At B2B Marketing HQ we have been searching high and low for B2B brands that have shone on digital this year.
Ensuring your digital marketing stands out is by no means easy. We can all agree we’re now living in a world overflowing with digital content. In January 2015 the average person will be exposed to 15.5 hours (nine DVDs worth) of content every day, according to research from the Institute for Communication Technology Management. The fast-paced nature of digital makes it even harder for companies to stand out on this channel.
So, these digital superstars aren’t just brands that are remembering to be human on social media, or A/B testing their email campaigns or even hosting thought leadership webinars, but businesses that have gone that step further. This page highlights examples of B2B companies who have pushed the boundaries, got creative and ultimately seen great results from their digital campaigns in 2014.
Congratulations to all those that made the list. Hopefully their success will inspire you to up your digital marketing game in 2015.
IBM brings Wimbledon online
This year IBM used its digital channels to tell the story of its 25-year involvement with the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, and get both clients and employees involved in the conversation.
A 10-strong team spent two months preparing for the tournament and put social listening, data analytics and support structures in place to increase awareness and amplify the campaign.
The digital activity aimed to win more fans with data-driven, amusing and shareable content; impress the market by showcasing IBM’s capabilities; and drive revenue by connecting with engaged influencers and businesses.
To do this the brand focused on four key areas:
• Digital plus employees: supporting employees to become digital advocates and use social platforms. IBM ran competitions through its internal comms channels, asking individuals to tweet their answers to increase employee engagement.
• Digital plus events: UK roadshow events visited 44 locations around the country, with the firm asking clients to tweet about the visit in order to win prizes on the stand.
• Digital plus clients: all clients who visited IBM at Wimbledon could download a mobile app that delivered information about the tennis matches and fun facts about the history of the IBM partnership.
• Digital plus media: all media partners provided support by creating and promoting various content, from fantasy leagues to animations.
IBM utilised the full range of digital channels available, from social media to apps. Helping to ensure nobody could miss its activity IBM gave employees the right support to make them brand advocates.
The results were impressive, with activity accumulating in 84,201 web views, 144 press articles and 1638 downloads. This year’s activity received double the engagement on Twitter compared to any previous IBM Wimbledon campaign, with 13,625 mentions.
GE’s courage to experiment wins fans
General Electric (GE) is one B2B brand that excels when it comes to digital, so we definitely couldn’t miss them off this list.
Founded by Thomas Edison, the company – which essentially manufactures big machines and builds technology – makes things interesting by delving into the science behind its products.
GE’s social presence is astounding, utilising even niche social networks to get creative and tell interesting stories. The brand used Vine to showcase #6secondscience experiments, such as what happens when you mix hot and cold water in a container at room temperature. It also got its audience involved by asking fans to submit their own science videos to be featured on its Tumblr page. This campaign allowed a brand with a dry and complicated product offering to have simple, but meaningful engagement with prospects.
Meanwhile, the tech brand’s 2014 marketing campaign ‘Innovation at work’ used longer form video to highlight its wide-ranging work. Created by creative agency BBDO New York, the video ‘Childlike imagination – What my mom does at GE’ taps into an employee’s young daughter’s imagination. The video portrays a sequence of fantasy environments where GE’s machines come to life. To date the video has received 1,959,012 views on YouTube.
This hard work has earned GE 274,000 Twitter followers, 1,321,075 Facebook likes and 809,614 LinkedIn followers. It’s not only these figures, but its courage to experiment with new digital channels that makes the brand stand out.
Powwownow takes social offline to solve workplace woes
Conference calling service, Powwownow, got its social media audience chatting this summer with its creative and fun campaign #powwowHELPMEnow.
The activity, which ran in June and July, aimed to inspire and help solve its audience’s workplace woes. Social media followers were encouraged to tweet any problems they were having at work or things that would make their working day better.
The brand resolved both simple and dramatic issues. When The Office Group complained it was too hot to work during the summer heat wave, the Powwownow team turned up at their offices and moved a whole floor to the roof so they could enjoy working outside for the rest of the day. When Resource IT’s sandwich delivery man was on holiday the company sent a platter of sandwiches to make sure they weren’t left hungry.
By linking social with offline activity the business showcased its personality and was able to build emotional connections with prospects, while increasing conversations and engagement on their social channels.
The results were fantastic, with 30 pieces of coverage, featuring in publications such as The Telegraph and Daily Mail. Spending only £1,535 in total, the advertising equivalent would have cost them £42,090.
Philips tells stories via 100-day partnership with The Telegraph
In September Philips joined forces with The Telegraph to launch a native ad campaign highlighting its new brand position.
The ‘100 days of life-changing innovations’ campaign consisted of the creation of 100 pieces of content that would appear over a 100 days – a pretty impressive feat.
Supported by agencies Carat, OneVoice Connect and Ogilvy, the content aimed to portray narratives about how Philips is improving people’s lives through meaningful innovations.
But these weren’t just any stories. The marketing team got out and about to crowdsource these tales, publishing pieces by well-known celebrities, journalists and specialists. Contributors include Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, futurologist Peter Cochrane, MBE Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle, and explorer David de Rothschild.
And how is this digital? Well, all these stories are housed on an interactive hub hosted by The Telegraph, supported by digital ads, search and social.
Wander Bruijel, head of brand, communications and digital at Philips UK&I, explains: “Our partnership with The Telegraph marks the next stage in our journey to show the UK public that we are committed to delivering innovation that matters to people – from making healthcare more affordable and accessible, and improving people’s health and wellbeing through our consumer appliances, to making the world more sustainable through our lighting solutions.”
