The Office: B2B Marketing Lessons from the Benihana Christmas Episode with Jakub Rudnik, Director of Content Marketing at ActiveCampaign

Characters in your B2B marketing are polished, smooth, suave, always smiling. They never feel awkward, even when they’re asking for more budget or getting negative feedback. Stop that.

Let your characters be and feel awkward in those moments. Because you want your audience to think, “Oh, they get me.” And because we’ve all felt awkward at work. Today, we’re taking notes from a show that has made us all cringe: The Office. 

Alison Herman wrote for The Ringer that cringe comedy resonates with the audience because “Cringe often comes with a reassurance that we aren’t alone in our crippling insecurities, without the sometimes insurmountable hurdle of disclosing our own inner thoughts.” It’s a reminder that other people get sweaty and shaky when they ask for a raise too. 

So on this episode, we’re chatting about the Benihana Christmas episode, from Dwight flopping a dead goose on Pam’s desk to Andy’s efforts to cheer up a heartbroken Michael with an onion volcano. And we’re bringing on Director of Content Marketing at ActiveCampaign, Jakub Rudnik, to talk about what makes the episode so iconic, why you should consider bringing in experts from other industries to help create content, and why it’s time to embrace the awkwardness. So deck the halls with twinkle lights and order yourself a sushi boat for this episode of Remarkable.

About ActiveCampaign

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 The Office

The Office is a mockumentary about the daily lives of employees working for Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The U.S. version is based on the original U.K. series created by comedian Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant which was  adapted for an American audience by SNL writer Greg Daniels, and co-produced by Deedle-Dee Productions and Reveille Productions in association with Universal Television. The original cast included Steve Carrell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fisher, and B.J. Novak. There are 9 seasons, which aired from 2005 to 2013. It has won many awards, including Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series.

About our guest, Jakub Rudnik

Jakub Rudnik is Director of Content Marketing at ActiveCampaign. He joined ActiveCampaign in March 2023. Prior to his current role, he served as Head of Content Marketing at Scribe. He is also an adjunct professor at DePaul University where he teaches Journalism courses, and a content marketing consultant. 

What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Office: 

• Bring in the experts. Cross-pollinate B2B and B2C by contracting experts or specialists to help you level up your content. Iconic actor, comedian, writer and director Harold Ramis directed the Benihana Christmas double-episode, making it a standout comedic performance from everyone involved. Likewise, the Dinner Party episode will go down in history as being one of the most uncomfortable episodes to sit through. Part of the magic was that they brought in cameramen from reality TV to follow the action like in a reality TV show. So it creates the illusion that the audience is getting an inside look at some real drama. Ian says that you don’t have to sacrifice your brand voice or consistency when you bring in outside voices. He says,, “I love keeping things consistent with structure and flow and all that. But I do think that bringing in other people to give a second look, or to just give them the reins and say, ‘Hey, do it the way that you want to do it,’ is something that they do a lot in Hollywood and we don't necessarily do as much in marketing.” So next time you want to make some fresh content, bring in an expert from outside your team to collaborate, put in their two cents, and give it that B2C flavor that will set you apart from the pack.
• Lean into the awkwardness. Highlight customer pain points by leaning into the discomfort and cringiness caused by them. This shows that you’re empathetic to their situation, and are acknowledging their frustrations. Jakub says,”The Office takes those awkward cringe things and makes them more extreme to play it up. But that’s why we connect to it. It’s real. I’ve been there.” And Ian says, “We don't strive for really awkward, tense moments in B2B marketing. It's very rare. Whereas our work is full of super awkward, tense moments. There are so many moments that are extremely personal and awkward in work and we never talk about it.” So it’s time to talk about it. Lean into the awkwardness that happens in real workplaces, and you’ll hook your audience.

Quotes

*”The biggest successes of my career came from an inflection point where something was broken, something was failing, we were flatlining, a competitor was emerging, and we went a different way. We scrapped everything that we thought we knew about content and we went a different route. Let's not replicate what our competitors have done. Let's go find something brand new or a different way of executing this completely. And so to me, that's Darryl being like, ‘Don't worry about that. We don't need the karaoke machine at all. We're gonna go print off lyrics from the internet and I'm gonna go grab my keyboard and we're just gonna have more fun.’ And it was a better party because of that.” - Jakub Rudnik

*”There are so few scenes in The Office that are about work. We want to do a great job. We wanna get better at work. But we also just have these very human moments.” - Ian Faison

*”The Office takes those awkward cringe things and makes them more extreme to play it up. But that’s why we connect to it. It’s real. I’ve been there.” - Jakub Rudnik

Time Stamps

[0:56] Introducing Director of Content Marketing at ActiveCampaign, Jakub Rudnik

[2:53] Why is The Office remarkable?

[3:50] Tell me more about The Office

[10:57] What are marketing lessons we can take from The Office?

[13:10] What’s the best way to manage obstacles?

[18:54] How do you focus on the customer’s pain points, not the KPIs?

[21:47] Why is it important to bring in people from outside your team to pitch in to the creative process?

[32:28] Why should you embrace awkwardness in your content marketing?

[33:21] What’s Jakub’s content strategy at ActiveCampaign?

[39:21] How does Jakub use marketer influencers?

[45:57] How does Jakub track the ROI of influencer marketing?

Links

Watch The Office

Connect with Jakub on LinkedIn

Learn more about ActiveCampaign

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. 

Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.