1. Poppi: Seamless branding with a hidden call to action
Poppi knows how to capture attention. Their emails use punchy, vibrant colours that bleed naturally from top to bottom, making the email feel less like a sales pitch and more like a single cohesive graphic. In a crowded inbox, that visual flow works brilliantly.
The issue is the call to action. They use an attractive glass-effect button that catches the eye, but it sits far too low down the layout. Forcing a subscriber to scroll through the entire message just to find a clickable button costs clicks. That is a mistake.
One thing I like to do is test a secondary, smaller call to action directly beneath the hero image. Keep the glossy button at the bottom for engaged readers, but give ready buyers an immediate exit ramp near the top. Poppi also tucked a "5g of sugar" badge directly onto the can artwork. Low sugar is a major purchase driver in their category, so pulling that 5g figure out into a prominent line of body copy would reassure buyers instantly.
2. Chubbies: The fake text conversation format
Chubbies built an email structured entirely like an SMS text thread. On a mobile device, it mimics an actual phone screen where two team members debate a newsletter mistake while dropping product mentions and brand humour along the way.
This narrative approach keeps subscribers reading because it feels like entertainment rather than an advertisement. It seamlessly weaves in phrases that match their tone of voice while introducing new corduroy shorts. Because the creative hook is the conversation itself, having the main button at the end works fine here without hurting the narrative.
However, their cross-sell grid at the footer gets lost after the long read. Duplicating a single product thumbnail right next to the primary button keeps the product top of mind as subscribers click through. Be mindful of technical weight here as well. Heavy animated GIFs bloat file sizes and lead to slow load times on weak mobile connections, so keep them compressed under 1MB.
3. Magic Spoon: Visual contrast and showing the product in use
Magic Spoon always delivers bold creative work. Their campaign features a surreal hero visual of a person floating with cereal, demonstrating excellent art direction. The layout immediately pushes a variety pack, which is their primary customer acquisition bundle.
Where the design stumbles is contrast. They placed white, hollowed-out typography over a very light pastel background. As a general rule, white text on light backgrounds destroys readability. Swapping that headline to a deep purple brand colour or adding a sharp drop shadow would instantly resolve the issue.
What they got right is showing the product in actual use. Instead of displaying a static cardboard box, they show cereal poured into bowls with milk ready to eat. Showing the physical experience of a product (whether it is food in a bowl or someone riding a bicycle) triggers desire far better than isolated packaging shots ever will.
4. Olipop: The anniversary offer that needs more urgency
Olipop celebrated their 5th anniversary with a simple, high-impact hero image featuring a birthday cake balanced directly on top of a soda can. It frames their cream soda flavour around a specific event, giving subscribers a clear reason to care about the campaign.
They paired the visual with a 15% discount code, which gives existing buyers a solid incentive to restock. The layout is clean, but the offer misses an opportunity to drive fast action. It is a single-day anniversary promotion, yet the copy does not communicate that deadline clearly enough.
If you run a 24-hour sale, highlight the constraint. Adding a small countdown timer or a prominent "ends tonight" line next to the 15% voucher code prevents subscribers from opening the email, intending to buy later, and completely forgetting about it.
5. Minecraft and McDonald's: Piggybacking on cultural moments
This collaboration between McDonald's and Minecraft takes recognisable fast-food branding and rebuilds it inside an 8-bit aesthetic. The structure breaks the offer down into three distinct, easy-to-read deal tiers so nobody is confused about what they get.
You do not need a multi-million-dollar licensing budget to use this strategy. Any ecommerce brand can piggyback on cultural moments that resonate with their target audience. When the Barbie film launched, dozens of independent brands used pink themes and film references to draft off the hype.
I have seen this work exceptionally well with niche client audiences too. We had a toy retail client build a campaign around a major Pokémon card release date. It was not an official brand partnership, but by tying their store inventory to an event their audience was already excited about, they generated a significant spike in revenue over 48 hours.
Final Thoughts
Great email design is not just about making things look pretty in Figma. It is about balancing visual storytelling with clear hierarchy, legible typography, and well-placed calls to action that make buying effortless. When you align high-contrast creative with genuine urgency, your campaign metrics will reflect it.
If you want high-performing campaign layouts designed and built for your store, explore our email campaign services to see how we help ecommerce brands scale.
