Remarkable Marketing

Reviving vinyl in the digital age sounded impossible until the creation of Record Store Day changed everything.Launched with Metallica at a San Francisco record shop in 2008, it became a global celebration of indie music culture and a blueprint for building real human connections. In this episode, we drop the needle on what marketers can learn from vinyl's resurgence with special guest Robert McCauley, Sr. Director of Content Marketing at Upwork.Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from community-driven events, the power of exclusivity, and how to build content strategies that truly resonate.About our guest, Robert McCauleyRobert has 20+ years of experience in content marketing, editorial, and communications. At Upwork, he leads a team of more than two dozen amazing content marketers, customer marketers, and multimedia professionals. (In fact, you can find out more about how awesome they are by checking out this link: https://bit.ly/3PGXNcD.) Robert lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and their high-octane fourth-grader. Ask him about his vinyl collection if you're looking to waste an hour or two.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Record Store Day:Sell the experience, not just the product. Exclusivity and differentiation aren't just nice-to-haves; they're why people line up on Record Store Day. As Robert puts it, “Part of the reason that someone is gonna pay $40 for something that they could, in theory, get for free is because the artists and record labels have done a nice job of selling the exclusivity and the differentiation. And, frankly, understanding their audience.” In B2B marketing, it's a reminder that when you make your audience feel like they're getting something rare and tailored, they'll lean in.Community turns customers into believers. Record Store Day isn't really about what you buy, it's about who you're with. Robert says, “This is where the power of community really comes in. It feels like a celebration of music. It feels like a celebration of vinyl... it feels like an event, a way to connect with people that are passionate about something like you are.” That emotional connection is the secret ingredient. For marketers, if your audience feels seen and connected, your brand becomes more than a service. It becomes a shared story.Go analog to cut through the noise. In a world of constant digital overload, physical media feels almost radical. Robert explains, “Analog physical media can really make an impact. We're all flooded with digital stuff all day, every day... the thing that cuts through that are physical things because they're so far, few and far between nowadays.” For marketers, this is a cue to think tactile because sometimes, the most unforgettable touchpoint isn't a notification, it's something your audience can actually hold.Quotes*“ When done right and in a very strategic way, analog physical media can really make an impact, right? We're all flooded with digital stuff all day, every day. There's the whole joke of you going from kind of your midsize screen to your small screen, to your big screen over the course of the day. And the thing that cuts through that are physical things because they're sort of so far few and far between nowadays.”*“ Record Store Day at the end of the day is really an awesome in-person event. And in-person events, I think, in general, can be really effective for marketers. And again, when they're well thought out and done well. One of the great things about this is that, again, it's about community. It's about doing something that people appreciate and like. It's about feeling very kind of personalized to the things that they're passionate about. And, I think again, it just reinforces the fact that there are great ways of connecting with your customers much more directly and, of course, physically than over email or something. And they have a much stronger impact when you are face to face with someone and they remember your name, or you have a conversation, or you enjoy the coffee, or the excitement in the atmosphere that the event brought you. So I think it's the way that these are run are a good example of how in-person events can and should be run and can really make a difference to marketing efforts.”“  We always, as content marketers and B2B marketers, I think, worry that we have one opportunity to kind of hook our audience. If we don't do it now, if we don't get everything we need, this is gonna pass us by. There's this trust of, ‘Hey, I am confident that over time I'm gonna show you the value of my content in this case, my music, and I'm gonna get hooked.' And that will be rewarded down the line. It's definitely a long-term play, but it is very counter to, I think, a lot of our instincts of squeeze as much as we can as quickly as we can.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Robert McCauley, Sr. Director, Content Marketing at Upwork[01:26] Why Record Store Day?[03:21] Origins of Record Store Day[10:26] The Draw of Vinyl[16:51] Robert's First Record Store Day[20:15] Value of Physical Music in a Digital Age[28:58] B2B Marketing Lessons from Record Store Day[47:43] Upwork's Content Strategy[51:41] Upwork's Recent Content Creation[55:21] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Robert on LinkedInLearn more about UpworkAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

A man crashes through walls. A woman joins him. Together, they run straight into the sky. No dialogue. Just music, motion, and a pair of Levi's jeans.This is Odyssey, the Levi's ad that changed how we think about brand storytelling. In this episode, we're unpacking its marketing lessons with our special guest, Paula Vivas, Head of US Marketing at Freepik.Together, we explore why storytelling is the most powerful strategy, how boldness builds lasting brand identity, and why emotional resonance is your greatest competitive edge.Because the best marketing doesn't just show a product, it makes you feel something real.About our guest, Paula VivasPaula Vivas is the Head of US Marketing at Freepik. She has over 15 years of experience in visual design, online marketing, and social media marketing, with a passion for creating and promoting engaging and innovative content.Paula is also the co-founder of Charis, a platform that celebrates AI‑empowered creativity. With that, they launched the Charis Awards, a global competition that showcases the best AI-generated images and their creators.Paula's experience spans across Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Events, Ads and Growth Marketing in the Tech industry.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Levi's Odyssey ad:Story is the strategy. The Levi's Odyssey ad didn't just sell jeans, it sold a feeling of liberation. Paula recalls watching it and thinking, “I want to be able to give a meaning to a brand.” The brilliance wasn't in the product, but in the story it told, breaking through walls, both literally and metaphorically. In marketing, stories aren't a “nice to have”; they're the whole point. When you anchor your brand in a powerful narrative, you move from transactional to transformational.Break through with brand identity. In the Levi's Odyssey ad, two people sprint through wall after wall, finally launching into the sky, all while wearing Levi's jeans. To Paula, it wasn't just an ad; it was a masterclass in brand symbolism. No voiceover. No product breakdown. Just raw, kinetic metaphor for freedom and durability. In B2B, the lesson holds: skip the specs and aim for the soul. The brands that break through aren't the loudest, they're the ones that hit instinct before intellect.Emotion is the ultimate differentiator. What makes the Levi's Odyssey ad timeless wasn't just its visuals; it was how it made Paula feel. In an era of AI-generated everything, emotion is your moat. Tools can replicate images, but not meaning. The best marketing doesn't just look good, it makes you feel something. Give your audience that, and they'll remember everything.Quotes*“ Let's make great content. Let's forget about Will Smith eating spaghetti. Let's forget about doing another Star Wars. Star Wars is going to be there, and of course, that's going to go viral because it's Star Wars. Let's create beautiful content for you to watch, and sit down and say, ‘This is what a creative mind can do. This is what we can do with AI.' Let's make something original. Let's create a path that's different.”*“ I don't think AI is going to take out anything. I think it needs to be humane. We need to be behind it. We need to be the person at the wheel. LLMs are created by us, so we have to be there, right? Our creative part is always gonna be there.”*“ If you give me a cookbook, that doesn't make me a chef. [AI] is not gonna take anybody away. It is just gonna make everyone better and faster and explode those creative parts of themselves.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Paula Vivas, Head of US Marketing at Freepik[02:32] Why Levi's Odyssey Ad?[03:09] Levi's Odyssey Ad Origin[08:01] Why Great Storytelling is Your Differentiator[15:17] What is Upscale Conf?[18:47] Freepik's SEO Strategy[21:58] How Freepik Simplifies Prompt Engineering[24:17] Behind the Scenes of Upscale Conf[27:22] What's Next for Upscale Conf[31:05] Freepik's Content and Brand Strategy[34:01] Breaking Down Freepik's Music Collection[37:11] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Paula on LinkedInLearn more about FreepikAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Marketing isn't just about tactics, it's about strategy. And most times, the smartest move is playing the long game.That's the strategy behind Settlers of Catan, a board game built on resource trading, calculated risks, and thinking three steps ahead. In this episode, we're drawing inspiration from its gameplay with our special guest, Jen Grant, Chief Marketing Officer at Dialpad.Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from staying focused on their own path, anticipating competitor reactions, and building a diversified strategy that drives long-term growth. Because in both Settlers of Catan and marketing, the real power play is thinking beyond your next move.About our guest, Jen GrantBefore joining Dialpad as Chief Marketing Officer in October 2024, Jen served on the Dialpad Board of Directors, held C-level positions at Cube and Appify, led Looker's marketing, drove the rebrand of Elastic, and grew Box to an industry-leading enterprise content company. Jen holds an MBA from Wharton, a BA from Princeton, and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Princeton Technology leaders.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Settlers of Catan:Play your own game. In Catan, constantly reacting to what others are doing can leave you scrambling. The same applies in B2B marketing. Jen encourages a more grounded approach: “You do much better, sort of very quietly focusing on your own growth.” Instead of chasing competitors or mimicking market leaders, build a strategy that aligns with your own long-term vision. Because sustainable growth isn't won through noise, but through quiet, deliberate moves.Always be forecasting. Winning at Catan means thinking ahead, not just about your next move, but the ones after that. Jen says,  “I actually really love the strategy part of it. Thinking about, okay, we're about to launch a particular feature. What's that gonna make the competition do?” In a competitive landscape, it's not enough to plan for what you control; you also need to anticipate how others will react. Great marketers operate like strategic game players. Don't bet on just one road to victory. Catan punishes one-dimensional players. You can't win by hoarding sheep alone, you need balance. Jen explains, “It is never one thing…It's all of the things at the same time, executed perfectly well.” Diversification isn't just about spreading risk; it's about orchestrating a full-spectrum effort that compounds over time. The most impactful marketing isn't siloed, it's symphonic.Quotes*“The thing about Catan, and other board games, this might come into play too, but you could potentially spend all of your time trying to crush the other players…And when you play a game a lot, you're like, oh, I'm gonna try this strategy this time, see what happens. And one of the things that I've definitely never seen work is if you focus all your energy on messing with other people. You do much better sort of very quietly, focusing on your own growth.”*“ I actually think the reason I like the game so much is the game theory of thinking ahead, 2, 3, 4 steps ahead. And so you're thinking how am I gonna achieve my goals, but what are they gonna do when I do, whatever it is, buy this road. I love that part of the game. I love thinking out ahead, okay, if we do this, then what are they gonna do? And for marketing, I think we often get caught up in the fun, creative part of marketing. But I actually really love the strategy part of it, of thinking about, okay, we're about to launch a particular feature. What's that gonna make the competition do? Are they gonna freak out? Are we kind of catching up to them? And maybe we shouldn't be so loud about it 'cause we should have had this before. All of the different implications of what you do in a market and then how the competition actually responds.”*“ So the thing about Catan at the very beginning of the game is that there are numbers on every square. And so you get to choose two places to put your little settlement, and there are three numbers for each of those settlements. So right there, you have six numbers, and the numbers are on resources. And what's really important, and many people don't think about this, is you wanna have all of the resources available to you on numbers that get rolled frequently, but you can't be on only two numbers. And it kind of speaks to diversifying tactics. So that to me goes right to marketing. Oftentimes, we'll get CEOs or CFOs, probably more likely. Just find that one thing that works really well and put all your budget into the one thing, and you're like, it is never one thing. Never, never, never is it one thing. It's all of the things at the same time executed perfectly well.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Jen Grant, Chief Marketing Officer at Dialpad[02:10] Why Settlers of Catan[03:08] The Role of CMO at Dialpad[04:52] Dialpad's Evolution[09:19] Dialpad's Super Bowl Ad[10:40] Origins of Settlers of Catan[16:23] B2B Marketing Lessons from Settlers of Catan[49:47] How Jen is Investing in Brand and Content[56:25] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Jen on LinkedInLearn more about DialpadAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Polished is out. Grit is in. If you want your brand to cut through the noise, it might be time to take a cue from the underground music scene.In this episode, we're taking lessons from 90s indie rock with special guest Scott Rayburn, CMO of DataArt. Together, we talk about how brands can market with meaning, stay relevant in the digital age, and create content that hits like your favorite song.About our guest, Scott RayburnScott Rayburn is the Chief Marketing Officer at DataArt. He's experienced in leading cross-functional, high-performing content, GTM/sales, comms, operations, and creative teams, and skilled in content strategy, sales enablement, demand generation, SEO, product marketing, website strategy, branding, partner marketing, and providing creative direction.Scott has been with DataArt since 2023. Prior to his current role, he served as Director of GTM & Content at global technology services company Wizeline. He has also led product marketing at companies like The Risk Management Association and Proscia.What B2B Companies Can Learn From 90s Indie Rock:Lead with authenticity.
Great marketing doesn't have to be glossy, it just has to be real. The best indie rock bands of the '90s didn't rely on flashy production or major label backing to build loyal followings. They embraced raw sound, DIY, and intimate venues, and that resonated deeply with fans. Scott draws a parallel to modern marketing: “People can see through BS… you actually generally will get better results from the kind of authentic stuff.”Think in lifetimes, not just campaigns.
The strongest brands create lasting emotional connections, much like your favorite bands. “These bands that started in the eighties are still filling up 5,000-person theaters today,” Scott explains. Why? Because their fans feel a deep, emotional connection. For marketers, this means nurturing your audience beyond the funnel. Build a brand people want to grow old with, not just click on once.Stay active on every channel.
Indie rock bands don't just put out an album and disappear. Scott says, “Even if they're not making new songs, they need these channels to stay relevant, to sell tickets, to sell merch. It's all kinds of tied to marketing. And this is a tie between the authenticity and customer lifetime value. It's really activating that in a digital age.” Marketers need to do the same. A strong multi-channel strategy ensures your message reaches people where they are, whether that's a blog, a webinar, an event, or a TikTok feed. Being present across platforms consistently helps brands stay top of mind, accessible, and adaptable to change.Quotes*“ This authenticity that we were talking about with these bands, people can see through BS. Whether it's like an Instagram reel or a LinkedIn ad, or an email campaign. It can still work. Your marketing can still work if it's completely polished. But I think, and I see from some results that come from a company work that DataArt is doing. You actually generally will get better results from the kind of authentic stuff. And this is kind of where you see brand maybe driving more revenue than demand generation, but who can actually count the dollars from brand? Well, not me, but maybe someone can let me know. So those conversations are happening.”*“ These bands that started in the eighties are still filling up 5,000-person theaters today… There's this multi-channel approach, which is a huge part of marketing and content marketing. You notice they're all on Spotify. They all have websites, they all have social media. Even if they're not making new songs, they need these channels to stay relevant, to sell tickets, to sell merch, e-commerce. It's all kind of tied to marketing. And this is a tie between the authenticity and customer lifetime value. It's really activating that in a digital age.*“ The number one thing I've noticed in content marketing is the huge need to transition from the faceless 1000-word blog post to something that's more interactive. The quote with somebody's face on your social media post is gonna perform five times better than the faceless five AI trends.”*“ You can't do everything yourself. Build a good team around you. Be T-shaped 'cause you're not gonna be a marketing leader if you're not T-shaped…And try to create some way that you can stay focused on your strengths, and then lean on others who have strengths of their own. Have this kind of holistically built type of leadership team.”Time Stamps[0:55] Scott Rayburn, CMO at DataArt[02:02] Why 90s Indie Rock?[03:53] What is Record Store Day?[04:55] The Role of CMO at Data Art[06:38] Origins of 90s Indie Rock[10:50] The Indie Rock Movement and Its Impact[20:30] Building Community Through Music[31:11] B2B Marketing Takeaways from 90s Indie Rock[38:39] How You Can Be More Authentic in Your Marketing[46:55] Advice for marketing leaders[47:29] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Scott on LinkedInLearn more about DataArtAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

At 83 years old, Martha Stewart is still as relevant as ever, and she just released a new documentary to prove it. Martha takes us through the highs, lows, and reinventions of her iconic career.In this episode, we're diving into the world of Martha and the power of documentaries with our special guest, Amy Holtzman, Chief Marketing Officer at CHEQ. Together, we're exploring what B2B marketers can learn from bringing documentary-style storytelling into their marketing and the legacy Martha Stewart built. We're talking about how to build an authentic brand, own your unique style, and stay top of mind for decades.Because let's be real: who wouldn't want their brand to have Martha Stewart-level resilience?About our guest, Amy HoltzmanAmy Holtzman is Chief Marketing Officer at CHEQ. Amy brings 20 years of marketing experience to CHEQ, including tenure as CMO and head of marketing at Spring Health, AlphaSense, and Splash. She is also a founding member of Chief, a private network that connects and supports female leaders, and co-founder of NYC-based Women in Revenue Marketing.  What B2B Companies Can Learn From Martha:Resilience builds a legacy.
Martha Stewart's documentary doesn't shy away from the tough moments, and that's part of what makes her story so powerful. In business, as in life, setbacks are inevitable. Amy Holtzman puts it simply: “You gotta show up the next day… roll with the punches and figure out how you get through it.” Resilience and conviction aren't just admirable traits,  they're essential for building a brand that lasts for decades.Own your style.
Martha's perfectionism is part of her brand. She's unapologetically herself, and it's helped her stand out for decades. Amy encourages marketers to take a page from that approach. She explains, “ Martha's an unapologetic perfectionist… Martha owns it, and it's what made her successful. And I think you have to not necessarily own Martha's style, but you have to own your own style.” In B2B marketing, embracing your quirks and leaning into what makes you different is more powerful than playing it safe.Build trust through authenticity.
Martha's documentary reminds us that connection comes from honesty. Her brand works because it's consistent and deeply personal. Amy says the same holds true in marketing, “As humans, we crave connection…I  think people shy away from it and B2B a lot of times because they're worried… I think that's what we want. And we can also kind of sniff bulls*** a mile away.” Don't hide behind jargon or trends. The more human your brand feels, the more trust you'll build.Quotes*“  You're gonna get knocked down…But you gotta show up the next day. You have to kind of do it all in stride. If you wanna make it right and make a name for yourself and for your business, you have to just like roll with the punches and figure out how you get through it.”*“ You gotta own what makes you special and unique, right? Martha's an unapologetic perfectionist. She insists on things being her way. A lot of times like women can get negative feedback about that and Martha owns it, and it's what made her successful. And I think you have to not necessarily own Martha's style, but you have to own your own style. It's hard to change. You can adapt in certain situations, but you're not gonna change who you are. And I do think you've gotta own it. You gotta own your own unique style. And sometimes that's not what everybody loves, but it's also what makes you and also your brand special and unique.”*“ I feel like as humans we crave connection and look for commonalities, right? And I think people shy away from it, and B2B a lot of times, because they're worried. What if somebody doesn't like that thing or doesn't have the same values that I have? We need to think about what those things are that we share, but also, there's room to be ourselves and be authentic, like Martha, a bit more too. Because, as humans, I think that's what we want, right? And we can also kind of sniff bullsh** a mile away, right? When somebody's not who they say they are. So I think there's room for a bit more.”*“ I know we're probably all sick of like everything AI, but I actually think it's incredibly important to stay really up to speed and think about it beyond productivity.”Time Stamps[0:55] Amy Holtzman, Chief Marketing Officer at CHEQ[02:07] Why Martha, the Martha Stewart Documentary[02:40] The Role of CMO at CHEQ[05:09] Breaking Down Martha[14:22] B2B Marketing Takeaways from Martha[19:57] The Importance of Authentic Storytelling[25:27] Why You Should Be Documenting Brand Moments[32:36] CHEQ's Marketing Strategy[36:14] The Power in Reinventing and Not Replicating[42:22] The Future of AI in MarketingLinksConnect with Amy on LinkedInLearn more about CHEQAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Playing it safe doesn't cut it anymore. If you want to grab eyeballs, you need to be bold, unexpected, maybe even a little chaotic.That's the magic of Taskmaster, a competition show where thinking sideways often beats playing it straight. And in this episode, we're taking a page from its playbook with the help of our special guest, Vanessa Hope Schneider, Head of Brand at Descript.Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from chaos, creativity, and knowing when to follow the rules (and when to completely ignore them).About our guest, Vanessa Hope SchneiderVanessa Hope Schneider is Head of Brand at Descript. There, she leads brand, content, product marketing and community. Her focus is growing the community of creators and communicators using Descript to make videos and podcasts. She's working to drive engagement and success through feature announcements and community education, and is developing campaigns that illustrate Descript's perspective on creative work, and the role AI should have in it.Vanessa has previously served as Director of Host Community at Airbnb, Head of Marketing at Clara Labs, and VP of Marketing at One Medical.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Taskmaster:Think laterally. Lateral thinking is about solving problems creatively rather than relying on the most direct or traditional approach. Vanessa encourages marketers to lean into that mindset: “Sometimes your goal is most efficiently achieved by just doing the best practice... but other times you need to break out in your approach.” In B2B marketing, that might mean reimagining how you run events, pitch your product, or tell a story. It's not about copying what others are doing, but finding the unexpected angle. Like in Taskmaster, the real wins often come from knowing when to be efficient and direct, and when to be bold, playful, or completely off-script.Know when you're the picture and when you're the frame. Sometimes your brand should be the star of the show. Other times, you should be supporting someone else's spotlight moment. Vanessa explains, “It doesn't always have to be your brand. It shouldn't always be your brand. Sometimes it's the voices of your customers. It's their success stories.” In the same way, Taskmaster contestants might earn points by hyping up the host, marketers should recognize when to uplift others for the bigger win.Develop your signature style. In Taskmaster, contestants approach identical tasks in wildly different ways, and that's the fun of it. Over time, you start to recognize their unique flair. The same is true for brands. Vanessa says, “It is valuable and compelling to find your style and stick to it, and then approach each new challenge from that perspective.” A strong, consistent style becomes part of your brand identity and how your audience remembers you.Quotes*“ One of the keys to success on Taskmaster and when making content is committing to the bit. If you're self-conscious, if you're mugging for the camera, if you're trying to do too many things at once, if you're distracted, the audience isn't gonna go there with you. Your readership isn't gonna go there with you, your customers aren't gonna go there with you. You have to summon the will, the courage, the focus to go all in, and that's when exciting things are gonna happen. And you might be able to find different types of creativity because you're blocking all that other distraction out.”*” B2B marketers should enjoy lateral thinking. So, sometimes your goal is most efficiently achieved by just doing the best practice, doing it well, and task faster. That would be reading the task and just doing what the task tells you to do. But other times, you need to break out in your approach. You need to be more iconoclastic or more unexpected. You're not gonna win Taskmaster or marketing if you're only doing one or the other. You have to know when to be literal and direct and when to think in new directions. Sometimes you're gonna get the most points if you just speed run the task, but other times you're gonna get points for creativity.”*“ There are instances when you are, as a contestant on Taskmaster, absolutely the star of the show, and you wanna be boisterous and you wanna be attention-grabbing. And of course, we as marketers all can think of instances where we wanna do that with our brand, but in other instances. You kind of wanna be a supporting character. So in Taskmaster, sometimes the best thing to do is make it about Greg because he's a taskmaster and he is very ego-driven…And so the analog for marketers would be. Who are you uplifting in your work? It doesn't always have to be your brand. It shouldn't always be your brand. Sometimes it's the voices of your customers. It's their success stories, so find opportunities to do both.”*“ Your style is your brand…It is valuable and compelling to find your style and stick to it, and then approach each new challenge from that perspective.”*“ The challenge of making content about content is knowing when should I be specific and speak directly to those priority audiences and their priority use cases? And when should I pop up a level and speak in a more generalized way about capabilities and benefits, and trust that the audience will know how that applies to the specific thing they're trying to make?”Time Stamps[0:55] Vanessa Hope Schneider, Head of Brand at Descript[03:38] Why Taskmaster?[04:47] The Role of Head of Brand at Descript[07:09] Empowering Creatives With Descript's Tools[08:15] Descript's Company-Wide Film Fests[09:21] The Origins of Taskmaster[16:43] Understanding Taskmaster's Production Value[21:37] B2B Marketing Takeaways from Taskmaster[32:31] Importance of Investing in Content[41:31] Importance of Video in Modern Marketing[48:27] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Vanessa on LinkedInLearn more about DescriptAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Simon Sinek says that a lot of organizations can talk about what they do and how they do it. But he says, “Very few organizations know why they do what they do.” And it's the ‘why' that is the most important. In this episode, we're taking this lesson and more from Simon Sinek with the help of our special guest, Guru Sundar.Together, we talk about finding your ‘why', looking for inspiration in unexpected places, and timing your content so it feels fresh. About our guest, Guru SundarGuru Sundar is VP of Marketing at Abridge, a leader in generative AI for healthcare. Guru has been with the company since September 2023. He previously served as VP of Marketing at Looking Glass Factory and Butterfly Network. Guru holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and an MSc in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Simon Sinek:Find your ‘why'. Figure out the reason your work is important and use that in your content. Guru says, ”Every company should have a ‘why' that's rooted in a large problem. And it may be broken into a subset of problems that you tackle over time, but like really focus on that ‘why.'”Look for inspiration in unusual places. Inspiration for your content can come from unexpected places. Guru says, ”Drawing inspiration from outside is culturally ingrained in how we do what we do at Abridge, because if you look at who's next to you, you're not going to innovate. But if you look way far out and break down like, ‘Oh, that brand or that person is having similar challenges, but they're making t-shirts, but I can draw some inspiration from them,' or like ‘That person over there is making music, or they're making some form of art that no one's ever seen before.'”Time your delivery so content stays fresh. Finesse is everything when delivering content to your audience. Guru says, ”No one likes fatigue. And so you have to keep fatigue, freshness, innovation in mind as you're generating these pieces of content. You could have like four or five different content streams. And people need to hear things multiple times, but they don't need to hear it seven times in a row. A lot of the content is developing the right things for your audience that are innately interesting. If you just ask someone, ‘Hey, is this interesting? Is this useful?' They say yes. But then serving it at the right frequency, at the right time, in the right form factor and package, is what I think differentiates okay marketers from incredible marketers.”Quotes*”Drawing inspiration from outside is culturally ingrained in how we do what we do at Abridge, because if you look at who's next to you, you're not going to innovate. But if you look way far out and break down like, ‘Oh, that brand or that person is having similar challenges, but they're making t-shirts, but I can draw some inspiration from them,' or like ‘That person over there is making music, or they're making some form of art that no one's ever seen before.'”*”Every company should have a ‘why' that's rooted in a large problem. And it may be broken into a subset of problems that you tackle over time, but like really focus on that ‘why.'”*”You can break marketing down into two mainstreams. It's like  amazing content that resonates with your audience, you know, your buyer, your end user, and then you have to serve it on all the right channels with the right frequency, usage, et cetera, like cut it up the right way. But content is everything. So it's like, what is it that's going to inspire your buyers? What is it that's going to inspire your end users? And it's keeping it provocative.”*”No one likes fatigue. And so you have to keep fatigue, freshness, innovation in mind as you're generating these pieces of content. You could have like four or five different content streams. And people need to hear things multiple times, but they don't need to hear it seven times in a row. A lot of the content is developing the right things for your audience that are innately interesting. If you just ask someone, ‘Hey, is this interesting? Is this useful?' They say yes. But then serving it at the right frequency, at the right time, in the right form factor and package, is what I think differentiates okay marketers from incredible marketers.”*”If I was to give advice to others, like, really understand your personas, and make sure you know what they need and do it in the most authentic way. If you don't believe in the content, don't serve the content.  And I think a lot of people in marketing just check the box. ‘We need to do emails. We need to do ads. We need to do a white paper,' but like, why are you doing it? And then assess like, ‘Did this work? Did this not work?' And use that as impetus to drive the next thing. But you have to really believe in your content. And I think a lot of people are very tactical and that's where I think it falls flat.“*”The way we operate at Abridge is like you almost have this mentality that this is the last time you're ever gonna create a piece of content. So make it last, make it meaningful.  At some point, you gotta pull back and appreciate everything you've done. Take stock of it. But in the moment, like, don't look back. Don't look too far forward. Focus on today and crush it. And when you think about content that way, it's like, ‘I'm going to really focus on this piece of content. I don't really care what we've done in the past. I don't care what we're going to do in the future. I want to make this count.'”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Guru Sundar, VP of Marketing at Abridge[1:53] Guru Sundar's Journey into Marketing[4:31] The Role and Vision at Abridge[7:35] The Importance of Brand and Inspiration[16:37] Simon Sinek's Golden Circle[19:29] Personal Mission and Healthcare Innovation[23:25] The Impact of Transparency in Healthcare[25:20] AI and Deeper Understanding in Healthcare[25:46] The Importance of Patient History[27:53] Marketing and Storytelling in Healthcare[31:41] Challenges in B2B Healthcare Marketing[33:09] Clinician and Patient-Centric Solutions[43:12] The Role of Content in Marketing[50:34] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Guru on LinkedInLearn more about Simon Sinek and “Starting with Why”About Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

