Webflow

The Tension

Website platforms were still often evaluated through a designer and developer lens, prioritizing build speed and mechanics over the website’s role as a strategic growth driver. In that context, most platforms sounded the same, and senior marketers were left with familiar options that felt functional but not meaningfully differentiated.

Webflow had outgrown that framing. What began as a designer- and developer-first SMB website builder has evolved into one of the most comprehensive, AI-native Website Experience Platforms on the market. Yet among senior marketing leaders, particularly those driving enterprise RFPs, awareness remained low and the perception gap was clear. Those who knew Webflow often still saw it as “just a website builder,” even as the platform had become something far more powerful.

For Webflow, the challenge was not capability. It was being understood differently by the people who mattered most.

The Belief

Senior marketing leaders don’t evaluate websites as build tools. They evaluate whether the website helps the organization move faster, protect the brand, and drive performance at scale.

The category had trained buyers to evaluate platforms through tools and features, focusing on how websites were built rather than how they performed within an organization. Webflow’s advantage sat at a different level: enabling marketing teams to move faster, maintain brand control, and drive performance without friction.

If Webflow was going to win enterprise consideration, it needed to be positioned and experienced as a platform designed for marketing leadership, not simply a builder for execution teams. The work was built on a clear belief: Webflow could own the space as the Web Experience Platform of choice for senior marketers, but only if its go-to-market approach reflected that ambition and shifted perception beyond category convention.

How We Challenged It

Rather than relying on a single launch moment or a narrow channel plan, Rival worked as an extension of Webflow’s internal teams to design a multi-channel go-to-market strategy with a phased campaign approach built to establish credibility over time.

In Wave 1, our strategy team helped Webflow sharpen its challenger positioning and clarify the narrative in a landscape shaped by tech sameness and AI noise. In Wave 2, our media team translated that positioning into a multi-channel activation designed to reach both senior marketing leaders and the broader category, with an emphasis on coordinated messaging and meaningful coverage rather than surface-level reach.

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This required close coordination across internal teams, agency partners, and media partners, ensuring the work functioned as a single system rather than a collection of disconnected tactics.

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Making It Real

The strategy came to life through a multi-phase campaign designed to support both brand and lead-generation goals, delivered by coordinated teams across internal, agency, and partner groups.

Activation ran across out-of-home in 11 cities, connected TV, Uber Ads, Reddit, Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, and programmatic display. Rival also worked closely with media partners to secure breakout placements that felt earned and credible, including an on-site LinkedIn livestream during Webflow’s NYC conference event and a Reddit category takeover supporting the final phase, alongside a celebrity-fueled video series.

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Across channels and phases, the goal remained consistent: to reposition Webflow in a way senior marketers could immediately recognize as relevant, modern, and ownable.

What Changed

In the first months of the campaign, Webflow saw a significant lift in brand search and direct website visits, signaling early momentum in shifting awareness and perception. Final brand-lift and lead-generation results were still pending, but early indicators validated both the positioning and the phased approach.

More importantly, Webflow moved from being perceived as a “website builder” to being understood as a platform built for modern marketing leadership, supported by a go-to-market system designed to sustain that shift. By embedding deeply, coordinating across teams, and grounding strategy and media execution in a clear point of view, Rival helped Webflow show up with the credibility and cohesion required to compete at the enterprise level.