Targeted Event Marketing and Arbitrage Wins

In this episode of Mostly Growth, Kyle Poyar and CJ Gustafson unpack the real economics of brand marketing—from Super Bowl ads and CPM math to attribution, incrementality, and PLG arbitrage. They debate when brand spend actually drives growth, why CFOs struggle to measure it, and how B2B companies justify big bets. The episode wraps with Pricing in the Real World, breaking down Rivian’s lower-priced R2 launch, EV subsidies, and pricing strategy under uncertainty.

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SPONSORS:

HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving, visit https://www.rightrev.com

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

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LINKS: 

Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

https://skift.com/2019/01/31/what-is-expensify-thinking-with-its-pricey-super-bowl-ad/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Tgsy7D0Jg

https://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/super-bowl-commercial-prices-hit-8-million-first-time/2600146/

https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/guide-to-marketing-attribution

https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/brand-vs-growth

https://www.themotherhood.com/super-bowl-advertising-guidelines/

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gw30je/til_that_the_nfl_sent_a_cease_and_desist_order_to/

https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/teslas-full-self-driving-is-switching-to-a-subscription-only-service-120053137.html

https://www.caranddriver.com/rivian/r3

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RELATED EPISODES:

Scaling to $1B+ Revenue: From ServiceNow to Samsara | Dominic Phillips

https://youtu.be/vBY6WZBMljw

The Layer-Cake Playbook for Vertical SaaS Growth | with Roland Ligtenberg

https://youtu.be/yPxWvhPISKo

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:01:11 Sponsors — HockeyStack | RightRev | Tropic

00:05:15 Super Bowl Ads, QR Codes, and CFO Risk Assessment

00:08:37 Super Bowl Ads as Ego vs. Economic Signal

00:11:21 Bottom-Up PLG and the Expensify Playbook

00:12:56 Which B2B Companies Can Justify a Super Bowl Ad

00:14:44 CPM Math and Why the Numbers Sometimes Work

00:16:28 Brand vs. Demand and Measuring Brand as Growth

00:18:49 Brand as a Moat and Trust Over Time

00:21:10 Measuring Brand Through Branded Search and Conversion

00:23:22 Attribution Limits and Incrementality Testing

00:26:12 Geo-Based Brand Experiments and Targeted Events

00:28:13 Marketing Arbitrage and Analytics Discipline

00:29:06 Unconventional B2B Marketing That Actually Worked

00:30:33 Predicting Which Tech Companies Will Run Super Bowl Ads

00:32:31 Subscription Pricing Comes to Cars

00:34:18 EV Pricing, Subsidies, and Forecasting Demand

00:34:48 Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #brandmarketing #b2bmarketing #pricingstrategy #superbowl