Five Ads That Made Me Stop Scrolling (Dave’s Newsletter)

WHAT WE'RE HEARING

I love finding good ads; here are five you can take inspiration from this week

Editor's Note: Hey. Dave here; wrapping up our final week “in the office” for 2025 but we still have a few newsletters coming your way. For this one, I wanted to show some great ads; because I love this medium. I think in B2B we don’t get to do “great ads” because we are so worried about being on brand that we miss an opportunity to stand out. Ads provide a great opportunity to be a storyteller. To stand out. To be different. Everyone's yelling the same things. Everyone's promising to 10x your results. Everyone's slapping "AI-powered" on their homepage. And it all just blends together. Which means the brands that actually tell a story? The ones that make you feel something? They win. We have a Slack channel internally where we share interesting ads when we see them (or are reminded of classics) so I pulled some of my favorites for this week.

"Who cares, it's just B2B marketing."

I've heard this a lot in my career. Often from marketers struggling to find their purpose in the work.

I hate that attitude.

The craft of branding, storytelling, and building communities is meaningful.

Great marketing helps the best solutions win faster.

It can make the world better. Whether it’s cleaner energy, better healthcare, or smarter tech, marketing is often the bridge between a world-changing idea and the people who can benefit from it.

Think about why you got into marketing. It probably wasn’t because you loved "B2B marketing."

You love to tell a story. To earn attention. To stick around. To do meaningful work. Creative work.

That's what these five ads remind me of. They're not just pushing features. They're doing the craft. They're caring enough to be different.

And in a cynical industry, actually caring is a competitive advantage.

PRESENTED BY WALNUT

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5 Ads You Can Take Inspiration From

1. Ramp: "Do a month of AP in minutes"

I saw this last week on the login page and had to screenshot it.

This is a great headline “Do a month of AP in minutes.”

And then your brain says OK prove it, so they use this number 2.4x.

I always feel like a specific number is more believable right? 2x vs 2.4x? Everyone says 2x but 2.4x? So this must be true.

The lesson: Specific numbers beat round numbers every time. And when you make a bold claim, show exactly how you deliver on it.

BTW: just this morning I heard a Ramp ad on a podcast at the gym where they used “having the best engineers” as their main benefit, talking about how hard it is to get an engineering job at Ramp (and therefore the product must be awesome).

2. ChatGPT: AI That Feels Human

Most AI advertising tries way too hard to explain what AI does...

ChatGPT's billboard campaign in NYC did the opposite.

They showed AI in real human moments.

Someone at the gym (getting their weekly split because no one should skip leg day?). Two friends laughing together (trying to figure out how to respond to a text?). You get to make up your own story about how they’re using ChatGPT.

No UI mockups over gradient backgrounds. No wild promises. Just the logo over moments everyone can relate to.

It humanizes something that's completely abstract. These ads make it feel like a natural part of everyday life. They make it easy to see how you could be using it, too.

There’s no pushy CTA. No hard sell. Just a quiet reminder that AI can help with the stuff you're already doing.

The lesson: Sometimes the best way to sell something complex is to show it in simple, relatable moments. Show people how your product fits into what they’re already doing.

3. Ramp: Kevin From The Office in a Glass Box

Brian Baumgartner (aka Kevin from The Office) became Ramp's CFO for a day.

They put him in a glass box in Flatiron Plaza and had him race against Ramp's automation to process expense reports.

Spoiler: He lost.

This stunt nailed everything:

• Perfect ICP alignment. Their audience grew up watching The Office.
• High visibility. A glass box in one of NYC's busiest areas. Impossible to ignore. Instantly shareable.
• Clear product demo. It proved Ramp's core value: automation beats manual processes every time.
• Content goldmine. They live-streamed it. Built a dedicated website. Generated massive organic reach across TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The lesson: The best B2B marketing makes your ICP see themselves in the pain point. CFOs don't need another whitepaper. They need to see Kevin drowning in expense reports and think "Yep, that's my team right now."

4. Clay: "Every artist has a medium. GTM has Clay."

This campaign is pure positioning genius.

GTM isn't just operations. It's creative work. It depends on how customers think and feel about your outreach.

So Clay asked: If Michelangelo had marble, Monet had paint, and Mozart had a piano…what medium do GTM operators have?

The answer: Clay.

The execution matched the message. They mapped every target account location in San Francisco (and other cities around the world) using their own product. Then they personally evaluated billboard visibility and placement.

The timing? Perfect. Live during Inbound, Dreamforce, and a16z Startup Week when all the best GTM minds were in town.

The lesson: Walk the walk. Clay could have said "GTM is creative work" in a boring ad. Instead, they used their own product to execute a creative campaign. That's how you prove it.

5. Apple: "Chic, not geek"

Sometimes the best marketing move is making your product not look like what everyone expects.

Remember 1998? Every computer was a beige box that screamed "I'm for nerds who know what RAM is."

Then Apple dropped the iMac G3 in Bondi Blue. Then Lime, Strawberry, Tangerine, Blueberry, and Grape.

Apple made a computer something you'd want in your living room. Something approachable. Something human.

The design was translucent. Curvy. Fun. It looked nothing like the competition.

The tagline "Chic, not geek" positioned it as fashion, not technology.

This wasn't just product design. This was product and marketing working together to completely reframe what a computer could be.

The lesson: In a sea of sameness, being different wins. So what's your version of the blue iMac? What's the one thing you could change about your product or positioning that would make people do a double-take?

What These 5 Ads Got Right (And What You Should Do Next To Stand Out)

None of these ads succeeded because they had bigger budgets or fancier agencies (ok maybe except for hiring Kevin from The Office).

They worked because they understood something simple: Amazing ads make people stop. Pay attention.

Ramp used specific numbers to build credibility.

ChatGPT showed AI in everyday moments.

Ramp's Kevin stunt made the pain relatable.

Clay elevated their category by comparing it to art.

Apple made technology feel human.

So here's my question for you: What's the one thing your product does that you could show in a way nobody expects?

Not another feature list. Not another "10x faster" claim.

What's the moment that makes someone stop scrolling and think "wait, that's exactly my problem"?

Figure that out, and you've got something worth running.

Why can’t we do this in B2B? That should be the attitude.

– Dave

P.S. Do you have a great ad example from your company? We’d love to feature you in a future newsletter of good ads by actual newsletter readers! How’s that?

If you have an ad you’re proud of, hit reply and send back my way. If we get enough good ones, maybe we'll do a part two.

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