In the latest episode Join The Ride ➔ Brands in Motion, Salesforce’s Leandro Perez jumps in the backseat to explore how product, partnerships and culture are becoming the new marketing moments.
For years, B2B marketing has been associated with white papers and webinars – but Salesforce has been not-so-quietly rewriting that playbook.
“I have nothing against the whitepaper, and there’s a lot of great white papers out there, but we realised that at the end of the day, we’re marketing to humans. We’re trying to interact with people in their daily lives,” says Leandro Perez, Senior Vice President and CMO A/NZ at Salesforce.
He joined Michael Levine, Head of APAC at Uber Advertising, in the back seat for an episode of Join The Ride ➔ Brands in Motion, to explore how the brand is bringing B2B into culture – through moments, technology and everyday interactions.
As Perez shared, for a category often associated with rational messaging, Salesforce’s approach is grounded in something more human.
That thinking has seen the brand show up in some of the world’s biggest cultural moments – from the Super Bowl and the Australian Open – but always with a clear purpose, to showcase the brand’s impressive technology capabilities.
One example is its global Formula One partnership, where Salesforce used its Agentforce technology to create a new kind of fan experience.
Perez explains: “There are lots of rule changes in the F1 that the fans may not even know about. So we brought our Agentforce technology to the website so fans could talk to the agent and ask questions like ‘Why are all the rules changing around batteries? What does it mean? Why is Oscar Piastri upset that his car’s not doing what he wants to do in Melbourne?’”
It became a practical demonstration of the brand’s broader ambition – not just to be present in culture, but to enhance how people engage with it.
That same thinking came to life in an activation in Martin Place last year, which was designed to make the new technology tangible for everyday audiences.
Perez explains that people were able to come in off the street and build their dream holiday via TripADeal, as well as creating a digital love lock which would be shown on the outside of the structure with one lucky participant winning their trip.
The result was a simple but effective bridge between personal familiarity and business application.
Perez says: “It was a really easy way to help step people into this new technology that, yes, they may have played with already, but in a new framing of there being a business application.”
But while large-scale activations play an important role, Perez is clear that meaningful moments aren’t limited to global stages. He stresses that marketing to humans is a philosophy that applies across both physical and product experiences, and that some of the most impactful interactions happen in the UI of products themselves.
Perez points to the micromoments that come as part of Slack’s UI interface, designed to surprise and delight users.
He says: “Organisations can do this through their own apps or websites. Think about those moments where friction can be removed, and you can create a delightful moment that is just as impactful as a campaign.”
It’s a mindset that extends to how Salesforce is evolving its approach to brand building more broadly. Long-standing partnership with Matthew McConaughey aside, the brand recently launched a Super Bowl ad in collaboration with MrBeast.
As Perez explains, the idea came from the mega influencer himself: “MrBeast is actually a huge Slack user. He pitched us an idea that was basically, ‘Why don’t I help you create the most-watched Super Bowl ad of all time?’. People could open and use Slack to find clues to ultimately land a million dollars.
“It was a crazy idea, but it showed the technology in action in a new way.”
The activation itself demonstrated product utility through participation and community, so the strategic value of the project landed just as strongly as the creativity itself.
For Perez, it all points to a broader shift in how B2B brands need to think about their role in culture. From global sponsorships to product design, the opportunity lies in creating moments that are not just seen, but experienced.
You can watch the full episode of Join The Ride ➔ Brands in Motion on B&T’s YouTube channel, with Naysla Edwards (Amex)’s interview out now. More episodes featuring Kate Hornstein (CMO, BYD), David Ohana (Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, UN Foundation) and Ed Stening (Co-founder and CEO, Posca Hydrate) are coming soon.
