Going Bold in B2B (Without Going Broke)

Recently, I was poking around LinkedIn and came across the headline “88% of B2B CMOs want bolder, more creative campaigns.”

After zipping through a few hyperlinks and doing the landing page dance, I found the fancy report the claim came from (page 49 if anyone’s interested). Essentially, LinkedIn’s market research partner, Ipsos, locked 1,464 executives in a dark room (this is how I imagine it, anyways), then flicked on a garish fluorescent light and fed them the following prompt through a distant loudspeaker:

Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statement:

• I am advocating for bolder creative campaigns.

And 88% of those executives raised their hands and said “Boy, golly, I sure am — now get me the hell out of here!” Ipsos relayed their findings to LinkedIn, and LinkedIn made a pretty little (actually quite big) report around neatly packaged findings like these.

At this point, we have two options.

We could jump on the “it’s quant research, so it’s absolute truth” bandwagon, take this report to our CEO or CMO or marketing director or whoever’s calling the creative shots around here, and say “See! I told you the dancing chicken campaign was a good idea.”

Or we could take a moment to think critically about this finding. Specifically…

1. What is bold creative (other than a buzzword)? What makes creative hum, sing, or yodel at just the right pitch to resonate with our audience?
2. If so many B2B marketing leaders want bolder creative, why is 99% of the creative we see in B2B appallingly boring? (Think smiling-corporate-meeting-synergy.jpg.)

The answer to both of these questions, in my view, comes down to that fateful word: risk.

Simply put, risk is usually bad for business but usually good for creative. How do we resolve this tension?

Bold Creative, Defined Visually

“Bold” has a billion meanings depending on the context.

LinkedIn dares not offer a single one in their 99-page report, though they two-step around a definition (it seems to have something to do with “standing out” and “being innovative”). Based on another new LinkedIn report, it’s probably tied to humor, emotional appeal, and strong storytelling.

Maybe it’s just one of those things where you know it when you see it. In that spirit, I’ve assembled a collage of what I consider “bold” B2B creative (many thanks to Joseph Hill over at Revenu for doing the legwork on this collection).

Take a gander.

Here’s what it boils down to: Bold creative takes risks. Maybe it’s humor, maybe it’s pathos, maybe it’s a pop culture reference, maybe it’s a picture of a sloth. Whatever it is, it should make you as a creator and strategist feel just a little uncomfortable. When you ask yourself “Will this work?”, the answer shouldn’t be “Well, it seems to be working for everyone else.”

It should be something along the lines of “God, I hope so.”

Why Bother With Bold Creative, Anyway?

Before we go any further, a quick note. There’s solid, recent evidence that bold creative is effective. You can review some of it here. (Further reading 1.)

There’s also a simple logical argument to be made:

1. Customers are more likely to buy from memorable brands.
2. Bold creative — creative that tells a story, breaks (or mends) a heart, earns a chuckle, piques curiosity — is the most memorable.
3. So, bold creative makes decision-makers more likely to buy.

Still not sold? Shoot me an email at samuel@magneti.com. I’d love to hash it out with you. 🙂

High Stakes Kill Risk-Taking

Okay. Bold creative works. B2B leaders want it. What gives?

A related question: Why are many low-cost indie films critically acclaimed while blockbusters with titanic budgets fizzle out?

When there’s lots of money on the line — when the stakes are high — executives (and even creatives) tend to turtle-shell and play it safe. If we are to trust Kahneman and Tversky’s research in behavioral economics, most humans are profoundly loss-aversive. To borrow a pithy phrase from our late friends, when it comes to decision-making, “losses loom larger than gains.” (Further reading 2.)

We like to win. We hate to lose. What’s more, we hate to even think about losing, to entertain the possibility of losing, which is why we pay a premium to eliminate risk.

In life, that premium is often financial. We buy comprehensive car insurance. We go in for extended warranties. We put our money in the S&P, or a government bond, or if we really loathe risk, a CD. Something safe, something with tolerable worst-case scenarios.

In the case of ad creative, that premium isn’t financial, but it’s a penalty nonetheless: watering down our work to guarantee that our brand won’t look silly — while simultaneously ensuring sub-par results.

What if there was another choice? A way to kill risk where our creative doesn’t pay the price?

If you know anything about our marketing philosophy at Magneti, you know where I’m going with this. (Cue the primal drums of primary research.)

Research Kills Risk

Good primary research is a risk-killer.

Instead of delivering damp creative that changes no minds, we can invest in research so we know our creative is fundamentally sound — hooking into the right pain points, buying triggers, Category Entry Points — then trample the norm with bold creative that risks it all without really risking anything.

There are smarter Magnetians than me who can speak to what it takes to do impactful, methodologically sound research. For our purposes, I’ll simply say that primary research is an invaluable dialogue, a way to evolve with your market, a path to your company’s full potential, and crucially, a tactic to banish risk to the underworld.

Great research liberates your creative team to take risks. It’s the responsibility of your creative team to take the right ones.

Putting Our Marketing Where Our Mouth Is

A few months ago, we at Magneti did some primary research of our own, recruiting B2B leaders and asking them what their main pain points were.

Unsurprisingly, our research revealed that lead volume and lead quality were at the top of the list. Because we believe fixing lead quality is priority numero uno, we chose to focus on that theme for our first bunch of paid ad creative.

Confidence buoyed by this research-based foundation, we got together for a few brainstorming sessions. We let our feelers feel. We let our thinkers think. And after a couple of rounds of refinement, we landed on a final concept.

Please welcome to the (virtual) stage…“Swipe Left!”

We tried something new, a dating app-inspired concept that tells a story, hides a few easter eggs, and (hopefully) makes a couple decision-makers chuckle. But what about the all-important question: Did it work?

I have no idea. We haven’t launched it yet.

Will it work?

God, I hope so.