At the bustling Brand Tech Summit in Glilot, hosted by Brand Academy as part of SHOW 2025, Ynet Global Studios caught up with keynote speaker Udi Ledergor, Chief Evangelist and former CMO at Gong.
In conversation with Liron Glikman from The Human Factor, Ledergor shared lessons from his new book, Courageous Marketing, and offered a blueprint for early-stage companies trying to stand out in today’s noisy B2B landscape. “Marketing these days deserves and needs a lot of courage,” he declared, holding up the book that encapsulates his playbook for breaking convention.
Chief evangelist and former CMO at GONG Udi Ledergor
(Video: Yaron Sharon)
Ledergor opened with one of his biggest professional "hacks": choosing the right boss. At Gong, he said, the CEO empowered marketing to take creative risks—like adopting a jeweled bulldog mascot and playful branding that broke B2B norms. “Not everyone can pick their boss, but if you can, make sure they value marketing,” he advised. For those stuck in less flexible environments, he recommended launching small pilot campaigns—even without permission. “Beg for forgiveness, not permission,” he joked, explaining how even a $5,000 experiment, if successful, can earn buy-in for bigger ideas.
The conversation turned to guerrilla marketing—another core concept in Ledergor’s toolkit. He recalled Gong’s regional Super Bowl ad in 2021, a move that gave the startup the appearance of running a national campaign at a fraction of the cost. “It made us look like we were a lot bigger than we were,” he said.
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Similar tactics included renting a Times Square billboard for just a few hundred dollars and amplifying it through social media. “Do a small offline campaign and then make it huge online,” he urged, calling this approach the art of “punching above your weight.”
On the content front, Ledergor was equally adamant: B2B content has to be excellent—especially in the era of AI-generated material. “There’s a sea of sameness out there,” he warned. His key rule? Never let the same person handle both product and content marketing. “Start with the customer’s problems and work backwards,” he said, explaining that great content is hyper-relevant, timely, and immediately useful. “Don’t make me read a 40-page white paper,” he added. “Make it bite-sized so I can use it today.”
Ledergor’s closing message at the summit was clear: fearless marketing isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Whether you’re running a bold Super Bowl stunt or crafting a concise LinkedIn post, what matters is the mindset. “You don’t have to be a big company to make a big impact,” he said. With Courageous Marketing in hand and years of unconventional success behind him, Ledergor left the stage having redefined what scrappy, strategic marketing can achieve.