AI is changing so much about how we create content. So we thought we'd bring in the founders of a brand new tool for making rich, interactive 3D content using AI.We're talking with Co-Founders Charles Migos and Bharat Vasan.And together, we talk about how to make the most out of AI tools, including mocking up ideas, iterating quickly and taking risks.About our guests, Charles Migos and Bharat VasanCharles Migos is Co-Founder & CEO at Intangible. He has over 30 years of experience in the tech industry, specializing in UX and product design. He has previously worked for Microsoft and Apple. Prior to Intangible, Charles served as VP of Product Design at Unity Technologies, where he established a core design practice, principles and philosophy. He also founded a centralized design organization and drove double-digit NPS, CSAT, engagement KPIs and revenue improvement across their portfolio with product design efforts.Bharat Vasan is an experienced investor, executive and board member with 15+ years of leadership in technology. He has a strong track record as a founder and operator in multiple sectors:• Connected Sensors & Devices• Consumer Software and Media• Healthcare, Fitness & Wellness• IoT Sensors / Smart HomeBharat is currently a founder of Intangible.ai, which uses AI to build the world's simplest 3D storytelling tool for creators in games, film, web and XR.Prior to Intangible, Bharat was an investment partner at The Production Board, a $450M venture capital fund, where he built on his experience as an angel investor with a deep network of founders. He helped invest in and create value at businesses ranging from foundry/seed, all the way to growth/IPO. As COO for fund, he also helped the firm fundraise and navigate market cycles in 3 of the most volatile years in venture capital.Bharat also has a strong track record as a P&L operator for growth and early-stage companies, having led his businesses through multiple rounds of financing and acquisitions. Bharat has raised over $500m for his companies, with multiple exits (founded BASIS Science, acq. by Intel; President August Home, acq. by Assa Abloy; CEO of PAX Labs, achieved unicorn status).Bharat is an active public speaker and Board member for venture-backed startups, and nonprofits.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Intangible.ai:Mock up ideas. You can make effective prototypes of a content idea with AI. It lets you get your idea across without having to invest a lot of time or money in a first draft. Charles says, “A storyboard is probably the most important artifact in the process after the script itself. Why? Because it is very low fidelity, but there is very high bandwidth in what it communicates. So like, I as the cinematographer, the director, the set designer, the costume designer, the visual effects supervisor, whomever, looks at A 2D sketch and understands exactly what it means for them creatively. So that idea that you can work from very low or coarse levels of detail, but get to very high levels of detail over time in the way that the process requires is super important. And is as enabling for those film creators or game creators as it will be for these other use cases we hope to activate around live event and architecture, urban design, live event productions and theater and all of that good stuff.”Iterate quickly. Something not quite right with the first version? Iterate quickly using AI. It can even give you multiple drafts or versions of the same idea. Bharat says, ” If you're trying to do a Pixar movie or a documentary, or you're trying to make an interactive game, that's the stuff that feels harder. And it feels like AI can simplify some of that. I can give you a first draft, I can give you a second draft, and I can do it in real time.” Take risks. Because you're not having to spend too much time or money mocking up your ideas with AI, it allows you to take some risks. Get really wild and see how far your ideas can take you. Bharat says, ”One thing that's happened to businesses because budgets have gotten so big, everyone's super risk averse, so you get more lookalike content. And one reason you don't see great content on channels like we used to, or the box offices, because, you know, when your budget is that large, you can't afford to take a lot of creative risks.  So one reason we started the company where we are is if we can make that beginning process easy, if it's easier for Netflix to review more pitches, if it's easier for them to get a better scent, maybe they start taking more diverse bets.”Quotes*” When we found ourselves in this moment around generative AI, I knew that the time had come. Like we could apply generative AI in a way that was designed for creatives to do their best work ever. And I'm an ardent believer that creativity is a team sport.” - Charles Migos*” There's a lot of anxiety about, is AI gonna take over jobs? What is it gonna do to the creative industry? I see it slightly differently. I see it as a way to revert back to the original joy.” - Bharat Vasan*” Those people who feel somewhat threatened by the technological advance, we want to re-weaponize them so that they have more tools and skills that they can employ in different ways to ensure that bright, creative minds are in charge of the content that we enjoy as lovers of the space and consumers of that content.” - Charles Migos*” If you're trying to do a Pixar movie or a documentary, or you're trying to make an interactive game, that's the stuff that feels harder. And it feels like AI can simplify some of that. I can give you a first draft, I can give you a second draft, and I can do it in real time. But the agency that people feel when they're able to do that in real time is really, really powerful. And they share that with other people, other people give them feedback. At least when I build stuff, that gives me energy. I made something as a kid, you know, with my little Lego bricks. I shared it with my friends. They go, ‘That's really cool.' They want to build it with me. That's the fun part about being in this business.” - Bharat Vasan*”Now that AI has come along, we feel like that's the last unconquered thing. You can set up a 3D set, you can figure out how to film it before you spend a dollar on production. And then people know what it looks like, feels like, when you're pitching that to a client, to a movie studio, they get a sense of what that's like as well. And so everyone gets more confidence on the creative project before going into production. And one of the things that's broken about the business is everyone has to place that bet in millions and millions of dollars without knowing what's going to come out of it at the end of the day. And often it might not even be a storyboard, it might just be a script or a blurb. And then you're just hoping and praying that someone's going to do something good with it.” - Bharat Vasan*”A storyboard is probably the most important artifact in the process after the script itself. Why? Because it is very low fidelity, but there is very high bandwidth in what it communicates. So like, I as the cinematographer, the director, the set designer, the costume designer, the visual effects supervisor, whomever, looks at A 2D sketch and understands exactly what it means for them creatively. So that idea that you can work from very low or coarse levels of detail, but get to very high levels of detail over time in the way that the process requires is super important. And is as enabling for those film creators or game creators as it will be for these other use cases we hope to activate around live event and architecture, urban design, live event productions and theater and all of that good stuff.” - Charles Migos*”One thing that's happened to businesses because budgets have gotten so big, everyone's super risk averse, so you get more lookalike content. And one reason you don't see great content on channels like we used to, or the box offices, because, you know, when your budget is that large, you can't afford to take a lot of creative risks.  So one reason we started the company where we are is if we can make that beginning process easy, if it's easier for Netflix to review more pitches, if it's easier for them to get a better scent, maybe they start taking more diverse bets.” - Bharat VasanTime Stamps[00:55] Meet Intangible.ai Co-founders Charles Migos and Bharat Vasan[01:34] Charles' Early Inspirations[03:26] Bharat's Journey and Inspirations[04:26] Founding Intangible AI[04:30] The Vision Behind Intangible AI[05:59] Challenges in the Creative Industry[09:38] The Role of AI in Creativity[20:42] User Experience and Design Thinking[26:01] The Complexity and Fear of AI in Creativity[27:53] Supporting Creative Intent with AI[29:06] Generative AI and the Future of Content Creation[30:33] Revolutionizing B2B Marketing with AI[36:07] The Role of Taste in Creative AI Tools[42:14] Simplifying the Creative Process[46:44] Empowering Original Ideas and Risk-Taking[51:19] Final Thoughts and Closing RemarksLinksConnect with Bharat and Charles on LinkedInLearn more about Intangible.aiAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

You would never send a postcard instead of an email, create a zine instead of a white paper, or take polaroids instead of digital headshots. But that's why you, the digital marketer, should do it.There's an appeal to all of these lo-fi, analog mediums that call back to yesteryear. A nostalgia. A deliberate denial of modernity. Not only would it surprise your audience, it would lure them right in.So in this episode, we're making a case for lo-fi content. We're doing so by pulling marketing lessons from Ken Layne's Desert Oracle.With the help of our special guest, Chief Evangelist at Contentful, Nicole France, we talk about creating lo-fi content, bucking convention, taking a distinct perspective, and much more.About our guest, Nicole FranceNicole France is Chief Evangelist at Contentful. Nicole is a passionate customer advocate evangelizing new ways of thinking about content and organizing the work of digital business. It's the wave of the future — and her mission is to make sure everyone knows why. She brings the perspective and critical thinking of an industry analyst and the first-hand experience of a practitioner. Before joining Contentful, Nicole worked as an analyst at Constellation Research and Gartner. She also held a variety of strategy and marketing roles at Fujitsu, Equinix, ITSMA, and Cisco. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Nicole enjoys the outdoors, flying small planes, and embarking on yet another house project in her spare time.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Desert Oracle:Create lo-fi content. Make a zine, a radio show or podcast, a book or comic book. Something your audience can touch and can use to get a bit deeper into your world. Make your brand real for them. Nicole says that when it comes to Desert Oracle, “There's something here that kind of harkens back to what the arts and crafts movement was. In the industrial revolution, you know, this idea of kind of going back to this craft, this artisanal, this very human, this very lo-fi way of doing things. And ironically enough, I think there's a real space for that, even in these digital channels.”Buck convention. Feeling disillusioned with the mainstream take on building an audience? Ken Layne grows his audience by creating niche, tangible content with a strong sense of place and it has garnered a dedicated following. In 2024, 44% of Spotify listeners were new to the Desert Oracle podcast, and it ranked among the top 5 or top 10 podcasts for 5,000 listeners. Nicole says, “ [Ken Layne] is actively rejecting conventional wisdom about how you build an audience. And yet that is absolutely part of what is making him successful at doing it. And it's almost like the extent to which I think of Patagonia a lot of times in this kind of context, where Patagonia is telling you, like, use the stuff you already have. And that somehow is part of what makes you want to keep going back to Patagonia. This is what makes people so loyal to Patagonia is the bigger mission. And like weirdly telling people not to buy it somehow is what makes them want to go and buy more, which is sort of, but not actually their intent.”Take a distinct perspective. What is the story that is unique to you? That's the story you want to tell. Nicole says, “ That distinctiveness in that perspective and that point of view, I think that's something that really effective brands gravitate toward anyway. They're good at it consciously and sometimes unconsciously as well. And I think B2B marketing needs more of that. You know, where what we offer our customers, regardless of what we're selling is typically not generic stuff. So why should our marketing sound like generic stuff? And yet a whole hell of a lot of it does. For a long time, we've been in a world where there's a tremendous volume of noise and the kinds of things that get cut through are things like Ken Layne's curmudgeonly, somewhat dismissive and yet somehow totally compelling take on the world. That's what draws people in."Curate an experience. Ken Layne curates an experience that captures the mystical nature of Joshua Tree and the greater Mojave Desert. And he does it by appealing to the senses - more than just the sight that digital content requires. You hear the voices of the desert through his podcast and radio show. You can hold an artifact of the desert: the Desert Oracle zine. His multimedia approach creates a world unique to Desert Oracle. And you get the inside scoop. Nicole says, “ There is a very specific point of view, it is Ken Layne's point of view. But he also brings in a bunch of stories from other people and from other places and sometimes from other times as well.  he's curating an experience for you. And I think that is a really powerful takeaway here.”Quotes*” What Ken Layne does with Desert Oracle is paint this very compelling picture of a place. In some cases, a literal place, like when he's hiking out in Joshua tree, or in some cases, it's more of almost like a spiritual place, a conceptual place that we want to be in.*” How do we get back in touch with the things that are really fundamental, that really are the most important in our existence and nature and, you know, as people? And then how do we associate those meaningful things with what we do in the rest of our lives?”*” [Ken Layne] is actively rejecting conventional wisdom about how you build an audience. And yet that is absolutely part of what is making him successful at doing it. And it's almost like the extent to which I think of Patagonia a lot of times in this kind of context, where Patagonia is telling you, like, use the stuff you already have. And that somehow is part of what makes you want to keep going back to Patagonia. This is what makes people so loyal to Patagonia is the bigger mission. And like weirdly telling people not to buy it somehow is what makes them want to go and buy more, which is sort of, but not actually their intent.”*” When you have a really compelling idea or message at the core, you can find all of these different ways of communicating it really effectively.”*” We found the podcast and then we found the publication. And I guess it really speaks to this idea that multimedia is everywhere. It's in a whole bunch of different stuff. And I think that is actually a really important message and takeaway here, too.  I think that  this idea of being able to explore different aspects of the story and the story world is really key.  Knowing where your audience is, but also being able to bring your audience to where you are, or where you want them to be.  Like, I have totally been brought in and then bought into the world of Desert Oracle. How I got there is almost immaterial, but like there are all these different places that I'm getting this enjoyment from, being part of that world and I feel like I have found a path that brought me in there.”*”[Desert Oracle] is not for everybody for sure, but boy, it creates an incredibly loyal and dedicated audience. That's actually what we want to do as B2B marketers as well.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Nicole France, Chief Evangelist at Contentful[3:45] Nicole France's Role at Contentful[4:54] The Creation of Desert Oracle[7:07] Ken Layne's Career Journey[10:17] Marketing Lessons from Desert Oracle[13:57] The Power of Authenticity in Marketing[14:49] The Role of Generative AI in Marketing[39:06] The Importance of Longevity in Content Creation[41:34] Final Thoughts and ConclusionLinksConnect with Nicole on LinkedInLearn more about ContentfulAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

