HubSpot unveiled plans for its first-ever television ad campaign this week, highlighting the Cambridge software company’s rising profile and rapid growth during the pandemic.
The ad campaign stars actress Kathryn Hahn — recently seen in the “WandaVision” series on Disney Plus — as a pirate captain in need of better software to run her fleet. “There used to be one way to pirate: You pillage, you loot, you set fire to the village, you move on,” Hahn proclaims in one of the ads, which start airing on March 1. “But that model was ripe for disruption.”
The goal of the pirate theme was to spoof the traditional testimonial type of advertisement, said Brad Minor, HubSpot’s vice president of brand. After pondering other ideas including the tooth fairy and a magician, HubSpot chose to use pirates.
“It really was a fun way to take a twist on the business testimonial through the lens of this fantastical kind of enterprise, and show that no matter what kind of business you’re in, there’s a way to grow better,” Minor said.
Hahn, who is in line for a spinoff series of her Marvel character Agatha from “WandaVision,” could return as a variety of captains of other industries in future HubSpot ads.
New York ad agency 72andSunny worked with HubSpot to develop the spots, which will run during major sports events such as the March Madness college basketball tournament and the Masters golf tournament, as well as during traditional network shows like “60 Minutes” and “Survivor,” Minor said. The campaign will run in other channels as well, such as on airport billboards, bus and ferry wraps in New York City, and even a sponsored takeover of the cover of Fast Company magazine.
HubSpot got its start making software for web and e-mail marketing but in recent years has expanded its offerings and now competes in the broader sales and marketing software category of customer relationship management, or CRM. It aims its products at small and midsize businesses, exactly the type of customers that have been pressing to go online and use more software services during the pandemic. Revenue last year jumped 47 percent (from 2020) to $1.3 billion.
Those broader software offerings justify expanding the company’s own marketing with a television campaign, according to analyst Brian Peterson at Raymond James. “They’ve been able to develop more products outside of their original products,” he said. “It’s an interesting time for them to start marketing across more channels. Their appeal to customers has never been broader.”
Not many business software companies run television ads touting their products anymore. Larger rival Salesforce ran a Super Bowl ad starring Matthew McConaughey but it focused on belittling Elon Musk and the metaverse rather than showing off the company’s software features.
“The fact that you don’t see other companies similar to ours in this space goes to our approach that in this sea of CRM blue, we want to show up as a stark contrast,” Minor said, referencing the brand color of Salesforce. “We want HubSpot to show up as this bright, vibrant, orange brand that is distinctly different.”
Although HubSpot’s stock price has lost 20 percent so far this year, the company is still the most valuable Boston-area software firm, with a market capitalization of $25 billion.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.