Adobe Creates 5-Episode Agency Comedy With Hasan Minhaj

Adobe released “The Marketers,” a short-form comedy series designed for YouTube, led by comedians Hasan Minhaj and Patty Guggenheim.

Each episode runs between three and seven minutes, with new releases rolling out weekly through April.

The format grows out of earlier Acrobat creative, now stretched into a story with returning characters and a clear plot.

This time, the story follows a fictional agency team trying to top the success of their previous campaign, a challenge that's continued throughout the series.

Early response is already strong.

The first episode has reached 5.3 million views in two weeks, while the second has passed 3 million in 7 days.

The weekly rollout signals a shift toward a YouTube strategy, where earlier campaigns are extended into recurring formats that can build familiarity and audience over time.

How the Pitch Comes Together

The first episode, "Brainstorming the Next Greatest Ever Campaign,"​ lays out exactly what the team is up against.

Minhaj and Guggenheim are pulled into a meeting and asked to top their last campaign, with the deadline suddenly moved up due to their boss Liam’s "chakra transplant."

They bring in the “Alpha Squad,” a mix of specialists across data, trends, and marketing, but the session quickly unravels.

Ideas pile up without direction, from "orangutan marketing" to offering "a nice firm handshake with every sale," capturing the kind of noise that fills most brainstorming rooms.

Acrobat tools appear as the team pulls inputs into a shared PDF workspace, where they begin connecting ideas and pulling together a pitch just in time.

Episode 2, "Pitching the Next Greatest Ever Campaign," moves into the pitch itself.

The team is now scrambling to finalize and present their idea using Acrobat’s generate presentation feature under pressure.

Episode 3, "Shooting the Next Greatest Ever Campaign," then shifts to production.

A chaotic shoot and last-minute script changes highlight how the team uses Acrobat’s AI Assistant to track revisions and keep the work moving.

Episodes 4 and 5 have yet to drop, but the series already shows how even Acrobat tools can be worked into something witty and entertaining.

This approach echoes campaigns like Experian’s "Credit 101," where storytelling and familiar scenarios help translate complex ideas into something people can easily grasp.

Where the Tools Come In

The plot is tailored to showcase Acrobat tools, appearing as they build decks, adjust ideas, and move through the process of getting something ready. 

This keeps the story moving while letting the product sit naturally inside the agency environment.

Each episode places the creative tools in a slightly different situation, showing how they adapt across different stages of the work.

Adobe’s market cap stands at $99.02 billion, following a series of sharp fluctuations over the past decade, including peaks above $270 billion during the pandemic.

This movement reflects how demand surged during the shift to remote work, then pulled back as everything normalized.

Investor concerns have also grown around AI-driven disruption, rising competition, and leadership uncertainty following CEO Shantanu Narayen’s planned departure.

This is especially noticeable as workflows continue moving into digital and collaborative environments.

Adobe is now competing with a new wave of AI-first tools while trying to hold its position across creative and document software.

Formats like “The Marketers” series show how Adobe is using social media marketing to keep Acrobat visible within everyday creative work.

It reflects a push to stay relevant as competition increases and user expectations are redirected toward faster, more integrated tools.

This format lets the audience pick up both the story and the product features without needing an elaborate explanation.

• Recurring episodes give people a reason to return. The story continues instead of ending after one watch.
• Product use fits into the narrative. Tools appear as part of the workflow, not as a separate insert.
• Characters carry the series. Familiar roles and dynamics give each episode something to build on.

It also creates a predictable structure for future content, giving Adobe something it can expand, repeat, and adapt without rebuilding the idea from scratch.

Our Take: What Makes a Branded Series Worth Coming Back To?

We think it comes down to whether the content can stand on its own before the product even enters the scene (although the branding is there from the get-go).

The episodes are watchable even for those outside the agency world.

The episodes use pacing and humor that feel close to how people actually experience agency life, which makes them easy to watch without needing context.

The early view counts already show that this format can pull an audience in on its own.

And we believe this gives Adobe something more durable and something people return to because it’s entertaining first, with the product following naturally inside it.

Ongoing formats give brands more chances to show up, especially when each episode works on its own without pushing the product too directly.

Explore top video production agencies in our directory.