A fly fisherman goes to part of the river where the trout are feeding, uses a fly that mimics the insect hatching at that time, and times their cast to land just-so.A marketer goes where their target audience is, posts content in-sync with what's trending, and times their campaign to land just-so. It's that same idea of tuning into the media landscape and knowing your audience that will land you the big fish. There are so many marketing lessons we can take from fly fishing. And in this episode, we're tying the two together through an analysis of A River Runs Through It.With the help of our special guest, CMO Simpro Rachel Truair, we're talking about how rhythm and timing are everything, going where you're most likely to find success, and much more.About our guest, Rachel TruairRachel Truair is a seasoned marketing leader with over 15 years of experience in driving revenue and growth for high-growth startups and Fortune 100 enterprises. She combines foundational best practices from her corporate background with agile and innovative approaches from her scale up experience, leading and mentoring teams through successful exits in IPOs and acquisitions. Her teams have won the Forrester Return on Integration Award, the Oracle "Markie" Award, and nominated for the 6Sense Breakthrough Award.Currently, as the CMO of Simpro, a $120M+ ARR private equity-backed field service management software company headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Rachel is responsible for aligning marketing strategy to business outcomes and creating predictable, scalable sources of revenue. She leverages her expertise in go to market strategy, account based marketing and leading global marketing teams to source pipeline driving ninety percent of Simpro's annual revenue.As an equestrian and fly fisherwoman, Rachel is passionate about conservation and the outdoors, serving on the non-profit board of the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center. She is a mom of two and holds a BA from St. Edward's University and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.What B2B Companies Can Learn From A River Runs Through It:Rhythm and timing are everything. Marketing, like fishing, takes practice, skill and finesse. Rachel says when it comes to flyfishing, “ It's not about strength. It's not about muscling it into something. It's about understanding the rhythm and the timing. A lot of times you want to just try to get to the end and be really perfect at something and put all of your strength into it and throw it as far as you can. But the reality is that actually makes it worse. It makes it harder. And if you can start to learn the rhythm, the feel, the timing of it, you can really start to see improvement.” Go where you're most likely to have success. In other words, go where your target audience is. Whether that's social media, email, podcasts, or wherever. You're literally fishing for customers. Rachel says, ” You really need to focus on the areas where you have the highest probability for success and be testing and iterating within those areas. But you also have to believe that the fish are there, right? You have to know that this is the right area where they would be.  And you can't waste time on the areas where you don't have belief.”It's all about storytelling. We all know about big fish stories. With fishing, just like marketing, it's all about having a story to tell. Ian says, “It is about the thing that you can go tell other people and when you get to come back. Whether it's from an event or your podcast series, and you get to go back and everyone says, ‘What'd you get?' You have to have conviction. You go to the place, you try your best. And if you don't get all the leads or opportunities or whatever it is, that you get that story that you can go back and say, ‘Hey, this is why this was worth it. '” What's your story?  Quotes*”Cost per lead these days really doesn't mean anything. I could spend a dollar on 3,000 spam leads and that doesn't mean that I'm going to get any new sales or great deals out of it. What is hard is to measure the value of what you're spending money on that creates valuable, sustainable growth. And customers who love the product and have success with the product. That's really not just about spending certain money up front to attract those customers, but also following those customers in their journey and understanding. How are you going to make them successful?”*” You really need to focus on the areas where you have the highest probability for success and be testing and iterating within those areas. But you also have to believe that the fish are there, right? You have to know that this is the right area where they would be.  And you can't waste time on the areas where you don't have belief.”*”Marketing [like fishing] is about the story, it is about the thing that you can go tell other people and when you get to come back. Whether it's from an event or your podcast series, and you get to go back and everyone says, ‘What'd you get?' You have to have conviction. You go to the place, you try your best. And if you don't get all the leads or opportunities or whatever it is, that you get that story that you can go back and say, ‘Hey, this is why this was worth it. '”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Rachel Truair, CMO at Simpro[4:20] The Story Behind A River Runs Through It[9:36] Fly Fishing Techniques and Marketing Parallels[15:17] The Deeper Meaning of Fly Fishing[22:22] Personal Fly Fishing Experiences and Marketing Insights[25:51] Focusing on High Probability Areas[26:39] Defining Success in Marketing[28:06] Fly Fishing Team Building Experience[[38:39] Fishing Stories and Marketing Lessons[44:52] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Rachel on LinkedInLearn more about SimproAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Over 85 million people play Pokemon Go every month.* They're out there, wandering the real world, finding, catching and battling with their cute little virtual creatures. But the experience is real and the people they play with are real. You could say it's one of the most successful in-person activations ever. Pokemon Go is proof that in-person activations act as an extremely effective marketing strategy.That's one of the lessons we're taking from Pokemon in this episode with the help of our special guest, fractional CMO Veronica Saron. Together, we also talk about providing game balance, paying attention to metrics, and much more.*As of the first half of 2024About our guest, Veronica SaronVeronica Saron is a marketing leader, formerly of Niantic (Pokémon GO) and AI-powered Neeva (acquired by Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW) in May 2023). Her journey has led her through the worlds of gaming, DAOs, artificial intelligence, web3, and the metaverse. Recently, she led the marketing team at Neeva, revolutionizing the search experience by embedding AI answers into an advertiser-free search engine. Her team's efforts around Neeva's AI-powered positioning – paired with frequent high-profile updates – illuminated their innovative approach, attracted industry leaders and led to their acquisition by Snowflake.Over a decade ago, Veronica co-founded OwlSpark, Rice University's entrepreneurship accelerator, marking the start of her tech journey. After serving Fortune 500 and Global 2000 clients as a strategy consultant and having a stint as a coordinator at Google, she joined Niantic. There, she led the team that transformed Pokémon GO into a global phenomenon, collaborating with esteemed partners like Google, Apple, Samsung, Nintendo, McDonald's, Verizon, Longchamp, Gucci, Northface, and 7-Eleven, as well as countless global SMBs, community creators, and influencers. She has since stepped into roles as an investor and advisor, shaping the future of tech startups. Outside of work, she enjoys stovetop espresso, practicing muay thai, and playing the saxophone. What B2B Companies Can Learn From Pokemon:Provide game balance. Veronica says, “ When people talk about gamification, it needs to be at the right level of difficulty for you to not just get frustrated and give up. A really good game  will start you off on level one and then you progress through difficulty levels.” And when you apply this to marketing, Ian says, “ Your sales process getting really hard for no freaking reason is the most frustrating thing ever.” So take your customers on a journey, and give them the experience appropriate to where they are in their buying process.Look at the metrics. And give them more weight than verbal feedback. Data speaks louder than words. Veronica says, “ When Pokemon Go was in beta, the metrics were really good. Like the retention rates, the activation rates. All the metrics were up and to the right. But people were giving really bad feedback. They were like, ‘I hate this. Why is it not like that? Why isn't it working this way? Why isn't it doing that? Why isn't it doing this?' And the reason why the team launched the game is because the metrics just spoke louder than what people were saying.”Plan in-person activations.  And create immersive environments for your audience. Veronica says, “ When you think about B2B events, you think about conferences and these kind of old school vibes, and I  don't think that's the cutting edge anymore. If you want to do B2B marketing well, take a page out of B2C. There've been some incredible in-person events.” When she worked on Pokemon Go, they were able to do successful in-person events even during COVID and they were able to grow the business despite restrictions.Quotes*”  With Pokemon Go and with any product, there's always going to be core users who are like super users. And they will have all these ideas. They'll want certain features. They'll want certain things fixed. They will be really loud. And then you get the rest of everybody that's the silent majority. A huge part of what product marketers have to do is prioritize feedback based on what is actually going to move the needle in terms of our goals. Because if you just listen to the core users all the time, you'll just make this thing that's only for a very specific super user. You have to balance that feedback with what's going to work for the majority as well.”*”Figure out what problem you're solving. Who is it for? Figure that out first and then you can start to think about being precious about your brand. Once you have something to protect, like the Pokemon company, then you can get precious about it.”*” Sometimes we get caught up in our own core mindset and we forget we have to take the customer through a journey and through a ‘balanced game,' if you will.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Veronica Saron, Fractional CMO at early stage startups[1:33] Veronica's Journey with Pokemon[5:02] The Origin Story of Pokemon[10:07] Pokemon's Global Impact[16:01] Marketing Pokemon Go[29:16] The Business Model of Pokémon Go[35:06] B2B Marketing Lessons from Pokémon Go[35:53] The Importance of Game Balance in B2B[41:46] Brand Consistency and Product Market Fit[46:44] The Power of In-Person EventsLinksConnect with Veronica on LinkedInAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Not all remakes are created equal. The Dune of 2021 is not the Dune of 1984. Maybe we should say not all “retellings” are created equal. Because both movies are based on the 1965 book. But film critic Roger Ebert scathingly called the first one "an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion." Ouch.The second one - the one we're talking about today - is a different story. It's been called “aesthetically perfect,” and the “faithful retelling of a complicated story.” And it won a handful of Academy Awards.So we're talking about what makes a great retelling and how to use those lessons in your marketing content. With the help of our special guest, VP of Corporate Marketing at Cribl, Ryan Mattison, we also talk about delivering a singular experience, doing partnership-driven marketing, and much more.About our guest, Ryan MattisonRyan Mattison is VP of Corporate Marketing at Cribl, where he leads the corporate marketing team, and looks after brand, creative, communications, and events. Prior to joining Cribl in July 2024, Ryan served as VP of Brand & Communications at ThoughtSpot. There, he led brand, creative and design, communications, PR and analyst relations, customer marketing, employee advocacy, investor relations and content marketing functions. Since joining as an individual contributor in 2017, he built the team from the ground up to deliver world class campaigns that cut through a highly competitive landscape, improve ThoughtSpot's reputation and awareness among key audiences, and generated pipeline that led to revenue.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Dune:Deliver a singular experience. And deliver it in the format that optimizes the experience. Like how Dune was presented on iMax. The large format made the experience of the sounds and the vast landscape of the film a more immersive and real experience. Ryan says, ”Deliver an authentic experience, and people will pay for it. That idea of being intentional and connecting it with a really authentic value prop, that for Dune was super real. That large screen format with the premium sound is going to really, really differentiate your experience with the movie.”Partner up.  Find other companies to cross promote content with. Dune did this with the video game Fortnite, allowing players to buy a “skin” so their avatar looks like a Dune character. Ryan says, “Dune also did probably one of the best jobs in recent years of doing partnership-driven marketing. Theater going is skewing older and older, but something like Fortnite,  has a much younger skewed audience. They were like, ‘We need to target a younger demographic because if we can get kids or young folks to ask their parents to go see Dune and their parents were already kind of thinking about going, now it's a family thing. And you're not selling one ticket or two tickets. You're selling four, five, six tickets at one time.” Ryan adds, “ How do you find the right partner that's not just the easy partner, but the partner where you're able to find or open up new channels, new demographics, new audiences in a way that feels like there's intentional value being delivered?”Create a remake. Or as Ian says, “Try it again for the first time.” Because the movie Dune that came out in 2021 was a remake of the 1984 movie. Or really it was a retelling of the same story with little regard for the first version. And because of the generational difference between viewers, Ian says, “This [2021 version] was the first interaction with Dune for, I would bet, a massive percentage of the audience that saw this. They never read the books. They didn't watch the first movie.  But for people like your mom, it's like, ‘Hey, try it again for the first time.' Like, ‘Yeah, I know you saw the old movie. This is nothing like that. Just try it again.” It reframes everyone's idea of the original story, and gives a totally new experience of it. So make a remake but keep it fresh.Throw the party. Ian says, “ If you make something worth talking about,  throw the party so that the people can talk about it.” That's what this podcast is all about, getting people to talk about Remarkable content and spreading knowledge of it through word of mouth. He adds, “ If you make content also make the event, make a premiere, make a big deal out of it.” Also because you deserve to celebrate good content and the hard work that went into it.Quotes*” There is no time when somebody is engaging with any facet of your brand or your business in which you shouldn't be representing the perception that you want to drive.  Every one of those is an opportunity to tell your story in a potentially different channel, different way.”*”Deliver an authentic experience, and people will pay for it. That idea of like, being intentional, and connecting it with a really authentic value prop, that for Dune, was super real. That large screen format with the premium sound is going to really, really differentiate your experience with the movie.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Ryan Mattison, VP of Corporate Marketing at Cribl[0:56] B2B Marketing Lessons from Dune[4:11] Marketing at Cribl[7:16] The Storytelling Power of Corporate Marketing[9:18] Dune: From Book to Blockbuster[12:09] Denis Villeneuve's Vision for Dune[15:28] Marketing Strategies Behind Dune's Success[22:56] Partnership-Driven Marketing Insights[27:24] The Challenge of Marketing B2B Products[27:46] Lessons from the Dune Movie Marketing[28:57] The Role of Mega Stars in Movie Success[31:23] The Importance of Authentic Marketing[35:32] Building Anticipation and Word of Mouth[44:20] The Power of the CEO's Voice[48:52] Upcoming Events and Final ThoughtsLinksConnect with Ryan on LinkedInLearn more about CriblAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Everyone loves getting the insider view.It's like getting let in on a secret. There's an exclusivity to it that's all too appealing. So why not lure your audience in with the chance to be a fly on the wall in your story?That's one of the things we're talking about today with the help of our special guest, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at CSG, David Pendery. Together, we're taking marketing lessons from The West Wing including pitting two characters against each other with opposing views, going for the walk-and-talk, and much more.About our guest, David PenderyDavid Pendery is an award-winning creative, business-focused enterprise marketing & communications leader with extensive experience building brands and businesses, connecting stakeholder needs to company solutions and driving impactful results for 10-figure and Fortune 500 B2B and B2C organizations. He has more than 20 years of experience elevating the visibility, media sophistication and global internal and external interactions of diverse national and international public and private organizations in a wide variety of industries, representing some of the most well-known B2B and B2C brands.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The West Wing:Give the fly-on-the-wall insider view. Let your audience in on the inside scoop of your story. David says in The West Wing, “ It was like you were a fly on the wall in these super secret conversations, right? The way it was written, I think is what was so successful about it.  You just felt like you were the secret observer and it drew people in.” And Ian adds that “ fly on the wall content is crazy valuable.  You feel like you are intruding on a conversation that you are not invited to. And like, that's incredibly cool for the audience.”Pit two characters against each other with opposing views. It's an easy formula for a compelling plot, it's repeatable, and it works every time. Plus you have one of the greatest writers - Aaron Sorkin - using it in his content. Ian says, “ The way that Sorkin wrote the show, is The West Wing happens in the west wing of the White House. So he would repeatedly say to his staff, ‘Our show is at its best when it's one of our characters that we love, they're disagreeing with another character that we love, and they are on either side of something. And it is happening in the West Wing.'”Go for the walk-and-talk. In The West Wing, a character is often walking down the hallway and other staffers are coming up and updating them or giving them important information on the way. The movement gives the information immediacy and importance. Which are great attributes to lend your content. Ian says, “ I think it's an interesting thing to put your CEO or executive or whoever it is - your persona - and it's a really good way to get video content, right? It's like having them walking and having other people come up to them and jump in and do this. You never see that in B2B, never. You never see that. And it's funny. It's pretty cool.”Quotes*”The biggest thing is you've got to establish some credibility with the stakeholders. So I think it's not really something you're going to be able to come in and do on day one, but if you can prove some value, if you can deliver on the results that you've been tasked with delivering, you'll build up this credibility bank and your stakeholders will let you push the envelope a little bit more.  That credibility allows you to be a little bit more experimental, a little bit more agile, and not get too hung up when things don't always work exactly the way you had hoped.”*”Have your A players up front, make sure you've got the right people surrounding you. Having the right people in the right seats on the bus, so to speak, I think is super important because you wouldn't have that same sort of beautiful orchestration that you saw with The West Wing if it wasn't for the right blend of talents and personalities and experiences in all the right seats.”*”Well, so much B2B marketing is so perfectly staged, right? You've got the perfect talking head and everything's polished and overproduced. You've got the perfect soundtrack and the perfect graphics and everything else. And I think sometimes just getting something a little bit more raw like that walk-and-talk kind of gives you that. It's a little unfiltered. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be the 15th take to get the talking points just right. It's just a real, authentic kind of moment that I think is a lot more endearing. And people are much more interested in something that isn't perfect, cause it's more relatable.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet David Pendery, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at CSG[1:41] Why the West Wing?[4:00] The Origins of the West Wing[11:52] Marketing Lessons from the West Wing[26:24] Embracing Raw and Authentic B2B Marketing[26:59] The Importance of Creativity in Marketing[28:36] Understanding Customer Needs Through Direct Conversations[30:57] Timing and Flexibility in B2B Marketing[37:59] The Role of Personal Branding in Company Success[43:54] Investing in Content and Brand Strategy[47:03] Exciting Trends and Future Plans[48:00] Final Thoughts and Advice for CMOsLinksConnect with David on LinkedInLearn more about CSGAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Every person on your team has strengths and…non-strengths. So position them to make the most out of their top skills.It's like how in soccer, you position your top goal-scorer as a forward, not running defense, right? The same is true with marketing. In this episode, we're drawing parallels between soccer and marketing. With the help of our special guest, former Director of Brand Strategy, Storytelling & Advocacy at Ciscy, Cindy Valladares, we're taking marketing lessons from the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team. Together, we talk about using your talent the right way, taking calculated risks, and putting fear in the heart of your competitors.About our guest, Cindy ValladaresCindy Valladares is a marketing executive who recently led brand strategy, storytelling and advocacy for Cisco's cybersecurity business unit. A product marketer at heart, she lives by the NIHITO (nothing interesting happens in the office) motto. Cindy has been a speaker at various security, risk and privacy conferences in North America, Europe and Latin America, where she focuses on topics that affect the information security industry. She is a regular contributor at the Cisco Secure blog, shares her perspective on Twitter @cindyv, and can also be found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/cindyvalladares/. She holds an international MBA from the University of Ottawa in Canada, and a BBA in Marketing and International Business.What B2B Companies Can Learn From the USWNT:Take calculated risks. You have to try new things and take some risks. That's how you keep your content fresh and find the big successes. Cindy says that when Emma Hayes took over coaching the U.S. Women's National Team, “she made some very unpopular choices, right? Alex Morgan, who everybody thought was going to be called in the roster, she was left out. And so [Emma] had new creative ideas that she wanted to try, and took some calculated risks. And like we say, nothing tried, nothing gained, and you can see the results.” And a few months later, they won the 2024 Paris Olympics.Use your talent the right way. Match their strengths and skills to the role. And put them on tasks they'll perform well on. When everyone is doing work they're good at and that utilizes their strengths, it benefits the whole team. Ian says, “ Part of the Emma Hayes thing is Trinity Rodman flying down the right side of your team is super valuable because she's like one of the best in the world and she's fast and athletic and all that. Having her spam a cross into nobody even though she's good at that too doesn't help your team. That's not a more valuable action. Whereas her trying to take on the defender one on one, if she does win, and now she's driving at the goal with nobody in between her and the goal, that's way more valuable. And like, I think that that's part of what marketing is about, is figuring out what are the more high leverage things that you can do that make a huge difference.”Put fear in the heart of your competitors. Or more like envy. You want your competitors to look at your content and be jealous. Ian says, “ Every team that we played in the Olympics  is absolutely terrified of the front three of our country sprinting after them  with their defenders on their heels. It's like the most terrifying thing in the world is Trinity Rodman sprinting at their backline, right? And I think about this with competitors with your content campaign. Like I talk about the edutainment graph, rated on a scale of one out of 10 educational, one out of 10 entertaining. So rank your content on the graph and before you even plan to make something, is your competitor going to see this and be like, ‘Oh, I'm so jealous, this is great,' Or is it just something that they're gonna like, ‘All right?'” Quotes*”It's  really important in marketing organizations to lead with a leadership style that creates empathy and allows others to do their best, not a culture of fear.”*” That's an important element of a leader, understanding who you have on your team, what motivates and drives them, and how can you create an environment where they can perform and outperform?”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Cindy Valladares, former Director of Brand Strategy, Storytelling & Advocacy at Cisco[3:41] History and Achievements of the US Women's National Soccer Team[6:38] Equal Pay and Gender Equality Advocacy[8:09] Emma Hayes' Impact on the US Women's National Soccer Team[13:36] Marketing Lessons from Soccer[21:38] Emma Hayes' Coaching Strategies[24:25] Recognizing and Utilizing Team Strengths[25:17] Leveraging Senior Executives in Content[26:49] Maximizing Talent and High-Value Actions[29:11] Understanding Your Audience in Content Strategy[32:36] Creating Impactful and Entertaining Content[35:30] Balancing Brand Awareness and Demand Generation[39:27] Favorite Content Campaigns and Their ImpactLinksConnect with Cindy on LinkedInAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Marketing is a serious business. Even when it's silly.See, you still want your silly, funny content to be well planned, well-executed, and well distributed. In this episode, we're talking about how to take your sillies seriously.That's one of the marketing lessons we're taking from Hamburger Helper's Watch the Stove Mixtape. With the help of our special guest, HiBob CMO Sarah Reynolds, we also talk about how to run little content experiments, listening to your customers, and doubling down on your big wins.About our guest, Sarah ReynoldsSarah Reynolds (they/them) is Chief Marketing Officer at HiBob. An openly non-binary executive, Sarah writes widely about diversity and inclusion, pay equity, the future of work, and the intersection of bias, ethics, and technology. They love spicy food, and can frequently be found in their garden tending to their many varieties of hot chili pepper plants.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Hamburger Helper:Take your sillies seriously. If you're going to make funny or silly content, it should still be well planned and executed. Otherwise it can come off as cringey and become something you're not proud of. Ian says, “ [Hamburger Helper] did take the art part of [the mixtape] seriously. And that's when the music is actually good. If it was a stupid a** song that sounded bad, it would not have gone viral. It wouldn't have been popular.”Run little content experiments. Before you go through all the trouble of building out a campaign, tease the idea to your audience and see what catches. Ian says, “ I love the little cheap or free experiments that you can run by just throwing the tweet out there, putting it in an article, putting it in your newsletter, teasing something. So few people tease stuff because they're worried that if they don't do it, that somehow this is going to like disappoint some corporate overlords. But if you tease something and nobody ever asks you about it ever again, you probably shouldn't have made it in the first place. If you tease something and you don't do it and people ask you about it, then you have more reason to go make the thing.” Hamburger Helper's mascot, Lefty, tweeted about dropping a mixtape and it was the tweet that got the most engagement. So when their marketing team was tasked with doing something unique and different, they knew it was time to make the mixtape.Listen to your customers. If you tease your content ideas and you get lots of engagement, make the content. Give the people what they want. Sarah says, “ The original idea for [the mixtape] was a tweet from multiple years before the mixtape dropped where Lefty made a joke about releasing a mixtape and suddenly it was their most liked tweet of all time. And then subsequently over the intervening years, would make occasional jokes about the mixtapes almost ready and like the customers, the fans are like, ‘Yes, do it. I dare you.' And I mean at that point, you got years of data saying customers want this, right? Is it our core business? No, but let's see what happens if we give it to them.”If you have a big win, make a sequel. Or even a series. Like Hamburger Helper should have made a second or even third mixtape because this one did so well. Ian says, “ Once you have a hit, just keep winning.  It's so hard in the marketing world to ever give anybody something that they love. And once you do it, you just gotta keep going with it.  I think my biggest takeaway is once you find something good, build it into a series.”Quotes*"My first focus was inclusivity and accessibility. Let's make sure that the way that we represent ourselves is really holding true to our corporate values that focus on DEIB, that really speaks to every single person that we want to. Let's make sure that we look at things like color contrast. Let's make sure that we look at things like the typography that we're using and the brand styling that we're using, and we're making it so that it's accessible to all of the people that we want to reach, not just because my queer, disabled, non binary a** told you to do so, but because this is genuinely what we believe as a brand, and this is what we want to put out into the world, and this is what we want people to know about us, we want to lead in this space. So does that come with a very clear, direct ROI number? No, it doesn't. It comes with doing the right thing and being different and making sure that we're prioritizing the things that really matter to us and to our community and to our audience. We're being something for someone in a way that maybe not every brand in this space is thinking about.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Sarah Reynolds, CMO at HiBob[1:16] The Origin of the 'Watch the Stove' Mixtape[4:03] HiBob: Revolutionizing HR Tech[5:44] Creating the ‘Watch the Stove' Mixtape: From Idea to Execution[11:12] The Impact and Legacy of 'Watch the Stove'[33:00] Risks and Rewards in Marketing[36:18] The Power of Listening to Customers[43:31] Embracing Authenticity in Marketing[45:28] Content That Provides Value[49:43] Balancing Data and Vibes[54:55] Final Thoughts and PlugsLinksConnect with Sarah on LinkedInLearn more about HiBobAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

How are you celebrating your hero product? Better yet, how are you activating your audience to celebrate your hero product?7-Eleven has a lot to teach us about that with their Bring Your Own Cup Day. If you've never taken part, they encourage customers to bring in a vessel of choice to fill with Slurpee.They've seen people bring in cowboy hats, kiddie pools, even a prosthetic leg, and fill them to the brim with that slushy, cold, refreshing fizzy iconic drink.And customers are posting about it. It's ALL over social media. Having your customers post to their own social media about your product is just about any marketer's dream.So let's talk about how to do it! In this episode, we're talking about marketing lessons from 7-Eleven's Bring Your Own Cup Day.With the help of our special guest, Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI, JoAnn Martin, we talk about activating your community around your hero product, leaving it to the internet, and increasing the value of your engagement with customers.About our guest, JoAnn MartinJoAnn Martin is Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI. Prior to joining the company in November 2023, she served as VP of Marketing at Electric. She has also held marketing leadership roles at Searchspring, Hanzo and Provenir. She serves as an advisor to UserGems.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Bring Your Own Cup Day:Activate your community around your hero product. Create opportunities for your audience to celebrate your core product. JoAnn says, “ It's finding the product and the fit with the market and figuring out how you put that in front of the right customer, which is really foundationally strategic marketing.  And that gives you great opportunities to have those celebrations or to create those experiences.” And Ian says, “It's important to have a day,” like 7-Eleven's Bring Your Own Cup Day, which celebrates their hero product, the Slurpee, by having customers bring in their own vessel of choice. It's silly and fun and highlights the Slurpee as an iconic product.Leave it to the internet. Ask your audience online for input on your marketing. For instance, have them name a product, or get ideas for your next campaign. JoAnn says, “ When you leave things to the internet, great things can happen. But also it can go wheels off very fast. But that's part of the beauty of it, right? Is the wheels off-ness, is why it's novel and fun and you feel part of something. So you never know where it's going to go.” So maybe put some limits around what you ask for, but it's a resource ready to be tapped into.Increase the value of your engagement with customers. Think about diversifying your offerings within the same vertical or to appeal to the same target buyer.  JoAnn says, “A lot of companies struggle with, ‘How do we find something else that increases the value of our engagement with a customer?' Or ‘How do we build in an upsell strategy with our B2B SaaS company?' You've launched a core product for your customers. And customers love that core product. But as you grow as a company, you need to be able to develop more value for them. And you need to be able to develop more value to broaden your addressable market. And one of the learnings I take away is that they went and found that value. And for us as B2B marketers, maybe we can be a little more creative about the way that we find that additional value we can bring to our customers all the time.” Like 7-Eleven was already appealing to kids with their penny candy and video games. Add on to that an option for sugar-caffeine-fizz fix and the Slurpee was bound to become a hit too.Quotes*” How do I better partner with my product teammates? What's this Product-Marketing relationship? How do we get away from Product builds a thing and throws it all over the wall and Marketing figures out how to talk about it?' And it's a challenge. And I think this is a great example that those two disciplines are actually very tightly intertwined. And as marketers and product leaders and startups, we have to figure out how we're coming together to figure out what is that thing that celebrates our core product? What is the core product we put in front of a customer that has great fit for that customer and how do we figure out how to talk about it with them?”*” The concept of really tightly intertwining your product and how your customers experience that product and how you talk about it is really inspiring.”*” Great companies lean into the kind of messy pieces, but you have to be willing to lean into the kind of absurd, messy parts of the business.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet JoAnn Martin, Chief Revenue Officer & Head of Marketing at Black Crow AI[2:49] The Concept and Impact of BYOC Day[5:50] The Backstory Behind Slurpees[11:24] Marketing Strategies and Customer Engagement[15:09] Innovative Marketing and Product Development[28:32] Upcoming Exciting Projects at Black Crow AILinksConnect with JoAnn on LinkedInLearn more about Black Crow AIAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

The role of the marketer is changing. Scott Galloway, aka Prof G, says that to be successful today, marketers have to act as “coaches, advisors and strategists” to their company.That's what we're talking about in today's episode with the help of our special guest, VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit, Michael Rosman.Together, we talk about finding the right channel, being bold, and avoiding clickbait.About our guest, Michael RosmanMichael Rosman is VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit, having joined the company in April 2022. He has extensive work experience in Corporate strategy and Marketing. Prior to this, he worked at Amdocs, where he held various roles including Customer Business Executive, Director of Corporate Strategy, and Manager of Corporate Strategy from May 2016 to April 2022.Before joining Amdocs, Michael worked at Degania Medical as the Head of Strategy, Business Development & Innovation from May 2015 to May 2016. Michael also has experience at Biometrix, where he served as the Head of Strategic Planning and subsequently as the Interim COO from November 2011 to May 2015.Michael started his career at Tefen Management Consulting in July 2007, where he worked as a Senior Consultant for over four years. During his time at Tefen, he successfully led cross-functional and international teams on various projects in industries such as pharmaceuticals, automotive, chemicals, and healthcare.Michael Rosman completed his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University between the years 2004 and 2008. Later, between 2011 and 2012, he pursued an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Scott Galloway:Find the right channel. Test different channels to see which one your content achieves the best reach and resonance on. People on LinkedIn might engage with your content way more than on your blog. Use that to your advantage by creating more content gauged for your LinkedIn audience. Michael says, “Finding the right channel is a big takeaway for me. So I know everybody has the standard channels of paid ads and events and SEO and whatever is, but find a channel that maximizes your impact. Figure out your puzzle. Figure out who you are and something that might be unique [to you]. Maybe it's a channel that doesn't exist for anybody else.”Be bold. Know what you stand for and express it clearly and without fear of losing your audience. Michael says, “Go all in on something. [Scott Galloway] has so much conviction and so much belief in doing what he does, he can really go all out.” When you express your message authentically and with clarity, your content will resonate with your intended audience.Avoid clickbait. Make sure the meat of your content is valuable to your audience. Don't just give it all away in the title. Michael says, ”So many times, people have a hot take-y headline to lure you, to get you in, but then there's nothing else. All of the content that you wanted to consume is in the title and everything else is meaningless. [But] Whenever I tune in [to one of Scott Galloway's podcasts], I always feel like it was worth my time. I came in, I came for value, and it consistently delivers value. It's always interesting. There's always substance behind the title.”Quotes*”I really think about niching down, and about the shorts, shows and moonshots sort of positioning. You want to create stuff that your people can tap into for a minute or two. You want to create stuff that they can subscribe to and get like an hour a week. And then you want stuff that's definitive, could be viral and bingeworthy. If you have 15 different personas that you're selling to, if you could create a single bingeable asset for those 15 personas, that's far more valuable than creating 150 pieces of content for those 15 things.” - Ian Faison*”The world changes every minute. What was published a week ago is now no longer potentially relevant. So it's your job as a brand to reach forward into the future and say, ‘I think that based on what we know, what we're saying on our proprietary information and what our customers are saying, I think that this is where the world is going.” -  Ian FaisonTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Michael Rosman, VP of Marketing & Corporate Strategy at Verbit.ai[2:19] Verbit's Marketing and Customer Insights[7:29] Scott Galloway's Marketing Philosophy[10:42] The Journey and Impact of Scott Galloway[19:31] The Power of Serialized Content[24:52] Marketing Takeaways from Prof G[29:42] The Value of Definitive Works in Content[31:07] Challenges in Content Creation for Multiple Personas[32:04] The Importance of Niching Down and Binge-Worthy Content[39:39] Balancing Quality, Speed, and Cost in Video Production[42:16] The Future of AI in Content Creation[45:48] Verbit's Content StrategyLinksConnect with Michael on LinkedinLearn more about Verbit.aiAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

The marketing terrain is rough out there. In many ways, traversing the roots, rocks and mud of extreme trail running is like navigating the shifting marketing landscape.Both demand endurance, adaptability and a strategic mindset. Those are a few of the things we're talking about today. In this episode, we're taking marketing inspiration from extreme trail running with the help of our special guest, DeepL CMO Steve Rotter.Together, we talk about being agile, stepping where others have stepped, how to plot your own route, and aiming for progress over perfection.About our guest, Steve RotterSteve Rotter, an entrepreneur, evangelist, and author, brings over two decades of tech marketing leadership experience to his role as CMO at DeepL. With a track record as a two-time founder with two M&A deals and three unicorns under his belt, Steve is deeply passionate about innovative marketing, AI, and brand building. Prior to DeepL, Steve served as CMO of FourKites, where he spearheaded remarkable growth and revenue increases through targeted account-based marketing and PLG strategies, serving industry titans like Coke, Walmart, and Ford. His expertise extends to CMO roles at OutSystems and Acrolinx, where he drove unicorn growth, established category leadership, and facilitated successful acquisitions. He's also held leading tech-industry marketing positions at Adobe, Motorola, and Brightcove.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Extreme Trail Running:Agility is key. Be on the lookout for disruptions, like changes in buying pattern, that mean you may have to change course. Steve says he was out running “and we had a couple of days of rain because of the recent hurricane. And all of a sudden a trail that was normally a certain way had about a 10 foot river running through it, and you had to cross it and not try not to get too wet and fall over. And the course that you thought was one way is different.” This is true with marketing as well. The landscape is always changing. You have to adapt to what's in front of you to keep going.Step where others have stepped. If you've seen others have success with a particular marketing strategy, try it. Use their success to your advantage. Ian says, “If you have somebody's footprints right there in front of you, you can just stay right in their footprints.” Like in extreme trail running, you know stepping in the same place as the person in front of you is a safe bet.When there is no path, slow down just enough to plan your route. But don't take too long to do it. Ian says, “There's this balance of speed versus slowing down to plan your route. And I think that like a lot of times, in my opinion, B2B marketing teams slow down and plan way too much. And they're way overly concerned with the perfect plan rather than running. At the end of the day, you have to move. You have to keep moving. So many people are just crippled by indecision.”Progress over perfection. Don't wait for perfect data to make great content. Use what information you have to move forward. Steve says, “In many cases, you have very data-driven businesses and by definition, marketing has become almost a data-driven skill set that has to be present. But in many ways, it's that analysis paralysis that slows them down because they're waiting for perfect data. We can't wait for perfection. We have to show progress.”Quotes*”I think that's actually a really healthy discipline for marketing teams, is not just to be on that hamster wheel all the time, but to take some time out and say, ‘Look, what do we really want to do? What do we want to say? What's our message? What's our story? What's our creative angle?' And rarely do you achieve that in moments of extreme distraction, right? It's that focus time that kind of drives those light bulb moments.”*”A leadership approach that is acceptable has a tolerance and there's no fear of failure. If you have marketers that are afraid, like if they make a mistake, they're going to get yelled at or fired, then of course they're going to take time because they're going to just wait for perfect. Whereas if you build a culture in your marketing team around speed, velocity, and learning from your mistakes, then you got a good recipe.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Steve Rotter, CMO at DeepL[1:48] The Connection Between Trail Running and Marketing[6:42] Psychology and Support in Extreme Trail Racing[12:54] Preparation and Training for Trail Running[16:56] Marketing Strategies and Team Dynamics[22:15] Balancing Speed and Planning in B2B Marketing[23:55] Overcoming Analysis Paralysis[24:24] The Importance of a Fearless Marketing Culture[25:05] Navigating Unpredictable Terrain[29:12] The Little Things in Marketing[31:46] Educating the Market on AI[34:37] Leveraging Customer Stories[37:54] Advice for CMOs on Content Strategy[40:04] Uncovering Hidden StoriesLinksConnect with Steve on LinkedInLearn more about DeepLAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

