Remarkable Content with Ian Faison Work Flows: B2B Marketing Lessons from ClickUp’s Viral Studio Album with Chris Cunningham, their Head of Influencer Marketing
B2B content feeling a little limp and lifeless? We have the answer. The one thing that will give it life, improve brand recall, and make it universally appealing: Put it to music.
A Harvard study found that music is truly a universal language. Harvard correspondent Jed Gottlieb says, “Across societies, music is associated with behaviors such as infant care, healing, dance, love”...and work. And listening to music activates wide swaths of the brain, especially areas related to emotion. Simply put, using music in your marketing is your ticket to engaging and connecting emotionally with your audience, whoever and wherever they are. Including when they’re at work.
ClickUp is proof that music works in B2B marketing. They created the first ever full studio album from a tech company, and it took off. Featuring artists like Clever, who previously collaborated with Justin Bieber and Post Mallone, as well as Michael Minelli and Philip Good, the album has had over a million streams.
On this episode of Remarkable, we’re taking a beat to talk with Chris Cunningham, Head of Influencer Marketing at ClickUp, about the creation of their studio album, Work Flows. We’re learning from him about what it takes to make an album for a B2B company, how to make viral content, and the best way to leverage influencers. So put your headphones on and turn up the bass for this episode of Remarkable.
About ClickUp
ClickUp is a cloud-based project management platform that provides wall-to-wall solutions for teams to manage all types of work, collaborate on tasks, and streamline multi-step workflows. It’s an all-in-one tool that lets you plan, track and collaborate on any project. Founded in 2017 by Zeb Evans in San Diego, ClickUp is now used by Google, Netflix, Airbnb and Nike.
About Work Flows
Chris released the first song, “ClickUp to Keep Up” in June 2018. In 2023, they released a full-length album, “Work Flows” featuring 21 songs about project management and features artists like Clever, who has previously collaborated with Justin Bieber and Post Mallone, as well as Michael Minelli. It’s the first full studio album from a tech company. It was released during ClickUp’s LevelUp Conference in February. Within a week of its release, it got over half a million streams.
About our guest, Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham is Head of Influencer Marketing and a founding member of ClickUp. He has previously served as VP of Business Development at Elevator Studio and Head of Business Development at Mango Technologies, Inc.
What B2B Companies Can Learn From Work Flows:
- Build internal influencers. Encourage and support employees in becoming thought leaders in their industry. And become an influencer yourself to relate to them, build trust, and collaborate more effectively. Chris says, “If you're someone who's at a smaller company and you want to learn, you're going to look for someone who's at a large company, someone who's done it before.” And he says at ClickUp, they’re building several internal influencers, and not just within the C-suite. Chris himself is working to become one, and it makes him more effective at being Head of Influencer Marketing, because he says, “ I understand their struggles. I understand how hard it is to create content every day and, and put that out. I understand how to talk to them and how to work with them because I'm trying to be one. So one of the last things I learned is that a very strong value point if you want to get in this space and you want to do influencer marketing in tech, you should probably actually do it yourself to learn from them and earn their respect.”
- Get your influencers to go off script. Give them the trust and autonomy to create authentic content. When you give influencers the stage to express themselves, they’ll forge real connections with followers. Chris says that if he offered to pay an influencer to talk about ClickUp, “it’s not natural and people can smell it out.” But if he gets an influencer to try ClickUp’s platform and it improves their workflow, then he works together with them to create content. He says, “I give free reign to the creator. I'm not going to give them a script. What I want them to do is go tell the world how we save them time.” And then he uses their endorsements as ads across social media platforms. He says it’s a tactic that has been really effective for ClickUp.
- Make a song. Think outside the B2B marketing box and embrace unconventional engagement. ClickUp’s creation of the first studio album from a tech company challenged the status quo and raised the bar for what B2B marketing could be. Chris says he made a studio album to stand out. “Everyone listens to music. So many people listen to music while they work. It's a new way to get in front of people that no one's done.” And it paid off. With over a million streams and maybe - just maybe - another album on the way.
Quotes
*”The best move I could ever make was trying to become an influencer myself. I think [influencers] are more apt to get back to me because they see me doing the same thing they are. I understand their struggles. I understand how hard it is to create content every day and put that out. I understand how to talk to them and how to work with them because I'm trying to be one. So I think one of the last things I learned is that a very strong value point if you want to do influencer marketing in tech, you should probably actually do it yourself to learn from them and earn their respect.” - Chris Cunningham
*”It's not like everything we do goes viral. So I think it's more of a long-term process, testing and learning your audience, but to me, going viral is just getting tons of shares, tons of comments. Likes are a small vanity metric. It's people talking about it, and then they're getting articles and news talking about it. That is what I care about and what my goal is every time we do anything.” - Chris Cunningham
*“One thing I think that I would like to be known for, and that I've always tried to do, is just testing new things. Does everything work? No. Like I've had plenty of failure. And that's what everyone will tell you, right? Fail, fail, fail. But I think you gotta go into things not caring about failure. I think it's just seeing what happens and having fun with it, and having some belief. So that's how we handle everything in marketing. I'm gonna keep trying new things.” - Chris Cunningham
*”The big piece of advice I'd like to leave everyone with is to not overthink, just start doing things. It's so easy to have a full plan and to type things up and get approvals. Just start doing things. Like, don't worry too much. Who cares about outcomes? Outcomes happen and sometimes they don't. And it's perfectly okay.” - Chris Cunningham
Time Stamps
[0:55] Introducing ClickUp founding member and Head of Influencer Marketing, Chris Cunningham
[4:24] How does influencer marketing fit into ClickUp’s overall marketing strategy?
[9:03] How does influencer marketing work?
[13:37] The art of interviewing influencers
[16:43] How did ClickUp make a studio album?
[23:34] Where can you find the Work Flows album and other related content?
[24:00] How do you set KPIs for content like a studio album?
[25:25] How do you measure the ROI of content?
[31:32] How do you make viral content?
[35:03] When did Chris make the first song?
[40:12] What are Chris’ favorite pieces of content or campaigns?
[42:38] What’s something Chris is working on that he’s excited about?
Links
Connect with Chris 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), Dane Eckerle (Head of Development), Colin Stamps (Podcast Launch Manager), Anagha Das (B2B Content Marketing Manager), and Meredith O’Neil (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.
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