How to Build a Brand in B2B with Ryan Narod (VP of Marketing at Rippling)
The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)
Making HR the hero in storytelling
Ryan explains positioning HR as strategic heroes and using customer interviews to surface real perspectives and anecdotes.
#330 | Dave is joined by Ryan Narod, VP of Marketing at Rippling, to break down how Rippling has built one of the stand outbrands in B2B right now. Ryan walks through real examples of campaigns they’ve run over the last year, from scrappy iPhone videos and webinar promos to high-production customer stories and their 2026 Super Bowl commercial. They talk about how Rippling shifted from being great at growth marketing to building a brand people actually recognize, how they inject more personality and “human” into everything they ship, and how they measure brand marketing without losing pipeline accountability.
To see Ryan's real campaign examples, head over to youtube.com/@heydavegerhardt.
Timestamps
- (00:00) - - Why Rippling is going all-in on brand
- (02:48) - - Ryan’s background and why he joined Rippling
- (04:11) - - What Rippling does and how they position the platform
- (08:11) - - What “brand marketing” means at Rippling
- (10:31) - - Building a story that makes HR the hero
- (19:44) - - Ryan shares Rippling marketing examples (ads, videos, webinars)
- (28:02) - - High-production customer storytelling (Berries)
- (33:24) - - The “HR Deserves Better” campaign
- (36:22) - - How Rippling measures brand and pipeline impact
- (43:59) - - The Super Bowl commercial and what it takes to pull it off
- (46:02) - - Final takeaways and wrap-up
Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.
***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
- They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
- Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
- Visit hatch.fm to learn more
The AI-powered Podcast Player
