Does sex sell in B2B?

Sex symbols, hot women and provocative poses. It might work for B2C brands but does sex really sell in B2B? Claire Weekes investigatesDoes sex sell in B2B

Okay, so you’d expect the use of sexual imagery to help along sales of a bra. But sex doesn’t just help to sell obviously sexy products. Virgin Media is famous for the use of sexy actors in its ads to promote air travel (flying might have glamourous connotations, but we all know that unless you’re in first class it’s just exhausting and uncomfortable). Then there is that Specsavers ad featuring bikini-clad women running towards (and then backing away from) a geeky man wearing terrible specs – a classic example of the use of sex to sell a non-sexy item. But can the same tactics work in B2B?

“Broadly speaking, it’s more likely to be successful in the B2C space, due to the more complex nature of purchasing decisions in B2B,” argues Alan Newton, global supply chain director at Grass Roots. “You’re often dealing with several decision makers in the B2B space, whereas this is less likely in B2C. Trying to use the lowest common denominator with a whole group, especially one with diverse backgrounds, is less likely to be successful. Purchasing has matured and there are complex reasons behind buying a product or service on behalf of a business.”

Creating a honey trap

Newton has a point. However, at the same time, many would argue that in B2B a message is also initially aimed at one identified target in an organisation – a decision maker who is influenced enough by an ad to take its proposition on board. So can sex be used as bait to attract the attention of a prospect?

Simon Campbell, director at SEO specialists company Sandpit definitely thinks so. At this year’s TFM&A trade show exhibition, Campbell employed the use of a Marilyn Monroe lookalike (who also just happened to be his ex-girlfriend) to attract people to his stand. It worked wonders – 320 good quality leads later Campbell is already thinking about how he can use a similar tactic at Sandpit’s next trade show.

“We used our Marilyn Monroe lookalike as a way to make sure we stood out among the hundreds of other companies exhibiting,” he says. “And it’s worked, because I’ve been to TFM&A before with a previous company and we picked up maybe 200 leads. We had more than 320 this time around. And ‘Marilyn’ didn’t just appeal to men either – as an icon her appeal at our stand was to attract both men and women to come over.”

Campbell says that one of his future ideas is to play on his company’s name and have men and women dressed in beachwear, playing in a sandpit, as an attraction to his stand.

This is an example of the use of sex in the B2B space at trade shows rather than in direct advertising. But trade shows seem to be a space where sex in B2B advertising feels at its most comfortable. Often, the tactic is fairly subtle – for example a lot of companies will hire pretty promotions girls or guys to hand out leaflets and information on a stand. Others, like Sandpit, take things up a notch.

“Is it common for this type of activity to be seen at a trade show? Absolutely, yes.  Almost in 100 per cent of instances,” says Newton – who as well as his role at Grass Roots also sits on the board at Eventia, the official trade body of the events and live marketing industry.

“Is this what actually sells the product? No, but it entices enough potential buyers into the honey trap. You then get to experience the product itself and make a purchasing decision based on whether you like the product, rather than what brought you there in the first place,” he adds.
But as Christophe Asselin, event director at marketing show AdTech points out – it’s not just sex that sells at a successful trade show.

“Yes, having pretty guys and girls on stands is fairly common sense because people are attracted by attractive people. But from our point of view, at the entrance to our trade show, for example, we will try to position people who are pleasant and charming. Attractiveness is subjective anyway – and charm is always sexy even if not in an overt way.”

Having said that, Asselin will admit to the use of a sexual connotation to unveil a recent Parisian version of the show, where rather than ‘unveil’ the contents of the show they chose to ‘get naked’. “In the media industry, connotations like that help in getting people to actually stop and read,” he argues.

A shift in skirt tactics

So what about the role of sex in the B2B space away from trade shows? There aren’t any overtly obvious or recent examples that spring to mind. Virgin Media, mentioned earlier for its use of sex in its B2C advertising, has a B2B arm in Virgin Media Business – but refused to comment about how it might play on its sexy image in the B2B space.

This doesn’t mean that sexy advertising tactics don’t exist in the B2B space, just that they generally seem less of a considered option. Is this perhaps because times have changed? Greig McCallum, strategic managing partner at Balloon Dog, thinks this is the case.

