Alex Kaminsky, Corpay Chief Creative Officer, explains how the company's B2B advertising strategy sets it apart from the competition.
In this episode of Smarter Payments by Corpay, Brennan Robison talks with Alex Kaminsky about what makes a successful B2B advertising campaign. Kaminsky shares his unique career journey—from Wall Street to Turner Broadcasting, then to B2B marketing roles at YP and Fleetcor, eventually leading to his role at Corpay.
Key Highlights:
B2B vs. B2C Marketing: While both must persuade buyers who may not be actively seeking new products, B2B has traditionally focused on product features, whereas B2C leverages emotion and storytelling. Kaminsky argues that modern B2B should adopt more B2C tactics—using emotive, human-centric messaging to connect more effectively.
The “Product Dilemma”: Companies often fall too in love with their products, leading to complex and uninspiring marketing. Kaminsky emphasizes the need to simplify messaging and focus on the buyer’s real pain points.
Standing Out in a Crowded Market: With B2B buyers exposed to thousands of ads daily, cutting through the noise requires a distinctive approach. Kaminsky explains Corpay’s decision to use “The Corpay Guy”—a relatable character who communicates in human language, avoids jargon, and focuses on clarity and trust.
Campaign Strategy: Research revealed that potential buyers were often confused by B2B terminology, which hindered their decision-making. The campaign’s goal became clear: eliminate confusion and provide clarity through approachable messaging.
Creative Process: From auditioning dozens of actors to rigorous testing, the Corpay team found the perfect face for their brand. The campaign has driven exceptional results, with high engagement and brand recognition.
Corpay’s Rebrand: The company’s rebrand, officially launched a year ago, reflects years of strategic transformation. Corpay has evolved from a fleet card company into a global corporate payments provider, combining fintech innovation with the resources of a major financial institution.
Award Recognition: The campaign earned Corpay an AMA AMIA award, which Kaminsky views as welcome validation—but secondary to the goal of driving revenue and empowering the sales team.
Kaminsky’s Three Pillars for B2B Marketing Success:
Know your audience deeply.
Avoid falling in love with your product—focus instead on the customer experience.
Get your data right to guide informed decisions.
(Music)
Kaminsky tease bite: I'd much rather try and engage a prospect around what he or she needs, what he or she is struggling with. Learn their world first, and then see how our products can help solve that.
Robison intro: Companies that sell goods or services to other companies…. business-to-business or B2B companies, need advertising just as much as consumer brands like Coca-Cola or Nike. In fact, it could be the key to differentiating one B2B company from another. This is Brennan Robison, Director of Corporate Communications for Corpay. On this episode of Smarter Payments by Corpay, we’re joined by Alex Kaminsky, Chief Creative Officer at Corpay… to hear from him what makes a successful B2B campaign. Here’s our conversation.
Robison:Well, hey, Alex, welcome to the show.
Kaminsky: Hey, thanks for having me.
Robison: Well, before we jump into the meat of the topic, if you would tell our listeners a little bit about your background and your journey to Corpay.
Kaminsky: Yeah, it's a little bit of a non-traditional journey given most of the folks' here. But I come, well first, my first stint in the world of business was actually working on Wall Street, working for an investment firm, helping them with some M&A work. I quickly learned a lot about finance and I also quickly learned that finance wasn't my bag. I then went back to business school and used that as an opportunity to kind of clean the slate. And what I really fell in love with and what I wanted to do was marketing. I got lucky and I was started a career at Turner Broadcasting. I was head of sports and entertainment marketing for TBS and TNT and got involved in a ton of different promotions, partnerships.
Robison: Yeah, we've talked about the fact that we were at Turner at some part of the same time. I was at headline news. We didn't cross paths as far as we know, but I've mentioned that my wife and I were fans of a show on TVS called Dinner and a Movie, which you created, correct?
Kaminsky: I did create, that was, I think I created, I think the night I created it was dinner and a bottle of wine.
Robison: A little liquid inspiration. Nice.
