If you lead marketing at a B2B SaaS or AI company, you already feel the pressure.
You raised money. The board wants growth. Sales wants pipeline. Your CEO wants the brand to look sharp. And your feed is full of safe explainer videos that all feel the same.
I think that’s the problem.
Video still matters a lot. Brightcove found that 95% of surveyed B2B buyers say video plays an important role in deciding to move forward, 70% say it beats reports and webinars for creating awareness, and 93% say it helps build trust in a brand. Wyzowl reports that 89% of businesses now use video and 93% of marketers say video gives them a positive ROI.
So yes, video works.
But boring video gets ignored.
I’ve been making videos since I was 14. I started by filming skateboard videos. Then I moved into weddings, a fishing TV show, commercials, and short films. These days I run CinemAds in Toronto, where I make cinematic, humor-driven ads for growth-stage B2B brands. I’m a filmmaker first, entrepreneur second, and that changes how I look at explainers.
I don’t want a video that feels like homework. I want a commercial that looks like a movie, like a CinemAd. I want people to watch before they realize it’s an ad. I want them to remember the story, the joke, the feeling, and then the brand.
That’s why humor wins in 2026.
The Standard Explainer Is Losing Steam
A lot of explainer videos start too late.
They open with a logo. Then a dashboard. Then a voiceover that sounds like it was approved by seven people. Then a few broad claims. Then a call to action. By then, your buyer is gone.
Why does this happen? Because most teams are trying to explain before they’ve earned attention.
I’m not saying a dashboard can never appear at the start. If it somehow creates a strong hook in the first three seconds, fine. Use it. I’m practical about this. Whatever captures attention matters most. In my experience, though, a dashboard usually does not do that. A weird visual does. A funny line does. A sharp metaphor does.
That first hit matters more than ever now because every market is crowded. If your company is one of 50 startups saying a version of the same thing, safe marketing makes you blend in. Safe ads will lose over time. The best marketing wins.
I also think the old before-and-after format is tired for top-of-funnel. You’ve seen it forever. Problem. Solution. Happy ending. It can still work later in the funnel when you’re helping sales close or book demos. For brand awareness, I want something more memorable. I’d rather show the pain, create a laugh, and let the tagline do the heavy lifting at the end.
The First Three Seconds Decide the Whole Thing
This is where a lot of explainer videos fail.
The first three seconds need a jolt. Something visual. Something funny. Something clear enough that your ICP instantly knows, “This is for me.”
One of my favorite examples is Lavender. In an explainer video, I opened with Lavender Joe getting dragged away by the email police. He’s in a lime green suit. Sirens are going. It’s chaos. That scene actually belonged near the end of the video, but I moved it to the front because it was the strongest hook. Then we rewind and explain how he got there.
That worked because the audience got it right away. Sales teams know bad outbound. They know spam. They know cringe cold emails. So the joke hit fast, and now we had their attention. After that, we could explain the product, show some of the dashboard, and go deeper.
That’s how I think about explainers in 2026. Hook first. Explain second.
Your top-of-funnel work should be less dashboardy. It should be about the problem, the mood, the joke, the pattern interrupt. Then, once somebody watches and shows interest, you retarget them with a deeper product video. That’s where the UI belongs. That’s where you can educate, show features, talk workflow, show stats, and answer objections.
I use this sequence a lot. First, a funny brand video to get recall. Then a more in-depth explainer for the people who watched more than 50% of the first ad. That second video can go much harder on product. The first video earns the watch.
Humor Works Because It Breaks the Pattern
People are tired of ads. That part is obvious.
What’s less obvious is how much room that creates for humor.
Nielsen found humorous ads were 47% more appealing than pre-recession ads. At the same time, humor has become less common. Kantar’s analysis found humor dropped from 53% of ads in 2004 to 34% in 2020. So the lane is wide open.
That matters even more in B2B because most brands are still playing it safe. They think “professional” means dry. They think enterprise buyers want a lecture. I don’t buy that.
Humor cuts through because it changes the feeling of the ad. It creates a smile. It creates engagement. Even if someone doesn’t laugh out loud, they can still think, “That’s funny.” And that small reaction is powerful. It makes the brand easier to remember.
I saw that with Lavender Joe. People commented that they used to be him. The actor even got recognized in Italy. Think about that for a second. A B2B ad character got recognized overseas. That’s what happens when you build recall instead of making another forgettable explainer.
I’ve seen it with recurring characters in other campaigns too. Schoox had a magician because their rebrand described the brand personality as fun and magical. AskNicely had an awkward host in a park asking strangers weird survey questions. Those characters give the brand a face. They help people remember.
Humor Makes Complex Products Easy to Understand
This is the part I love most.
We create funny videos out of complex products. That’s the job.
Creativity is infinite. Give me a hard product, a real pain point, and I can turn it into something watchable.
For AskNicely, the idea came from their product itself. They help businesses ask customers for feedback. So I thought, what if we did surveys in real life? We had a host ask strangers in a park to rate their bench experience from one to five. Same core idea. Much more entertaining.
