✍️ why you're stuck in "the grind"

“B2B audiences are hoping for something that’s not just regurgitated bullshit,” says Ariel Rubin, Head of Content at Air. “We’re all people. We all have taste.” 

While most companies obsess over features and pricing, cultural relevance is quietly becoming the real competitive moat. Why? Because procurement managers still scroll TikTok, CIOs have favorite podcasts, and lawyers love to send each other memes. 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking a professional audience doesn’t care about brand personality. At the end of the day, we’re all humans, and we all care about authenticity, connection, and entertainment. 

That’s showbiz, baby.

A lot of B2B marketers feel beholden to evaluate their campaign ideas by one criteria alone: business impact. And so they get stuck running the same safe, basic plays over and over, convinced that what worked yesterday will also work tomorrow. (Spoiler alert: It won’t. Although it sure would be nice if it did.) 

Ariel is playing in a higher dimension. 

He measures ideas and campaigns across two axes at once: business impact, of course, but also cultural relevance. 

There’s a time and place for the standard content formats: webinars, events, blog posts, whitepapers. But to build a brand identity that really sticks, you’re also going to need pieces that are entertaining, culturally relevant, and just plain fun. 

When you can make stuff that leverages both proven marketing tactics and the cultural forces that create lasting brand associations, that’s when you really strike gold. 

We wrapped this all up in a tidy matrix for you, to help evaluate which ideas and campaigns can get you into “moonshot” territory: 

Get the full download on each quadrant of the matrix (and what the lesser 3 are missing) in our latest marketing playbook. 

Post that got us talking: …so have we decided yet what acronym we’re going to use for this new era of “AI SEO”? Here are seven different contenders to consider. (GEO? AEO? LMFAO?) 

AI tip you pretend to already know: This is an important one for anyone trying to play the AEO game: How do AI platforms choose what and how to cite? A great deep dive into the different citation patterns across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity. You’ll want to read this one if you’re trying to show up in search results.

Stuff that made us scroll back up: An oldie but a goodie. We rewatch this video about Sony exploding 70,000 liters of paint over a Glasgow estate—apparently an ad to promote Sony’s BRAVIA TV brand—on a totally normal recurring basis. (No, of course not during all-hands meetings…)

ICYMI: We’ve shared a whole lot of Ariel’s marketing strategy, from how his low-budget ad won a Webby over Apple to his framework for creating content with staying power. Now it’s your turn. 

What’s your biggest marketing question right now? A campaign you need help brainstorming? A challenge you haven’t been able to crack? 

The King of Culture is here to help. Submit your questions for a chance for Ariel to give you some 1–1 advice.

What do you think of B2B brands that try to be funny? Vote here.

• Dad joke territory 

• Corporate cringe 😬

• Play it too safe = forgettable

• When it hits, it hits 

Previously, we asked you about how you route prospects once you’ve captured their attention. Your go-to move: let the sales team take it from there with some good ol’ fashioned direct contact.

In 2025, cultural relevance IS business strategy—not just a fuzzy “nice to have.” Your audience doesn’t stop being human just because they clock in at 9 AM. Give them something to look forward to at work. The brands that figure out how to do this are eating everyone else’s lunch. 

See y’all next time. 

— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡

Oh! And another thing… Budweiser’s ‘99 Super Bowl ad went viral before “viral” was even a thing. Here’s the story behind the “Whassup?” heard ‘round the world.