Start using Spectrum Thinking

Also: Reminder... B2B ads don’t have to be boring

Marketing Qualified
June 13, 2025

Welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:

Start using Spectrum Thinking. Present your ideas in a way that gets buy-in.
Reminder: B2B ads don’t have to be boring. Check out this example.

Before we begin… a message from our sponsor.

No newsletter in 2025? That’s like not having a website.
B2B brands use newsletters to build pipeline before a sales call.
Reel Axis writes, designs, and sends it for you.
It looks like you. Sounds like you. Grows with you.
Curious? Click here — see why it works.

🧠 Start using Spectrum Thinking.

The next time you pitch an idea or campaign to leadership (or your team), try this framing technique…

It’s called Spectrum Thinking. Instead of presenting one rosy outcome, describe the spectrum of possibilities.

Including a:

Normal and most likely scenario.
Good and bad mixed scenario.
Crazy worst-case scenario.

Example:

Say you’re pitching a newsletter redesign.

Instead of saying, “This will boost engagement,” try:

If we redesign the newsletter, there are a few possible scenarios:

1) We see a 10–15% lift in clicks. The new format gets us clearer signals on what topics actually resonate. (Normal scenario)

2) Overall click rate stays flat, but engagement drops on certain modules. We A/B test and find the winner(s) in 3-4 weeks. (Mixed scenario)

3) We get fewer clicks across the board, realize the redesign was a miss, and roll it back. No long-term damage, but we learn fast. (Worst-Case scenario)

Why does this work?

Because ideas feel safer (and smarter) when you show you’ve thought through more than one outcome.

📰 In the news this week.

👩‍⚖️ Hollywood finally goes after AI-generated imagery.

🗣 How to find your brand’s niche on social media.

🌱 5 LinkedIn Ads tests to run to drive growth.

🍽 Google AI tools are eating up organic search traffic for media sites.

👀 Reddit shares new data on its value for product discovery.

👇 Reminder: B2B ads don’t have to be boring.

Here’s a great example of a B2B ad that’s not generic and immediately forgettable.

Its imagery stands out. Its copy tells a compelling story. It’s memorable.

Ramp is a B2B finance company. It would have been easy to make a cookie-cutter “save time and money filing your expenses” ad.

But instead, they made this:

It reads:

Want Calvin to file your expenses?

Meet Calvin.

At 11, he was fluent in Python.

At 15, his code was running on The International Space Station.

At 16, he dropped out of high school and was admitted into MIT.

He graduated one and a half years early with a perfect GPA.

At 17, he represented the United States.

Not in hockey. In hacking.

At 19, he was hired by Google.

Now, you're probably wondering how a boy genius like Calvin ended up filing expenses for a living.

Let me tell you.

At 20, he joined Ramp and wrote the code that made filing an expense as easy as taking a photo of a receipt.

Eighty thousand expenses a day are now submitted this way.

One for every heart he broke along the way.

Who wouldn’t want Calvin to file their expenses?

Next time we take a photo of a receipt, we’re going to think of Calvin from Ramp.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

How'd we do with this week's newsletter?

A READER’S REVIEW

Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to a friend to spread the love.

Want us to write about something specific? Submit a topic or idea.