Kaminsky: (laughs) But no, listen, Ted Turner gave the whole company a lot of leeway to be really creative and to be bold and to come up with ideas that maybe others hadn't thought of. This one was pretty simple, which was we had a huge movie library of lighthearted romantic comedies. And I was just thinking, well, that's like the perfect date night. What do you do on a date? You go to dinner and a movie. And so, we created this franchise and programming around it where we cooked meals that were thematically linked to the movies. Honestly, we didn't think it would last more than a couple of weeks and it just took off. And it changed the revenue trajectory of the network. It changed the awareness of the network. And I think that if nothing else had taught me that A, follow your instinct and B, don't always go up there looking for a home run. Sometimes a single can turn into a double or a triple. But I loved the work, loved it. It was a great opportunity to learn more about advertising and marketing. I then went up to ESPN for a couple of years where I did the same, helped ESPN build ESPN.com from scratch. We launched ESPN the magazine, sports center campaigns, and if anyone remembers ESPN back in the day, we were really known as much for our advertising as we were for our programming. So, I had a really great opportunity to cut my teeth with some absolutely brilliant writers, directors, and creatives. I then headed back to Atlanta where I headed up marketing for the Weather Channel, went back to my roots in media. I did that for a couple years and helped them rebrand weather.com and rebrand the company. I then got kind of tired of large businesses and I started my own agency working with ironically a lot of large businesses, but helping them with their positioning, helping them develop content, helping them with their advertising strategy. One of my clients was Coke and they convinced me to come on board for a couple of years to work with the president. I did some cool stuff at Coke and worked on the Olympics and American Idols. And then I took, you know, a really deep dive into B2B marketing, where I headed up brand and advertising for YP, which was the modern version of the Yellow Pages, owned by a private equity firm, which was new for me. But a big brand, 130-year-old brand that completely needed to reinvent itself. Nobody wanted to buy advertising in books anymore. And so we were launching digital platforms and mobile platforms and helping our sales teams figure out how to sell digital and online advertising. And I led that rebranding and advertising and marketing effort. And then followed somebody who was there to this company I'd never heard of called Fleetcor. I mean, I had been in Atlanta for a long time and he said, hey, there might be an opportunity for a marketer over here at Fleetcor. Are you interested? And I'm like, Fleetcor? What's Fleetcor? And his answer was, well, we're a fleet card company, but we're trying to do even more. so long story short, I'm always up for an enormous challenge, thought this was some new ground for me. I didn't understand what the company did at the, you know, in the beginning, but I did know that they had something special, which is that the people that I met here were among the smartest folks I've ever, ever been around. And we needed to figure out how to market. So, I became the first CMO here leading North America Fuel, did that for a couple of years, and then moved into a maybe more narrow, but I think more, possibly more important role of really helping the company figure out its messaging, its positioning, and how we go to market.
Robison: Good stuff. So, you obviously have extensive experience in both consumer and B2B marketing. What would you say the key differences and similarities are?
Kaminsky: Yeah, it's a good question and it comes up a lot as we're trying to rebrand this company. I mean, I think the similarities, both B to C, consumer marketing and B to B marketing, ultimately both need to convince someone to consider buying your product when they don't actually need it. Right? I mean, nobody needs another can of Coke. Right? Very few businesses actually need our products. For instance, all of our payment solutions, whether it's commercial cards or AP automation or a lodging platform or even fuel cards, those businesses are paying for those items, are paying for those things with something. And so like B2C, B2B, especially when you're in a space where products are fairly similar, like trying to figure out a way to convince a buyer to switch from their current product or platform into ours is, I guess, on some level very similar to the art of persuasion that happens in B2C. In terms of differences, I mean, you know, I see the lines blurring a lot more now, but traditionally B2C tends to focus on how a product makes you feel, right? Highly emotive, highly personal. B2B marketing historically has been focused on the product, right? What the product does, how the product works. But I think there's, I think there's a shift and it's something I call the product dilemma, but like a lot of companies fall in love with their product and they want to talk about their product. And what we've learned in research and in conversations is that when you get to B2B speak in the way you talk about your product, doesn't really resonate with a lot of buyers out there. So it's called the product dilemma. But falling in with your product sometimes, A, makes it difficult for a buyer to understand what you're talking about, makes it difficult for a buyer to understand where it fits into their processes. And quite frankly, I think people are bored about listening to others talk about themselves. Although I guess that's what we're doing here. So I'll try and make it brief. But for us, I mean, I think the realization that Outlook, our commercial cards are great. Are they better than other commercial cards? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Our AP automation is really great. But there are other AP platforms out there that are good, too. Our lodging platform is terrific. And our fuel cards, we basically invented the fuel card. But the reality is that our products are probably a lot more similar to what existing prospects have than different. And so... like when you're dealing with a parody product, you've got to strike a different chord with people than telling them what your product does. Right. So, like I said, mean, what I'm starting to see and what I believe in is that B2B marketing is starting to use and should use B2C tactics more. Emotion, straight talk, right? That's what we're doing with our messaging and our advertising. Be more human, be more emotive, more approachable. And it seems to be working. You know, so in my opinion, you're probably going to see more B2B marketing look a little bit like B2C.
