Jess wanted to run TV commercials. Josh's only note: make it feel like the Super Bowl.
She had a Series A budget, a Rice Krispies Super Bowl commercial on her CV, and a UK-based agency called Deadpan she'd tracked down from a single KlientBoost video (the name should have been a clue.) Four videos and two cease and desists later, Vector was on Disney+, Hulu, and Peacock.
And the numbers? "Why doesn't everyone else do this" numbers.
Hear how Vector ended up on the same streaming channels as Disney princesses and superheroes, and why a marketer at DocuSign was not nearly as excited about it as Josh was.
Get to the good stuff:
[00:00] Jess wants to run real TV commercials. Josh immediately raises the stakes to an unreasonable level. Jess: "Hold my beer."
[01:05] Not everyone needs the demo yet. Jess breaks down the three-video journey that meets buyers wherever they are
[03:01] Josh notices Jess left out the CEO vision video. She hasn't
[03:43] Turns out Jess's resume includes a Super Bowl ad, talking Cheez-Its, and the Great Toilet Paper Debate
[07:50] How one KlientBoost video convinced Jess to commission four commercials from UK-based Deadpan Agency without ever crossing the Atlantic
[09:58] Deadpan pitched seven concepts, from safe to unhinged. The winner was never going to be the safe one
[10:32] The ad concepts arrive. One of them involves a demand gen marketer folded into a suitcase.
[12:26] Jess has a defense for all the unhinged creative. It's cheaper than being forgotten
[14:15] Deadpan handled the shoot in the UK. Jess weighed in on everything from scripts to which corners of the house looked the most American
[16:06] Affirmations break. Somehow even more cinematic than usual
[16:51] AI is good at a lot of things. Making marketers laugh isn't one of them
[18:21] Mesolab builds the explainer video. Vector pivots the positioning. The animation doesn't care
[19:58] Josh draws a line between a Fiverr animation and what Mesolab built. It's a pretty wide line
[23:04] The creative projects marketers dream about? Jess reckons they make up about 4% of the job
[25:31] Someone at DocuSign sees the explainer video. This feels promising for about three seconds
[27:43] The UI walkthrough had 90 seconds to explain Vector. PSA: not a demo
[29:22] Josh had notes on the UI walkthrough. They arrived several approvals later
[31:52] Ghosty survives a cease and desist. The detective hat and magnifying glass were part of the settlement
[33:32] The podcast takes a brief detour into Back to the Future lore and Pig Latin… marketing resumes shortly
[36:11] Kelly arrives to run ads. Jess hands him a hard drive full of videos
[38:12] Josh and Jess spend a moment imagining kids demanding better ad targeting from their parents
[39:05] Jess shares the results. 34% net new traffic, 22% more demo requests, and a 41% pipeline increase. Josh's response is mostly variations of "wow"
[42:27] The campaign with marketers hiding in suitcases is outperforming everything else. Josh has theories
[43:29] Josh makes the case for the campaign's most important line: "The next best way is Vector"
This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.
Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.
Editing by Handy Man Edit.
Show notes by Content 10x.
Music by Peter McIsaac Music.
