B2B marketing has a reputation for being boring. Ramp appears determined to take that personally.
The finance platform has recruited Tony Hawk and Bam Margera for Tony Stock: Pro Trader, a short-form comedy series that sends Hawk into witness protection and hides him in the last place anyone would expect to find a skateboarding legend: Wall Street.
His new identity? Anthony Stock.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, But Make It Finance
The campaign throws itself completely into early-2000s nostalgia.
Hawk is hiding from the fictional “Ollie-garchy,” a cabal of anti-skate tycoons, while attempting to pass as a trader. The whole thing borrows heavily from the visual language and humor of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, while also leaning into the long-running joke of people meeting Tony Hawk and telling him he looks like Tony Hawk.
Ramp built an entire interactive site around the fiction. Visitors explore Hawk’s Lower East Side safe house, use a late-90s computer running “Ramp XP” to watch episodes, or pick up a “RampBerry” on mobile. His passport, suit and trophy collection are all part of the world.
It is less an ad campaign than a tiny entertainment property.
Then Ramp Took Over Wall Street
The story culminated October 17 at the New York Stock Exchange, where Ramp staged a live finale with Hawk and Margera.
Guests entered a recreated 2006 trading environment, were given $1,000 in fictional capital to trade, watched the final episode play out live on the NYSE floor, and then saw Hawk skate a ramp installed outside the exchange. Ramp later described it perfectly: “Most people ring the bell. Tony Hawk and Bam Margera dropped in.”
And yes, the obvious joke is doing plenty of work here.
Tony Hawk loves ramps.
Businesses apparently do too.
B2B Buyers Are Still People
That may be the smartest part of the whole thing.
Ramp could have made another campaign about expense management, corporate cards and finance automation. Instead, it made something a CFO or finance lead might actually choose to watch.
The product is still there, but it is not carrying the entertainment burden.
That is a useful lesson for B2B brands. Your audience does not suddenly stop having taste, nostalgia or a sense of humor because they opened LinkedIn or went to work.
Ramp did not make finance software exciting.
It made an exciting thing around finance software.
And honestly, that might be the better job.
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