A three-tier showstopper cake may have beautiful pipework and neatly done icing, but if it's overbaked and dry on the inside, it's not a good cake.The same is true for marketing. If it has no message but it's beautiful, it's not good marketing. Focusing on substance over style is one of the many lessons we're taking from The Great British Baking Show in this episode.Together with the help of our special guest, VP of Corporate Marketing at Trellix, Sara Aiello, we talk about being brand classy, going for substance over style, and trusting your gut.About our guest, Sara AielloSara drives impactful brand and communication initiatives that inspire, inform, and elevate global businesses. At Trellix, she led the brand launch of Trellix from FireEye and McAfee Enterprise. Previously, as Head of Growth & Engagement for Amazon's large item business, she accelerated business growth and customer engagement. At BlackBerry, as Vice President of Field Marketing, Sara led global marketing and sales enablement teams, enhancing the company's technology recognition. During her tenure at Cisco, she spearheaded the security customer experience practice, significantly advancing customer adoption. She also led the successful marketing strategy for a billion-dollar service rebrand. As Director of the Executive Briefing Center for Cybersecurity at The Boeing Company, Sara's expertise in customer experience played a pivotal role in securing critical contracts.Sara holds a Master of International Business from Seattle University and a Bachelor of Science from Clarkson University.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Great British Baking Show:Be brand classy. Create content that has integrity and stands proudly for your brand. Think about making something that's evergreen instead of trendy or reactive. Sara says, “You can never go wrong with being brand classy. Something that lives on, endures. Sometimes you'll want to take a quick hit at a competitor or something like that, but that's not going to age well. And so always be kind of brand classy in what you do.”Go for substance over style. Every so often in The Great British Baking Show, a contestant will create a beautiful confection that doesn't taste as good as it looks. That's when Paul Hollywood says, “Style over substance.” In content, you want to make something that has meaning while also being visually attractive. So always think about your message first before focusing on the beauty of it. Sara says, “You have to actually know what you want to say first before you start thinking about how beautiful or whimsical you want it to look.”Trust your gut. Tune in to what feels right and rings true to your brand. In The Great British Baking Show, contestants have to navigate the technical challenge often based on their gut alone, having to make a cake based on directions like, “Make a genoise sponge.” You may not always have all the information in marketing either, but Sara says, “Be comfortable with not having all your information.” Trust that your gut will lead you in the right direction.Quotes*”One thing we haven't hit on is the storytelling aspect. You really identify and make memories with the bakers and the way that the show tells their backstory. And so you feel really connected. And I think that marketers should remember the power of storytelling. A lot of times, we want to go into stats and figures, but that's really not going to engage our emotional side of our brain, which is what we need to be persuaded.”*”ROI, marketers love to talk about this. I think it really comes down to setting clear goals. A lot of times, especially when it comes on the brand side as opposed to the demand side of marketing, it isn't super easy to see and have metrics, so it's really important to set clear goals from the start. So then you can see if you're succeeding or not.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Sara Aiello, VP of Corporate Marketing at Trellix[1:00] B2B Marketing Lessons from The Great British Baking Show[5:10] Behind the Scenes of The Great British Baking Show[11:11] Relating The Great British Baking Show to Marketing[17:52] The Importance of Visuals and Positivity in Marketing[23:24] The Human Element in B2B Marketing[25:46] The Power of Storytelling in Marketing[34:25] Building the Trellix Brand[38:04] Engaging Content Strategies[46:35] Final Thoughts and Advice for Marketing LeadersLinksConnect with Sara on LinkedInLearn more about TrellixAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Making big marketing investments is a huge deal. But lucky for you, we're here to help.We're bringing you five keys to deliver on a big investment.And we're taking those lessons from the Olympics with the help of our special guest, VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer, Carolyn Bao.Together, we're talking about capitalizing on a cultural moment, committing to the long haul, ensuring activation is fully prepared, and so much more.About our guest, Carolyn BaoCarolyn Bao serves as the Vice President of Marketing for AppsFlyer, for the North America region, driving multi-channel efforts for the AppsFlyer mobile attribution and marketing analytics platform. She is an accomplished marketing executive with over 20 years of leadership experience at technology companies, specializing in software and SaaS marketing go-to-market strategy, data-driven business innovation and building high-performing marketing teams. She has deep domain knowledge of marketing tech stack and advertising technologies. Beyond her commercial role, she nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit as an MBA@Rice faculty member and a founding board member of Silicon Valley Leadership Community.Recognized with accolades such as LinkedIn's “Top Voices” and Product Marketing Alliance's “Top 100 PMMs,” Carolyn is celebrated for bringing products like Facebook Attribution to global markets, building high-performing marketing teams, and thought leadership in ‘women in leadership,' ‘marketing management' and ‘mobile growth strategies' through key speaking engagements for educational and professional events. Carolyn built her career portfolio through leadership roles at technology powerhouses including Moomoo, Facebook, Visa, and Yahoo.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Olympics:Capitalize on a cultural moment. Pick something in the cultural zeitgeist to inspire your content. If it's already resonating and getting talked about, your content will too. Carolyn says, “I think leveraging critical cultural moments is one of the key growth drivers for any marketing department.” And she adds, “Really think through for your category, what is that cultural moment that we really want to capitalize on? In B2B marketing, not everybody competes in the Olympics. But we do compete in terms of how many in-person interactions we have with other practitioners. And that's where these in-person conferences immediately became popular again after we came out of COVID. So I think that's maybe something to really think about, is what is your Olympics equivalent.”Commit to the long haul. Big investments in content mean lots of planning for the pre-, during and post periods. How can you maximize the campaign and make the most of the big investment? Carolyn says, “Not a lot of companies have the ability to plan in massive time horizons, like every four years. A lot of marketing teams are probably working one to three quarters out for most of it. But I do think it's interesting to think of like, what are the big, massive bets that you can make that you might not be able to make every year that can show who you are as a brand.”Ensure activation is fully prepared. Don't sell yourself short by creating content without planning through distribution and activation. Make sure it's fully considered and you're making the most of that investment. Carolyn says, “To activate marketing around the Olympics at this scale is massive. This is sort of our Coachella for marketers, because we don't get to have this many dollars to spend for the majority of us. And meanwhile, even if we are with a huge brand, it is not often that we have this kind of massive celebration. So the scale is super important. The second piece that's very interesting is in terms of how to ensure marketing is done right. There is a great deal of discipline in running a smooth marketing operation, which I think everyone can still also relate to because no matter big or small, for our marketing campaigns to be successful, we have to also wear that operational hat. And I think there's a lot to be unpacked from studying how the Olympics have been done.”Commit to the production cost. Big ideas come with a cost. Follow through with the full potential of the project, including the price of it. But the good news is that marketers have become a lot more efficient. Carolyn says, “Savvy marketers are not doing marketing content production the same way as old time marketers. Because they create these stories, they run it on mobile marketing channels, they run with a very small dollar amount, and they already got data to tell them what stories resonate with who. It pulls their feedback loop a lot shorter.”Know your ICP. Ensure your content will land with its intended audience by truly knowing your ICP. This means understanding their values, what motivates them, and the value you can offer them. Carolyn says, “Deeply understand whom it is you're really trying to influence. Knowing your ICP and knowing what you want your ICP to think or do differently from your storytelling is critical.”Quotes*”With constraints, creativity really differentiates a good storyteller from a mid storyteller, leveraging the Gen Alpha language. The more you understand the limitations, the better it is you stay focused and think about within all of these constraints, what else could we do?”*“If you are building a B2B brand, really make sure that there is a founder side of the humanized story. So that it's not just this brand, but it's actually the why the company was founded and how the founders have built the company.”*” Let's ground our work back to marketing fundamentals. Our marketing fundamentals is storytelling and we really need to understand whom we're talking the story to, what we want them to think or do differently. This is the first. The second piece is, please do not be afraid of developing that left brain as a marketer because the tools to help us measure our work and tell us the feedback of how well our storytelling did are becoming a lot more available. If you don't know, search it up, use chat GPT, but really, really deeply understand marketing measurement and the data that is at your disposal to make you a better marketer. The third piece that's super critical is do not forget stakeholder management because with the village that supports us is what we can work on our day to day, the blocking and tackling, but also when the time is right, advocate for big activation like the Olympics and really make history. Have fun with it.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Carolyn Bao, VP of Marketing at AppsFlyer[2:54] B2B Marketing Lessons from the Olympics and AppsFlyer[4:14] Olympic Marketing Campaigns and Sponsorships[36:09] Human-Centric Storytelling in Marketing[42:28] Key TakeawaysLinksConnect with Carolyn on LinkedInLearn more about AppsFlyerAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

“A rare thing.” That's what co-creator Steve Levitan called “the incredible alchemy of elements coming together” that was Modern Family.He and Christopher Lloyd, who he'd worked with on Frasier, wanted to create a show that felt real. A show with heart. And it took the right writers, characters, and actors to play them to make it happen. And it happened for 11 years, winning 22 Emmys.And in this episode, we're taking B2B marketing lessons from it with the help of our special guest, CMO at Altimetrik, Jeff Fleischman.Together, we talk about being passionate about your brand, showing persistence and grit, and the art of making “a rare thing.” About our guest, Jeff FleischmanJeffrey Fleischman is a seasoned senior executive with over 35 years of experience spanning the financial services, banking, insurance, and technology. As CMO of Altimetrik he manages the company's brand, marketing, lead generation, public relations, and communications functions. Jeff brings a wealth of expertise to the role. Previously, he served as Chief Marketing & Digital Officer at Penn Mutual, driving omni-channel campaigns and advancing digital initiatives. His leadership journey includes key roles at renowned companies such as Citi, American Express, TIAA-CREF, and Chase.Jeff's passion lies in creating innovative, customer-focused strategies and experiences that integrate data, technology, and design. His extensive expertise covers areas like omni-channel marketing, data analytics, product management, and business transformation. He holds a B.S. in finance from Syracuse University and an MBA in finance, investments, and banking from Hofstra University. He has or held board positions with Artemis, Zenmonics Inc., Hornor, Townsend & Kent, Telera, and IEP Youth Services.Jeff is an author, advisor, investor, and speaker. His book, "Advice To My Younger Self," reflects his commitment to empowering others to achieve their aspirations.Beyond his professional achievements, he expresses creativity through painting and crafting unique art pieces, breathing new life into old furniture, and has a passion for music.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Modern Family:Be passionate about your brand. Jeff says, “On the passionate and competitive side, Jay Pritchett's archenemy was Earl, his former partner of Closets, Closet, Closets. And they were at odds with each other, trying to outdo each other, trying to out-innovate each other. It's that competitiveness and that passion that you need as a marketer. That passion really does have to come through.”Show persistence and grit. A lot of marketing is about trial and error. You find out what works with your audience by keeping things fresh and building your momentum. So don't let the things that don't work slow you down; just keep going. Jeff says, “Both Jay and Phil shared that kind of grit to be the best of what they can be, to beat everyone else out, whether it be another realtor, whether it be Earl from Closets, Closets, Closets. And as marketers, it's a very noisy world out there. Everyone's pushing content out. Everyone's trying to be everything to all customers. So how do you stand out? Not everything's going to be a home run. Not every piece of content, every blog, every white paper is going to resonate. But you need to just stick to your focus on how you take your brand and elevate it. And you don't stop trying. And if it works, great. If not, move on to the next one.”Focus on the heart of your content. Work on the emotion you want your audience to feel when they experience your content. That's how you know your message will hit home and stick. And then you can start to chop it up for use across channels. Ian says, “So often in B2B marketing, we get so caught up in trying to create the asset and then chop it up and do all these things that you're trying to do all the motions of the thing rather than the actual sentiment that is in the clip.”Quotes*”You need to create opportunities for your community and your audience to talk about you to other people. They're not just sitting around all day thinking of your software. The number of people who are just thrilled with [your product] are not just going to sing it from the rooftops every second of every day. You need to cultivate those things and allow them to share it as much as you can.”*”For marketers, tie what you're doing back to the company strategy. And if you do that, you don't have to push people. They're going to be pushing you to do more, and want more from you. If you don't know numbers, you don't know how to measure, you don't know ROI, it's a serious blind spot. Bring back what you're doing to numbers, bring back to ROI, talk like a CFO.”*”Take a bite-sized approach. We never start off with a big bang. Our approach is tiny. Let's do a proof of concept. Let's get a quick win. We won't disrupt your customers. We won't disrupt your business. It's within your environment. And I can tell you, 99 percent of everything we started out with was a small project. And now we have extremely large engagements. They trust us, they know us, and those relationships grew over time.”*”You're basically in a newspaper business. You have to invest in content, it's 24/7, it never ends. If you think putting a PDF up on a website or, you know, putting new colors onto your website is the idea of content, you know, it's a big miss. So, content is an investment, it's an asset, and it's very dynamic. You have to put the right content at the right place at the right time on the right, you know, device or environment. And it just never stops. Technology's gotten better, data's gotten better, AI is now in the mix. So as you think about B2B marketing and where you really can make a difference, it's taking content that gets noticed. And, you know, the more you do that, the more you'll get noticed.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Jeff Fleischman, CMO of Altimetrik[5:41] Learn about Jeff's Role at Altimetrik[7:43] About the Creation and Success of Modern Family[10:59] Casting Challenges and Character Development[15:17] Marketing Takeaways from Modern Family[27:48] What Marketers Can Learn from Jay Pritchett's Competitive Spirit[29:12] Grit and Persistence in Marketing[33:48] How to Build a Strong Social Media Presence[34:49] The Role of Earned Media[46:14] AI in Marketing: A Game Changer[52:02] Jeff's Advice for First-Time CMOsLinksConnect with Jeff on LinkedInLearn more about AltimetrikAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

What do a marketer and a racecar driver have in common? You're about to find out. One thing we can say is that going as fast as you can leads to burnout. That's one of the things we're talking about in this episode.We're taking marketing lessons from the 1990 Tom Cruise flick Days of Thunder with the help of our special guest, Director of Content Marketing at Fictiv, Ricky Frohnerath.Together, we talk about being strategic instead of fast, speaking the same language as your team, and building contingency plans in case your campaigns don't go as expected.About our guest, Ricky FrohnerathRicky Frohnerath is Director of Content Marketing for San Francisco-based Fictiv, leading comprehensive content strategy and execution for all marketing campaigns, across all funnel stages and audiences. He specializes in building and managing cross-functional marketing teams for manufacturing and technology organizations. He's the A proponent of agile marketing methodology, servant leadership, self-management principles, and empowerment, his focus is on people first, then process, and then technology. A longtime resident of the Tampa Bay area, his education includes the Pinellas County Center for the Arts, St. Petersburg College, and the University of South Florida. Ricky is an amateur racing driver and avid enthusiast of electric vehicles, who believes in the power of uniting personal and professional values to drive positive change. Thus, he's passionate about accelerating sustainability by sparking and sharing conversations with leaders in electrification, motorsport, and industry.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Days of Thunder:Be strategic, not fast. If you try to go as fast as you can, you burn out or make mistakes. Slowing down just a bit to make sure your work is high quality and highly effective actually means you'll work faster in the end. In Days of Thunder, Ricky says that Cole Trickle's “quest is to find ultimate speed. He's actually over driving the tires and he's driving faster than [his competitors] can. And what happens when you're over driving the tires is that they get greasy and they start to degrade faster. So this is a problem because if you destroy your tires, then you have to come into the pits and that takes time.” So instead Cole learns to drive more efficiently by speeding up or slowing down strategically based on his coach's advice. So slow down to work more efficiently and effectively.Speak the same language as your team. Communication becomes so much more efficient and effective when you share shorthand and jargon. Ricky says, “When you're on a team, you need to be speaking the same language. You need to have a shared lexicon so that there is this transmission of understanding. You need to know what's working, you need to know what's not working, and you need to know what you're talking about.”Build in wiggle room in case things don't go right. If you hit a bump in the road, giving yourself a little extra time in the planning process for your campaign takes the pressure off. Ricky says, “Things are not going to go according to plan. You need to build in some agility and the ability to kind of compensate when it comes time to actually execute.” So give yourself room to breathe with your next campaign timeline. That way, you can correct any issues without stressing over deadlines. In Days of Thunder, it's like when they plan, design and build Cole Trickle's car and then it gets destroyed in an early race and they have to figure out how to pivot.Quotes*”I think it's fairly common for there to be conflict, especially between marketing and sales. One of the ways that you can overcome this is by having a shared language. Understand and adopt the KPIs that the sales team are going after. So, for example, one area where marketing and sales become misaligned is marketing likes to talk about big metrics, like impressions, eyeballs, even things like conversions. But these are KPIs that really don't translate well into the sales world. Like they are interested in leads and they're keeping an eye on sales and revenue and things like that. So make those metrics, your metrics and understand how the marketing activities roll into those KPIs. It's not to say that you don't keep track of impressions and a lot of other things that kind of get labeled as vanity metrics, but understand how you go from an impression down into revenue.”*”If you're overdriving the tires, you're effectively leading to burnout. I think the same is true when we think about high performance teams. The best that somebody can perform is at the limit of their abilities. There is no 110%. You can only do the best that you can at the peak of your ability. You can't give that extra 10%. So forcing you to do that is actually going to have a detrimental effect. So I think that's super important to keep in mind for marketing teams.”*”Marketers in general just need to have a very good understanding of who you're connecting with, who you're marketing to.  And I think in general we do a pretty good job of that. I think that authenticity is so important for a very targeted audience and especially one that is  extremely cognizant of inauthenticity.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Ricky Frohnerath, Director of Content Marketing at Fictiv[7:05] Behind the Scenes of Days of Thunder[12:32] Passion Projects and Marketing Lessons[21:35] The Story of Days of Thunder[23:44] Marketing Lessons from Days of Thunder[25:33] Planning and Agility in Marketing[28:40] Communication and Trust in Teams[32:54] Burnout and High PerformanceLinksConnect with Ricky on LinkedInLearn more about FictivAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

There's an athlete right now that uses, knows and loves your product. So why aren't you partnering with them to promote your brand? The global sports sponsorship market is expected to grow to almost $108 billion by 2030.And there's around $1.3B in projected revenue this year from pro women athlete sponsorships. Feel like you're missing out yet? The message is clear: sponsor a pro woman athlete (or two). In this episode, we're talking about B2B marketing lessons from professional women athlete sponsorships with the help of our special guest, PARITY CEO Leela Srinivasan.Together, we talk about experimenting with new channels, finding your match, and much more.About our guest, Leela SrinivasanLeela Srinivasan took the reins as CEO in May 2023, when Parity had amassed a network of over 800 women athletes and paid out over $2 million in sponsorships. Under her leadership, the company is poised to increase both numbers exponentially – and become a household name – as it enters its next phase in the fight against gender pay disparity in sports.Prior to joining Parity, Leela served as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for three-high-growth companies: digital payments provider Checkout.com; Momentive, the maker of SurveyMonkey; and recruiting software company Lever. She developed her initial passion for community, customer centricity and data-driven marketing earlier in her marketing career at LinkedIn and OpenTable. She serves on the board of Upwork and on the board of advisors for the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she earned her MBA.Leela lives in North Carolina with her husband Joel and three middle-school girls. There are no dull moments.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships:Experiment with new channels. Keep a budget to try new things. Whether it's simply posting to a different social channel or sponsoring a pro athlete, the Leela says, ”As a marketer, your livelihood depends on being able to find new channels to replace channels that were once working really well that suddenly stopped working, to find ways to stand out from your competitors. Because what happens is if you're doing one thing, then six months later, everyone else is probably trying to do it too. So you have to keep things fresh. It doesn't mean you have to devote your entire budget to experimentation, of course. You need to certainly put money where you know things are working, but over time that mix is going to change as a marketer. And so I think it's smart. It's actually self preservation in some ways, to keep trying to just find ways to experiment on the edges and tap into something that can really give you a fresh perspective in the market.”Find your match. There's an athlete out there right now who would align strongly with your brand values. Use them as the face of your brand to humanize the name. Leela says, “Find something that really feels right for the brand and allows them to kind of carve out their own space. There are so many directions that you can now run in; New leagues springing up, new sports coming to the fore, new athletes with incredibly interesting stories.Quotes*”When you get those people, those athletes, those influencers talking very naturally about something that they find joy in or that they believe in, it's just another level of awesomeness when it comes to ambassadorship or testimonial.”*”There are so many stories waiting to be told. If you're willing to be creative about the types of athlete that you work with, there are always athletes that can be within budget that can do some incredible storytelling for you.”*”I always had some money in what I called my rainy day fund or my slush fund. That budget was mine to make discretionary investments where I wanted to try things, where maybe the ROI was less proven or the path was a little less trodden but it was worth the opportunity, worth that risk to try something different because, God forbid you just become this terrible vanilla marketer that is doing the same as everybody else. You have to find ways to break through. I mean, that's the fun part of marketing. Why wouldn't you? So I always had some experimentation budget just tucked away for when these types of opportunities came up.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Leela Srinivasan, CEO at PARITY[2:03] Leela's Journey to PARITY[5:17] Understanding Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships[9:55] History of Pro Women Athlete Sponsorships[14:27] Current Landscape and Opportunities[24:07] The Gender Disparity in Sports[24:51] The Influence of Women Athletes on Marketing[27:00] Creative Campaigns and Athlete Partnerships[28:16] The Importance of Originality in Marketing[29:56] Investing in Women's Sports[32:38] Engaging with Brands and Athletes[35:37] The Power of Authentic Athlete EndorsementsLinksConnect with Leela on LinkedInLearn more about PARITYAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Morrissey, Taking Back Sunday, Alkaline Trio, Streetlight Manifesto…For dedicated fans, these are bands that bring back memories of checkered Vans shoes, studded belts, and paper wrist bands from each show.But some of them haven't toured in years.So to see them all on one festival poster 20 years after their heyday made fans think it was too good to be true. It wasn't, and it lived up to the hype.So in this episode, we're talking about all the good - and questionable - marketing that went into the When We Were Young Festival.With the help of our special guest, Head of Content Marketing at CoreWeave, Brooke Gocklin, we're talking about painting the picture, building a community of advocates, and delivering on the hype.About our guest, Brooke GocklinBrooke Gocklin is the Head of Content Marketing at CoreWeave. Prior to joining the company in July 2024, she was the Editor-in-Chief at Contently, where she led content strategy and editorial direction for The Content Strategist and The Freelance Creative. Brooke is a recognized expert in content marketing, with a particular focus on the evolving role of AI in business. At Persado, an AI-language generation company, Brooke honed her skills in content creation for AI-driven solutions. Her deep understanding of technical products positioned her as a subject matter expert in the evolving AI space. Her work, featured in Adweek and Content Marketing Institute, reflects her deep understanding of how to craft impactful content strategies and engaging narratives that resonate with target audiences.What B2B Companies Can Learn From the When We Were Young Festival:Paint the picture. Show your audience what doing business with you would look like. When they're able to visualize the tangible benefits of becoming a customer, it makes it that much easier for them to sign on the dotted line. For the When We Were Young Festival, the organizers made a poster with album covers of all of the bands who would be performing. Ian says, “[It's] brilliant, right? You have to show people what it would look like. I have found over the years that if you can mock something up, it's so much easier, right? It's much harder to get an idea of something in a Google doc.” So paint the picture. Mock up an idea of what your product looks like for your audience.Build a community of advocates. Bands like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday have created communities of fiercely loyal fans. Brooke says, “And so that means that when you see all of these bands coming together, the reaction is, is this even real? But two, it gives you a sense of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to be there. And I have to tell my friends about this.' And so I think that for B2B marketers, you know, really leveraging customer advocates or people who are just really excited about your product or service to amplify your message builds trust in a wider audience. So choose customers who love you, who love your product, who love your service and leverage them to tell others about you.”Deliver on the hype. You can tease about a product or service as much as you want, as long as it delivers what it promises. Brooke says, “When We Were Young created a massive buzz with a huge lineup. They also did a lot of teasers, but most importantly, they really backed it up with a well organized incredible event. Credibility is so important. So you can't just hype something up whether that's your product or service. And not have it live up to expectations. So as marketers, I think it's really crucial when you're thinking about B2B, to build trust and credibility from the get go. So whether that means that you're creating content that is factually accurate and all of the products and features, functionalities live up to what you're selling them as. That is important, right? So you need to establish your brand as a go-to resource, but you do that by being credible.”Quotes*”As far as how I think about content, it's really like connective tissue. I think it's at the core and at the center of a brand story. So, you need content to be able to bring people into the funnel. You need content as they're exploring, getting to know you. You need content when they're at that purchasing stage, or even after they become a customer, you still need them to engage with you. And you need to be putting out ideas that provoke some sort of thought and that's valuable to them.”*”Really good content marketing is about creating value for your audience and really helping them solve their problems. So my approach has always been: start with the audience. What do they care about? What are their challenges? And then craft content that speaks directly to those needs. I think that that is a key differentiator when it comes to content strategy.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Brooke Gocklin, Head of Content Marketing at CoreWeave[3:10] When We Were Young Festival's Unique Marketing Tactics[8:11] Nostalgia and Community Building[19:39] Marketing Lessons for B2B[22:31] The Power of Loyal Fan Bases[23:14] Leveraging Customer Advocates in B2B Marketing[24:09] Building Online Communities[26:54] Activating a Community[29:43] Delivering on the Hype[31:40] Content Strategy and Its Importance[34:11] Successful Content Campaigns[37:16] Measuring Content ROI[39:38] Exciting New Projects at CoreWeave[41:06] Advice for New Heads of ContentLinksConnect with Brooke on LinkedInLearn more about CoreWeaveAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Hooking your audience is one thing, but keeping them emotionally invested in your content is another. So for this episode of Remarkable, we're taking marketing lessons on doing just that from the Irish dark comedy, Bad Sisters.It's a show about four sisters who plot to kill their diabolical brother-in-law, and the season starts with his funeral.Series creator, Sharon Horgan, says, “We had to keep an audience with us for 10 episodes and keep them wanting the same outcome." That is, the death of their brother-in-law, John Paul. So with the help of our special guest, D2L CMO Brian Finnerty, we're talking about hooking your audience, knowing your target, and doing trial and error. About our guest, Brian FinnertyBrian Finnerty is a B2B marketing specialist with over 25 years experience leading enterprise marketing teams. He currently serves as CMO at D2L. His expertise includes brand strategy, B2B demand generation, and global customer acquisition from mid-market to Fortune 500. He previously served as VP of Revenue Marketing for Udacity. Prior to joining Udacity, Brian served as VP of Growth Marketing at Demandbase, where he was responsible for demand generation, field marketing, and customer marketing at Demandbase. Brian has also been a marketing leader at two ad tech companies, Marin Software and Smaato. He co-founded an e-learning startup that specialized in software developer training, with a rules-based code judging engine. He is an active Customer Advisory Board member for both 6sense and Sendoso.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Bad Sisters:Start with a hook. Bad Sisters grabs viewers' attention because it's about four sisters plotting to kill their brother-in-law, and it starts with his funeral. So the question is: “How did he die?” This is what drives viewers to keep watching. So how can you get your audience invested in your content? What question do you want to inspire them to ask?Know your target. This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but just like the sisters truly knew their brother-in-law and all the ways they could potentially do him in, so should marketers get to know their audience so they can appeal to them. Brian says, “The sisters do a lot of research and they really know their target audience. Like, what does JP like to eat? What does he like to drink? If you were to poison him, how would you do that? So they really do research, like, ‘What are the ways that we can do this and get away with it, and free our sister from the prison of her marriage?' So they really do their kind of their targeting and their research, which I think any good marketer does.”Do trial and error. Try different marketing strategies and keep dialing it in based on data you get from the tests. Brian says, “[The sisters] do that right throughout the show. Like, they're testing ways to bump this guy off. Some of them end in sort of miserable failure and some of them have some potential of succeeding and you're never quite sure. Not unlike a lot of digital campaigns, where you're trying to find that perfect balance and the right approach.”Quotes*”I think for marketers, if you're not pushing the envelope, testing new messaging and testing new approaches to your website, conversion, optimization, your customer journey, your buyer's journey, then you're not trying hard enough. You're not getting enough data from the market to optimize and improve.”*”In a B2B context, it is tough to really identify a villain. And that kind of marketing turns me off. Some companies will identify their competitors as villains and really go after them. As a marketer, I would say instead of identifying your competitors as a villain, which I think is a mistake, you look at either the cost of doing nothing, or like, ‘What is the counterpoint to your mission?'”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Brian Finnerty, CMO at D2L[3:02] D2L and Brian's Role as CMO[4:04] How Bad Sisters was created[9:30] Authenticity and Cultural Representation[22:18] B2B Marketing Takeaways from Bad Sisters[22:21] The Importance of a Good Hook[23:00] Research and Targeting in Marketing[24:08] Trial and Error in Marketing[28:30] Creating a Great Villain[33:48] Brand and Content Strategy[36:10] Effective Content Marketing[38:34] Leveraging Content Across Teams[42:58] Favorite Campaigns and Final AdviceLinksConnect with Brian on LinkedInLearn more about D2LAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

