The Secrets of Brand Propaganda, According to Aaron Gough

To Aaron Gough, the way marketing agencies go about their business is backwards. 

“Advertising about advertising is weird,” he says. “I get it. It’s a counterintuitive task. But a lot of agencies will promote themselves with content that’s like, ‘Hey, we’re a marketing agency. We’ll do marketing for you. We’re really good, trust us.’” But when it comes to capturing attention, showing is always better than telling.

So, after founding his own agency, Scavenger Creative, Gough invented a new, foolproof way to get the word out. “I thought, ‘What if I just created a brand out of nothing — to show, rather than tell, what we do,’” he says. “So Deth Yoga exists as a living case study of our work.” 

Deth Yoga, both a brand and a real yoga class taught by Gough himself, was born for a few purposes. First, to serve its attendees by combining two things they love: yoga and heavy metal. 

“If you’re really doing yoga, it’s a call to increase your awareness and take accountability for your thoughts and actions,” Gough says. “Yoga isn’t a fitness class. It’s a moral code that challenges you to confront your demons. And that’s pretty fucking metal.”

Secondly, Deth Yoga acts as a blueprint for the marketing power he’s capable of, something he shows clients to make their mouths water — effectively dangling the secrets to advertising success in their faces.  

“Yoga isn’t a fitness class. It’s a moral code that challenges you to confront your demons. And that’s pretty fucking metal.”

Gough spent the majority of his early career in San Francisco working at BBDO, a global heavyweight of an ad agency. He was mentored there by minds that invented famous campaigns — like the M&M’s Christmas campaign and Allstate’s Mayhem — and given the opportunity to work with companies like Wells Fargo, Mattel and Pepsi on projects like Super Bowl commercials.

But Gough speaks of this part of his life as if it was the most uninteresting thing about him. Surely, he gained invaluable skills for how to capture an audience’s attention. But ultimately, he saw the future of creative content going in a different direction. “AI is going to replace mundane marketing soon anyway,” he says. “Human ingenuity is all we’re going to have left.” 

After moving to Salt Lake City, Gough took the leap, “creating something out of nothing,” as it were. He’d already been teaching regular yoga classes at VASA Fitness, and, thanks to the popularity of his online following, later obtained a room to use once a week to welcome participants for Deth Yoga. 

The next logical step in his business plan might have been to “build it, and they’ll come,” but Gough didn’t have to deplete his energy by buying a studio of his own. He’d already built the valuable part: “brand propaganda,” as he calls it. And with it, Deth Yoga attracted the attention of local studio Satori Yoga, where Gough now teaches weekly. 

“The world needs less content and more art. People don’t want to be sold to, people want to be inspired.”

“It eventually spread and spread; classes got bigger and bigger,” Gough says. “People started bringing their friends. People came back. Now it’s a whole community of people who are like, ‘I didn’t know this is what I needed, but it’s exactly what I need in my life.’”

Just as planned, Scavenger Creative clients began following suit as Deth Yoga’s attention bubbled. He describes his two companies as a sort of yin and yang: “They’re just inverse realizations of the same concept,” he says. “In yoga, I’m applying creativity to a spiritual practice. And in my work, I apply spirituality to our creative practice. With yoga, I try to do it in a creative, weird, fun, accessible, inclusive way.”

And when it comes to branding, Scavenger is trying to put more feeling into marketing. “I believe very strongly that creativity is a spiritual practice,” he says. “Getting an idea and bringing something to life is an intuitive act.” 

Gough pushes this spiritual-creative process so much in his ad work that he compares it to film. “The world needs less content and more art. People don’t want to be sold to, people want to be inspired,” he says.

“I believe very strongly that creativity is a spiritual practice. Getting an idea and bringing something to life is an intuitive act.” 

To get clients to understand this, Gough offers coaching packages where he helps them build their creative confidence to yield results. Gough has made such an impact on the brands he’s helped that he’ll soon be joining the Human Work Project, an education platform and mentorship network, where he’ll serve as a creative mentor. 

The best part, to Gough, is the fun of it. “It’s working, and it’s way more fulfilling,” he says. “I’m having the most fun I’ve ever had in my career.”

Want more secrets? Book a coaching session with Aaron, try one of his yoga classes, or learn more at scavenger-creative.com and @deth.yoga on Instagram. 

Read more interviews with local creatives:
“Where Art and Community Meet”: The Curatorial Ethos of Michelle Pace
How Craft Lake City’s Scholarship Helped One Artist Reclaim Her Craft