The dark comedy starring Tony Cavalero, Zainab Johnson, Kirk Fox, Flula Borg, and Patrick Renna breaks all the rules of traditional B2B marketing
NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Optimizely, the AI platform for marketing, premiered Murder in Marketing, an original dark comedy featured in two formats: a vertical ‘micro-drama’ that launched October 30th and a feature length film premiering on November 13th.
The story is a workplace comedy mixed with a quirky whodunnit. In the middle of a high-stakes marketing launch, the team learns its CEO is dead, and everyone becomes a suspect. Rivalries, hidden agendas, and bizarre clues complicate the search for answers.
“The goal of this project was to make marketers laugh. To feel seen, not sold to,” said Julianne DeVincenzo, Head of Content Marketing at Optimizely. “The pressure, the politics, the impossible expectations, and the absurdity of trying to make the work look effortless. We exaggerated that world into a murder mystery, but the emotional truth is real. If marketers laugh we did our job but if it feels a little too familiar, we really have done our job.”
Murder in Marketing was written and created by Ian Faison, founder of Caspian Studios,alongside Optimizely’s Julianne DeVincenzo, Dan Reid, and Greg Heinz. The series stars Tony Cavalero (The Righteous Gemstones, School of Rock), Zainab Johnson (Upload, Hijabs Off), Kirk Fox (Jury Duty, Reservation Dogs), Flula Borg (The Suicide Squad, Pitch Perfect 2), Patrick Renna (The Sandlot, Dugout Dads), Cory Walls (Cheat Meal), Jamie Loftus (Robot Chicken), and Julia Valentine Larson (Mermaid).
While theatre premieres and streaming releases are mainstays of the entertainment industry, audiences are discovering stories beyond these traditional platforms. Forrester found that microdrama viewers are 3-4x more likely to watch on short-form video platforms than on dedicated apps. In the first half of 2026 alone, microdramas surpassed 6.5 billion views on YouTube.
“Marketers are some of the toughest people in the world to market to because they know every trick – they use them themselves,” said Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely. “If we want to earn their attention, we have to create something they would actually choose to spend time with. Murder in Marketing is our bet that B2B can entertain first and build a different kind of relationship with audiences in the process.”
Murder in Marketingis currently available on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube Shorts. Viewers can watch the series and behind the scenes content at https://www.instagram.com/murdermarketing/.
About Optimizely
Optimizely is the AI platform for marketing, built for the experience-makers who shape how brands show up in the world. It brings together content management, content marketing, experimentation, commerce, personalization, and analytics into a single platform featuring Virtual Teammates and purpose-built AI models. Optimizely gives marketers the freedom to create, customers the experiences they remember, and AI agents the content they come looking for. With Optimizely, you’re free to grow. Learn more at optimizely.com.
Optimizely is the trademark of Optimizely North America Inc., and is registered (or registrations are pending) in the US, EU, UK and other countries. All third-party trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference purposes.
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