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Welcome to Volume 147 👋
Happy Thursday!
In this week’s newsletter, we cover:
- 🚀 Why TripActions Ditched a $2-Billion Brand Name for Navan
- 🤖 Generative AI’s Impact on Jobs in the Advertising Industry
- 👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week?
- 🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
- ➕ The Best Content Across the Web
Let’s get into it.
Looking for a marketing conference without the B.S.?
You’re in luck — Ross will be in Austin, TX, this October 18th to speak at the Marketingland Festival by the pros at The Marketing Millennials. With dedicated spaces for everything from branding and content creation to eCommerce and revenue tactics, it’s a day you won’t want to miss!
Check out the rest of the Marketingland lineup and book your ticket before they’re all gone!
B2B SAAS INSIGHTS
Why TripActions Ditched a $2-Billion Brand Name for Navan
The transformation of Twitter into X has everyone in the marketing space focusing on the often-overlooked topic of brand marketing. Specifically, we’re all wondering: Why would a company with such a valuable brand name decide to ditch it?
It’s a recurring theme in the SaaS space. In our most recent case study, a dive into the latest iteration: TripActions rebranded to Navan in early 2023.
It appears to be an odd move for a company that’s raised over $2 billion in capital, is valued at over $9.2 billion, and has a stranglehold on the corporate travel and expense industries. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
But the rebranding to Navan actually helps the company to continue its dominance of the travel and expense management niches while opening it up to a range of new opportunities. In particular:
- The freedom to continue expansion by ditching a restrictive, industry-specific brand name
- Using the Navan rebrand as a go-to-market launchpad for new service offerings
- Providing a brand boost to propel the company to success during a suspected IPO later this year
Check out the full article here for an in-depth look at the TripActions-Navan rebrand, the importance of brand equity in SaaS, and how this transformation compares to other prominent name changes in the tech space.
B2B MARKETING
Generative AI’s Impact on Jobs in the Advertising Industry
By now, the uncertainty around generative AI taking over the world — or at least a sizable percentage of white-collar jobs — has settled into the background. It seems like every day, there are more news articles, blogs, and social posts about how ChatGPT, Jasper, Bard, and the like are poised to replace us all.
To bring more clarity to the situation, AdWeek contributor Trishla Ostwal explores recent survey data from executives, leaders, and marketers across B2B and B2C companies and agencies to identify how AI tools are already impacting jobs within the marketing industry. Here are some of the major points summarized in her recent article:
- Nearly 12% of executives state they have already, or are preparing to, replace employees with generative AI.
- Over 10% of marketers report that their organization has offloaded human tasks to AI.
- 54% of marketers believe content creation will see the biggest impact from generative AI, with analysis (14%) and creative optimization (13%) being the next largest.
- In terms of current AI use, draft content leads the way with 52%, with ideation (48%), research (33%), summaries (29%), and repurposing (24%) rounding out the top 5.
- Interestingly, only 11% of survey respondents report using AI on a daily basis.
Whether this will quell your concerns or not, I can’t say, but the information is beneficial, nonetheless. Check out the rest of the article on AdWeek.
👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week?
▶️ Integrations startup Unito gives a glimpse of the pitch deck from its $20 million Series B
⌨️ How your brand can win more Google SERP features with an optimized content strategy
☁️ Cloud startup CoreWeave is capitalizing on the AI boom with its focus on GPU-accelerate workloads
🔒 Dynatrace strengthens its observability and security offering with the acquisition of Rookout
💻 Atlassian co-founder talks about the future of collaboration for remote-hybrid tech brands
Want to sponsor our next issue? Reply to this email, and we’ll share how you can reach more SaaS founders and marketers today.
🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
This week, I was reading an article about Mattel’s desire to create a Marvel-esque cinematic universe, with the viral Barbie leading the way. At the core of this strategy is the company’s ability to use pre-awareness — an audience’s familiarity with a concept. (Not to be mistaken with the other definition: customers who are not yet aware of your product or service.)
This type of pre-awareness is about engaging potential consumers with your brand before it’s officially launched or becomes mainstream. It creates a sense of anticipation, curiosity, and intrigue among the target audience, priming them for the eventual product release or brand launch. It’s essentially a type of brand positioning that’s implemented before the official marketing campaign kicks off.
I know; the case of Barbie isn’t exactly a fair example. You likely don’t have a product that’s been around for over 60 years or hundreds of millions to spend on marketing.
That said, you can still use social channels, SEO, and even paid advertising to start seeding your brand and establishing that connection and trust with your audience. Your pre-awareness campaign can be as simple as following potential clients or customers on LinkedIn and then posting about topics relevant to them. And remember: the sooner you start, the sooner you can reap those rewards!
🏅 X Thread of the Week
8 low-cost ways to find more customers for your products and services by Justin Welsh
🎖️ LinkedIn Post of the Week
How to create your 30-60-90-day plan as a new VP of Marketing by Dave Gerhardt
🤳🏽 Nice Finds You Should Binge
- Meta is open sourcing its large language model, a move that could drastically change the AI arms race
- The four T’s to spending your startup funding the right way
- Prompt engineering: A guide for marketers and content creators
- Moz Whiteboard Friday — The skills and elements of storytelling with data
🎧 What We’re Wired Into This Week:
RÜFÜS DU SOL — Live from Joshua Tree
This smattering of insights is brought to you by Ethan Crump!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you want to see in this newsletter, feel free to email me at ethan@foundationinc.co. We’re always looking for ways to improve and make sure you’re getting the best B2B SaaS marketing resources.
Have a great weekend, and see you on the other side!
