Meet Bob Sheetner: Datarails’ Excel-obsessed panda redefining FP&A marketing
- Ani Petrova
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
What do you get when you cross a spreadsheet with a panda? Meet Bob Sheetner...the first-ever brand mascot for the CFO’s office, and Datarails’ bold new face of finance storytelling.
What happens when you blend B2B fintech marketing with the narrative flair of Saturday morning cartoons? According to Jonathan Marciano, VP of Brand and Communications at Datarails, you get Bob Sheetner - a panda with a spreadsheet addiction and a podcast called Know Your Sheet. Yes, really.
But this isn’t just a mascot gimmick. It’s a bold strategic move aimed at modernising finance communications, deepening engagement, and (let’s face it) adding some much-needed levity to the CFO’s office.
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Introducing the Datarails brand mascot
In a SaaS sea of sameness, especially in tools targeting finance leaders, standing out is half the battle. “Like many software solutions, those for the CFO’s office can tend to look pretty samey,” Marciano admits. But humour, creativity, and character have long been the brand-building blocks at Datarails. The recent win at the Global Social Media Awards 2025 for “Best Use of Social Media for Finance” proves that their unconventional approach resonates.
“Characters have built countless B2C brands,” Marciano notes, citing everyone from Tony the Tiger and The Michelin man to the Duolingo owl. “In B2B, Salesforce pioneered this with Astro and friends… Now, we’re doing the same for FP&A.”
Enter Bob Sheetner: an “FPandA” (a play on Financial Planning and Analysis) legend, podcast host, and accidental influencer. Bob isn’t just a panda; he’s a persona, someone finance professionals can laugh with and relate to.
From mascot to media personality
Bob isn’t confined to static brand assets. He’s fully in the wild. The campaign spans CTV, audio, YouTube and LinkedIn, bringing his Excel-fuelled adventures to screens everywhere. He even has his own LinkedIn profile, where he drops hot takes on the real-world challenges and opportunities facing today’s finance leaders.
But perhaps the most tactile (and talked about) campaign element? Over 1,000 exclusive Bob plush toys have been shipped to top FP&A leaders and influencers, each invited to film their unboxing and share it across social media. It’s B2B marketing meets merch drop, and it’s getting noticed.
Later this month, Bob is also coming to life in an entirely new format: a suited-up mascot version of the character will debut across Datarails’ TikTok and Instagram channels. Expect corporate humour, trend-driven skits, and a fresh wave of organic engagement from a character uniquely tuned in to the daily frustrations and fun of finance life.
A fintech mascot with niche fluency
The data backs it: in a LinkedIn B2B Institute study, 57% of buyers couldn’t recall the brand in an ad they’d seen. Marciano is clear that Bob Sheetner is more than cute content. “He’s a fluent device - a memory structure that makes people more likely to remember Datarails.” And importantly, “He makes FP&A professionals feel seen.”
That’s no small feat for a function often seen as back-office and beige. Every one of Bob’s skits, from “marketing overspending trauma” to “coffee machine breakdown meltdowns,” is an inside joke aimed directly at finance pros deep in variance analysis. The punchlines? Only funny if you’ve lived them.
Educating through entertainment
What started as a quirky idea has become a strategic storytelling platform. “The most exciting part is that we can now tell stories daily about the highs and lows of FP&A,” Marciano explains. Early content on TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn has tackled everything from cross-departmental collaboration to budgeting woes, blending humour with workplace reality.
The approach taps into a cultural shift: finance professionals (often stereotyped as rigid or reserved) are increasingly embracing content that reflects their full work-life experience. It’s also a response to the B2B content fatigue that many marketers are battling.
“The most exciting part is that we can now tell stories daily about the highs and lows of FP&A,” Marciano says. By weaving humour with industry truth, the campaign becomes more than content. It becomes a community.
Pitching the panda
Introducing Bob wasn’t an instant win internally. “I got some polite (nervous) laughs when I first brought it up,” Marciano recalls. But with strong market validation - 95% of surveyed FP&A professionals welcomed the idea - and case studies like Salesforce’s Astro to lean on, he won over stakeholders.
He also challenged the myth that finance folks aren’t funny. “I’ve found finance execs are normally the funniest and most witty part of the office. They’re receptive to creativity and bizarre entertainment.”
A mascot built for the future of finance
More than just a content vehicle, Bob is a personification of Datarails’ mission. As automation and AI reshape FP&A, Bob represents the modern, strategic finance professional who sees storytelling, not just spreadsheets, as core to their craft.
Though fictional, Bob’s credentials are impeccable: an FP&A legend at Packa Corporation, formerly of Bamboo Waterhole Coopers (BwC). He’s the ultimate insider, podcast-hosting, Datarails-using finance partner with a backstory and, crucially, a point of view.
“He’s not employed by Datarails,” Marciano clarifies, “but he proudly uses us and we sponsor his content.” It’s a subtle but smart positioning: Bob’s a user, not a shill.
Mascots, memory, and more
Bob Sheetner may be the first mascot for the CFO’s office, but he likely won’t be the last. As B2B brands seek to build stronger emotional connections and drive memorability in saturated markets, characters like Bob offer a creative edge.
Datarails’ bet on narrative marketing, relatability, and humour might just reshape how finance tech sees itself and how it’s seen by the world.
And if a panda with a penchant for pivot tables can pull it off? Well, maybe it’s time we all got to know our sheet a little better.
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