As part of a new series, we asked some of the biggest influencers in the B2B space to name their favourite marketing campaign from the past two years. Here are the results.
“The campaign that most had me kicking myself that Velocity didn’t do was the eight-part hit podcast The Message by GE, its agency BBDO (and inhouse agency, The Grid) and podcast network Panoply — all led by Andy Goldberg, GE’s global chief creative officer.
“That GE even has a global chief creative officer is testament to its understanding of the value of creative in the building of a brand. GE is a constant stream of cool, innovative marketing that doesn’t look, sound and smell like marketing. This massive hit series shows how to grab an audience without cramming in the brand. Deep bow.”
“I loved a campaign from 2015 run by Dun & Bradstreet. It was timely and relevant, launching around Halloween and featuring an infographic titled ‘Is your database the Walking Dead?’
“Dun & Bradstreet is excellent at transforming data into engaging and creative content. I love that this infographic linked to its B2B Marketing Data Benchmark Survey (launched earlier that year), bringing to life the report with a visual and aesthetically pleasing graphic. It’s simple, effective and really illustrates the importance of real-time marketing to drive impact, and the power of visuals to bring to life otherwise boring facts.”
“One of my favourite B2B marketing campaigns from the past two years is from the international shipping company, Maersk. In 2014, one of the company’s ships was responsible for killing a whale. This kind of situation is tragic, and the way a company responds is vital in repairing its reputation.
“Maersk took to its social media accounts and shared images of the incident, sparking conversation among its community of followers to raise awareness, find a way to better understand whale behaviour, and learn what mariners could do to avoid collisions going forward.
“What I really liked was how Maersk showed that social media isn’t just for consumer marketing. The campaign proved that social is very effective for B2B – both raising awareness for an issue and engaging the sector on how it can work to solve challenges. It gained worldwide interest, and the campaign was really impressive in the way it took a sad situation, and used it as an opportunity to talk about the broader issue and what the industry can do to protect the species and sea life.”
“My current favourite B2B campaign is a video series created by Intel called ‘If cables were people’. The laugh-out-loud videos use examples such as a little girl (the mini display cable) being difficult and having a tantrum and a guy (the HDMI cable) who was upset over being put in the wrong port to represent the frustrations of technology.
“As we all know, when people think B2B they often assume marketing has to be boring, but with brands like Intel creating these sort of campaigns that not only get their message out, but are also entertaining really helps them stand out in a crowded market place. What makes these sorts of campaigns a real winner is that we relate to the issues which we face in every day life. That, combined with the humour of them, means that people want to share them across their social channels.”
“I really liked Lenovo’s ‘Think progress’ programme. It was a campaign that focused on providing relevant, actionable, and insightful editorial content and resources to its target audience, addressing their key questions and helping them make more informed purchasing decisions. The effort both strengthened the company’s public profile among IT professionals and helped it develop and support stronger customer relationships. As a result of the programme, Lenovo was able to increase the value of the leads it received by 63% and increased conversion rates for its outbound-calling program, while simultaneously reducing the telemarketing hours by approximately 50%.
“If you really want your content marketing to stand out in a crowded marketplace, you need to focus on helping your target audience reach their goals, not just on furthering your own. The best way to do this is through utility marketing – providing something that customers not only would want to use but would also find so valuable that it becomes an important part of their lives.”