Robison: Got it. Sales and marketing are separate but related. And I've heard it said that our salespeople, they're not so much selling our products as they are selling a solution to the customer's pain points. Would you say that's true for on the marketing side as well?
Kaminsky: Yeah, for sure. I'd much rather try and engage a prospect around what he or she needs, what he or she is struggling with. Learn their world first, and then see how our products can help solve that. I remember when I was a little kid growing up, the doorbell would ring and a guy with an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, I'm probably dating myself, but a guy with an Electrolux vacuum cleaner would walk in and he would throw dirt on the floor and then show us how the vacuum cleaner picks it up, right? I mean, that's kind of hard to do in B2B. It's kind of hard to tell somebody what your product does without showing some empathy and understanding around what they're going through and what their dilemmas are. And listen, we have a lot of different customers that vary in size and vary in category, right? There is no one size fits all. And the same thing holds true with prospecting, right? So understanding what somebody is going through, far more important than us telling you what our product does. We'll have time to do that after A, they believe us, they trust us, they recognize that there's a moment in time where maybe they're willing to switch, and then we can start talking about what our products do.
Robison: I don't think I'd try that dirt thing in 2025 either. So, there are a ton of players in the corporate payment space. How does advertising serve to differentiate one player from another?
Kaminsky: Yeah, that's a good question. I think that the immediate answer that comes to mind is unlike consumer, where people are likely in market almost all the time, B2B is a little different. B2B is a bit of a mystery, right? We don't know when... a company is interested or willing to change out their commercial card program. It's hard to see those signals. Now we do have tools that help us read whether they're online, looking for those types of solutions, but in general, it's a bit of a mystery about when somebody is interested and what the trigger is that makes somebody interested. So B2B marketing either relies on being really astute about when a company might be interested in your solution or being 24-7 on demand, always being on and being there. So when they're interested, your name is something that they consider. And so advertising plays a big role, right? mean, you know, on any given day, and this is research that's been backed by some of the top research companies, on any given day, we're all exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 ads a day. Right? Like it's staggering, but let me repeat it. On any given day, each of us are exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. That could be a radio ad. That could be a billboard. That could be an online ad. It could be an email. It could be a TV ad. It could be on LinkedIn. It doesn't matter. But we're a society that consumes so much content and so much news and information and entertainment that how do you break through? Like, think about it. In B2B, if most products are similar, if nobody knows exactly when somebody is interested in switching their product, and if you're competing against 4,000 other ads, advertising is one of the best ways to test how you break through. We've taken a bit of a counterintuitive route to do that, right? So instead of being, and I mentioned this earlier, but instead of being very B2B centric, tell them about the product, tell them about the product, and tell them about the product in product speak. We've done something that I think helps cut through because we're simple. We have a character, The Corpay Guy” that's human, that speaks in human language, that talks about pain points, that tries to be approachable. And I think that on some level, our advertising strategy is to, instead of being very loud, our advertising strategy is designed to be a little bit more soft and a little bit more human and like I said the numbers suggest that that it's working.
Robison: Let’s talk about “The Corpay Guy,” our current campaign. If you're starting a campaign from scratch, what is the foundation and what are the building blocks that you need to create an effective advertising campaign, both from a long-term and a short-term perspective?
