Remarkable Content with Ian Faison Acapulco: B2B Marketing Lessons from Apple TV’s First Spanish Bilingual Comedy with Head of Americas Marketing at Riverbed, Cristina Daroca
Drop the technical jargon. Instead, speak your audience’s language.
Language has power. And talking to your audience not as “marketer” but as someone who understands your customer’s world is key. This means speaking to their cares, concerns and frustrations. Do this and your audience engagement will soar.
In this episode, we’re looking at a show that literally speaks its audience’s languages: Spanish and English. It’s Apple TV’s first bilingual comedy, Acapulco, a show that has been recognized by the Imagen Foundation for its meaningful portrayal of latinos in the media. And together with the help of our special guest, Head of Americas Marketing, Cristina Daroca, we talk about showing the outcome first, speaking your audience’s language, choosing a visually stunning setting, and more. So grab your sunglasses for this episode of Remarkable.
About our guest, Cristina Daroca
Cristina Daroca is Senior Director of Global Demand and Americas Marketing at Riverbed Technology. She joined Aternity in July of 2020 as Director of Global Demand Generation, and the company merged with Riverbed in December of 2021. She previously served as Senior Manager of Global Marketing Programs for DataRobot. She has also worked at companies like Mighty AI and LevelUp. She was born and raised in Spain, and now lives in Boston.
About Riverbed
Riverbed transforms data into actionable insights across the entire digital ecosystem and accelerates performance for a seamless digital experience. Riverbed is the only company with the collective richness of telemetry from network to app to end user, that illuminates and then accelerates every interaction, so organizations can deliver a seamless digital experience and drive enterprise performance. Riverbed offers two industry-leading portfolios: Alluvio by Riverbed, a differentiated Unified Observability portfolio that unifies data, insights, and actions across IT, so customers can deliver seamless, secure digital experiences; and Riverbed Acceleration, providing fast, agile, secure acceleration of any app, over any network, to users anywhere. They have thousands of partners, and market-leading customers globally – including 95% of the FORTUNE 100. Riverbed is headquartered in San Francisco, but they have lots of employees in the Boston area because of an acquisition.
About Acapulco
Acapulco is a TV show about a 20-something Mexican guy named Maximo who gets the job of his dreams working at a luxury resort in Acapulco. But then he finds out that it’s much more complicated than he expected. His new co-workers refuse to show him the ropes, the guests are super demanding, and he finds that it creates challenges at home. The story is told in flashbacks by an older Maximo who has clearly had a successful career, as he’s now living in a beautiful seaside house, looking back on his beginnings.
The show stars Eugenio Derbez as the mature Maximo Gallardo, and young Maximo is played by Enrique Arrizon. Maximo’s best friend, Memo, who he works with at Las Colinas is played by Fernando Carsa. His boss, Don Pablo, is played by Damian Alcazar. And his love interest, Julia, is played by Camila Perez.
It premiered in 2021, with two seasons out on Apple TV, and a third on the way. And it’s been nominated for the Critics Choice Awards, Hollywood Critics Association Television Awards, Imagen Foundation Awards, and more. It’s Apple TV’s first Spanish bilingual comedy.
What B2B Companies Can Learn From Acapulco:
- Show the outcome first. Customers want to hear about results. Then you can support those results with details of how you help them get there. It’s like how In Acapulco, we meet an older, wealthy Maximo who tells his story in flashbacks of how he became successful. Ian says, “A lot of times, we'll say 10 X ROI, here's your case study. But if we get the story element at the beginning part of it using flashbacks, you can tell a story that's gripping from the moment you dig into it.“ And Cristina adds, “Sometimes I think we get too hung up on, ‘What's the pain that the customer is feeling? What's the problem like?’ Let's paint a picture of what the end state looks like for them, and then walk them through, ‘This is how you get there.’” Give your audience a glimpse of their future after they’ve been using your product to grab their attention.
- Speak your audience’s language. Cristina says, “Especially in B2B, we tend to be very buttoned up and using fancy words. And hey, we're talking to humans. It's so important in marketing to know your customer's language, to use the language they're using to really speak the way they do.” She says that’s why Acapulco really resonates with her as a bilingual Spanish and English speaker.
- Choose a visually stunning setting. 80s Acapulco was a beautiful and evocative place that had cachet as a celebrity vacation spot. This is hugely important, because Ian says, “If you were to tell the same story in Finland in the winter, for example, it would feel extremely different than telling the story in Acapulco in the 80s. It’s another piece that we often don't think of setting when we do our marketing stories, because we’re in an office. Setting is so important and we don't think about it enough in B2B marketing.”
- Capitalize on the resources you have. Everyone is working on tight budgets with limited resources. But Cristina says, “We can control what we have and what we can make out of it, and how we can make it a good experience for our customers, for our guests, for the audience that we're serving.” Maximo came from humble beginnings, having been raised by a single mother. But he used what resources he did have to find success. So focus on doing your best work with what you have.
Quotes
*”It's so important in marketing to know your customer's language. To use the language they're using to really speak the way they do. Especially in B2B. We tend to be very buttoned up and use fancy words. And hey, we're talking to humans. They're also humans. They're talking the same language. So yeah, just really understand your customers, know how they speak and use that same language with them.” - Cristina Daroca
*”This is what it is. The economy is what it is. It's all out of our control. We can't really control the budget cuts, the team cuts. What we can control is what we have and what we can make out of it. And how we can make it a good experience for our customers, for our guests, for the audience that we're serving.” - Cristina Daroca
Time Stamps
[0:55] Meet Cristina Daroca, Head of Americas Marketing at Riverbed
[1:50] Why are we talking about Acapulco?
[2:19] What does Cristina’s work at Riverbed entail?
[2:59] What is Acapulco about?
[6:05] Why is it important to speak your audience’s language?
[6:53] About the setting of Acapulco
[14:08] What are marketing lessons we can take from Acapulco?
[22:01] How does Cristina think about marketing at Riverbed?
[24:17] How does Cristina prove the ROI of content?
[25:08] What marketing strategy has worked well for Cristina in the past?
[26:10] Learn more about Riverbed’s roadshow
[32:12] What advice would Cristina give to other marketers?
Links
Connect with Cristina on LinkedIn
About Remarkable!
Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction 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.
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