“Each man carried, along with a sea chest, his own burdensome story.” - Excerpt from The Wager, by David GrannThis is true not only for the men that sailed on the HMS Wager, but your audience and customers (minus the sea chests). Just as David Grann took those burdensome stories from journal entries to write The Wager, so too can you use the burdensome stories of your customers in your marketing.This is one of the things we're talking about in this episode of Remarkable with the help of our special guest, former Director of Content Marketing at Authentic8, Shannon Ragan.Together, we draw marketing lessons from David Grann's book, The Wager, including going to the source, shaping your stories as stranger than fiction, and sourcing those stories from the smallest footnote.About our guest, Shannon RaganShannon Ragan is the former Director of Content Marketing at Authentic8. She joined the company in September 2020 as Content Marketing Senior Manager. She is also a producer and co-host of NeedleStack: the OSINT podcast. She previously served as Senior Marketing Communications Manager at Skybox Security. She has been blogging in the cybersecurity industry for ten years and vows to never write another Patch Tuesday update again.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Wager:Go to the source. Talk to your customers to understand what matters most to them. And use that in your messaging. Shannon says, “Experience it yourself, as authentically as you can. I think that is a huge thing in content marketing. I feel like there is often a lot of gatekeeping between sales and marketing to customers that it's like, ‘No, I don't want the marketing team to talk to my customers.' It's the practitioners, the people using your tool, your product, that you need to talk to the most. And so any amount of time that you can get with them [is valuable].” In The Wager, David Grann actually sailed the same route that the crew of the HMS Wager did to see what it was really like. That was the only way he could write authentically about the experience.Shape your stories as stranger than fiction. When you do talk to your audience or your customers, get their war stories about the struggles they've had that your product will solve. Shannon says that having a podcast has been a great platform for sharing those stories. She says, “I think the true stories are the most interesting. And so getting  people that live it, walk the walk, do it every day to kind of tell their war stories and their learnings along the way, and be able to share those with our audience under our brand without really having to talk too much about ourselves has just been a great brand builder and gotten people into our orbit. And then once they know us and like us and love us, then it's really easy to be like, ‘By the way, we have this great product I think you'll like.'” It's like how The Wager is a true story that, in David Grann's telling, feels closer to fiction because of the detail and expressive voices he includes. And he was able to do that through the use of primary sources. So use your primary sources - your audience and customers - to write your marketing messages. Stories can start with the smallest footnote. When David Grann was doing research for The Wager, he was looking through lists of people who boarded the ship. And next to many names, he saw “DD,” which he discovered meant “Dispatched Dead.” It was through researching the deeper story behind this two-letter abbreviation that he uncovered stories of scurvy and the overall human toll of the voyage. Look for the small footnotes that could tell you a much deeper story for use in your marketing.Quotes*”Kill your darlings. It is the thing that is most difficult to do to your own work, because it's the thing that you're like, ‘But I grew this babe in my womb. I can't get rid of it.' And it's like, you do it in service of the rest of the thing that you have tended and grown. And it's such a hard lesson to learn and you have to teach it to yourself over and over again. Like David Grann had to teach it to himself again. But it makes a good writer.” - Shannon Ragan*”One of my biggest pieces of advice is that part of your strategy should be co-creating content with your prospects and customers. Like, that should be a pillar of your strategy. And all of the people who can't give you testimonials, who aren't legal approved to give you a quote, who can't do all that stuff, can come on your podcast and talk about everything but the thing.” - Ian Faison*”Think about where you want to end up. Like, do you want people to thank you for your content marketing? And if so, how do you build the path to get there? So yeah, think about where you want to end up, and then build your strategy and your editorial path to get there.” - Shannon RaganTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Shannon Ragan, former Director of Content Marketing at Authentic8[3:50] Content Marketing Insights from The Wager[5:33] David Grann's Research Journey[14:33] Crafting Authentic Content[15:21] Engaging with Customers through Content[16:11] The Power of Co-Creating Content[25:30] Marketing Strategy Overhaul[38:05] Character Development in Writing[42:06] Final Thoughts on Content StrategyLinksConnect with Shannon on LinkedInLearn more about Authentic8About Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Doctor Who has been around for over 60 years and attracted over 12 million viewers.In our book, that makes it ripe with marketing lessons. Because wouldn't you also want your brand to be around for over 60 years, and to have that many eyes on your content at once?So in this episode, we're talking about the long-running show with a cult following, Doctor Who.Together with the help of our special guest, CEO of WorkProud & Online Rewards, Michael John Levy, we're talking about keeping the essence of your branding through the years, using jingles, and using time travel in your storytelling.About our guest, Michael John LevyCEO Michael Levy leads both Online Rewards and WorkProud and has achieved 13 consecutive years on the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies list. His company is a leading provider of workplace culture and people success solutions who believe employees are a company's greatest asset.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Doctor Who:Keep the essence of your branding through the years. As your company ages, refine and modernize your content. But keep the essence of what makes your brand or company unique. Ian says, “There's an importance of continuity that is a great lesson for Doctor Who, which is like, there's certain things that can change, and there's certain things that don't. And once you establish it, then that needs to be the way it is.” It's like how the evil robotic beings, the Daleks, first appeared on Doctor Who in the 1960s. But then Michael says, “they then continued to exist like a multiverse, and they kept appearing over time. And as modern production techniques continued to improve and various doctors would appear, they would still, however, be stuck with the original form of the Dalek suit from the 1960s.” But they became iconic as part of the Doctor Who brand. So decide what is unchangeable, and what you can continue to dial in, refine and improve.Use jingles. Jingles aren't used that much in B2B marketing, but in Doctor Who, music is an important part of the show. Michael says, “A small melody snippet as part of the intro and closure was a key anchor component.” And Ian adds, “Jingles are like one of the most underused marketing devices of our modern era. Back in the day, everything had a jingle.” The more senses you appeal to, the deeper, more multifaceted your brand identity becomes, and the more easily your audience will recall your company when making a purchasing decision. Elicit nostalgia through time travel. Send the characters of your marketing back in time and invite your audience to relive the good old days. Ian says, “We always talk about wanting to elicit nostalgia. Why not make a character, make your key persona, you know, CHRO, and send them back in time. Send them back five years ago. Send them back 10 years. You need someone who is doing the traveling to these other places so that they can experience it. It's ripe for discussion and you don't need to land the plane like you do like Marvel had to land the plane when they did the Multiverse and went back in time. As a marketer, you don't need to finish the story. You just need to start the conversation.”Quotes*”This is a 22 year plus company of which this concept of recognition and appreciation and the corresponding tools that we've built have been a backbone of the culture of the organization. It's so foundational  that there are eyes on that stream and that feed on a daily basis with an expectation that you will read some positive things about somebody's joined the company, somebody's had an accomplishment, somebody completed training, somebody's celebrating some birthdays. We have a positive place inside the business and that is part of the culture.” - Michael John Levy*”Once you've built that positive place where people can go, it's about capturing and accelerating the telling of those stories by helping them get crafted, and then sharing them. And ideally, those people want to share those things on third party sites or to their friends, in private group chats, or whatever it is. But as a marketing team, if you can help as the crafter of stories, it can help with retention. It can help with recruiting.” - Ian FaisonTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Michael John Levy, CEO of WorkProud and Online Rewards[2:32] Michael Levy's Journey with Online Rewards and WorkProud[4:02] The Power of Storytelling in Business[8:42] The Origins of Doctor Who[15:06] The Evolution of Doctor Who's Characters and Branding[19:47] Comparing Doctor Who to Modern Brands[27:31] Exploring Doctor Who's Production[29:24] The Power of Soundtracks in Marketing[30:39] The Impact of Jingles in Advertising[33:12] Time Travel in Marketing[51:48] The Role of Storytelling in MarketingLinksConnect with Michael John LevyLearn more about Online Rewards and WorkProudAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

What if you created a campaign so good, so coveted, that users looked forward to it every year? And what's more, non-users convert just to be a part of it.We're referring to the viral marketing campaign, Spotify Wrapped, and how they made their marketing masterpiece.We're doing it all with the help of our special guest, Head of Marketing at Postman, Justine Davis.Together, we talk about making or buying exclusive content, sharing insights about your customers, and much more.About our guest, Justine DavisJustine Davis is Head of Marketing at API platform Postman. She previously served as  Head of Marketing for Atlassian's Agile and DevOps suite of products. With over 9 years experience working with DevOps teams and tools, Justine is passionate about solving needs for customers. Outside of work Justine is a mom, avid reader, and loves to close the move goal rings in sunny Scottsdale, AZ on her Apple Watch.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Spotify Wrapped:Make or buy exclusive content. It's like how you can only get your own Spotify Wrapped if you subscribe to Spotify. The campaign got people to convert from Apple Music and other streaming services just because they wanted to get their own Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year. Having exclusive content will get people to convert to your platform. Justine says, “Their strategy was: ‘Build for audio and not music.' This was the HBO model a little bit, which is they acquired podcasts that were with them exclusively. So like, if you wanted to listen to them - and love them or hate them, Joe Rogan is one of the biggest in the game and it was exclusive on Spotify for a long time - you had to go sign up for Spotify. So it worked very well for them.”Share interesting insights about your customers. You're gathering tons of data about your customers. Feed it back to them as interesting and informative insights. It can be useful or even entertaining for them. It's like how Spotify made billboards highlighting unusual playlist names, and even how often someone listened to a particular song. Ian says, “You're finding data about your customers that is really funny and weird and interesting and unique. You're sharing that with other people. You're putting it on a billboard or somewhere, and then you're taking photos of it and then sharing the photos of the billboards all over.” Just those few data points make for a myriad of opportunities to share with customers who then will want to share with the world.Quotes*”Spotify Wrapped is the perfect piece of serialized content. You get to come out with it every year. People know what's coming. They know what to expect and they're looking to you, not only to tell them what their Spotify Wrapped is, but also to make funny jokes about all the other people who made ridiculous stuff.” - Ian Faison*”You have to place your bets in a lot of different areas to grab attention. And understand that the user may hear it on repeat. So have that message be consistent across channels and in different formats.” - Justine Davis*”We've invested very heavily in community as well as a big piece of brand marketing, because there's no better advocate than your customers.” - Justine Davis*“The nirvana for someone doing content marketing is to create a little mini franchise, little mini brand of their marketing that people look forward to. I don't care at all about any other content that Spotify makes, but I care about Spotify Wrapped. It's a perfect encapsulation of how your brand can be, where it's like people can care just about one thing that you make and not anything else. But the fact that you make that one thing is super valuable to them.” - Ian FaisonTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Justine Davis, Head of Marketing at Postman[12:16] Postman and API Marketing[14:23] The Origin and Evolution of Spotify Wrapped[22:29] The Power of Billboard Campaigns[27:04] Spotify Wrapped: A Marketing Masterpiece[27:53] Using Spotify Wrapped for Team Building[29:21] Integrated Marketing Campaigns[34:41] Investing in Podcasts[38:58] Postman: Content and Brand Strategy[47:14] Upcoming Postman FeaturesLinksConnect with Justine on LinkedInLearn more about PostmanAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

John Cena says that in the early days of his career, he struggled to break through as a WWE superstar.Cena says that's because “people didn't know who I was. They couldn't connect to John Cena coming out in different tights and boots every time. No one could attach to who I was.”He says, “As entertainers, we kinda want to attach. You try to work on your character so people will relate to them and want to attach to them.”And when we talk about edu-taining, entertainment is half of that. Getting your consumer to attach to you is what we're all about on Remarkable. So in this episode, we're helping you become marketing superstars and drive that brand attachment with your consumers.To do that, we're looking at parallels between the WWE and marketing. With the help of our special guest, US Market Brand Evangelist, Carlos Gil, we'll talk about evolving with your consumer, giving your content personality, and much more.About our guest, Carlos GilCarlos Gil is a marketing expert with over 15 years of corporate digital and social media experience, and the bestselling author of ‘The End of Marketing'. Specializing in driving ROI through cost-effective, organic growth marketing strategies aimed at fostering customer loyalty and leading digital innovation for organizations. As a trusted subject matter expert, Carlos provides impactful marketing strategies for C-suite executives and corporate brands seeking provocative approaches to stand out in today's crowded digital ecosystem.As the Brand Evangelist at GetResponse, Carlos leads strategic initiatives to boost the brand's visibility and foster partnerships in the U.S. Leveraging his expertise in brand building, digital marketing, and growth strategies.What B2B Companies Can Learn From WWE:Evolve with your consumer. Adjust your brand messaging and content to fit your target consumer. Aim to resonate not just with them, but with the cultural zeitgeist of the time and place. Carlos says, “You've got to evolve in business or your brand is going to cease to exist long term. And the reason for that is because your consumer is not going to be around forever. I love how WWE has this magical appeal to bring back like the vets, right? Like The Rock, John Cena, Undertaker. Like every time they bring these guys back, they're bringing them back strategically to appeal to an older consumer. Same thing happens in the world of brand marketing, you know, brands find ways to connect with older audiences or audiences that maybe have left them. They do remarketing campaigns or retargeting campaigns.”Give your content personality. If your brand was a wrestler, what would they be like? What would their signature moves be? Don't be afraid to be different, loud, and have catch phrases. Carlos says, “Randy Savage was one of my favorite wrestlers because he was out there. He was loud. He was larger than life and he had a very distinctive voice. He had the catchphrase, ‘Oh yeah!' He was just different as a wrestler. And to stand out in today's noisy digital ecosystem, you have to be loud. You have to find ways to be different. You can't say the same thing that everyone's saying. Your content can't look like every other brand.”  Quotes*”I'm not a proponent of, ‘You have to go to my Twitter account to see a tease of a piece of content to then click outside of Twitter to then go to a website to give me your information to then get an email with a downloadable PDF that you really can't do anything with.' It's too many steps. Remove the friction. Make content easily accessible to your audience.”*”If your content looks like every other brand out there that you're competing with, you're going to just get lost. You're going to get lost in the noise.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Carlos Gil, US Market Brand Evangelist at GetResponse[3:01] Wrestling's Storytelling and Marketing Parallels[6:55] Evolution of WWE and Business Lessons[8:48] Carlos' Role at GetResponse[10:53] Understanding WWE and Its History[14:49] WWE's Business Model and Media Strategy[19:26] Content Marketing Lessons from WWE[26:52] The Art of Storytelling in Wrestling[31:49] Marketing Lessons from Wrestling[33:38] The Power of Storytelling in Business[43:40] Be Different: Marketing Like a Pro WrestlerLinksConnect with Carlos on LinkedInLearn more about GetResponseAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Ask yourself: “What is the magic of my brand?” Every brand has it. It's the special offering your company has that no other one does.That's where you focus the message of your content. And it's one of the things we're talking about today.In this episode, we're learning from the magic of the world of Disney. With the help of our special guest, Domo CMO Mark Boothe, we'll talk about working your magic, focusing on feeling, and the power of distribution.About our guest, Mark BootheMark Boothe is Chief Marketing Officer at Domo. Mark brings over 15 years of diverse marketing experience and is passionate about driving Domo's business growth through marketing initiatives. His mission is to empower all Domo customers and prospects with the insights and tools they need to make better business decisions and achieve their goals. In his previous role as VP of Community, Partner, and Field Marketing, Mark and his teams established new and strengthened existing programs to address customer pain points and create a greater sense of community. They also executed campaigns, programs and events that showcase the value of the Domo platform.Before joining Domo, Mark spent more than 10 years working in customer relations and marketing at Adobe and worked at Instructure as its senior director of customer marketing. He received his MBA from Utah State University and a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University. Outside of work, Mark enjoys spending time with his family and traveling.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Disney:Work your magic. Whatever the magic is that your brand has, that magic that sets you apart from competitors - make that the focus of your content. Mark says, “For Domo specifically, what's our magic? We're really, really good at helping people to use data effectively. We can help them make accessible interactions and interactive automations and simple integrations. We help people get value out of their data. And so for us, that's what the magic is. So we have to make that simple. We have to make it easy. We may have to make it understandable and the product has to work. That's what remembering the magic looks like for a software company that's selling visualization and BI and automation software.”Focus on feeling. Does your content feel like it's part of the brand? Does it all evoke the same feeling? Ian says, “One of the things that Disney understands so well is the importance of the property fitting into their overall brand, but that the properties all are standalones. And I think that this is not something that we really understand in marketing. Like, we get obsessed with the colors or the style. We obsess over making it look right instead of feel right. But Disney, the brand is all about the way it makes you feel.”Have a distribution plan for your content. Before you make any content, make sure you have a plan to get it out in the world, and in front of the right people. Mark says, “For so long the phrase has been content is king. But my fight would be that distribution is emperor. Yes, content is really, really important. And it's amazing what you can do with really good content, but you can do a heck of a lot more with really good content that has exceptional distribution behind it. I can do really good things with really bad content that has exceptional distribution strategies and tactics put behind it. The key is, how do you make sure that you're developing and creating and synthesizing really good content that you can then put the right kind of resources behind so that you get it in front of the people that you really care about?”Quotes*”For so long the phrase has been content is king. But my fight would be that distribution is emperor.”*”I'm a big fan of test, test, test, test, test, test, and learn. But you live in a world today where you can make micro optimizations to pieces of content and things. So use the technology and the things that are in place to be able to make the micro changes you need to make content work.”*”Content is everyone's responsibility at this point. No matter what discipline you are in within marketing, you are a content marketer. We get so caught up sometimes then, ‘Hey, this quarter we're going to do X number of blog posts.' Why? To what end? ‘We're going to create this many YouTube videos.' Okay, ‘we're going to create a whole bunch of stuff on TikTok.' Great! Like, what's the purpose? And backing up enough to say, Who's the audience? If your ICP is for a certain amount of these accounts that look like this, and these people who buy like this and need these things, and yet you're talking to all of them in the same way, you're going to fail.”*”Take the time to create really, really good content. We're not in the days anymore of ‘If you build it, they will come.' There is more content generated right now than in any other time. So just to build good content doesn't get the job done. Building good content and then having that distribution strategy and then being willing to make the micro changes you need to, you'll give it a good shot.”*”Don't be afraid to fail sometimes. If failure is, ‘We learned a whole lot of stuff and we won't make that same mistake again,' then it wasn't really failure.”*”Make sure as a marketer, you're staying true to the creative piece of your job, but that you're using data to make sure that it's all a strong reality. Cause I think too often, we can fall to either side, whether it's we're falling too hard on the creative side or we're falling too hard on the data side. And it is, it's an art and a science. So nail both the art and science.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Mark Boothe, CMO of Domo[2:33] The Launch of Disney Plus[4:25] Disney Plus Marketing Strategies[7:36] The Impact of Disney Plus on Consumers[18:13] Content and Distribution in B2B Marketing[22:05] Creating Quality Content in Business[22:20] The Importance of Distribution Strategy[22:43] Learning from Failures[22:58] Challenges in Content Creation[25:21] Investing in Brand and Community[27:14] The Role of Community in Customer Retention[28:25] Evaluating Content ROI[29:32] Building a Customer-Centric Community[32:00] The Impact of Community Initiatives[35:50] Balancing Creativity and Data in Marketing[37:57] Advice for other CMOsLinksConnect with Mark on LinkedInLearn more about DomoAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Before comedians ever get a Netflix special, they have to run the gauntlet. Night after night, they're putting themselves out there in front of judgmental crowds and trying to win them over.Sometimes they bomb, sometimes they face hecklers, and what may be even worse: silence. Kathy Griffin once bombed so badly at a show in Montreal she said, “The audience was talking so much that they didn't know my set ended.” Ouch.But even after bombing the worst, comedians

Marketing is like comedy. It has to be bold, memorable and perfectly timed to hit home. Great marketing knows how to turn heads, make an impression, and leave the audience wanting more, just like Midge Maisel.In this episode, we're taking marketing lessons from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.Together, with the help of our special guest, Head of Content & Brand at Close, Chelsea Castle, we're talking about using niche references, making your audience laugh, and making every word count.About our guest, Chelsea CastleChelsea Castle is Head of Content and Brand at sales productivity platform Close. She joined the company in April 2024 and formerly served as a content leader at Lavender.ai. She is a former journalist who became a content strategist and marketer, and brings with her more than 12 years of experience. She also formerly served as Director of Content Marketing at Chili Piper.  What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel:Use niche references. Don't be afraid to use obscure or niche references that target your ideal customer. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is so detail-oriented that a general audience will see and hear content that's true to the era, but people who know the period well will find meaning and humor in the minutest of details. Ian says, “I would rather hit one person in the heartstrings with the arrow and miss a hundred than sort of just hit a lot of people in the shoulder and have them be like, ‘Yeah, you know that I felt it, but, you know, I didn't feel it in my soul.' And you can do that with every post. If you're going to post, you know, 10 times in a week, then throw some obscure [references] out there, right? 80/20 rule. Have 80 percent of your posts be stuff that is mainstream and 20 percent of your posts be super obscure. And probably the ones that would go viral are the ones that are more obscure anyway.”Make ‘em laugh.  Humor is not just about getting giggles. Chelsea says, “Humor fast tracks trust, but it also helps [content] stick more.” You're building a connection with your audience, earning credibility and humanizing your brand by showing that you have a sense of humor - and understand theirs as well. Make every word count. Quippy, smart dialogue is a hallmark of Amy Sherman-Palladino who created both The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Gilmore Girls. To the point where there are no throwaway lines - each word is meant to be there, every line counts. Chelsea says, “I think that is probably one of the most valuable marketing lessons I think that could be helpful in this industry right now, where, especially with writing, I teach my team [that] every single word needs to earn its spot on the page. We don't really think a lot about where certain things go, or you just usually throw it up on the blog, where it's like, ‘What if we created an interactive page? What if we created a unique landing page for this one type of content?' Or thinking too about magazines where you have restricted word count, where every single word needs to be valuable and really earn its spot. And I think we should think about that with everything.”Quotes*”You can't do anything cool without taking some risks along the way. So you kind of just weigh that balance. As marketers, we're so driven to just drive action, to drive a conversion that we kind of miss the opportunity to build some sort of connection with our audience. And that's harder. It takes more time, more thought, more intentionality.  But that's how you get longer-term dividends and payoffs, is building more connection through what you create.”*”​​I worked in a branding agency, so I cut my teeth there where I was also essentially the content producer and executive producer of websites that I would create. So I feel like I've always had a lot of that in my career in terms of thinking through the whole experience of something with the magazines, I would think about the magazine having a heartbeat. And I apply that to my content now where you kind of want it to like ebb and flow, go up and down. You don't want it flat lined and you don't want it to be like peak the whole time. So I still apply that sort of thinking to how I think about content now, whether it's a virtual event, an in person event, a blog, of thinking about everything as [having] a heartbeat in a way that it's a full experience.”*”I think curiosity and gut are two of the biggest things to think about as a content leader. You've got to be tenaciously curious, ask all of the questions, dig as deep as you can. It's really hard. But it's also really fun work and you have to really lean into your curiosity and also your gut. Trust your gut. I think we don't talk enough about vibes or instinct in marketing. Like at Chili Piper and Lavender, for example, we had an idea of our brand, but a lot of the success came from just trusting our gut and experimenting and kind of just feeling what felt right. And you can't really put that in like a nice strategy doc, right? Like you kind of just have to go with your gut and your instinct and what feels right.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Chelsea Castle, Head of Content & Brand at Close[2:26] About Chelsea's Role at Close[3:38] The Making of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel[7:31] Marketing Lessons from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel[13:50] The Importance of Detail in Storytelling[23:03] The Power of a Strong Pilot Episode[27:45] Confrontation and Conflict[27:50] Character Development and Story Arcs[28:31] Minor Characters and Their Impact[30:27] Marketing Takeaways from Mrs. Maisel[32:59] The Power of Dialogue[42:21] Humor in Marketing[44:34] Humanizing Marketing[47:56] Building a Brand at Close[55:19] Final Thoughts and AdviceLinksConnect with Chelsea on LinkedInLearn more about CloseAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

