Use Humor in Videos to Get Your Message Across: I have some good news for you. Some of our B2B friends have figured out a way to have fun with their extremely technical nature of business. Would you have ever thought of the Big Blue, IBM to break their corporate mold and actually aim at making their audience laugh? Yes, they did just that with their “Mainframe: The Art of the Sale video. This video was very powerful in creating awareness for IBM’s mainframe products division while driving home the point that B2B companies can leverage humor to get a message across. Jeffrey Cohen, blogger, B2B Social Media recaps IBM’s “Art of the Sale” video on his blog. IBM posted this video on YouTube for easy embedding on their blogs. Blog traffic increased 25 times, and the campaign received mainstream press coverage. As Jeffrey rightly summarizes, “social media is the perfect medium if you have engaging stories to tell about your business. IBM is now using video to tell its stories about a smarter planet.” IBM has shown us that it’s okay to let your guards down a little bit and use humor in a simple video that didn’t cost much to create awareness around a highly technical product.
Use Social Objects or Distinct Icons to Create Memorable Associations: The biggest challenge B2B brands have is “humanizing” themselves and connecting with their key stakeholders at a more personal level. Paul Gillin shared a case study of Open Kernel (OK) Labs using a green iguana to add personality to their corporate brand. OK Labs is a great example of how a mobile phone virtualization company has successfully used a company mascot, “Iggy” the iguana IBM to connect both online and offline. Just like it’s parent company that does business all over the world, the well travelled Iggy scores high on those mileage points two years since his introduction. “From Boston to Berlin and back, Iggy has been captured on film: drinking a pint in an Irish pub, rubbing elbows at an OK Labs meet-up in Sydney, hanging out in the booth at an Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, and everywhere else in between.” We all like to see a human side to all things considered at the end of the day. So why not add a little personality and have some fun with your company branding especially when you are operating in a highly environment, you are still dealing with people at the end of the spectrum.
We actually think social media killed B2B http://bit.ly/879Nr1
Thanks DK. You are right at the end of the day social media is about connecting with people or as you framed it Peer-to-Peer (P2P). Thanks for stopping by Buzz Bin. Come back again. -Priya
In a shameless attempt to get some votes from members of the affiliate marketing community for a community choice award, we made a little YouTube video, which now has over 200 views! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKjFJwV_XoQ
Hi Jenny,
That’s great! Have you tagged the video with your keywords so it comes up on Google search results? Thanks for stopping by. I am speaking at the upcoming PRSA Travel and Toursim conference about YouTube videos and will surely have a follow up post on that.
Stay cool,
Priya
Absolutely – agreed. I, too, was at the NewComm Forum and heard Paul. B2B can be fun, and I think the atmosphere around this is changing – not quickly, but you are seeing companies have success with fun (IBM, Hubspot, for example). It certainly helps when companies such as IBM, known to be stodgy in the past, can show b2b there is a better way with levity AND it can be incredibly successful.
For so long companies resisted fun because they equate (and conflate it)it with high-risk. As a strategic marketer who also has extensive experience with humorous content, I know there is a certain risk in any campaign – whether or not fun is used. Moreover, Fun doesn’t have to mean laugh-out-loud FUNNY per se. A sense of fun that makes people smile doesn’t have to be edgy to work. Fun is pretty low-risk, actually. Most importantly, fun is a people-centered strategy that focuses on delighting and engaging the customer. What doesn’t delight your customer? b2b buzzword jargon nonsense! Even in b2b, people – not robots or faceless, amorphous entities – make decisions about whether to buy or not buy. And humor builds relationships between people. Can I get an AMEN?!