacture content. He has to capture what's already happening and frame it for the feed.
The math: Carousels earn the highest engagement of any format at 1.92%, with 1.4× reach over single images and 22% more saves. Saves and DM sends are the most heavily weighted signals in the 2026 Instagram algorithm. Reels deliver ~26% lower CPC than Feed and capture ~58% of impression share.
02 — Audience, ranked
Primary
Activity and life-enrichment coordinators at assisted living and memory care communities in Conejo Valley, west San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita, Simi, and the Agoura drive radius. Mostly women, 35 to 60. On Facebook more than Instagram, but reachable via Meta Ads (same auction). They book real, recurring programs. The CRM is built for them.
Secondary
Adults 45 to 65 helping research programs for their parents' communities. Live on Instagram and Facebook both. Tag each other in comments. Not the buyer but the influence. They convert via the family-night and "share this" angles.
Tertiary
Cruise line and resort entertainment programmers. Aspirational. Not the target for paid yet. Reached via direct outreach (the CRM) plus a parallel organic content track that builds public proof.
03 — The 90-day plan
Phase 1 · Days 1 to 30 · Foundation
The goal of Phase 1 is not growth. It's to make Instagram and YouTube look real, recent, and credible so the moment anyone arrives from the website or from a Meta ad, they don't think "ghost account."
Concrete output:
Weekly rhythm: Monday workshop carousel. Wednesday Reel. Friday behind-the-scenes or David monologue. Sunday "ask David" story prompt.
Hashtags to rotate (pick 5 to 8 per post):
Phase 2 · Days 31 to 90 · Content engine
Two structural moves install a routine David can sustain without thinking too hard.
1. The long-then-cut workflow. Every senior care session David runs becomes one piece of source material that produces:
David runs the session. Someone else (Erik or a hired assistant) handles capture and edit. This is the only way to keep a one-person creative business posting two or three times a week without burnout.
2. The reminiscence-prompt series. A weekly carousel built around one Story Wheel memory prompt. Slide 1: the prompt. Slides 2 to 5: a short story from a real participant (anonymized as needed). Slide 6: invitation to comment. Slides 7 to 8: invitation to book.
Memory prompts are inherently nostalgic and inherently shareable. Adult children and grandchildren tag each other. This is the highest-leverage organic format in the plan.
Permission protocol: Every senior-care image on social needs written permission. Default to anonymized framing (over-the-shoulder, hands holding the puppet) when permission is uncertain. This is a workflow rule, not a hope.
Phase 3 · Days 60 to 90 · Paid experiment
Detailed below in section 04.
04 — The $100 paid experiment
The purpose isn't to drive a booking. The purpose is to learn which creative makes activity directors stop scrolling. Once that's known, future paid budgets compound.
Objective: Reach. Not Engagement, not Conversions. At $100, optimizing for conversions starves the algorithm of signal. Reach buys eyeballs cheaply and tests creative.
Geography: 40-mile radius around Agoura Hills, plus 25-mile radii around San Diego and Pasadena. Hand-pick: Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks, Burbank, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, Rancho Palos Verdes, Carlsbad, La Costa, Sabre Springs, Riverside. Cover the CRM cities first.
Demographics: Women, age 35 to 60.
Interest stack: "Senior living," "Assisted living," "Memory care," "Activity director," "Recreation therapy," "Long-term care," "Eldercare." Meta's native job-title targeting is unreliable in 2026, so interest stacking is the workable proxy.
Placements: Reels and Stories on Instagram and Facebook. Skip Audience Network. Reels deliver ~26% lower CPC than Feed.
Ad A · $50 · Reel
Hook in first 1.5 seconds: close-up of a senior resident's face, cut to her holding her puppet self, cut to her laughing. Text overlay: "We made her a tiny version of herself. Then she told us about Vegas." End card: "Get Puppetty. Senior care programs. Book a session."
Landing: getpuppetty.com/senior-care
Ad B · $50 · Carousel
6 slides. Slide 1 hook: "Most senior care activities ask residents to perform. This one doesn't." Slides 2 to 5 explain the process. Slide 6 CTA: "Book a Get Puppetty session."
Landing: getpuppetty.com/senior-care
At SoCal local CPC of roughly $0.80 to $1.00: ~50 to 60 link clicks across both ads, ~5,000 to 8,000 impressions. Run for 7 days.
Success at $100 is not bookings. Success is one of:
What to do with the learning. If the carousel wins on CPC and gets shares, that's a green light to make 4 to 6 more carousel ads and bump to $300 to $500 over 30 days. If the Reel wins on completion rate, double down on short video. If neither moves the needle, $100 spent and a different angle needed.
05 — Creative mockups
An 8-slide storyboard of the Puppet Self process. Pin to the top of the grid. Use the strongest existing photos from David's library for slides 3, 4, and 6.
Rotate these weekly. Save the best 5 to 6 to a "Senior Care" Highlight so the work is permanent on the profile.
06 — Quick wins for this week
#seniorliving and #activitydirector this week. Real engagement. The algorithm rewards reciprocity from active accounts.07 — Measurement
KPI 1 · The only one that matters in the end
Add a "How did you hear about us" dropdown to the Formspree form ("Instagram," "YouTube," "Google," "Referral," "Other"). Goal: 2 to 4 booked sessions in 90 days attributable to social.
KPI 2 · Algorithm health
Mosseri has said sends are now the most powerful signal for reach. Track in Instagram Insights. Goal: upward trend across the 90 days, not a specific number.
KPI 3 · Parallel track
The cruise & resort path runs in parallel through the CRM. Goal: track David's outbound-email reply rate as a separate health metric.
Skip these as vanity metrics: follower count, likes per post, video views without watch time, hashtag impressions.
Sources