What do marketers and competitive bakers have in common? Quite a lot, actually.Both work amid time constraints, follow recipes for success, and have to express creativity under pressure.  And there's a lot marketers can learn from these competitive bakers, so that's what we're talking about this week.In this episode, we're taking B2B marketing lessons from Food Network's seasonal baking series, Summer Baking Championship.Together with the help of our special guest, the Director of Content Marketing at Splunk, Ann Smith, we talk about putting your own spin on a recipe, tasting what you bake, and not trying to do too much at once. About our guest, Ann SmithAnn Smith joined Splunk a year ago as the Director of Content Marketing, leading a team of content strategists and writers to produce award-winning, pipeline-generating, headline-grabbing content. Prior to Splunk, she led content marketing for Oracle and held senior marketing roles at technology start-ups and small companies. She has a master of arts degree in Speech Communication from San Jose State University.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Summer Baking Championship:Put your own spin on a recipe. In other words, it's okay to use a recipe you know works, but don't just check the box with your content. Strive to also make an emotional connection with your audience. Ann says, “People that buy software are people too. And it's the storytelling and the ability to connect emotionally with readers that really makes it. Storytelling is that extra layer of icing on the cake.” Taste what you baked. Review your content to gauge its effectiveness. Looking back on past work is a great way to not only see your growth, but to take a candid look at what worked and what didn't. Ian says, “How many times have you made a meal and you didn't even taste it? My food is always criminally under-salted when I take it out because I just didn't taste it. So much marketing is like that. Go back and read that thing a year from now. Was that a good post? It's like, ‘No, it was not good.' Did you read it and like it? Did someone else on your team read it and like it?”Don't try to do too much. That's when you lose clarity on your message. It becomes instantly forgettable by your audience. Ian says, “The biggest thing is just writing way shorter and just telling one story at a time that has a single message that you're trying to leave people with. So many times we write an article and we want to pack 15 things into it. Dont. Just tell them one thing. I just want them to leave reading this thing with one singular lesson. And that's the thing that's going to stick.”Quotes *”People that buy software are people. Chief technology officers are people too. And it's the storytelling and the ability to connect emotionally with readers that really makes it. More than just, ‘I'm just following a recipe,' right? I'm just checking the box. Storytelling is that extra layer of icing on the cake.”*”Just be helpful, help educate [your audience] without expecting anything in return. If you can help your customer do something better, learn something new, without expecting anything back from them,  really genuinely wanting to help them succeed, you'll have customers for life.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Ann Smith, Director of Content Marketing at Splunk[1:36] Exploring Summer Baking Championship[2:39] Content Marketing at Splunk[5:13] The Success of Summer Baking Championship[9:17] Parallels Between Baking and Content Marketing[15:18] The Art of Storytelling in Marketing[19:29] The Art of Concise Writing[20:26] The Challenge of Simplifying Complex Messages[21:47] Avoiding Over-Salted Content[22:53] Relating to Your Audience[25:44] Embracing Authenticity in Writing[31:51] Effective Content Strategies[37:39] Final Thoughts and Best Advice for Marketing ProfessionalsLinksConnect with Ann on LinkedInLearn more about SplunkAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

What do you need to do to make your brand famous? You know how you could say “Seth Rogen” and people could easily recall that he's an actor, they know he's funny and associate him with Freaks and Geeks or Pineapple Express, for example?Well, with that same amount of ease, you want people to know who you are, what you do and to make positive associations with your brand name. How do you do it? That's one of the things we're talking about today.In this episode, we're learning about aiming for brand fame by looking at Seth Rogen's brand, Houseplant. With the help of our special guest, Director of Brand Marketing at Mailchimp, Greg Shumchenia, we talk about aiming for fame, using feeling, and practicing fluency. About our guest, Greg ShumcheniaGreg Shumchenia is Director of Brand Marketing at Mailchimp. He has over 16 years of experience as a brand marketer, strategist, and category planner. He joined Mailchimp in 2021 after a distinguished career at ad agencies like Fitzco and Dentsu Creative, where he helped shape brands like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, New Balance, Hidden Valley Ranch, and Harry's. He writes professionally about brand strategy, specifically around the idea of using brands as a point of difference by making them unforgettable, and he cares a lot about a well-crafted brief. He's been named to the AdAge A-List twice, once at Mailchimp as their in-house agency of the year and once at NAIL Communications as their small agency of the year. He has won awards for marketing effectiveness and for advertising creativity. He has B2C, B2B, and DTC experience. He has also worked across a lot of categories including CPG, SaaS, tech, retail, QSR, healthcare, finance, and nonprofit. Greg is based in San Francisco, so when he's not thinking and writing about brands, he's usually hiking, surfing, or exploring the inside of a good winery.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Houseplant:Chase fame. Aim to be a brand that comes to mind easily and is brought up in conversation. Greg says, “I think fame is one of those words that's kind of synonymous with awareness, but it's more than that. Like, I know Taylor Swift is famous because I know I can bring her up on this call and you know who she is. Fame is trying to achieve that level of talk value, shareability, just call it cultural relevance if you want.” He says, “[Houseplant doesn't] just speak to the small audience of marijuana smokers. They talk to a wider audience of people who appreciate beautiful design and objects. They're speaking to an entire category, and they do it with really bold and beautiful, distinct marketing. That's one of the best ways to build mental availability. You do it with a big group, and all of that drives growth.”Use feeling. Be expressive and get your audience to feel something through your content and branding. Greg says, “You can think of that one as emotion too. Houseplant uses emotion in a lot of different places, from the design of their products, you know Seth is pouring his own self into them. So you can kind of feel that emotion in the products and the design themselves. But also in the stories they tell. People remember feelings more than facts and figures. So if you're trying to build an unforgettable brand, feelings are one of the best ways to do it. You attach a feeling to a memory and people are going to recall that better than a functional message.”Practice fluency. Know your brand so well that the words to express what you do and what you stand for come easily. Then communicate that to your audience. Greg says, “[Houseplant] certainly practices fluency in every sense of the word. A distinct yet simple brand, it's easy to understand. It makes them easy to identify and to find. The two biggest things a brand needs to do is be remembered and be easy to buy. And fluency helps you be easy to buy. Fluency in your distinct brand assets and your look and feel is something Houseplant does super tight.” Quotes*”From a purely functional perspective, [Seth Rogen is] trying to make the whole smoking experience a Houseplant experience. You can buy the actual flower, you can buy the rolling papers or the pipe or the device that you smoke out of, the ashtray, the matches, the record that you put on that you listen to while you smoke. I think he even sells a chair you can sit in while you smoke. That's vertical integration. That's what Seth is doing with Houseplant. He's like, ‘We are going to sell you everything in the smoking vertical. Absolutely everything from the chair to the flower, like just everything.' It's kind of cool from a business perspective.”*”95 percent of buyers in a category are out of market at any given time, meaning you're not ready to buy. And 90 percent of B2B buyers are buying off their day-one shortlist. So when they do go into market, that's that 5 percent of the category. 90 percent already have a list in mind. Like you do that [math,] 10 percent of 5%, you're talking to half a percent of the category. You're competing for half a percent of the category if you're not on that day-one short list. So yeah, that's our content strategy to get on that day-one short list when buyers enter the market. So it's too late when they've been triggered and they start shopping. So we are talking to them beforehand.”*”It's scary to say, ‘We're going to talk to people who aren't interested in buying our product.'  It's scary to say, ‘We're okay with this taking a long time.' It's scary to say, like, ‘We're going to talk to people who aren't going to be in the market for the next three to five years, and when they are, it might take them six to nine months for that buying process to work out.'”*”Reframing a challenge for people gives them a real sense that you can help.”*”If I had three tennis balls and I threw them to you one at a time, you're very likely to catch every one of them. If I throw all three of them at you at once, you probably won't catch any of them. So just one at a time, one message at a time in one spot, in one ad, whatever you're creating. The more you say, the less people remember. So keep it simple.”*”When we talk about, ‘People not ready to buy,' how do you reach those people? This is one of the ways: you entertain them, but also sneak in a little bit of a lesson here or there.”*”It's a tough battle sometimes, but I think, you know, we also have a great collection because we've been doing it for a while. We've been persevering and like, you know, you're not going to strike gold or the magic's not going to happen after one podcast. It's going to take a while.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Greg Shumchenia, Director of Brand Marketing at Mailchimp[1:29] The Story Behind Houseplant[3:25] Houseplant's Unique Products and Philosophy[5:40] Houseplant's Social Impact and Seth Rogen's Involvement[10:09] Marketing Takeaways from Houseplant[22:31] Transition to MailChimp Discussion[26:16] Marketing Before the Sale: The Challenge[27:03] The Importance of Building Marketing Channels[29:09] Understanding Your Audience[30:17] Reframing Marketing Challenges[33:09] The Value of Singular Messaging[34:56] Highlighting Successful Content: The Science of Loyalty[37:02] Leveraging Intuit's Customer Base[38:52] Measuring ROI in Marketing[39:51] Upcoming MailChimp Podcasts[43:58] The Power of Original Content[50:47] Final Thoughts on Simplification in MarketingLinksConnect with Greg on LinkedInLearn more about MailchimpAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

How much of the realities of your business do you want your audience to see? The truth is, there are benefits to baring it all.Especially when you're a startup, showing your trials and tribulations endears your brand to viewers. It feels raw and real and trusting. It's a way to build an audience of dedicated fans. And in this episode, we're learning about this kind of radical transparency from Jeremy Clarkson.Known in the car world for his shenanigans and quick wit on the show The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson is now learning how to farm on his new show, Clarkson's Farm. He's doing what we call “building in public,” and showing viewers what it's really like to grow a farm from the ground up. That's one of the things we're talking about this week on Remarkable with the help of our special guest, Co-Founder & SVP of GTM Strategy at Passetto, Sidney Waterfall.Together, we talk about the benefits of building in public, using comedic tropes to add humor to your marketing, and transitioning your audience to a new POV. About our guest, Sidney WaterfallSidney Waterfall is the Co-Founder and SVP of GTM Strategy at Passetto. She's a sales and product-led B2B SaaS Marketer that transitions marketing teams from MQL's to revenue. Prior to her current role, Sidney served as SVP of Growth at Refine Labs. She has also previously held marketing roles at Ally.io, Trupanion, Simply Measured, Microsoft and Verizon.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Clarkson's Farm:Build in public. Show the real, raw moments with your audience as a way to be transparent and build trust. Sidney says, “Share your experience to connect with your audience and become relatable. [Jeremy Clarkson] was known in the car world. He has a huge audience. He's trying something else. So he's like, ‘I'm just going to show the real raw moments.' And they do on the show. They show exciting moments, they show frustrating moments. I think that is becoming more popular in the B2B space. People are sharing their journey of building a company or building a product or using a product, and they're being a little bit more transparent with the ups and downs of that, even when they're marketing to a certain ICP.” She adds, “I think that helps content really resonate with people and that helps people build audiences and brands build audiences through that type of strategy.”Add humor by using comedic tropes. Sidney says, “Good writing or copy stands out with a bit of humor. And wit is very effective.” Ian adds, “There's a comedic lesson there any time you have a fish out of water. You take someone who knows nothing and put them with a bunch of people who know lots of stuff.” It's like how Jeremy Clarkson doesn't know anything about farming and he's surrounded by farmers trying to help him work his land. Viewers are also learning while watching the show, so it's a great way to edutain as well.You can transition your current audience and acquire new audience members from a new POV or a new niche. Jeremy Clarkson will draw viewers from his previous show, The Grand Tour, to his new one, Clarkson's Farm, because he's built a name for himself. And he'll also gain new viewers who are interested in the concept of his new show. So some will have been interested in cars, some in farming or homesteading, others in Jeremy Clarkson as a personality. Sidney says, “This is applicable to my current situation of going from one brand that was very well known with a huge founder brand, and now standing up another company underneath that same founder.” She says, “We have an incredible audience to use and leverage. So really positioning our founder's brand as multiple businesses. And he's talking to a different level of audience than he previously was. So from his content strategy, we're changing up who the content is targeted for. And then on the side of that, it's like, ‘Okay, how do we build the brand of Passetto outside of the founder at the same time as we start to scale so that people in the market know the difference between Refine Labs and Passetto?'”Quotes *”One of the things that I thought you did so well at Refine Labs was naming the problem with something specific. To say, ‘Dark social is the thing that is happening. And here is how you go attack it.'That is the part of thought leadership that just frames the audience so quickly into solve and learn mode, and is super important. You have to find the thing that's going to resonate, and be easy to say and easy to understand.” - Ian Faison*”[Jeremy Clarkson] is definitely the main character, what kind of makes the show. And I relate that to marketing as, like, that's the founder brand, or like, that's like the face of the company or the spokesperson. And he's been able to take his massive audience and transition some of that over, but also acquire a new audience into his brand. But he's still being very true to himself, his personality and his character. It's like rinse and repeat what he was doing over in the automotive space in this new space.” - Sidney WaterfallTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Sidney Waterfall, Co-Founder & SVP of GTM Strategy at Passetto[2:28] About the Creation of Clarkson's Farm[4:01] Jeremy Clarkson's Farming Journey[7:50] Showing the Realities of Farming[20:39] Marketing Lessons from Clarkson's Farm[24:12] Using Comedic Tension in B2B Marketing[25:46 How to Transition Audiences with a New POV[27:50] Building a Brand Outside the Founder[28:47] Sidney's Content Strategy and Execution[36:00] The Importance of Thought Leadership[40:40] Sidney's Favorite Content Projects and How She Proves ROI[46:51] Sidney's Advice for Other Marketing ProfessionalsLinksConnect with Sidney on LinkedInLearn more about PassettoAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

We content marketers all want to put out high quality content all the time. But you might get writer's block or just feel stuck sometimes. And one of the best ways to get unstuck, to feel inspired and motivated to get better and better is to look to content creators who do their job really, really well. So in this episode, we encourage you to be influenced by some of the top thought leaders in business, including Gary Vaynerchuck, April Dunford, Chris Walker and Jason Lemkin. Together with the help of our special guest, Co-Founder & CMO of Dreamdata, Steffen Hedebrandt, we talk about writing a book, running experiments, keeping your content snowball rolling, sourcing content ideas from your sales team, and much more.About our guest, Steffen HedebrandtSteffen Hedebrandt is CMO and Co-Founder of Dreamdata, a pioneer in the realm of growth engines and marketing optimization. Steffen is a subject matter expert in connecting marketing activities with revenue. He has an exceptional growth mindset, is data-driven by heart and loves all parts of scaling the commercial side of a business. A notorious growth hacker with a successful track record of scaling businesses and building teams at Upwork and Airtame, Steffen knows the pain points of rapidly scaling marketing and growth firsthand.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Business Influencers:Write a book. Ian says, “if you can write a book and you have a good idea for it, it does give you credibility. It is a lot of work, but if it succeeds, then you can do really well.” Gary Vee has Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. April Dunford has Obviously Awesome. And the books opened the door for them as thought leaders. Spending the time and thought on writing a book positions you as an expert in your field and validates your thought leadership in your industry. Run experiments. Steffen says, “[Gary Vaynerchuk is] constantly experimenting. Him and his teammates are extremely good at running constant experiments and yeah, sometimes it fails. But if we don't continue the experimentation culture, then we will not find the next big thing that's going to be driving the conversation with the audience.” So keep trying new and different things, see what works, and use it in your marketing.Keep rolling the snowball of content. Steffen says, “You need to do work and then you need to tell the world about it. And then in this constant cycle of documenting, “This is what we've done today. Here's an example.' Move on to the next thing. And little by little, the snowball starts rolling and you grow your audience little by little by continuously putting out stuff.” Try to put out content continuously, even if you only have one point to make. And little by little you'll grow your audience.Define your audience. Ian says, “Who exactly do you want to talk to? And obviously niche down as much as you possibly can to try to figure out who you really feel like you can serve the best and then figure out, ‘Okay, if I want to talk to these people for the next five years, what is the type of stuff that I want to talk about?  You should probably go talk to those people. Hopefully you have a background in that. If you want to go with the very super authentic route, if you don't have a background, then you need to find a way into being authentic, which means you need to talk to people who are having those problems and pull them into your content.” So do your research. Get to know your audience as well as possible so you can speak their language, create messages that resonate with them, and build your community. Source content ideas from your sales team. Steffen says, “When you listen to what the customers are telling your sales team, exhaust those questions through well-written content, and then produce a lot of high quality content that can ensure that you can always stay top of mind with the customers that you're trying to target.” Tune into what your sales team is hearing from customers about questions they have, concerns, and more, and channel that into your content.Quotes*”It's about authenticity. You can hear that these are real experiences. It's things that they've tried. Jason [Lemkin] can say these things because he's been in the trenches. That to me is the people I want to listen to. It's people who have done things themselves that you can trust that  it might not be a universal truth, but it's at least something that they've tried themselves and experienced. And now they're sharing this story with you. “That's what really makes it convincing to me.”*”If you're sitting out there just wanting to get started, just find peace in doing one of those disciplines where you are a good writer or you're good at communicating verbally, or you do well on video. And just dip your toes in whatever of those that you feel that you're strongest in. And if you want to get started, you don't have to do all of those disciplines at once. If you like writing, just start by writing and see where that takes you.”*”The one thing we can control in marketing is that we can ensure that we have a high output of content and we can ensure that that content is of the highest quality all the time. So whether it's somebody who's making a decision whether to buy or not, whenever they're being exposed by a podcast that we've been part of, we know it's high quality. And that's probably what could be convincing that customer to move on with deciding whether they should be going with us or not. So high quality, high frequency output is something that we as marketers can always control.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Steffen Hedebrandt, Co-Founder & CMO of Dreamdata[2:18] The Power of Consistent Content Creation[4:18] Understanding Business Influencers[9:17] Building Personal Brands and Marketing Strategies[11:40] The Importance of Authenticity and POV[20:15] Experimentation and Content Strategy[24:32] Packaging Ideas for Easy Understanding[25:33] Getting Started with Content Creation[26:23] Identifying and Engaging Your Audience[27:36] Creating a Unique Point of View[30:00] Content Strategy at DreamData[31:53] High-Quality Content and Distribution[37:25] Measuring Marketing Success[41:36] Innovative Content Approaches[44:50] Introducing DreamData's Audience Hub[48:24] Final Advice for MarketersLinksConnect with Steffen on LinkedInLearn more about DreamdataAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

The Kardashians are masters of marketing. It's the way they live. From their TV show to their individual brands like 818 Tequila, Good American and Skims, the Kardashians and Jenners are marketing themselves. So with the help of our special guest, Head of Marketing & Communications at Foursquare, Michele Morelli, we are taking marketing lessons from The Kardashians.We'll talk about using the power of proximity, controlling your own narrative, and much more.About our guest, Michele MorelliMichele Morelli is Head of Marketing & Communications at Foursquare, where she oversees Foursquare's efforts and strategy across product marketing, corporate communications, public relations, partner marketing, and design. Michele brings with her over 20 years of experience across numerous industries – including technology, finance, and media, at companies like Gartner, Yahoo and AOL. Prior to joining the company in 2021, Michele served as EVP of Marketing at Toluna Corporate.  What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Kardashians:Use the power of proximity. Reference and connect cultural touchpoints to your brand. It's like how the Kardashians are close to the OJ Simpson trial, Paris Hilton, the Olympics, Kanye West…all cultural touchpoints that increase their awareness and brand recall in the public's mind. Ian says, “It matters to be close to Hilton because everybody knows what a Hilton is. It matters to be close to the OJ Simpson case because everybody knew what that was. It matters to be close to the Olympics because everybody knew what that was. A lot of times in marketing, you're trying to figure out how you can leverage the power and the story of other things to do that sort of jiu jitsu, to take that energy and put that wind in your sail too and propel you forward.” Similarly, you can align your brand with other like-minded brands and cross-promote content. Michele says that “There's this cross-promotional audience blending that has happened simply because of who [the Kardashians] have aligned themselves with.”Control your own narrative. The Kardashians were able to control their story by creating their own reality show. Michele says, “Controlling the narrative is always incredibly important, but two, the consistency from which they hit the narrative is so important. Like, they know what they stand for, they know what the business is they want to promote, they know how to weave a narrative around it. In marketing where you want to control the message that goes out, if there's going to be a story that's written, how do you make sure that it's framed in the best possible light for your brand?” Quotes*”John Wanamaker was famous for the quote, ‘Half of my advertising spend is wasted, the only problem is I don't know which half.' It is no longer true. I think we have a much better direction of how we are spending our money and where we're actually seeing movement. The question is what aperture you look at it with. Is it a week? Is it six weeks? Is it six months? So really making sure you have that right window to measure your media I think is also going to be very important.” - Michele Morelli*”What's really important from a brand perspective that I think Kim embodies is that if you are a legacy brand or a heritage brand, it is very difficult to move away from how people perceive you and what the core is. There's always a, ‘Yeah, but…' when we talk about Kim. And I think for marketers, we see that if once you are thought of in one way, getting people to come along for the journey, that you're something different, especially if you're still doing that same thing is very, very difficult.” - Michele MorelliTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Michele Morelli, Head of Marketing & Communications at Foursquare[1:55] The Kardashians' Marketing Powerhouse[3:20] Foursquare's Marketing Strategy[5:2 The Origin of The Kardashians Show[8:13] The Evolution and Impact of The Kardashians[15:32] Marketing Takeaways from The Kardashians[18:38] The Power of Proximity in Marketing[36:10] The Kardashian Flywheel Effect[36:21] Kris Jenner: The Mastermind[37:56] The Ubiquity of the Kardashian Brand[45:54] The Evolution of Foursquare[51:18] Content Strategy and ROI[1:00:01] Embracing Technology in MarketingLinksWatch The KardashiansConnect with Michele on LinkedInLearn more about FoursquareAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

You may not think of people at work as your community, but they are. And when you build strong relationships with your community, you get more done. It's more creative. It's more resourceful. The results are just better.That's one of the things we're talking about today with the help of our special guest, Senior Director of Brand & Digital Marketing at Collibra, Victoria Bowman.Together, we take marketing lessons from Abbott Elementary, including partnering up with your coworkers, showing that you understand your audience, and testing your ideas before investing in them.About our guest, Victoria BowmanVictoria Bowman is an accomplished marketing leader with extensive experience building brands and accelerating growth in fast-paced award-winning companies, including Collibra, MITRE and Dell Technologies.She is Senior Director of Brand and Digital Marketing at Collibra, the leading data intelligence platform. Her team includes Brand and Creative, Digital & Websites, Social Media, Community and Marketing Operations. Victoria fosters a strong culture of trust and collaboration on her team, empowering impactful cross-functional work on campaigns, events, website optimization, thought leadership programs and evolution of the brand. Collibra was recently recognized with wins in multiple categories from both the MarCom Awards and Communicator Awards.At MITRE, a nonprofit which performs R&D on behalf of the federal government as well as industry partners, Victoria helped Strategic Communications navigate proper brand marketing in an organization dating back to 1958. Her primary focus was on relaunching mitre.org with a design system refresh and 90 net-new pages of concise content, as well as developing the employer brand and deploying high-impact campaigns to talent acquisition targets.As Director of Brand Marketing at Dell Boomi, a SaaS company within Dell Technologies, Victoria built and led large cross-functional teams of creatives and developers, relaunched the corporate website twice during her tenure, rebranded the company, and created infrastructure and improved processes that helped Dell Boomi to scale. These strategies enabled growth initiatives and lead-generating campaigns that resulted in direct, measurable business impact.Prior to working in tech / SaaS, Victoria held leadership roles in consumer packaged goods and online retail organizations. In those positions, she created innovative visual communications and marketing campaign strategies that effectively engaged B2B/B2C channels, planned and executed large events, expanded omnichannel brand awareness, and directly increased sales and customer retention.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Abbott Elementary:Partner up. Don't feel like you have to operate alone. Working collaboratively with others results in a more thoughtful, creative, and unique outcome. Victoria says, “Relationships are crucial to your success. All of the characters on Abbott Elementary really rely on each other. And they've built trust by learning across generations and different backgrounds. And I think that culture of trust really is what fosters great partnership and creativity and innovation. Fostering connections and gaining that shared understanding and having mutual support is important, and the element of discovery that comes from all of those shared experiences.”Show that you understand your audience. Appeal to their values, concerns, frustrations and priorities. That's when content “clicks” for them and you create an emotional bond. Victoria says, “Show that you understand and speak to and meet the needs of your audience. Exemplify that in your marketing, that you understand their problems, you understand their needs, that you are listening, that you're accessible.”Test. Try out new marketing strategies before really investing in them. Victoria says, “Be entrepreneurial. Try out new things. Experiment and test and improve the benefit before you sink budget and resources into something. That's how new activities can turn into successful programs. Never lose that sense of curiosity and that entrepreneurial approach.”Quotes*”To be successful at content marketing, you cannot work in silos. It takes a village to do B2B marketing well, and that means keeping the communication flowing and building trust and having that open collaboration.”*”Bring your whole self to work; your creativity, your resilience and humor. You really, as a leader, should set an example of how to be open and curious and flexible and authentic because it is contagious and it will help you to build an amazing culture on your team.”*”Experiment often. Learn from what works and what doesn't work and keep iterating. Model for people what it looks like to learn from failures and keep moving forward with optimism and lessons learned. So make sure you celebrate the wins that you recognize the great work and you build on it.  Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Victoria Bowman, Senior Director of Brand & Digital Marketing at Collibra[5:49] About the creation of Abbott Elementary[9:49] Marketing Lessons from Abbott Elementary[23:34] The Power of Different Perspectives[24:20] Importance of Setting in Storytelling[24:43] Building Community and Brand Consistency[25:29] Content Strategy and Customer Engagement[28:45] Collaborative Marketing Efforts[35:51] Measuring Content ROI[42:12] Careers in Data Series[43:44] Victoria's Upcoming ProjectsLinksConnect with Victoria on LinkedInLearn more about CollibraAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

