R
Ryan Swindall
· LinkedIn
Most marketers copy last quarter's playbook.
Ramp went back to the 1950s.
"Bill Pay the Musical" didn't come from a trend report. It came from an era when IBM and Ford staged full Broadway productions for product launches, complete with original songs and name actors.
Nobody's done it since. Which is exactly why it worked.
3 things Ramp got right that most B2B brands miss:
1. They picked a genuinely old idea. Not "old" like 2022. Old like Coca-Cola era. The distance is what makes it feel fresh.
2. They leaned into the niche in-joke. Finance and accounting is "boring." So they made the boring thing the punchline. That's insider humor, and insider humor gets shared.
3. They made an unsexy product interesting. Bill pay. Not AI. Not a platform. Bill pay. If Ramp can make bill pay theatrical, there's no excuse for your product to have a dull launch.
The lesson: stop scrolling your For You page for creative inspiration. Start reading trade publications from 1962.
Old plays feel brand new.
What's the 70-year-old idea your industry forgot?
#B2BMarketing