Kaminsky: Wow, that's a great question. I mean, there's so many different pieces to kind of figuring out what you say and when you say it and how you say it. You know, I'll tell you how I'll tell you how we went about doing it. I immersed myself in research, trying to figure out like, what are the pain points that really matter to our prospects? What are they dealing with? What are they? What are they like struggling with? What choices are they making and what choices aren't they making? And one thing really stuck out, and again, I think I've touched upon it, so it's a bit of a through line, but one thing that really stuck out is that when people get confused, they do not make a move. And so when we did research on, for instance, AP automation. There's a lot of companies that have really good platforms out there. Some small, some bigger, some end to end, some were specialized, some from startups, some from companies like ours, which have more stability and resources behind it. But one thing we heard loud and clear is that people didn't understand what AP automation is. See, here are all these companies spending a ton of money in advertising and marketing, promoting AP automation, and they're not even realizing that the folks that they're talking to have no idea what they're talking about. Right? So that was clue number one for us, which is let's not speak in B2B speak. The other was I didn't want to be product centric. So finding a person, “The Corpay Guy,” who could be human was also really important. And we did a lot of testing around that. I had this hypothesis that... that the world's an amazing place and that people are amazing and that we're inventing incredible things. But yet when it comes to payments, why are people still using legacy products? are companies still using paper checks and paper invoices? Why haven't companies that are, their parking lot might be filled with EV Teslas, but yet they're using antiquated payment processes? And I believe that one of the reasons is that they don't understand what better looks like. They're satisfied with the status quo. They think it's hard to change. They don't understand what a lot of B2B companies are even saying in their advertising and marketing. It's not resonating. And so for us, the core pay guy was really the essence of a marketing strategy. Don't be B2B. Don't be product centric. Have a human voice that's approachable, that's likable. Talk about pain points and talk about why Corpay is a company you should trust. In the process though, I wrote a script. We brought in, I guess I looked at probably 50 or 60 different audition tapes. Men, women, tall, short, every ethnicity. A wide swatch of different personalities. I ended up bringing six different people into a studio and we shot them all doing it. And when the guy who's the Corpay Guy, when he walked in and did his video, we all looked at each other and we're like, done. The guy nailed it. But we then tested it. And it tested through the roof, right? Like it tested on things like, it memorable? 100 % of people said it is. Does it come from a brand that you would trust? 100 % of people said yes. Did you understand what he was saying? Nine out of ten people said yes. Would you go visit the website after seeing this ad? Ten out of ten people said yes. Would you buy multiple products from the same company? I think it was like nine or ten out of ten people said yes. So, you know, the instinct played out. And so we took a big leap and we decided let's go be different. Let's go launch this crazy thing called the Corpay Guy. Let's go produce a lot of different video assets because some are going to work and some aren't. Let's do it cheaply, inexpensively. Let's get it out in market, see which ones are working, ride the ones that are working, throw the ones out that aren't working. And a year and a half later, we're seeing engagement numbers on the advertising and website traffic from the advertising far above expectations and far above other B2B benchmarks. I don't know, I guess, like, we're onto something.
Robison: You anticipated my next question about metrics. Elaborate a little bit more on how you measure the success of a campaign and do you tweak it if it is or isn't working.
Kaminsky: Yeah, so metrics obviously, like we're not in this to win beauty pageants. We're in this to drive sales and drive the business forward. I mean, there's a ton of different metrics we look at. I'd say there are probably three core metrics that let us know that we're on the right track. Number one is targeting, right? Are we reaching? The people and the companies that we sought out to reach, it's awfully difficult in digital, despite all the databases that we have, despite all the algorithms that all the platforms have, despite all the smarts that we have. Like you go after a mid-size or a large-size company, who do you go after, right? You don't advertise to a company, you advertise to people in the company. So maybe we target CFOs and vice presidents of finance and AP managers and we do our best to get information about them so that we can use media tools to target them. But in a large size company, it's usually more than one person that makes a decision. So, who's the buying committee? Who's the influencing committee? And now all of a sudden you have to expand the aperture on who you're sending ads to. So, the key is the only way to know how you're doing is to go down funnel and see the kinds of companies that are coming to your website and see who's maybe filling out a form or showing some interest and then checking to see whether that person at that company is in fact a in your target list. B, a high value prospect. So, targeting number one. Number two is the core media metrics, Like impressions, right? So, think about it. We don't have the budget for Super Bowl ads where you just need to run it once. So, impressions are really important. How many times have we hit the same person with the same message so that they actually pay attention to us and get us. Frequency, right? How often are we doing it? And what's the cadence? On what platform? Channel performance. Is LinkedIn performing well for us? Is Facebook performing well for us? What about YouTube? What about online videos? Like each channel that we use, whether it's video or static or animation, each channel has a role and a purpose and each channel needs to be measured, not only individually, but how it relates to the other channels that you're using. Media metrics, we look at those every single week. And then for us, right before sales revenue, website engagements, super important. It's our retail store, right? Had we done advertising and got people into our store to look around. So how many people have visited the website? How long have they stayed? Have they engaged in content or did they come under some sort of pretense in our advertising message? But they didn't see what they want, right? So we look at time spent on site. We look at page views. We look to see whether they're moving through our site in a journey that's similar to what we had hoped. So for us, targeting, are we targeting the right folks? B, the media metrics, are we using the right media channels? Do we have the right frequency level? And then lastly for us, are we driving people to our retail experience?