If you know Quentin Tarantino's movies, it's probably not a huge surprise that he's a fan of Spaghetti Westerns. Tarantino's 2012 movie, Django Unchained, references Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Spaghetti Western Django. But the tribute doesn't stop there.There's a scene in Django Unchained where a man asks Django how he spells his name. Django says, “The D is silent.” The man responds, “I know.” That man is Franco Nero, the actor who plays Django in the original 1966 movie. The two Djangos, 46 years apart, sitting side by side. This is what's called intertextuality.It's referencing, quoting or alluding to other content. And it helps increase views and engagement with your content.That's one of the things we're talking about today with Max Bard, VP of Content at Pray.com. Together, we're taking lessons from Oscar-winning director Quentin Tarantino, like exploring outside of what is considered “brand safe,” incorporating intertextuality and getting nostalgic in your content.About our guest, Max BardMax Bard is an Executive Producer and the head of PRAY Studios, PRAY.COM's content production arm. As the head of PRAY Studios, Max has produced over 5,500 original podcast episodes, audio books, and daily devotionals. Max has worked with Superbowl Champions like Drew Brees, Emmy Award winners like Dr Phil, and Grammy Award winners like Lecrae to create world-class content for the Christian audience.Prior to PRAY.COM, Max was the President of VideoFort, Hollywood's largest supplier of aerial and nature stock footage to companies like Getty Images, Adobe, and Shutterstock. VideoFort content has been used in Academy Award winning films, Cannes Lion award winning commercials, and Emmy award winning TV shows.Max is from Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California in 2014. After graduation Max pursued his dream of writing, directing, and editing film & video content in genres ranging from Drama to Advertising to Music Videos.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Quentin Tarantino:Explore outside of what is “brand safe”. Sure, you can play it safe and continue to make slow but steady growth. But the big growth happens when you take risks. Max says, “If you want to hit the home runs, you have to take the big risks. And if you don't, then you can take the easy route and you'll probably keep that steady baseline. But if you want to get that massive spike, I think you got to try something every once in a while. Take that big risk.”Incorporate intertextuality. That is, use references to other popular content. You'll get more eyes on your content because you're piggybacking on what is already in the public consciousness. Max says, “Some people say that Quentin Tarantino copies other films.. But he is inspired by films of the past and TV shows and music and culture. Brands could do that too, and it's like an Easter egg. It's really cool if you can incorporate that into your campaigns. It could be massive, especially when it comes to memorability.”Get nostalgic. Pull from fondly remembered content. Tugging on those heartstrings, or the content people see with rose-colored glasses, creates that positive association with your brand. Max says, “You can see this a lot in Tarantino's films.  I think a prime example is in Pulp Fiction when they enter Jack Rabbit Slims and they're walking around the restaurant and you see Marilyn Monroe in there and you see James Dean. The waitresses and the waiters are all people from the fifties.”Quotes*”He has this distinctive style that stands out. If you're going to a [Quentin] Tarantino film, you don't have to go in saying, ‘Hey, we're going to watch this Quentin Tarantino film.' The moment that it starts, you're going to tell just from the visuals, from the cuts, from the camera work, that it is his. He has that immediate brand identity. That's a big part of your marketing, is having that memorable piece within your brand. This highlights the importance of developing a unique brand voice that can really help you stick out amongst this crowd of hundreds of other brands,”*”When you see these things that bring back positive memories, I think if you can do that with your branding, then whatever it is you're doing, whether it be a campaign or or a commercial spot, a Facebook ad, people will remember it better. And if they remember it better, ideally they'll purchase your product or want to work with you, or they'll have that positive brand association with you.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Max Bard, VP of Content at Pray.com[1:56] Discussing Quentin Tarantino's Films and Influence[6:21] Max's Role at Pray.com[16:30] About Quentin Tarantino's Unique Film Style[23:24] Marketing Takeaways from Tarantino[28:54] The Power of Over-the-Top Branding[30:27] Intertextuality: Borrowing from the Best[38:31] Nostalgia: Emotional Connection in Marketing[45:19] Familiar Voices: Leveraging Celebrity Power[50:34] Max's Advice for other Marketing ProfessionalsLinksConnect with Max on LinkedInLearn more about Pray.comAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

What is the one thing that only your brand can bring to the table? Tapping into that thing is key to better messaging, better positioning, and better engagement.And here to help us sift out that marketing gold is our special guest, Content Marketing Manager at Varonis, Lexi Croisdale. Together we're talking about the podcast New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. Together, we're pulling marketing lessons from it, like fighting where you can win, making your teammate the face of your content, and prioritizing social content.About our guest, Lexi CroisdaleLexi Croisdale is the Content Marketing Manager at Varonis. Prior to joining Varonis in May 2023, Lexi served as Senior Content Marketing Manager at higher education engagement platform Mongoose, where she developed and executed the company's content and social media marketing strategies. She brings with her over 7 years of experience helping marketing teams across various industries make creative content.What B2B Companies Can Learn From New Heights:Make your teammate the face of your content. Who you choose depends on a handful of factors. Lexi says, “A lot of times, especially in content where you're like, ‘I have this video I want to create, but I need someone to be on camera.' Like you always think of your CEO, or someone like that. But maybe the subject matter expert or like the specialist on your team is really good at public speaking and actually has the time and the bandwidth to also be that person. And then you kind of can create that personality internally.”Fight where you can win. What can you do that no one else can? For the Kelce brothers, they're both elite NFL players, Superbowl winners and (obviously) brothers. That's what makes the podcast special, and stand out among other football podcasts. Ian says, “As a lesson for marketers, they're doing something that only they can do. And it's like, when they talk about stuff, that's familial, it's only something that only they can talk about. Nobody else can have that sort of talk track.”Put social first. New Heights focuses strongly on social promotion. They cut the episode into clips that are distributed across social media channels which increases engagement, listenership and awareness of the podcast. Lexi says, “The editing style and the way that they go about it evolves with each episode, even though the template might be the same. They find a way to repurpose it and keep going without it just needing to tie to like, ‘Here's two brothers talking about football.” It's a way that non-listeners find out about the show, and are drawn to their banter instead of just football content.Quotes*”Not every piece of content has to fit into a box or be the way that you thought it would be to build an audience. Like you just need to focus on delivering the content in the right way, and being relatable and having that niche outlook.”*”Just because you start [your content] some way doesn't mean it always has to be that exact thing. It can evolve as long as you keep the core tenets of it.”*”A lot of times, you put a lot of work into content or a campaign and it doesn't work. Like, it doesn't give you the ROI or the kind of results that you were hoping for. But if you sit back and you take that as a lesson and you just see it more as a learning experiment, something that you did and test it out and learned from instead of a failure, you're going to see a lot of growth in your creative strategy and how you're executing and adapting your content to fit your channels that you're posting it on.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Lexi Croisdale, Content Marketing Manager at Varonis[3:12] Varonis and Content Marketing Strategies[7:22] The Making of New Heights Podcast[14:32] Marketing Lessons from New Heights[26:41] The Power of Social-First Content[27:09] Engaging Guests and Evolving Content[29:01] The Importance of Social Clipping[30:58] Building an Audience Through Relatable Content[36:43] Content Strategy at Varonis[38:50] The Impact of Video Content[48:53] Advice for Content MarketersLinksConnect with Lexi on LinkedInLearn more about VaronisAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

You may know Sex and the City as a massive hit and content machine - and the reason everyone was drinking cosmopolitans. But you may not know that it started as an actual newspaper column.So let's talk about how and why that one piece of content made a lasting mark on the cultural zeitgeist. And what we can take from the show and apply to our own marketing.In this episode, we're talking about the Emmy Award-winning show with the Head of Content at Dandy, Rocky Rakovic. Together, we talk about how content marketing is like dating your audience, why style and design are important, and why it's crucial to report back to the group.About our guest, Rocky RakovicRocky Rakovic is Head of Content at Dandy. He has been with the company since September 2022. Prior to Dandy, Rocky served as Director of Content & Community at Ro. He has also led content and brand activation for Time Out Group, and worked as Editor in Chief at Inked, and Editor at Playboy.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Sex and the City:Content marketing is like dating your audience. Rocky says, “You're courting the customer. You want to make sure that you find the right person. Ultimately what a marketer does is they play matchmaker between company and customer. And your ultimate goal is to look for a mutually beneficial relationship between the two.”Style and design are important. Once your messaging is tucked away, dial in the visual details. Rocky says, “If Carrie wore Crocs, I wonder if she would have had the same draw, if the show would have done that well. Fashion was such the fifth character - and maybe the city was the fifth and fashion was the sixth character in that show. And I've been in conversations like, ‘Let's just do the scrappy, quick and dirty video.' And it's like, ‘Or we could take our time and do it right and have the design look [good].  And I just think good design, good look and feel really enhance whatever message you're giving.” He adds, “The quality of content speaks to the care that the company has in everything they deliver.”Report back to the group. Bring your content ideas back to your team for feedback. Rocky says, “In content creation, you gotta go off and do parts of it on your own. That's not gonna happen in a room or a Zoom, the really great stuff. But I think that you can come back to your team and say, ‘What do you think of this thing that I came up with?' And if you've got a good team that you can trust, they'll be a great barometer.” It's like how Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte all get together and talk about the guys they're dating. It's how they connect and process their romantic lives.Quotes*”You got to be a champion of your audience over everything else. Like as a marketer, you are translating the brand mission into pain points that you can tell your audience about that will help them. And you've got to feed back what you're hearing from that audience to the higher ups to explain like, ‘No, no, no, here's where we should be spending our time. Cause here's what potential customers and current customers are looking for.'” - Rocky Rakovic*”What we seek to create in content is not something great. It is something different. You need to create the thing that makes you unique at the party.” - Ian FaisonTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Rocky Rakovic, Head of Content at Dandy[3:01] Dandy's Innovative Approach to Dentistry[6:54] Rocky's Career Journey[12:21] Sex and the City: Origins and Impact[30:12] Real Talk in 'Sex and the City'[32:32] Impact of HBO Shows[35:27] Design and Marketing Insights[40:34] Content Strategy and Audience Engagement[41:58] Creative Campaigns[47:58] Journalism in B2B MarketingLinksConnect with Rocky on LinkedInLearn more about DandyAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

It's tempting to add some sauce to your content to give it flavor. But if the meat isn't there, what's the point? You have to make sure there's substance to your work before adding style. That's one of the things we talk about with Caroline Van Dyke.In this episode, we're taking marketing lessons from Hot Ones with Caroline's help. She's the Head of Content at Skilljar. And together, we talk about making customers the star, focusing on the meat of the content, and much more.About our guest, Caroline Van DykeCaroline Van Dyke is Head of Content at customer education software company Skilljar. She is a content and creative strategist with more than 10 years experience leading B2B start-up content strategies. Her panache? Puns & a little personality can take brands up a notch. She joined Skilljar in October 2023, and previously worked in various leadership roles at RollWorks and Zugata (acquired by Culture Amp).What B2B Companies Can Learn From Hot Ones:Make customers the star. Highlight how your product is helping them. Use their voice in your content. Caroline says, “As a content creator in B2B spaces, when's the right time to make it like, ‘Hey, look at us and some personality on our team or thought leader.' Is it actually helpful to other people in the audience? Or do you help them make their customers the stars and help give them that material?” It's like how Sean Evans rarely talks about himself, because his focus is on elevating the guest and highlighting their work. Focus on the actual meat of the content. Educate, entertain, and drive value through the content first. Then you can think about making things visually appealing. But when you put style over substance, your content suffers. Caroline says, “Put that effort into what the actual meat of the content is. That's research, getting to know people, and then we're a little bit more forgiving of how things look. Yes, we want them to still be visually appealing and do your best, but gone are the days of pretending that spending all that money or time just on a facade of something is going to also equal great outcomes.” In Hot Ones, this means that the value is on the quality of the questions and research behind them, versus focusing on having a shiny, sparkly set. Quotes*”We're all just kind of raising this bar together of sameness. And so where can you go to get something a little bit different? And that's not to say that you don't also need that sea of sameness and stability and  important stuff. But what on top of it can you add?”*”You can't rip and replace a lot of this conversation around taking B2C and making it B2B. It's not one for one. And you'll see people do it poorly, unfortunately, of thinking, ‘Hey, a consumer likes this. So I'm just going to copy it exactly and somehow make the pun relate to my industry.' If it doesn't land for your audience, respect that other program and don't duplicate it.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Caroline Van Dyke, Head of Content at Skilljar[2:44] Caroline Van Dyke's Role at SkillJar[3:41] The Origin Story of Hot Ones[5:41] The Unique Format and Success of Hot Ones[14:16] Analyzing the Interview Style of Hot Ones[23:38] The Trust Factor in Interviews[24:35] The Simplicity and Success of Hot Ones[26:17] Marketing Insights and Trends[27:11] Imitation and Innovation in Content[28:04] The Importance of Authenticity[32:03] Balancing Creativity and Strategy[35:18] Content Strategy at SkillJar[41:18] The Future of B2B ContentLinksWatch Hot OnesConnect with Caroline on LinkedInLearn more about SkilljarAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

B2B content is often impersonal. It may be clean and polished and dialed in, much like an F1 race car. But as pretty as it is, it may blend into all the rest. But if you let your audience under the hood, that's how you win them over. You show them your personality, that there are real people behind the brand.That's one of the things we're talking about today as we take marketing lessons from Drive to Survive. All with the help of the VP of Global Executive Marketing at Salesforce, Kexin Chen. Together, we talk about letting people under the hood, how confusion equals no sale, and tapping into new channels to open to the door to new audiences.About our guest, Kexin ChenKexin Chen is VP of Global Executive Marketing. In her role, she leverages the latest advancements in media, customer advocacy, and storytelling to spark engagement with CEOs and their leadership team. She's run high profile programs like the Olympics, F1, and Cannes for C-Suite leaders to collaborate and share their authentic stories of driving change in business, industry, and society.Prior to Salesforce, Kexin was the second marketing hire at NextRoll where she built and scaled the marketing functions from the ground up.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Drive to Survive:Tap into new channels, open the door to new audiences. Go where your target audience is. If it's social media, release content on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, etc. That's often where you'll find your younger audience members. Kexin says, “[Liberty Media has] done a really good job with focusing on digital engagement and stepping out of how do we actually not just think about the TV broadcast, but also think about all the social channels we have and get these drivers out on TikTok, on Snap, to reach that younger audience?”Confusion = no sale. It's simple: your audience won't buy what they don't understand. So make it as easily understood as possible. Use their language. And if there's jargon, explain it. Ian says, “You have to simplify  Everything to its most elemental sort of level. They had to demystify what Formula 1 was to explain like what this whole thing is.” And demystifying Formula 1 has transformed their audience. A 2021 Nielsen study says, “The fanbase has almost doubled since 2017. During that period, the average age of Formula 1 viewers dropped by four years, to 32, and female participation has doubled.”Let people under the hood. The success of Drive to Survive relies on the film crew's ability to get up close and personal with the Formula One drivers. To be so ever-present that the teams forget the film crew is there, and be their most authentic selves. This gives viewers a real look at what it means to be an F1 driver. Ian says, “The mentality for this sort of stuff is like, ‘Well, if we let them under the hood, what if they see something bad?' And it's like, ‘What if we don't let them under the hood and then they never come back?'” The idea is that by letting people under the hood, you attract the right audience and make that product-market fit that lasts. So show people an authentic view of your company and product, and gain your audience's trust through transparency.Quotes*”If we are just trying to sell to [our audience], it's not going to work. And so we have to ensure that we're balancing educating them on the value of our platform and why it's going to completely change their organization. But also we want to build a really trusted relationship and figure out how to arm them with what it's going to take for them to actually be the champion and the star at their organization for bringing Salesforce.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet VP of Global Executive Marketing at Salesforce, Kexin Chen[1:44] Impact of Drive to Survive on Formula One[2:48] Kexin Chen's Role at Salesforce[4:40] The Marketing Miracle of Drive to Survive[7:40] The Human Element in Sports Marketing[14:15] Global Expansion and Strategy of Formula One[24:49] Engaging Executives and Building Communities[33:20] Final ThoughtsLinksWatch Drive to SurviveConnect with Kexin on LinkedInLearn more about SalesforceAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Have you ever predicted your next campaign's success with uncanny accuracy? You will. That's because we're bringing you marketing lessons this week from AT&T's “You Will” campaign with the help of our special guest, Rokt CMO Doug Rozen.Together, we talk about demonstrating the future, using intrigue as a marketing tool, closing your copy strong, and increasing the frequency of your ads.About our guest, Doug RozenAs Chief Marketing Officer at Rokt, Doug Rozen leads strategy & execution for all Rokt's global go to market efforts. Known for seamlessly exploiting the intersection of creativity, technology and data, Doug has been recognized globally for transforming companies through change & removing barriers in the business world. He's been fortunate to be part of many major industry firsts and has become a trusted, go-to adviser in delivering modern marketing for some of the world's greatest brands. Prior to joining Rokt, Doug served as CEO of dentsu Media, where he was responsible for 4,350+ media experts and $20+ billion in media at Carat, iProspect, dentsu X, 360i & beyond. Before dentsu Media, Doug was the first Chief Media Officer at 360i, where he helped them become a Forrester leader, MediaPost Agency of the Year, & AdAge A-list agency. He joined 360i from OMD, where he led digital & innovation activities globally at a critical period in our industry. Before Omnicom, Doug served as Chief Innovation Officer & General Manager at Meredith & created Carlson Marketing's global agency unit including creative, media, mobile & social offerings. He also helped guide its acquisition by Aimia. Earlier, Doug served as Senior Partner & Managing Director at WPP's JWT, where as one of the first digital leaders he established digital@jwt and combined it with other direct and data offerings. Doug is a vocal cancer survivor and proud advocate for Stand Up to Cancer. He holds a BS in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and has studied ecommerce at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and artificial intelligence at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Doug is an avid cyclist and skier, living in Connecticut with his wife, daughter and son.What B2B Companies Can Learn From AT&T's “You Will” Campaign:Demonstrate the future. Show your audience the benefit of doing business with you. Give them a visual of the time saved or frustrations avoided by using your product. Ian says, “It speaks to the simplicity of consumer experience and product experience. [Identifying] pain points of, ‘Hey, this thing is annoying. I bet you something will fix that.'” And Doug adds, “I think as a marketer, part of my job is to help, both internally and externally, audiences understand the future and be ready for it. And so I think a key component of this campaign is that ability to predict the future. And have a point of view.”Intrigue is a powerful tool. Make your audience question and think about the possibilities if they were to buy your product. Start with a question. In the AT&T “You Think” campaign, they started each ad with something like: “Have you ever kept an eye on your home when you're not at home?” Asking a question gets your audience engaged immediately by thinking of their answer. Have a strong close. This campaign is called the “You Will” campaign for a reason. Because each ad spot ended with the phrase, “You Will. And the company that will bring it to you: AT&T.” This campaign became iconic not just for its futuristic predictions, but for its strong copy. Doug says, “These commercials and these messages closed an ad as good as any I've ever seen. To me, this felt less like ads and more like little pieces of content.” Increase the frequency of your ads. Include two or three examples of the benefits of your product. It's essentially fitting multiple ads in one, and uses the power of repetition. In each ad from the AT&T “You Will” campaign, they asked three questions. For example, “Have you ever opened doors with the sound of your voice, carried your medical history in your wallet, or attended a meeting in your bare feet?” And each question suggested a new technology AT&T was working on. Doug says, “A 30-second commercial would have three of them in a row. And so they get two or three of these in what was a standard spot length. And so you got frequency as part of that as well, which is just brilliant.”Quotes*”I don't care if it's 1 second, 5 seconds, 20 seconds or 20 minutes. Good pieces of content, branded content, need a beginning, middle, and end. And I think that's what [the AT&T “You Will”] campaign has. And I'd say 90 percent of campaigns don't have that. ”*”A key component of story building is data. The fact that research was the foundation to which then the stories came to life. I think a lot of times, building a story is about having that data and doing something with it in a really interesting way. And being okay that we don't know how to solve it, but we're going to craft a story about our role, even though we're in the process of solving it. That's bold.”*”I think it's important for all marketers to believe in your product. If you don't, then I think you're going to be missing the passion and zest that is necessary to be a good marketer. If you don't, how do you find the magic? To me, the magic is what makes marketing great.”*”That's such an important factor in today's marketing landscape, is just to know who you are, and more importantly, know who you're not. And if you're going to make a moment, really make it stand out and, and really trust yourself.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Rokt CMO Doug Rozen[1:51] The Impact of Storytelling vs. Story Building in Marketing[3:43] The Genius Behind Predicting the Future: AT&T's Marketing Mastery[15:35 Exploring the Role of Data in Product Success[22:04] Unveiling Brand Identity and the Power of Category Creation[23:16] The Art of Timeless Campaigns and Content Marketing Mastery[23:41] Reviving Classic Campaigns: A Nostalgic Marketing Strategy[24:27] The Evolution of AT&T's Marketing Strategy: A Case Study[25:22] The Impact of Leadership Changes on Marketing Campaigns[25:41] Sustaining Iconic Ad Campaigns and Brand Identity[30:40] The Strategic Shift in Marketing Approach at Rokt[33:03] Leveraging Employee Influence in Content Strategy[35:00] The Future of E-commerce and Content Marketing[41:37] Content Strategy Insights for CMOsLinksConnect with Doug on LinkedInLearn more about RoktAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

B2B marketers take themselves so seriously. A little self-deprecating humor wouldn't go amiss. It makes your brand more relatable, your content more shareable, and builds trust by acknowledging your brand's imperfections.  That's one of the things we're talking about today with Reveal CMO Isaac Morehouse. Together, we're taking marketing lessons from the Emmy-nominated show, Silicon Valley, including using self-deprecating humor, showing the hero's journey, and trusting your audience's intelligence.About our guest, Isaac MorehouseIsaac Morehouse is the CMO of Reveal and nearbound.com, working to bring the era of Nearbound to B2B Go-To-Market. He believes that trust is the new data and the future of business isn't about more crappy sales calls, ads, and spammy SEO-optimized content, but genuine connection to those buyers have faith in.He founded and now serves as an advisor to Praxis, and Career Hackers, and opting out of the education and career status quo to be your own credential remains near and dear to his heart.Isaac is dedicated to the relentless pursuit of freedom. He loves writing, building companies, his wife and four kids, a good cigar, and getting angry about sports.He's given hundreds of talks and interviews, written over 2,500 articles, authored or edited eleven books, and helped thousands of people launch their careers and dozens of businesses tell their stories. He is a firm believer in learning out loud and daily commitment to creation.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Silicon Valley:Make fun of yourself. Don't take yourself too seriously - create self-deprecating content to make your audience laugh. Isaac says, “Content marketers, this is such a missed opportunity if you're not doing this. Make fun of yourself, make fun of your market, make fun of your marketing. Don't be precious. Accept and amplify the criticisms. The inevitable objections, if you can surface those ahead of time, get those up front in marketing. Poke fun at the things that you know people are going to poke fun at behind your back anyway.”Show the hero's journey. Don't just try to sell your product. Instead tell a story your product plays a part in, and include a beginning, middle and end. Isaac says, “It's so easy as content marketers to forget that very basic thing. Like, every story has a beginning, middle, and end. Every story should have a protagonist and should follow the journey. Make sure you're not losing that and just doing like, ‘Here's our product,' right? Tell the story. That's what people can relate to. That's where they feel seen. If you're telling a story of a person facing adversity and achieving an outcome, I think [Silicon Valley] does that really well.”Don't underestimate your audience's intelligence. Don't shy away from discussing technical or complicated topics, but do it in a way that's understandable for anyone. Isaac says, “[Silicon Valley] does a phenomenal job of not running away from some of the complicated, complex concepts or insider jargon. I mean, they have discussions about, you know, letters of intent and legal contracts and stock preference stacks and waterfalls with exits. That's very insider lingo. They don't shy away from it. Because that's what makes it real and believable. But they do it in such a way that makes it understandable. Like if it's confusing, it's your fault as the content creator. You have to find a way. And this show does such a brilliant job of explaining these concepts in such a way that even outsiders can get the gist of it.”Quotes*”I think it all starts with the core of knowing your market, living in market. [Mike Judge] nails the little slice of the world that he's trying to satirize so, so well. And I think with satire especially, you can only do it well when you are the subject you're satirizing. Like, someone from the outside trying to make fun of a group that they're not part of, it's going to come off as offensive. They're going to get some things wrong. But when you're able to make fun of the little cluster of the world that you live in yourself, you're going to get it so much more right. And it's going to be so much funnier. And at the same time, the redeeming qualities are captured.”*”For me, living in market is so crucial and the best way to live in market Is with a forcing function of daily creation. Because I know that's the only way I'm going to be close enough to the market and what's happening. If I have to come up with content every single day to put in this newsletter, I've got to figure out, ‘Where are the watering holes. What are people talking about? What are the conversations?' And then I'm going to have to do near bound marketing, which means bringing other voices in, reaching the market through the voices they already trust.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Reveal CMO Isaac Morehouse[4:54] Behind the Scenes of Silicon Valley: Creation and Comedy[20:58] Content Marketing Insights: Humor, Realness, and the Hero's Journey[31:05] The Power of Storytelling in Marketing[32:14] Embracing the Hero's Journey in Business[32:54] Lessons from Silicon Valley: Making Complex Concepts Accessible[37:33] The Importance of Trust and Expertise in Content Creation[48:21] Building Nearbound: A New Approach to Partnerships[51:56] Executing a Community and Content Vision[56:21] Final Thoughts on Trust and Influence in MarketingLinksConnect with Isaac on LinkedInLearn more about RevealAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

