Each year sparks new and creative ways to market in the B2B space. Marketers manage to launch highly unique and engaging campaigns while still maintaining professionalism. I imagine the planning and strategy meetings for these campaigns as completely mundane…until one particular moment. A firework moment. Something sparked an idea…and the team rolled with it. They took a chance, and it made all the difference.
We all want our campaigns to be bold, memorable, and most importantly, SUCCESSFUL. Is there a true formula for doing those three things simultaneously? Probably not. The best we can do is take note of those who are doing inspiring things. Try to think like them. And when you have that firework moment…roll with it.
Below are five campaigns that have blown me away. As far as fireworks go, these five are the grand finale.
Summer Anthem @ Marketo Hosted by Everstring
Everstring is a predictive analytics company. You might assume a company like this is bound to run campaigns that can only be described (kindly) as quite boring. Well, look twice, because you might be mistaken. Everstring recently did something very audacious.
Most marketing conferences have the same old content and you may even meet the same people in a different venue. I expected to run into this annoying little dance when I arrived at the Marketo Summit.
Until I got an invite to the Everstring Party at Marketo. I thought it was just going to be another stand around party where marketers talk about what’s performing in their marketing mix and what isn’t. This party was different by far. They took up the whole “Wet Republic” pool area and hosted a party with human mermaids. All the sponsors were in the cabanas while everyone else was raving near the pool area with Will Smith.
The food, the connections, and the ambiance made this an unforgettable event. Most companies would just stick to a typical hotel venue or restaurant. Everstring went above and beyond by hosting a mermaid themed party at the pool.
Discovery Women in Tech Marketing Awards by Everstring
Everstring earned two spaces in this article because they continue to surprise (and delight) me with the direction their events and campaigns take.
Recently they created a campaign entirely around young women in tech marketing and called it, the Discovery Awards For Emerging Women Marketers in Tech. The idea behind the campaign was that marketers work hard, and oftentimes their work goes unnoticed or is taken for granted. They deserve hugs, too.
While most marketing awards focus on the “most experienced” crowd and the older generation, Everstring decided to put on a twist. They awarded younger, female, hard-working tech marketers. The event was unique and touching, considering these people and their laudable efforts are usually unnoticed.
The company held an announcement ceremony at La Mar where they brought all the women together, along with their entourages. The place was so packed I barely had room to enter and strike a conversation with the rest of the attendees.
Vidyard’s Co-Promotion Webinar Challenge
Vidyard is a must-have, especially if you are producing a lot of video content. They have a new feature called Engage for those who don’t produce video content as often. This new feature encourages their target to create videos on the fly and be okay with the “real-time” effect.
This year Vidyard decided to have a fun challenge during their webinar with Jay Baer. The ongoing webinar titled, “7 Ways to Unsuck Your Lead Gen,” did something a little different.
They had a round up of five different companies participating in the challenge. Each company competed against the others to generate leads for the webinar. The companies who reached over a 100 registrants received the whole list. If you didn’t generate the specific amount, then you didn’t receive anything but the leads you generated. This campaign was creative because it served a dual purpose; it gamified the webinar process and also stirred interest for the webinar at the same time!
TrackMaven Snapchatting Away
A great marketer and friend of mine brought up TrackMaven in the comments of my last post on Snapchat Strategies. They are a reputable Marketing Analytics company that targets geeky marketers in a fun way. TrackMaven talks about their creative Snapchat strategies. I added them on Snapchat just to see how they engage their prospects and I am all in. Recently they wrote a post on Killer Snapchat Strategies that is worth checking out.
One of the many ways that TrackMaven uses Snapchat to engage prospects in their campaigns is to create ongoing interest. They do this by posting a weekly segment on marketing news. Short and full of meaty little marketing nuggets, it’s a total winner for busy marketers.
Advocamp by Influitive
I’ve gone to a lot of conferences this year, but I must say that Advocamp by Influitive completely blew me away. Their campground theme was maintained throughout the entire conference, from the intro video, to stage setup, to food, to the speaking engagements. I was floored by the continuity that their attention to detail brought to the event.
Their app, based on their platform, focused on a series of challenges that allowed me to win points and redeem prizes. I was more than engaged; I was literally addicted to the challenges. It wasn’t about the prizes as much as it was about the connections I made with each challenge.
The fact that Influitive actually uses the platform they sell is admirable. They make it easy to re-engage customers in a way that no other platform on the market can do. I only witnessed a taste of their platform at Advocamp, but if you’re a marketer and you have a large enough customer base, they are worth using.
Why did these five campaigns stand out amongst others? It’s simple. They were either highly inspiring, exceptionally engaging, noticeably noteworthy, and/or stirred up a ruckus of positive sentiment in correlation with the campaign.
When B2B companies stop copying other campaigns and step outside the boring status quo, good things happen. Some may call it silly and over the top, but I call it highly engaging, ingenious, and FUN!
Do you think more B2B companies should be okay with stepping out of the norm? If so, what do you think is holding them back?