Edmund Optics’ personalisation lets it reach customers across the world
Edmund Optics designs and manufactures optical components used in industries ranging from life sciences to defence and security. However, to ensure B2B buyers are aware of its product the brand needed to change its focus from direct marketing mailers to digital communications.
The company traditionally printed and distributed an international 430-page catalogue, but has recently embraced a digital marketing strategy to boost its offering. This has allowed the business to send personal, local and optimised marketing messages to customers from around the world.
However, Edmund Optics has not just implemented an integrated digital strategy, but is continuously trying to improve it. The company is running paid search engine marketing campaigns on Google (targeting 28 countries and optimised for local language preferences), and also Bing, Naver, Baidu and Yahoo Japan. Its website has been translated in seven languages and the company is focused on constantly improving localisation by carrying out market research, A/B testing and utilising a website personalisation platform to deliver optimised content to target personas to understand local customer needs.
Geoffry Forman, marketing analyst at Edmund Optics, explains: “Our integrated, multichannel approach helps maintain consistency across the mediums while allowing for flexibility across the many international markets. Our data shows our digital strategies are working – our customers are responding well and we’re seeing increased engagement across the channels.”
Maersk Line uses social to get closer to customers
While many B2B brands struggle with social due to the difficulty in measuring leads, sales or anything beyond sentiment, shipping company Maersk Line is embracing it. The organisation takes social media back to basics; with its goal not even brand promotion, but simply to get closer to its customers. This is not social media marketing it’s just being social. Simply, it’s about being engaging, not pushy.
Maersk Line explains its thinking on its website: ‘For a company like ours, social media creates most value when it challenges the way we think and interact. In fact, social media is a mindset, a way of thinking and working together. It’s based on the fact that we are social animals, and that means we can only benefit from sharing our thoughts and ideas with each other.’
The significance of social media to this brand is highlighted by visiting the company website. A detailed social media section sits prominently on the navigation bar above the fold on the website, alongside its services and ‘about us’ section. This area of the site sets out Maersk Line’s social beliefs and even pulls updates from all its platforms onto one page. It’s a clever way to link its website to social channels.
Maersk Line has embraced all the traditionally B2C social platforms such as Facebook (with over one million likes) to Instagram (with over 28,000 followers). The company has specific strategies for the different networks; using LinkedIn to spark industry debates and Pinterest to showcase its vessels and the beauty of life at sea.
A simple way it interacts with followers is by asking people to share their photos of ships across the world, which the brand then promotes. This allows the company to easily crowdsource creative content, and makes their social feeds image-led and interesting.
However, one thing that is consistent across all channels is the brand’s focus giving its audience what they want by listening to them. For example, Maersk Line shares information about how harsh weather forecasts can affect shipping routes via expert videos. When one of its vessels hit and killed a whale, instead of shying away from the bad press that followed, the shipping line set up a Pinterest board. This board consisted of photos of different species of whales in memory of the deceased ‘Maersk Norwich whale’.
PwC’s film series highlights the impact digital disruption could have on business
Digital isn’t something PwC are known for, but the company wanted to stretch its brand and do something bold by launching a marketing campaign to address how future technology could change business.
‘The world in beta’ aimed to highlight how today’s companies are too narrowly focused on building a digital strategy, rather than creating an overall business strategy to fit the digital age.
Launching a modern high-end, long-form website, PwC showcased five shareable films about businesses in the digital age. The videos were designed to provoke debate about the ways digital technology might impact business and disrupt sectors.
One film features ‘drone bees’ in action. These tiny drones can help beekeepers pollinate flowers. This in turn encourages viewers to question the idea drones are only silly toys. The video illustrates how emerging tech can help dying industries in the future.
With what PwC names as a ‘modest B2B budget’, ‘The world in beta’ has outperformed any campaign the company has run in terms of results. The website has already accumulated 100,000 page views since the campaign launched, with the films being watched over 110,000 times to date. Meanwhile, the campaign was met with positive comments across social media, with 6500 tweets on the subject using the hashtag #worldinbeta.
Kimberly-Clark Professional B2B and B2C arms join forces to celebrate CSR in Twitter chat
Kimberly-Clark merged its B2B and B2C divisions to celebrate its five-year partnership with Greenpeace via a Twitter chat.
This unlikely association between a corporation that produces an array of paper-based products and an environmental charity was sparked in 2009 when Kimberly-Clark changed its forestry practices to use more recyclable products. This simple Twitter chat allowed the brand to highlight its conservation work.
On 5 August the organisation co-led an hour-long discussion with the B2C side of the business and Greenpeace. The conversation included experts and revolved around solutions to deforestation, using the hashtag #forestsolutions.
This was a first for the B2B side of the business, and the team saw great results: in 60 minutes the company received 990 tweets, resulting in 7.8 million impressions and a 1.2 million reach. Meanwhile, website traffic increased by 150 per cent that day, with its 2013 Sustainability Report seen by 17,200 people and the story picked up by media outlets, including Adage and The Guardian.
Meanwhile, the company maintained the buzz by replying to the questions it didn’t have time to answer during the chat in a follow-up blog with Greenpeace.
Kimberly Tartavull, social media content marketing manager at Kimberly-Clark Professional, adds: “The key takeaway was that something as innovative and digital as a Twitter chat that normally we would only consider from a B2C perspective worked in a B2B space. We were able to send the right message at the right time to the right people. We were able not only have an open conversation with customers about forest conservation, but also bring awareness to our other sustainability initiatives to attract more followers.”