Robison: So, you and the marketing team at Corpay recently put your skills to work with the company's rebranding last year. Can you share a little bit about that journey and its outcome?
Kaminsky: Yeah. I mean, the rebrand that you speak of, actually officially rebranded the company about a year ago. But the rebrand actually is many years in the making. I mean, from a business perspective, Corpay is the result of over 100 acquisitions. Right. So we've been in business over 20 years and we've done, I don't know, 125 acquisitions. And so it took a long time for us to shape this company that was originally a fleet card company into something broader and something different and something that now represents, I think, a company unlike anyone else, which is that we're truly a global corporate payments company. So, the rebrand, while the rebrand might have come to market as a new logo and some new advertising, really the rebrand started years and years ago when Ron and others started thinking about the kind of company that they wanted to create. From a branding perspective, the journey to redefine what we stand for and also how we prove that we're special and different has been not only ongoing, I'd argue will be ever going as a process. We're always trying to figure out is the message right? Are our proof points right? is our targeting rate and that's all part of what I think is rebranding. But we know, like we know without a shadow of a doubt, we know that we do some things that other companies in our space cannot. We're unique because we have the speed and agility and innovation of a fintech, but we have the resources and the stability of a big bank. And that's something that's not only really unique in the marketplace. think it's something that's resonating really well and it's something that sets us apart. And again, that's part of our rebrand, like trying to figure out what our assets are and what they mean and how do we articulate that into the market. I'd say we've just put our toe in the water of maybe another phase of the rebrand, which is really trying to build brand awareness, right? Especially in support of our sales teams and sales leaders who really, really crave having that brand out there in the marketplace so that they can have the air cover they need in order to get the meetings that they need. We have... I think our advertising is terrific and will only get better, but we also have a hell of a sales team and sales leaders. And the one thing that we know is when they get into a room or get on a phone call with a prospect, they do a really good job of closing. So building that brand is designed to make it easier for them.
Robison: Certainly, and your work landed Corpay an American Marketing Association AMIA Award. That has to be gratifying.
Kaminsky: Yeah, I mean, it's a nice award. It's the goal and the effort of a lot of folks that believed in something and worked really hard to make it happen. I don't want to downplay the value of awards. We like them a lot, right? But really, the goal is driving revenue and building this company. I think the award is just a nice little piece of validation along the way that we're on the right track.
Robison: Before we let you go, if you could leave us with a few key thoughts to recap our discussion about how do you create and carry out a successful B2B campaign.
Kaminsky: Yeah. Well, to me, I'd say at a minimum, have these three things in mind. Number one, you have to know your audience. Like really, really understand your audience. Understand the decision makers and the ones within the company that influence that decision. Number two, I said this before, but don't fall in love with your product. Right. Find a more emotive human way to connect with prospects. They don't want to know about your product. They want to know how they go to work every day trying to, you know, trying to figure out how to get work done. They don't want to know about your product. So don't fall in love with your product. And then the last one is get your data right. You know, the worst thing that could happen, you know, is to have a bunch of really, really smart people chasing the wrong information. Right, so know your audience, don't follow up with your product and get your data right. And I think if you do those three things, you'll, you know, there's no reason you can't be successful.
Robison: Nice. Well, Alex, we appreciate your time and your expertise. Alex Kaminsky, Chief Creative Officer at Corpe. Thanks, Alex.
Kaminsky: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
That's it for this episode of Smarter Payments. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow the show wherever you get your podcasts, So, you don't miss an episode. Smarter Payments is a production of Corpay Incorporated, copyright 2025. I'm Brennan Robison. And we'll see you next time.