Adolescence: B2B Marketing Lessons on Stretching Beyond Your Comfort Zone with CMO at Vimeo, Charlie Ungashick
Remarkable Content with Ian Faison
Intro
This chapter explores key marketing insights gained from the show 'Adolescence,' highlighting its distinctive storytelling and production methods. It also discusses the impact of platforms like TikTok and Vimeo in content discovery and emphasizes the value of authenticity in modern storytelling.
Adolescence isn’t your typical TV drama. It’s raw, immersive, and filmed in a single unbroken shot, forcing you to stay with every moment, no matter how uncomfortable.
In this episode, we’re pulling lessons from that intensity with the help of our guest, Charlie Ungashick, CMO of Vimeo.
Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from embracing creative risk, connecting across generations, and resisting the urge to over-polish. Because sometimes, the most powerful stories are the ones that feel the most human.
About our guest, Charlie Ungashick
Charlie Ungashick joined Vimeo as CMO in 2024. He has over 20 years of experience leading marketing teams in tech companies. Before Vimeo, he was CMO and Head of Product at Applause, a leader in crowdsourced software testing. Charlie also advised Gem, a talent engagement platform, and held product, sales engineering, and IT roles at AIG, Novell, and SilverStream Software early in his career. He holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and a diploma in economics from the Université de Paris-Sorbonne.
What B2B Companies Can Learn From Adolescence:
- Take risks that stretch you. In Adolescence, everything was a bet. A single-take format. A debut teenage actor. Emotionally loaded material. It had no business working—and yet it did. Charlie sees the same dynamic in great marketing. He explains, “Some of the best projects that we’ve all worked on are probably like that—they’re risky and audacious.” In B2B, we often play it too safe. Big ideas get trimmed down before they even leave the doc. But safe rarely stands out. Sometimes, the smartest move is to back the idea that feels slightly unmakeable—and then go make it.
- Follow the signals across generations. Charlie and his daughters both watched Adolescence—but saw it through totally different lenses. That contrast sparked something powerful. Charlie says, “Adolescence was interesting because it had something for lots of different generations... it created that human element.” The best B2B content doesn’t just target—it connects. Know where your audience is, how they consume, and what matters to them emotionally. Not every story has to hit everyone the same way. But the best ones open up space for conversation across the gap.
- Lead with authenticity, not polish. Adolescence wasn’t glossy. It was real. That’s what made it stick. Charlie challenges marketers to do the same: “We should all be comfortable in our B2B marketing by providing the same emotional authenticity that we find on TikTok and Netflix and Instagram.” B2B doesn’t have to mean buttoned-up. Lo-fi can hit harder than high-budget. People buy from people, not buildings. The more human your marketing feels, the more likely it is to land.
Quotes
*“ Some of the things that I've been the most proud of are things that were super out of the box, almost unachievable when you sort of bring the idea to your team. Not all of them are achievable. Not all of them are inspiring, but some of the best ones happen. And so I typically love being visionary when it comes to doing big things that require big sort of game-changing execution. And when I looked at Adolescence, the combination of all the things that we talked about certainly has those elements.”
*“ As a marketer, I always continuously look at demographics and psychographics and figure out how to elicit brain chemistry to ensure that people who I'm targeting are the ones that I want to connect with. I think the Adolescence was interesting because it had something for lots of different generations. And in fact, my daughters probably looked at it very differently than I did. And then when we compared notes in our conversations, it created that human element that we talked about earlier.”
*“ B2B marketers, they don't buy from a b, they don't buy from a building, they buy from human beings. And I think our storytelling in our marketing can be much more authentic when we're thinking about the consumerization of the types of things that we do. So shorter form, more authentic, maybe even lo-fi. There's a time and a place for those kinds of things, and I think it can propel our results.”
Time Stamps
[00:55] Meet Charlie Ungashick, CMO at Vimeo
[01:06] Why Adolescence?
[03:19] The Role of CMO at Vimeo
[06:20] AI and the Future of Video Creation at Vimeo
[09:24] Origins of Adolescence
[18:50] B2B Marketing Takeaways from Adolescence
[47:36] Vimoe's Brand Strategy
[49:59] Creating Authentic Content
[53:13] Innovative Uses of AI in Video
[54:20] Final Thoughts and Takeaways
Links
Connect with Charlie on LinkedIn
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 (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.
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