🎟️ Filling the Event Gap
The opportunity for experiential campaigns in 2021 + taking a stand in B2B
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In The B2B Bite, I break down the most interesting marketing stories into fun-size, actionable chunks to kick off your week.
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Taking a Stand
🌎 A Week Like No Other
I won't spend too many words explaining what happened during the Capitol riot this week, as I'm sure we're all familiar. What I will say is that watching such a blatant attack on the ideals of democracy was bone-chilling, even for someone sat over 3,500 miles away.
Millions took to social media to decry the scenes. But this sentiment wasn't just held by individuals. Numerous organisations and associations came out to condemn the riot - and the man who instigated it - including Apple, IBM and The American Petroleum Institute.
Others took more concrete action to express their disgust - Shopify pulled down all of the stores on its platform affiliated with the President, stating that it "does not tolerate actions that incite violence," a turnaround stance for a company that only a few years ago amounted the same sort of action to censorship.
🥡 Takeaway
If 2020 taught us anything, it's that customers increasingly expect - hell, demand - that the companies they do business with to speak up and speak loud. This includes B2B.
Here's why. B2B buyers are changing; millennials are increasingly in the driving seat when it comes to deciding who will be getting their company's business. And millennials care about social causes. It's not just about the bottom line any more; it's about whether their partners share aligned values.
And, perhaps more importantly, THEIR customers care about social causes. In a B2B2C environment - where businesses are providing services to other businesses that serve consumers - the entire supply chain is under scrutiny. More and more I see RFP requests that require information on where products are being created and in what conditions.
Finally, it's also important for recruitment and retention. Research found that nearly two-thirds of young people won't take a job with poor corporate social responsibility practices. One only has to look at companies like Facebook to see how even the biggest companies can suffer when they put profit above all else.
Experiential Marketing
🎟️ Filling the Event Gap
Hussmann is a manufacturer of display merchandisers and commercial refrigerations systems based out of the US and - like many B2B companies - relies heavily on in-person events to achieve that holy trifecta of corporate marketing - build awareness, educate its customers and fill its pipeline. So to say the pandemic was a spanner is a bit of an understatement.
Instead of copying the crowd and move it's entire event strategy online (something I think we can all agree can be a little hit-and-miss), Hussmann created the ‘Shop the Future’ mobile experience, a 700-square-foot expandable trailer that visited 40 locations across the U.S in 12 weeks
It allowed the company to give its customers a more intimate demonstration of its products than they'd get at a conventional tradeshow. It also capitalised on the thirst of buyers to actually get in front of their vendors after months of doing business virtually.
You can read more about the campaign here or watch a short video trailer here.
🥡 Takeaway
I'm not a betting man (OK, I am and that's why I don't go to casinos), but I'd wager we are at least 6 months away from in-person exhibitions coming back in any meaningful way. This presents a conundrum for companies that have traditionally relied on this channel to fill their pipeline.
One of the responses to this is to go hard on digital. For instance, since COVID began, nearly 40% of B2B tech marketers reallocated their 2020 face-to-face budget to digital channels instead. And I believe this is here to stick. Post-pandemic, I struggle to see how brands will wish to spend six-digit-sums on hiring trade show booths with questionable ROI when they've seen what a fraction of that sum can do online.
However, it's important to not underestimate the power of in-person meetings and the value of human connection. There is a huge opportunity today - and increasingly in the future - for B2B brands that can develop experiential, immersive campaigns that provide sensory, cognitive and emotional values to their customers.
🍴 Nibbles
Here's a list of marketing trends from Hubspot to watch in 2021, according to 21 experts, AND a list of CMO predictions for this year from Ayaz Nanji.
GM updated its logo as part of its new campaign, 'Everybody In', to better symbolise its shift toward electric vehicles. Reactions on Twitter were... mixed.
If you're hoping to get into Product Marketing, check out this post from Alex Cristea and Esther Lee Cruz that outlines the profession's top five personality types.
I'm on a seemingly endless quest to understand what is "the next big thing" - which is why I loved this piece from Nikhil Basu Trivedi that highlighted 50 of them.
Stumbled on this piece while looking for some creative inspiration. Back in 2018, copywriter Solomon Tsitsuashvili challenged himself to create an ad a day for a year - and they're all pretty hot.
…and here’s my podcast
Every two weeks I sit down with a marketing leader to lean how they hit their goals by thinking outside the box - and dig into how this can be applied to other B2B businesses. Here are a few of my most recent episodes.
2021 B2B Marketing Trends w/ A Bunch of Folk [NEW EPISODE]
What it Takes to Build a Successful B2B Community w/ Christina Pashialis
Tell Me Why… You Need Pop Culture in B2B Marketing w/ Brianne Fleming
Building a 10,000 Strong B2B Email List from Scratch w/ Sean Blanda
How to Use Instagram to Promote People and Culture w/ Nicole Tabak
You can also find the B2B Better on Apple Podcasts and almost all other podcast directories.
And that's it! See you next week.