These 6 Iconic Campaigns Rewrote the Rules of B2B Marketing

Business to business (B2B) marketing is often considered less exciting than targeting your products or services to the consumer industry. Appealing to your audience’s work persona may have a bad rep, but take a look at these iconic B2B campaigns and you might just change your mind. There’s plenty to learn from these historic examples and they could provide the inspiration you need to enliven your next campaign.

1. StoreKit’s London Pint Map

Taking something familiar and changing a key element to meet your marketing needs is a tactic that has worked time and time again. Point of sale pub software company StoreKit did just that when it harnessed the recognizable form of the London Underground map for its own ends.

The one-person content team behind the idea contacted 263 pubs in London to create a Pint Map that showed the cheapest place to get a beer close to each Tube station. In doing so, it alerted its target market to the campaign before it was even launched, eventually totting up 690,000 views of the map.

2. Slack’s “So yeah, we tried Slack…” video ad campaign

Humor is an effective way to connect with your audience and Slack tapped into its power with a mockumentary-style video ad. Taking on some of the tropes associated with the likes of The Office and Parks and Recreation, the video followed real-life customer Sandwich Video as it introduced Slack to its team.

Combining case study and testimonial elements, as well as being genuinely funny, the video demonstrated how Slack could be implemented into a client’s business. It achieved this from a different perspective, meaning it didn’t give the impression of Slack trying hard to sell its product.

3. Sungard’s Zombie Apocalypse Recovery Plan

Creative storytelling can help to differentiate your business from others and Sungard decided to take its products to hyperbolic levels to do just that. Selling disaster recovery solutions, the company produced an ebook containing all the steps required to survive a zombie apocalypse.

Backing it up with infographics and social media posts, Sungard offered its customers the chance to win a physical zombie survival kit. The memorable campaign led to higher click-to-open rates for the company when they sent out subsequent email marketing material.

4. IBM’s Every Second Counts campaign

A well organized multimedia approach leading its audience to a single landing page paid off for IBM in its Every Second Counts campaign. The technology company was looking to educate businesses on the impact of data breaches and cyber disruption by using real-life stories.

Two short films on the landing page delivered the key message, with the supporting content directing users there. Snippets of the videos and gifs were shared on social media, while thought leadership pieces were published on BusinessInsider.com. Finally, lead generation was staged in the form of downloads featuring research from the International Data Corporation and the Ponemon Institute.

5. Cisco’s SuperSmart Security graphic novel

B2B marketing often involves taking a seemingly dry topic and presenting it in a creative way. That’s exactly what Cisco did when it decided to get the most important facts about cyber security across by illustrating them in a graphic novel.

6. Sweet Fish Media’s podcasts

Using your own product as a vehicle to attract new business is a clever technique and one used successfully by podcasting company Sweet Fish. It invites its ideal clients onto its podcasts as guest speakers and therefore gets to interact with them directly.

This offers value to its target market, while demonstrating how the product works and its impact on listeners. Utilizing your team’s core skills for marketing is an effective way to ensure potential customers see them first hand.