Palo Alto Goes Hollywood

The Company: Palo Alto

Palo Alto Networks is a cybersecurity company with tech like the WildFire cloud-based service and their Panorama network security management platform. Typically, cybersecurity is a pretty no-nonsense playing field for marketers. Buy Palo Alto ditched their low-aggression advertising and leaned into protection with a new angle: bad-assery.

The Segment: Enterprise CTOs and IT leaders

Looking at Palo Alto customers across all industries is tough to distill, but not impossible. Info tech, software, and financial services are just a few of the categories they serve. And although they have high brand recall among their target demographic, it’s mostly been through word of mouth and key partnerships. However, with a large segment of their buyers being men in their 40s-50s, they saw a unique opportunity to combine action movies and nostalgia.

Why This, Why Now: Brand recognition and action movie popularity

Action movies are currently grossing at around $2 billion dollars for 2024, with $6 billion in total across the industry. That’s almost one third! And aside from CMO Unnikrishnan KP being a huge fanboy, Keanu Reeves was one of the big choices because he satisfies a few key qualifications KP had for who was to represent the brand:

1. Well known for their talent and versatility
2. A cult following backed by box office numbers
3. Creates a cultural impact with a positive public image

How You Can Do It On a Dime: Birdemic-ify Your Commercials

Now, we all don’t have the budget to partner with Hollywood, or even the connections to get Keanu Reeve’s email. (Although you could enrich his data, I guess?) So what’s a small start-up to do?

Easy: blatantly rip off the tropes and visuals of famous celebrities who represent your narrative.

In fact, low budget has its place in the Hollywood cycle. There are reasons why The Room, Trolls 2, and Birdemic are so beloved. And it’s definitely not their budget. There’s something to be said for leaning into the charm of a do-it-yourself angle that everyone in the industry can relate to.

There’s surprise and delight that comes with creating low budget narratives, and I encourage you to see for yourself what kind of work you can make when you tap into your scrappy creativity. Just take a look at our series, Between Two Funnels. Not a bit of budget in sight!

Plot Gets By With a Little Help From Her Friends

You have to get a little creative when marketing to marketers. And Plot, the creative management platform, has a pretty big order to fill. After all, we’re extremely picky about what we like, laugh at, and respect.

So why not tap into something deeper like…friendship?

Marketing is a woman-dominated field, but often our most popular voices are from men posting thought leadership on LinkedIn. Of course, we have exceptions…which is what makes Plot’s clear girl-power narrative so refreshing.

Why We Love This: Behind the Scenes At Our Dream Job

We’ve all had that one marketing team: where all of us click, where we laugh at each other’s jokes, complain during boring meetings, send memes, and even get drunk at retreats together.

That one team you never forget and wish you could experience again.

Plot taps into that dream, showing what you could have (or have already had). You root for them and understand them, which makes you want their product to succeed.

Go beyond building in public: start getting closer as people in public.

Atlassian’s Pumpkin Push

Atlassian’s got talented employees, but none more so than security engineer Alina Wang and her carving skills.

Look at this craftsmanship! The straight lines, the decadent lighting…truly a masterwork from divine intervention. Good on you, Alina!

Why We Love This: Logos can be anywhere

Brand awareness is fun, but being goofy can be funner. (I know it’s more fun. Don’t @ me.)

Logos are one of the biggest brand recall tools in your arsenal, so why aren’t we getting sillier with it? This pumpkin is great, and I can see a logo made out of skittles or candy for the season.

And hey, if we’re going there, what about mowing grass to be your logo?

Creating a text-based graphic?

Designing it with diamonds?

We cannot afford diamonds, or you know I’d be doing this with the dinosaur logo.