For HockeyStack, the team told me sales and marketing are always fighting over attribution. Because hockey is in the name, I built a referee character handing out penalties for “high dissing.” Sales and marketing were chirping each other. The ref had to keep order. Now the product story is easier to feel.
For Aligned, I used dating as the metaphor. A guy asks, “What are next steps?” on a date and even pulls out a PowerPoint presentation about the relationship. Sales people get that joke instantly because they’ve heard that language a thousand times.
For Right-Hand Cybersecurity, I helped build a “don’t check the box” campaign. A husband does chores in the worst possible way, including dumping dog food all over the floor and claiming he fed the dog. That one even featured my dog, Coco. Cute dog. Funny visual. Clear message.
For Replicant, I pitched a diner scene with a darker, more dramatic feel, inspired by the mood of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The campaign was called “Turn On the Lights.” The metaphor gave us a way to show confusion and clarity in a human way.
That’s why I like metaphor so much. Complex B2B products often get buried in jargon. A strong analogy helps people feel the point fast.
Serious Buyers Still Respond to Funny Work
I hear this all the time.
“What about CISOs?” “What about CFOs?” “What about enterprise buyers with strong BS detectors?”
They’re still people.
They still scroll. They still get bored. They still notice when something feels fresh.
My goal is not to make a CISO fall off their chair laughing. My goal is to make them remember the brand and feel like the company understands their world. Humor helps with that because it lowers the resistance. It makes the message easier to receive.
That also means the jokes have to fit the audience. If I’m writing for cybersecurity, the humor has to sit inside that category. If I’m writing for sales tech, the jokes should feel native to sales teams. That’s why I ask clients for pain points and language up front. I want the jokes to resonate with the ICP, not just amuse me.
There is risk here, of course. I’ve pitched a cybersecurity concept built around “practice safe tech.” One founder thought it was funny. An older investor didn’t like it. Fine. That’s part of the game. Art is opinion, not fact. You learn, you adjust, and you keep going.
I still believe you should test one or two bolder ideas if you have the room. If everything is safe, you learn very little.
Humor Only Works When the Craft Is Strong
A weak joke with weak execution turns cringe very fast.
This is why I care so much about process.
First, I research the pain points. Then I ask the client to confirm them. Then I write scripts around those pain points. If leadership needs to sign off before budget gets approved, I’ll often write sample scripts for free so the internal champion has something strong to take to the CEO.
That matters a lot in B2B. Sometimes the marketer loves the idea, but they still need the person upstairs to say yes. A good script helps them sell it internally.
Then comes casting. Funny on the page means nothing if the actor is wrong. I use auditions and character descriptions so the client and I can pick the right person together. The casting process matters a ton. Sometimes we want deadpan. Sometimes we want awkward. Sometimes we want someone more confident and slick. You feel that quickly when you watch the tapes.
Then we go to production. Clients often fly into Toronto to be on set with us, and I like that. They can sign off on takes and camera setups in real time. They leave feeling part of the process, which makes everyone more comfortable.
I also rewrite a lot. If a line feels off, I change it. If a client wants jargon that ruins the joke, I push back and try to find a middle ground. Most of the time, we get there.
I’m never trying to offend people or punch down. I like bold, humorous, unhinged videos. I do not like cheap shots.
Cinematic Quality Changes How Your Brand Feels
This is a huge piece of the puzzle.
My ABC rule is simple: Always Be Cinematic.
When a buyer sees high-end lighting, framing, acting, sound, and pacing, they may not say, “Wow, beautiful cinematography.” But they feel it. The brand feels more premium. More serious. More established. More worth paying attention to.
That matters when you’re a fast-growing startup asking the market to trust you.
I’ve had people describe our work as Netflix quality. I’ve had them say a spot felt like a Super Bowl ad. That comes from caring about every little part. The script. The actor. The light. The sound design. The edit. If one part is weak, the whole ad drops.
I care about horizontal framing too. I’m a 16:9 guy because I’m a filmmaker and our eyes are built for that shape. Vertical video is still something I have to accommodate because mobile matters, but I want the image to feel beautiful either way.
You can see that cinematic thinking in a lot of my work. Replicant was shot at night in a diner to get that dramatic mood. Aligned used a dimly lit dinner setting to make a sales joke feel like a real scene. On Sparkpolo, we spent an hour and a half setting one overhead light because that soft glow on the apparel mattered. On LivePerson, we shot in a studio with orange backdrops matching the brand, then changed up the characters and visuals so the campaign felt fresh across multiple ads.
People say they want more “premium creative.” This is what that means.
CTV Makes Humor Even Stronger in 2026
I’m very bullish on B2B CTV.
CTV accounted for 53% of all global video-ad impressions in 2023. Interactive CTV ads also drove 10.3x higher engagement than desktop video. That’s a big opportunity.
But here’s the catch. One survey found that only 24% of U.S. streaming viewers say they actually pay attention to ads, while 76% feel major platforms have too many ads. So if your creative is boring, you’re dead.
That’s why humor matters here. A joke can hold attention. A cinematic setup can hold attention. I know this from my own life too. My wife and I watch the 15 to 30-second ads on our basic Netflix subscription, and if one of them lands, we’ll repeat the joke to each other after. That’s the effect you want.
