Plain old B2B marketing?

Creativity means different things to different people. Whatever your definition, I’m sure we can all agree it’s not just about the output of creatives. It can be seen in product development, processes, leadership and beyond.

Google’s Oxford Language definition states, creativity is: “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness”. Original ideas are the lifeblood of marketing, so how can it be that B2B marketing has pretty much always suffered from the perception that it’s lacking creativity? Whilst it’s never been quite as sexy as it’s B2C sister, it simply isn’t the case that there is no originality nor imaginative thinking. Overly functional? Yes, perhaps…and therein lies the challenge.

This apparent lack of creativity in B2B is not a new point of view. It’s an age-old notion that’s been discussed/debated for most of the last decade, and whilst things are changing and creativity is plentiful in the category, the reputation is hard to shift.

Fun versus funnel 

Where B2B often falls down is perhaps in its common straight-talking and oftentimes un-emotive tone/approach to funnelling its audience down through the buying cycle. It is functional.

At LinkedIn’s B2B Creativity Forum earlier this month, Rory Sutherland gave his take on the problem. In B2B, people at the top (signing off the creative) typically want marketing to focus on where the money was spent (the product). As such, it’s the product/service attributes that frequently take centre stage, getting the airtime in go-to-market messaging and campaigns.

The LinkedIn-funded think tank, the B2B Institute, describes this as the “Product Delusion”. A world where ‘brand barely matters’. “The belief that companies compete primarily on the quality of their product. The better the product, the stronger the sales.” (Marketing Week, January 2022)

Of course, your product/service needs to stand out, and your USPs are important differentiators, but brand building is a crucial first step in piquing the audiences’ interest and tapping into their psyche. It feeds the top of the funnel – rather than the bottom, but it increases the audience’s receptiveness to lower-funnel activity over time. Audiences exposed to brand and acquisition messages on LinkedIn are 6x more likely to convert according to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. 

Sutherland’s view is that brand building is the biggest opportunity in B2B right now. 

Brand building

‘We’re not Coca-Cola’ is a common mindset in B2B; one that’s potentially accountable for stunting creativity. And whilst we’re not Coke, we could learn a lot from thinking like we are.

At LinkedIn’s B2B Creativity Forum, Mimi Turner, Head of EMEA and LATAM, B2B Institute, suggested, with an excellent (and frighteningly relatable!) example, what Coca-Cola’s messaging might be if written by a B2B marketer:

• Brown
• Sugary 
• Thirst quenching 
• 50% more bubbly than [insert competitor]
• Etc.

Coke’s long-time success is reliant on product sales, but have you seen these USPs, or any similar adjectives used to move you along the customer journey? Of course not.

Coke’s marketing approach is brand over product. The name ‘Coca-Cola’ means ‘Delicious Happiness’ in Mandarin, and it’s latest brand platform, ‘Real Magic’ (launched in September 2021) is specifically focused on “moving away from broadcast communications to create an ecosystem of experiences” (Marketing Week, September 2021).

Experiences build an emotional connection. And not enough B2B brands either do this, or endeavour to do so, despite the fact it’s emotionally intelligent human’s we’re trying to reach each and every time. Telling your B2B brand story is a real opportunity to stand out and to stand for something beyond a good product.

B2B Storytelling

One early adopter however was construction equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar. Back in 2014, it "wanted to bring a fun, friendly more human approach to the brand that demonstrated who they really are globally". Archie Lyons, the creative director at the time explained: “Our vision is for everyone to see us as a well-grounded company that is in touch with our markets and the communities where we live and work globally.” (Concrete Construction, June 2014.) They did this with the #BuiltForIt campaign. A series of videos that showcased the machines doing things they might do when no one was looking…

…like playing the world’s largest game of Jenga (a Guinness world record, no less).

This campaign was hugely successful and ran for a number of years, with new videos created in similarly entertaining circumstances such as, a tug of war, and two golf pros playing a course made entirely of moving heavy equipment.

Tables are turning 

Whether it’s the post-Covid prevalence of working from home that’s blurring the lines between work and non-work of late, or the long-overdue evolution of the category, it’s increasingly apparent that B2B marketeers are now broadening their thinking beyond the product at hand.

Channel choices are starting to include those that reach beyond the ‘9 to 5’ target audience. This expansion of channels demands increased creativity. Going shoulder-to-shoulder with B2C campaigns in vying for the attention of people going about their daily lives (not just their professional ones) really requires more. Typically bland, product-first B2B messaging will not cut through.

B2B brand Sage is currently running its ‘Helping business flow’ campaign on mainstream TV during primetime (non-business hours) slots, with a series of part-animated films that really capture your attention and imagination. Cognizant is also spending on similar mass media placements. It’ll be interesting to see whether these big B2B players can replicate the success driven by Rightmove’s (B2C) TV strategy for example (Marketing Week, October 2021), which is described as having had “a greater impact on share of search compared to more targeted channels”.

Hopefully, the older – but still excellent IMHO – Caterpillar campaign, and this more recent one from Sage will set a precedence that other B2B brands will follow – if they too can break free from the Product Delusion, of course! 

At Brands2Life, we’re on a mission to foster increased creativity across the agency and when telling and amplifying our clients’ stories. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, we always start with uncovering insights that allow us to get under the skin of the audience and category. This insight allows us to craft stories that are truly tailored to the target audience, and therefore likely to have the biggest impact on them.

This storytelling is the basis of everything we do here, whether on owned channels, earned or paid. It’s what our BETTER STORIES | BIGGER IMPACT ethos is all about.