“Many a dull car has been sold to fleet managers, initially getting his attention by draping a lovely girl in a bikini across the bonnet. The key question is: is it appropriate and does it work?  I’d say it still works for cut-through and impact but increasingly it is seen as inappropriate for a business context in a politically correct business environment.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen sex used to sell a car – I think there has been a shift in advertising attitudes,” adds Newton.

One argument for a shift in attitudes could be because of the increasing number of women working at board level within organisations. Sexy advertising – which more often than not boils down to the use of pretty girls rather than attractive guys to sell products and services – has less of a place than it ever had. This type of persuasion just doesn’t cut it with women. Certainly Newton thinks this may be true in the events sector. “The events industry is very female dominated, so you have to wonder whether the percentage success rate is high enough for those exhibitors practising the technique to continue with this tactic,” he says.

Having said that, the use of sex in B2B advertising isn’t always just limited to your conventional ‘sexy girls appealing to guys’ scenario. In the US, power tool company Echo recently attracted press attention for a series of ads that included references to ‘grabbed nuts and anal insertion’ (it’s probably best to Google the ads rather than us try to explain it here).

Then there is the case of web hosting company DSVR. Several years ago it used sexy advertising in a way that reappropriates the ‘sexy girl appealing to guys’ approach. DSVR launched a series of ads showing a female dominatrix leading a guy around on a collar. The ad was designed to reach out to those in a male dominated industry.

Tim Gibbon, director at Elemental, which handled the PR for the campaign, said that it worked not because it used sex in its collateral, but because the use of sex made the ads stand out. At the time, the company was fairly small and wanted to attract new customers. Later, as web hosting companies moved into the cloud space and DSVR gained its own foothold, its advertising imagery was toned down.

“At a time when the company was trying to grow and acquire customers and attention, it was appropriate to use a strong, sexy image to gain that attention. Further down the line, it was appropriate to switch to more subdued imagery in its advertising because things were moving into the cloud and imagery that could depict this was what people wanted to see,” explains Gibbon.

Keeping it clean online

There could, meanwhile, be implications in the near future over the use of sexy advertising in the B2B online space. The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) has recently announced that it will begin policing marketing activity online – which means it will be keeping an eye on the way brands advertise on websites, social media sites and via viral activity.

“The web is no longer a safe haven for publishing stuff that won’t work in other mediums, because of the new ASA guidelines,” says Gibbon. “It will be interesting to see how that works out. Brands would sometimes push an ad out via a viral method, or via social media, that they felt may not work so well in traditional channels but was safer online. That can’t happen anymore,” he says.

So at the end of the day, does sex sell in the B2B space? McCallum thinks that as long as the audience know that you know that they know what you’re doing (you may want to read that back again to yourself) then it is ultimately fine.

“It (just) needs to be done with a light touch and a sense of irony,” he says. “To some extent it’s expected and discounted by the audience as part of the spin of marketing. But the bottom line is an attractive person is still more likely to catch your attention than an unattractive one.  Just don’t try to dress it up as something it’s not.”

Greig McCallum, strategic managing partner at Balloon Dog, suggests ways B2B brands can get sexy with advertising

Decide on your moral compass
Every brand must be guided by its own values and principles in all its endeavours. This applies in the use of sex as a marketing tool just as much as any other strategy. Legal, decent and honest are the basics but every brand must decide its own moral compass.

Liven up the dull products
I’d contend that exciting products don’t need ‘sexy’ advertising. It’s the unsexy ones that probably need a bit of ‘love ’n’ sexy magic’ to help them find their audience. Launching the fourth upgrade of a basic beige-box photocopier that has 32 new obscure features might be made just that little bit more interesting if you have Brangelina listing all 32. In swimwear.  Just don’t expect anyone to remember much about your product.

Let the audience in on the joke

Be true to your values. Use irony or humour if that’s appropriate. Let the audience know you’re in on the joke. Enjoy it for what it is (pretty girl, handsome man etc) and don’t try to be all po-faced about it – this trick is as old as the hills.

Don’t forget your digital etiquette
The web is free, open and liberal. But just because the channel has those characteristics doesn’t mean that you should behave differently than you would normally for your brand.

 

 


 

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