I’ve even had a client pay off their entire video production budget through a single sale from a CTV ad. I never promise that kind of outcome to everybody. Anyone guaranteeing 10x growth from one video is lying. My job is to make the strongest asset possible. Then media spend, targeting, landing pages, and sales have to do their job too.
AI Still Isn’t Your Comedy Shortcut
I use AI. I use it to brainstorm and help write.
I’m open to AI video in the future too. But I’m realistic about where it is right now.
Humor is hard with humans. It does not suddenly become easy with AI.
A good funny video still needs taste. It needs timing. It needs music, sound effects, editing, and performance. A marketer can’t just type a prompt and expect a great ad to pop out 20 minutes later. Marketers are busy. They’re not filmmakers. They’re not sitting there all day shaping performance and pacing.
There’s also the realism problem. AI is getting better, but it still struggles with nuance and character consistency. On set, I’ve seen tiny human moments create the biggest laugh. In one cybersecurity therapy scene, an actor put his hand out and looked at the therapist in a very specific way. That was gold. It was fast, funny, and human. I don’t think AI reliably gives you that still.
And if future regulations push AI disclaimers into ads, that could create its own audience problem. Some buyers may react badly to it.
If AI gets perfect one day, I’ll still be in the game. I’ll direct it. The filmmaker is still needed.
Build a Campaign System, Not One Precious Explainer
This is where I think a lot of teams waste budget.
They pour everything into one hero explainer and hope it does every job. It usually doesn’t.
I prefer a campaign system. A big idea. Multiple short ads. One recurring character if it makes sense. A handful of hooks. Then a deeper explainer for retargeting. That gives you room to test.
My production model is built around that. I can shoot 10 to 15 short spots in a day by keeping the whole shoot in one location and planning everything hard in pre-production. I visualize the commercials in my head before we roll. I storyboard. I prep the actors. I keep the camera moves realistic for the schedule. That’s how we keep the quality high and the cost per asset low.
A longer explainer is different. A 90-second piece usually gets its own full day because there are more camera angles, more setups, more time.
This system is useful for time-poor marketing teams because it gives you volume without turning the work into a content mill. A typical package for me is around $30,000 for 10 high-quality ads. That brings the cost down to about $3,000 per video. Traditional agency math often looks very different.
And testing matters. On Sparkpolo, a 10-video paid campaign delivered a 3.73% click-through rate and a $17.16 cost per lead. That’s the kind of upside you get when you have enough creative to actually test angles and hooks.
If I were planning 2026 for a Series A or B company, I’d start with one strong big idea built around the clearest pain point. I’d make five to 10 short brand videos that open with strong hooks. I’d keep the front end fun and cinematic. Then I’d retarget engaged viewers with a more in-depth explainer showing product, UI, and workflow. I’d also save room for one or two riskier scripts. You learn fast when you let bold ideas compete.
Final Thought
B2B buyers do want video.
They also want to feel something when they watch it.
That feeling can be surprise. It can be tension. It can be relief. For me, humor is the most powerful one because it cuts through, simplifies the message, and sticks in memory.
So when you plan your 2026 explainer strategy, don’t just ask how to explain your product better. Ask how to make the right buyer care enough to keep watching.
That question changes the whole creative.
It leads to better hooks. Better stories. Better recall. Better testing. Better campaigns.
And in a market full of sameness, that matters a lot.
That’s why I believe humor wins. That’s why I still push for bold work. And that’s why CinemAds exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do we measure the pipeline impact of cinematic B2B explainer videos?
Track pipeline, not just vanity views. Use holdout tests and platform conversion APIs. When a prospect watches 50% of your humor-driven top-of-funnel spot, retarget them immediately with a deep-dive product explainer. The cinematic hook earns their attention. The retargeted UI video books the enterprise demo. That proves hard ROI.
Do premium video campaigns actually outperform traditional SaaS whitepapers?
Yes. Data proves 70% of buyers prefer video over dense whitepapers for early awareness. Technical buyers are exhausted and time-poor. A cinematic metaphor communicates complex pain points instantly, breaking through the sea of sameness and accelerating high-value pipeline faster than any gated PDF.
How often should we rotate B2B video ad creative to avoid paid social fatigue?
Rotate the hook, not the entire video. We shoot 10 to 15 assets in a single day precisely to build a modular campaign system. Swapping out the first three seconds lets you continuously A/B test hooks without blowing your retainer. If an ad fatigues, inject a new visual hook instantly.
How do you pitch bold, cinematic video concepts to a conservative Board of Directors?
Don’t pitch jokes. Pitch the math. Safe marketing burns cash by getting ignored. Show them the data: 93% of marketers report positive ROI with video. Then, present a sample script nailing your ICP’s pain points. A mathematically cringe-free script makes the financial argument for you.
What is the biggest risk of running B2B SaaS campaigns on Connected TV?
Boring creative will kill your budget. While CTV offers massive scale, 76% of viewers feel streaming platforms have too many ads. You cannot run a dry, feature-heavy dashboard explainer here. You need a cinematic, pattern-interrupting hook to stop ad fatigue and drive actual enterprise pipeline.