There's no shame in taking one good idea and reusing it. In continuing to improve and tweak it to get more juice for the squeeze. Especially when you're struggling to come up with something new.That's what J.R.R. Tolkien did in The Lord of the Rings. When asked for “more hobbits” by his publishers, Tolkien had to get crafty. Because he never meant for The Hobbit to have a sequel. That's one of the things we're talking about today with the Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs, Ryan Law. With Ryan's help, we're chatting about the power of iteration, world-building around your product, and much more.About our guest, Ryan LawRyan Law is Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs. He is a content marketer that's worked with both startups and enterprise companies, including Google, GoDaddy, Clearbit, ProfitWell and Hotjar.Before Ahrefs, Ryan was CMO at the remote content marketing agency Animalz where he generated over 2 million pageviews for the Animalz blog, and ran workshops with companies like Andreessen Horowitz, Writer, Drift, Clearscope, Wynter, and BrightonSEO. He has co-founded a marketing agency, freelanced as a marketing consultant and copywriter, reviewed beers, designed t-shirts and tended bar. He is also the author of two novels, the host of the Ash Tales podcast, an amateur landscape photographer, and the guitarist for The Schrödinger Effect.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Lord of the Rings:Iterate, iterate, iterate. When you have one good idea, continue to work on it, improve it and iterate on it. Ryan says, “Much like Tolkien, all the best ideas are kind of iterative evolutions of previous and frankly worse ideas as well. And you see that in Lord of the Rings, I think. I love The Hobbit to bits, but in some ways it does feel like the MVP of The Lord of the Rings. You know, there are decisions that he made in that narrative that weren't quite fleshed out and didn't quite make sense that he then changed a little bit in the full series of books.”Build a world bigger than your product. You're not just trying to make a sale. You're trying to immerse your audience in your brand and culture. Ryan says, “Some portion of every company's marketing effort should go into the world building that surrounds their brand. You know, creating things that further their beliefs and their ethos and creating opinions and ideas that are not sales assets, but are just plain interesting and share how they think about the world as well.”Quotes*“Tolkien does it without being really ham fisted with exposition. He doesn't laboriously explain the history of everything and how it all interacts. He teases at it and he hints at it and he reveals it through the dialogue of characters. I think that's deeply rewarding for the reader. You're not spoon fed this stuff, you make the connections yourself, you're brought along the journey and he gives you credit for discovering this huge mythos and history beneath it. And that's a wonderful thing to do, not assume the reader is an idiot, but just write the things you find interesting, let them find the secrets that they're going to find for themselves. It's so deeply rewarding.”*“Search demands that you basically write to the consensus. Like there is a set body of information it expects you to share, and it rewards companies that show consensus with other articles. And I think good thought leadership is in some ways the opposite of that. You are challenging truisms, you're talking about the things that no one else is talking about. So the thing I'm trying to do at the moment is, I think a more fruitful framework for thinking about that is talking about information gain. So if you're writing SEO content, you still have to cover the core topic, but you can think, ‘What new stuff can I add to that?' It's like an additive process. What new subject matter quotes or what new subtopics can we cover? What new research can we do? Cause it's very hard to reconcile those two from my experience.”*”Opinions are one of the most important things we're finding in content at the moment. A lot of people are very used to content marketing basically hedging bets. Nobody wants to say something very definitive. Mainly because content marketers, myself included, we're not experts in the things we're writing about. And we are, I think, wary of saying something that's wrong. And that generally leads to not saying anything at all. Being brave and willing to share a defensible opinion, that's something we're trying to do in all of our content, because it's a real differentiator and it's a good way of standing out when every other company is letting people make their own decision. Never make people think. Tell them what you're thinking yourself. ”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Ryan Law, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs[4:34] Exploring Tolkien's Creative Process and Challenges[9:39] Content Creation Insights and B2B Marketing Takeaways[17:10] The Power of Storytelling and Building a Rich World[23:11] Human Connections and Their Impact on B2B Marketing[27:29] Exploring Book Titles and Author Insights[28:16] B2B Marketing Insights from Fantasy Literature[28:49] Long-Term Content Strategy and Its Impact[31:54] The Evolution of Content Marketing in Large Companies[33:42] The Importance of Serialized Content in B2B[44:12] Exploring the ROI of Creative Content Marketing[50:04] Final Thoughts on Marketing and CreativityLinksConnect with Ryan on LinkedInLearn more about AhrefsAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

The fastest growing entertainment industry is not music and it's not film. It's video games. And they're doing a lot of things right when it comes to marketing.Ever since arcades opened in the 1970s and Pong became popular, video games drew in a massive audience. So let's talk about how the industry draws in all the eyes, ears, and thumbs.  In this episode, we're chatting with the VP of Marketing at Hackuity, Skyler Schmanski. Together, we talk about how spending money doesn't equal making money, and making money doesn't equal business efficiency, and much more.About our guest, Skyler SchmanskiSkyler Schmanski is the VP of Marketing at Hackuity, formerly Head of the Marketing Innovation Lab at Tenable, and – prior to acquisition – Deputy Chief Marketing Officer at Alsid. He is also the Executive Producer of the award-winning, #1 tech podcast, The Hacker Chronicles, and a LinkedIn Top Cybersecurity Voice with extensive experience in demand gen and growth hacking across hypergrowth tech startups, scaleups, and multinationals. After calling France home for more than eight years, Skyler is now growing EU businesses from Madrid. What B2B Companies Can Learn From the Video Game Industry:Spending more doesn't equal making more money. Making money depends on the efficacy of your campaigns; grabbing your audience's attention, speaking directly to them, and engaging them. And you can do that on a lean budget. Skyler says, ”When you drop 10 years and $500 million on a project, that doesn't always translate to a better project. Sometimes you see these lean teams of 10 to 20 people on $10 million producing something higher quality. And so I think there's that balance to strike there that yes, that unprecedented level of investment is a good thing, but it's not enough to simply grow your teams and grow your budgets in 2024. You need to be doing it smartly. Efficiency is the name of the game, pun absolutely intended, in 2024.”Making more money doesn't equal business efficiency. Focus first on operating efficiently before investing in a larger team. Skyler says, “Maybe if you are hitting 50% of the same revenue that you'd be hitting with 50 people at five people, well, that's remarkably more efficient. And in that case, you definitely want the more agile team and direct link to the studio culture we were talking about, where you just see this constant inflow of contractors. When you come back to that minimum viable product from a team structure standpoint, you start to think, ‘Okay, how do we operate as efficiently as possible?' And then you build from that.”Quotes*”People would say, ‘Under promise, over deliver.' I don't wade into that. I would say, ‘Promise and then deliver.' It's as simple as that. You cut the BS, you cut the fluff. And if what you say works, works, you're going to have a pretty happy client base.”*”It's not ‘Do more with less.' It's ‘Do less things better.'”*”I'm a big proponent of ‘Done is better than perfect.' So I'm not saying that you need that 4k texture pack and everything is flawless. Especially when you're a startup or a scale up, you're working toward a grander vision. And I think people are very willing to forgive some of the glitchiness if the underlying product is working, if it's delivering results.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Skyler Schmanski, VP of Marketing at Hackuity[3:21] The Evolution and Impact of the Video Game Industry[8:24] The Shift in Game Development: From Perfection to Patching[21:00] Marketing Insights from the Gaming World[22:14] Evolving Budgets in Cybersecurity and Gaming[22:50] Marketing Agility and Team Efficiency[24:06] The Essential: Making Games That Work[24:22] Marketing Strategies: From Email to Engagement[25:52] Under Promise, Over Deliver: A Marketing Mantra[29:00] The Power of Authenticity in Product Development[30:13] Innovative Content Strategies in Cybersecurity[32:07] Leveraging Thought Leadership for Brand Growth[34:42] Future Marketing Strategies and Cross-Media Impact[36:40] Closing Thoughts on Creativity and StorytellingLinksConnect with Skyler on LinkedInLearn more about HackuityAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

In the early 2000s, showrunners Carter Bays and Craig Thomas were pitching ideas for sitcoms to CBS. And on only their second pitch, they struck gold. Why?Bays said, “It's like the whole idea of ‘Write what you know.' If you're going to pitch someone and say, ‘Give me millions of dollars to write 100 or 200 episodes, you better have material. … Mine your life.”In this episode, we're taking a look at the result: their Emmy nominated show, How I Met Your Mother. And with the help of our guest, Director of Content Marketing at AssemblyAI, Kelly Moon, we're talking about marketing lessons from the show, including standing out, knowing your end goal, showing social proof that others trust you, and being the thing people want to come back to.About our guest, Kelly MoonKelly Moon is Director of Content Marketing at AssemblyAI. There, she builds and leads a team of content marketers who are focused primarily on increasing web traffic, and boosting signups and talk-to-sales hand-raisers. She serves as a key member of AssemblyAI's senior leadership team, driving the organization's content marketing strategy, and rolling up her sleeves to write copy and direct content across AssemblyAI's website, social, email, customer stories/videos, and more. She also analyzes and monitors content effectiveness and holds each piece to the highest standard, and builds an internal and external content production team and develops a comprehensive content calendar designed to boost awareness, traffic, engagement, and conversions. Prior to joining Assembly AI in August 2023, Kelly served as Head of Content at in-app communications API platform, SendBird. She has also worked at Twilio as Director of Content Marketing & Organic Growth. What B2B Companies Can Learn From How I Met Your Mother:Stand out. Be refreshingly unique for your audience. Kelly says, “So many B2B companies struggle with standing out. In order to be memorable, we have to be different. Be different in our voice, tone and in our philosophy. Don't regurgitate what similar businesses are doing. But I think a lot of businesses struggle with actually executing on this. And they can do that by taking a stance on an issue, voicing their perspective on a hot topic, highlighting their in-house experts, and doing it with a sense of humor and lightness. And I think that's where How I Met Your Mother really nailed it. Because they would cover complex or emotional topics, but then there was always some levity toward the end to really balance things out.”Know your end goal. And work tirelessly to make that vision come to life. Kelly says, “When I think about content, I think about not creating siloed content and knocking one tactic out at a time, which is a problem I've seen in a lot of organizations. Instead, look at the entire journey and the story end to end in the same way that How I Met Your Mother producers knew what the end was going to be and all the episodes led up to that. So when it comes to content and just marketing in general, look at the entire journey end to end from a user's perspective and then figure out how each touchpoint connects to deliver an amazing experience.”Show social proof that others trust you. It helps build people's confidence in your brand. Kelly says, “Show the world that others have decided that you're worth their time. And then after they've converted and decided to invest in you, how are you supporting them? And how are you giving them opportunities to provide feedback and respond to how things can be better?”Be the thing people always want to come back to. Prove your value beyond your product. Kelly says, “In the world of content marketing, it's not enough to just be about one topic. Go deeper and look at the related topics that people are interested in learning more about. As an example, say somebody wants to become a baker. They have ingredients at home to bake cupcakes, so they do some research on how to bake a cupcake, right? But it's not enough to just produce content or assets that just talk about how to bake a cupcake. You have to also talk about what types of cupcakes you can bake, what tools you should consider investing in versus not investing in, tips on keeping the cupcakes fresh… There are multiple pieces of content you can create to offer this complete package and resource of information for somebody.”Quotes*”I always challenge writers to think about what their angle is. I'll use an Assembly AI example. It's not enough to just be like, ‘What is a good speech to text model?' You have to make sure that the piece of content is really layered and it's comprehensive. How can we make a piece of content really comprehensive? Because somebody that's thinking about a speech-to-text model is likely thinking about a bunch of other questions after that. And you have to make sure that you're not only considering all of those things, but that you then cover it in a way that's unique and there's some kind of a hook. And it has to have takeaways. What can they learn from it? What can they take with them?” - Kelly Moon*”My content strategy is showing up where people are and having a vested interest in what matters to them. And then delivering really useful information that people are actively looking for from the start of their journey until the end. We're building a foundation of trust with people. They're going to remember us as a no-nonsense helper and hopefully leader. And then when they are ready to build with us, they're going to remember us because we were the ones who were there for them while other people were giving them a sales pitch.” - Kelly MoonTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Kelly Moon, Director of Content Marketing at AssemblyAI[2:02] Exploring Assembly AI with Kelly Moon: The Power of Speech AI Models[4:12] The Genesis of How I Met Your Mother: From Concept to Cult Classic[14:56] Marketing Lessons from How I Met Your Mother: Standing Out and Storytelling[26:26] Diving Deep into Character Auditions and Acting Choices[27:59] Celebrating Iconic Actors and Memorable Performances[29:51] Navigating Complex Relationships and Character Arcs[34:15] The Art of Crafting Catchphrases and Memorable Moments[38:19] Exploring Content Strategy with Assembly AI[45:30] Harnessing the Power of Speech AI for Business Innovation[48:15] Parting Wisdom for Content Creators and MarketersLinksWatch How I Met Your MotherConnect with Kelly on LinkedInLearn more about AssemblyAIAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Vanderpump Rules is proof that a spinoff can not only be hugely successful, but be its own Sexy Unique Content. Not only did the show capitalize on the success of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but on the star power of Lisa Vanderpump.Those are a few of the things we're talking about today with the Senior Content & Communications Manager at UserGems, Amber Rhodes. Together, we explore the marketing lessons of Vanderpump Rules, including capitalizing on the moment, using character-driven storytelling, and much more. About our guest, Amber RhodesAmber Rhodes is Senior Content & Communications Manager at UserGems. She joined the company in December 2021 as a Content Marketing Specialist. She is also the host of the podcast Everything's Coming Up Marketing. Amber previously served as a Content Strategist at EmberTribe and a Communications Specialist at Galactic Fed. Outside of work, she likes to watch reality TV, read and hang out with her beagle.  What B2B Companies Can Learn From Vanderpump Rules:Capitalize on the moment. Take advantage of what's working or effective and make the most of it. Lean into that strategy or tactic and see where it takes you. Ian says, “A lot of marketers try to capitalize on the moment, when they're trend-jacking or doing things like that. And you see a lot of great marketers creating moments, too.” Vanderpump Rules is a great example of capitalizing on the moment, because Bravo was seeing the success of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and combined that with the screen time and star power of Lisa Vanderpump to create a massive hit they knew would work, because it had already been proven popular on Real Housewives.If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you are already seeing results with your marketing, keep it going. Amber says that for your audience, “Sometimes people just like what's comfortable. They like the consistency, the repetition, the comfort. They like coming back to the same things. You don't need to always push it.” This applies to Vanderpump Rules too. Amber says, “The original cast is pretty much what stuck around. There was a time where they tried to add in new people and the audience was not having it. There was something about the lightning in the bottle of the original cast, and when they tried to add in other people and manufacture drama in that way, it just didn't work.”Use character-driven storytelling. Focus on the people, their personal stories, their drama. Ian says, “The character is the key thing here. And in the B2B world, we are trying to create characters out of real people, out of the CIO or the VP of data. And we do an absolute crap job of creating the character a lot of times. They're not quirky, they're not weird. They aren't mean or spiteful. They don't do all the things that make people human. And I think if we stop telling stories with rose-colored glasses, then perhaps we would find more authentic storytelling and more believable storytelling. Tell stories that have thorns, not just roses.” Vanderpump Rules is compelling because it explores a range of human emotion, not just the positive. Quotes*”I'm trying to find the feedback loop between social and content. How do we use content to distribute on social? How do we use social to listen to conversations that should then be content that we are creating? And create that wheel so that we're always having fresh conversations about the topics that we need to educate our audience on.”*”Original research is going to be a big differentiator for content teams. We'll ask the questions the same way that you do. No one else will be able to put your own spin on that data like you do.”*”I think that probably the best thing that you could do is ask for help early and often. You'll want to prove yourself [as a new content marketer], but there's only so much that you can actually know. So I think asking a lot of questions early and often, and getting used to setting expectations only helps everyone.”Time Stamps[0:55] Meet Amber Rhodes, Director of Content & Communications at UserGems[2:37] Exploring UserGems: Innovations in B2B Marketing[4:11] The Vanderpump Phenomenon: Lessons for Marketers[10:46] Marketing Mastery: Capitalizing on Moments and Character-Driven Storytelling[19:50] Behind the Scenes at UserGems: Content Strategy and Impact[31:11] Advice for B2B MarketersLinksWatch Vanderpump RulesConnect with Amber on LinkedInLearn more about UserGemsAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

In a world with lots of content noise, play to the silences. Let your messaging be simple and clear, and even short. In this episode, we're learning from the musician who let there be simplicity and space. Who played his trumpet in a sparse style so that each note was beautiful and carefully chosen. That's Miles Davis.And with our special guest, Ben Lempert, Director of Content & Web at Heap, we're talking about creating simple messaging, capturing different voices, leaving room for spontaneity, and the importance of feeling in your marketing.About our guest, Ben LempertBen Lempert is Director of Content & Web at Heap. He has been there for over 4 years, having joined in August 2019 as Head of Corporate Marketing. During his time in his current role, Ben has built a Thought Leadership Content Hub to curate all of Heap's content and facilitate the stages of the buyer's journey, created the Heap Digital Insights Report, which generated thousands of leads and a 50% increase in content downloads, created the Digital Experience Insights Report series, which generated 6000+ downloads and bylines in Forbes and VentureBeat, developed creative initiatives including the Heap Comic Book and the Heap Explainer video series,  grew SEO traffic from 0 to 29,000+ visitors/month, increased social media followers by 100% over three successive years, and grew PR SOV 25% QoQ for nine successive quarters. He has over 10 years of experience in content strategy, brand, comms, creative, editing, and leadership.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Kind of Blue:Create simple messaging. Distill your message into plain but pointed language directed at your particular audience. Ben says, “What people respond to in Kind of Blue, and I think what people often respond to best in good content, is a simple, clear, open, direct message. I think a lot of companies get very complex in talking about the nuances of their solution and the technical advantages their product offers. I think it's worth it in the content world for most companies to think about what your fundamental message is, whether that's one sentence or one paragraph or four words. What's the thing that people will respond to that explains what you do and why it matters in a unique way? It's very hard to get to. I don't think many companies do it well. It's very easy to come up with something that's too abstract to be meaningful.”Capture different voices. Feature quotes from both your customers and colleagues in your content. Gather info and input from all of them and work it into your content. You don't have to operate all alone on a marketing island. Ben says, “Jazz, like content, is a team activity. I think one of the great things about Kind of Blue is that there's room for lots of individual voices. When we think about representing our company through our content, it's worth recognizing that there are plenty of voices across the company. And they all have different ways of expressing what's important. So it's okay to vary the voice and story you're telling, as long as you have a fundamental story that is simple and clear. What's on top of it involves orchestrating these different voices in a way that hits people in different ways and allows for nuance and complexity to be added to your story.”Leave room for spontaneity. Yes, get your work done. But then leave a little time to experiment and play. Ben says, “We are all extraordinarily busy. But sometimes the best marketing comes from carving out time for free form group thinking. Brainstorming, coming up with ideas that are new and off the wall, having that be a prompt.”Mood and feeling matter. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty technical details, focus on how you make the customer feel. Ben says, “Kind of Blue has that impact on you because of the way it sounds. You're not listening to every single note and you're not listening to Coltrane saying, ‘Oh, he played a flat 13 there. Whoa, that's wild!' It impacted you on a deeper, more emotional level. And we often forget that as content writers, that our audience are not robotic automatons. They're people. And we want to hit their emotions. That's where you reach people.” So ask yourself, “How do I want to make my audience feel?”Quotes*”[Kind of Blue] is one of the very few jazz records that most people who are not jazz fans own and listen to actively. And I think there are lots of reasons for that. And I think that gives us a pretty interesting lens for thinking about how content works, given that lots of content is directed towards people who may not be aware of the intricacies of your technical solutions, but still want to be compelled by what you have to say and want to be interested in it.” - Ben Lempert*”Miles was famous for having a very sparse style, very much interested in playing space. And for him, he was very actively thinking about how to play the silence and the space between notes as much as he was playing the actual notes. So he was super minimalist, would play one or two notes, but they would be absolutely beautiful and absolutely brilliant and took a sort of courage to play those one or two notes that very few musicians have. It's much easier to play a lot of notes and hope you get something right. It's much harder to have that one pithy statement and let it hang there.” - Ben Lempert*”Always strive to create a simple, communicable foundation that ideally everyone in the company can embody. And when the audience receives it, they understand right away. And then you build complexity on top of that.” - Ben LempertTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Ben Lempert, Director of Content & Web at Heap[4:37] Ben Lempert's Journey from Jazz Musician to Director of Content[8:47] The Making of Kind of Blue: A Revolutionary Jazz Album[10:20] Miles Davis' Vision and the Birth of Modal Jazz[23:59] Kind of Blue's Legacy and Impact on Jazz and Beyond[28:24] Exploring the Creative Process and Expectations[29:51] The Power of Minimalism in Music and Marketing[33:44] Improvisation: Jazz Lessons for Conversational and Creative Skills[36:12] Marketing Wisdom from Jazz: Simplicity, Emotion, and Spontaneity[48:38] Heap's Content Strategy: Blending Business Goals with Creative Storytelling[55:12] Embracing Experimentation and Spontaneity in Content CreationLinksListen to Kind of BlueConnect with Ben on LinkedInLearn more about HeapAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

There's a lot of great content out there. So why not find inspiration there? Sample it, remix it and make it your own.In this episode, we're turning to one of the greats when it comes to sampling: the late rapper and producer J Dilla. Together with the help of our guest, Head of Marketing at Crowdcube, John Hills, we're talking about borrowing from content that's already out there, building your content IP, and never losing your human touch.About our guest, John HillsJohn Hills is Head of Marketing at Crowdcube, Europe's leading equity crowdfunding platform. To date, they've helped raise over £1.4 billion for over 1,300 businesses and built up a community of over 1.7 million members. He joined Crowdcube in April of 2022. Prior to his current role, John led the marketing team at FrontFundr, Canada's leading equity crowdfunding platform. There, his team helped 70+ companies raise more than $90M and built up an investor community of over 32,000 people. He has also previously held marketing roles at Duuers and Founder Institute. Outside of work, he is a bass player, marathon runner and a record collector.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Donuts:Sample, sample, sample. Just like J Dilla samples from Dionne Warwick, The Temptations, Run-DMC and more on Donuts, you can borrow ideas from content that's already out there too. You don't have to come up with something totally original every time. John says, “When you're doing content marketing, the bar is incredibly high. You can feel quite overwhelmed. Like, I don't have the budget that Apple has, neither do I have the brand expertise or the people to do it. That doesn't mean that I can't have an impact. I can still be scrappy. I can still look at what's working and create things that are memorable and valuable for people. And so I think that you can just look at what's already out there and how you fit into that rather than feeling you have to create something new. You can take what's there, see what appeals to people and see how you can make that memorable and impactful as well.”Build your content IP. John says, “You could create a load of content and just farm it out. [But instead] why don't you find a problem that your customer really cares about, name it so you're acknowledging it, you're identifying it, and then exist only to solve that problem. You become known - you become synonymous - with that content IP.” For J Dilla, his calling card - what he was known for - was a horn sampled from Isaac Hayes. And John says, “​​I kind of think of that as his content IP. You know it's him. It's giving you what you want, which is a dopamine hit of great music. He's being there for you. And I think that's what we have to do as marketers too, right? Like basically find your Isaac Hayes horn and blast it where appropriate.”AI's a useful tool, but never lose your human touch. John says “that's really what's going to land with people and what's going to resonate.” It's like how J Dilla sampled from live recordings, which John points out have slight imperfections and variations from a studio recording. He says live recordings catch your ear, engage you more and are more memorable.Quotes*”Sampling is interesting because you're channeling your interests. You're like part curator, part creator. And like that is truly what a marketer is. It's just a perfect metaphor for modern marketing.” - Ian Faison*”If you want to engage and build an audience, you want to be known as someone that's bringing them the good stuff. You filter through. You know which places to look, which is what [J Dilla's] doing on the album. Like, ‘I know this really particular little piece of a song which I dug out from a record shop and turned into something that sounds really cool for you.' In the same way we, as marketers, have an attention economy, right? So it's kind of ‘Why should you have to pay attention to me rather than someone else?' I've done the hard yards and I'm bringing you the good stuff, packaged neatly in a newsletter or a podcast or on a social feed.” - John HillsTime Stamps[0:55] Meet John Hills, Head of Marketing at Crowdcube[2:44] Exploring the Genius of J Dilla and Donuts[10:39] Sampling in Music and Marketing: Creativity Unleashed[22:13] AI in Marketing: Keeping the Human Touch Alive[26:30] Crafting a Content Strategy at Crowdcube[27:42] Content Strategy: Educating Companies on Equity Crowdfunding[28:19] The Art of Content Distribution and Engagement[29:04] Crafting High-Quality, Educational Content[31:18] Innovative Campaigns: From Invoicing Templates to Cricket Burgers[40:25] Leveraging LinkedIn for Demand Generation[44:26] Broadening Horizons: Beyond Marketing Books[46:53] RecommendationsLinksWatch Parks and RecreationConnect with Jen on LinkedInLearn more about IntellimizeAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.