Who decided that B2B campaigns had to be so boring, anyway? Time for change!

+10Easy steps to succeed on the New B2P Frontier

Prickley Issues 01

It’s been one of the most consistent conversation pieces over the past year: tuned-in MDs commenting on the somewhat confused state of B2B communication. It’s changing, everyone feels it, but how? And why such a Grand Canyon sized gap between enticing ‘pull’ B2C campaigns and the somewhat dull hard-sell ‘push’ tactics oft-used for B2B?

A!middle ground has emerged in the boardrooms, namely B2P – Business to People. In the past year a wide array of vastly di"erent clients came through our agency doors with highly

specific B2P briefings. Brands like California shoe company K-Swiss, global printer make Océ, Swedish Tourism Board VisitSweden, Schiphol, Amsterdam RAI, to name just a few. Their briefs were tellingly similar: give us B2B, but make it feel B2C. In trying to meet their expectations we spent much time seeking out the right balance between hard and soft selling, rational and emotional, cash and cuddly. Along the way we’ve made a few key discoveries. And we’ve packaged them for you here in this Prickly Issues whitepaper. And when all is said and done, we o"er up a B2P Survival Guide for all those marketers looking for inspiring B2B campaigns.

What to do when high-end European retailers are no longer

stocking your most iconic shoe? This was the challenge

facing California sports company K-Swiss in the Spring of

2010. The result was an award-winning campaign (D&AD

‘In Book June 2011) that not only activated retailers to stock

more shoes, but ignited positive conversations about the

K-Swiss brand across the globe.

K-Swiss’s classic woos shoes into stock

Case 1K-Swiss

InsightWhile the Classic shoe itself is just a pretty nifty heritage sneaker, it’s story is extraordinary in these times of fast-moving goods. The problem was, K-Swiss didn’t communicate the story of its shoe to its retail partners, namely because the company didn’t know the whole story itself. We immediate set about piecing one together out of the fragments of information and communication lying dormant in the company archives.

CampaignThe challenge was to tell the long story of the Classic in a way that would help retailers sell more shoes. So we broke the story up into 8 non-linear chapters and asked 8 respected underground designers across the globe to design posters around them. We sent the resulting double-sided limited-edition posters to key retailers to hang in their shops and hand out to their most exclusive clients, creating goodwill and making them part of the campaign’s success.

ResultsThe results resonated far beyond retailers. Because we packaged the hard-sell story of the shoe in an emotionally relevant way (i.e. respected designers), major sneakerfreak communities picked the story up and helped us create the demand for retailers to stock more Classic shoes. The campaign and social media strategy it entailed resulted in a 63% increase in brand awareness and a 36% jump in positive conversations about K-Swiss.

Media Mix Print, brand story, DM, PR: plugging & seeding

The lowdown

The D&AD award was certainly unexpected, butit just goes to show that even B2B campaigns can create positive B2C buzz on a global scale if that’s what you set out to do from day 1.

Case 1K-Swiss

Océ is a global market leader in large-format printers and

thought it was time to drive that point home through a global

B2B campaign around its new PosterPrinter. The brief: create

a powerful conversation starter for the brand’s global sales

force that helps them create genuine leads and ultimately

sell more printers.

The catch? Needs to be adaptable across all Océ’s OPCOs

and succeed with no media budget. The result was an online

mockumentary that drove home a hard B2B message;

namely, that the Océ Poster Printer is the fastest and

easiest poster printer on the planet.

Kick-starting conversations and creating quality leads for Océ’s global sales force

“We wanted a campaign that would tell the story of the PosterPrinter in a way that would inspire our sales force and function as a conversation starter. A B2B story that didn’t feel B2B.”

-Ed Lensen, International Business Development Manager, Océ Display Graphics Systems

Case 2Océ

InsightThe decisionmakers in the large-format printing business (the guys who place the orders) are the last link in a very creative chain, but they are still part of the creative chain. We played into their creative instincts by capturing every creative individual’s dream: to escape the monotony of the o#ce!

CampaignWe scripted a story around two very likeable young guys who launch a pop-up printer business called ‘Instant Poster Power’ from the back of their customized van. The mockumentary follows these two micropreneurs as they service small businesses, pull pranks, do some social good and transform the urban landscape, all with the help of the PosterPrinter. In short, they capture the emotion of the poster business and the importance of posters in communication today. All the printer’s USPs were worked into the script, but we avoid typical B2B corporatetalk through unscripted, spontaneous dialogue to help the message sound heartfelt and real.

The entire campaign was complemented by an activation microsite, where an online Poster-Printer turned uploaded images into virtual posters. The Instant Poster Power also translated to on-site and trade fairs where clients could turn images from their telephones into instant posters in 30 seconds.

ResultsIn the first few months after launch some 30,000 video views and the microsite hundreds of community uploaded images. Every Océ Opco picked up the campaign and adapted both the film and microsite into local languages. The campaign also sparked local activation campaigns around the Instant Poster Power theme. The campaign was included in prestigious international marketing magazine Contagious as a Best Practices for B2B campaigns.

Media MixOnline film, print, DM, web platform, trade shows, PR: plugging & seeding

The lowdown

B2B campaigns are so caught up in corporatespeak that they often forget WHY their products and services are so interesting and unique. By giving the PosterPrinter a human, ‘outside-in’ context (instead of purely inside-out), the Océ sales team enthusiastically picked up on the campaign and used it as a serious tool to service current clients and to create new leads – each salesman was encouraged to plug&seed the film into his own networks.

Case 2Océ

The Swedish tourism board, VisitSweden, had one business

goal: get more Dutch to give up the Austrian and French

Alps for Swedish ski sojourns. An integral part of the

challenge was thus to convince travel agents to take

Swedish skiing seriously. What they got was the B2C/B2B

‘Fit for the Winter Games’ campaign that travelled well

beyond the agents’ o!ces and ended up a global cult hit.

Oh, and the first direct charter flights to Sweden.

How Swedish tourism got Dutch travel agents ontheir side

Case 3VisitSweden

InsightTo challenge the Dutch annual Alps routine, Sweden needed a serious edge, and we quickly pinpointed one, an insight the Swedes themselves weren’t particularly proud of. Namely, that since 1986 the Swedish winter sport towns of Are and Ostersund had bid for the Olympic Games three times – and lost. We didn’t see losing bids however, we simply saw proof that Sweden had world-class facilities.

CampaignThe ‘Fit for the Olympic Games’ campaign was created around two amusing online films highlighting Sweden’s Olympic ambitions and its key USPs. We told the story through two fanatical Swedes who dream of the Olympics so they can display their talents as, respectively, a mascot and a streaker. In addition to DM, a flyer team, web and taking the films consumer direct via YouTube, we sent agents a special package with DVD and brochures and encouraged them to send the film to at least three other

agents – in return they could win a limited-edition ‘Fit for the Winter Games’ bag.

ResultsBy activating Dutch travel agents via DM, the bag and a special page on the website, the number of Dutch winter hotel stays after the campaign doubled and the first winter charter flight to Are took o" from Schiphol. B2C results were also impressive: over 800,000 video views, a 200% increase in web visits and a campaign that completely dominated all Google search results for ‘Swedish winter sport’.

Media MixFilm, Web platform, Print, DM, Events, PR: plugging & seeding

The lowdown

Your B2B partners are also consumers, and in some situations you need to activate them like consumers. If they like something they’ll actively share and sell it. And if they don’t, encourage them other ways like giving them free give-aways.

Case 3VisitSweden

B2P Shorts

Schiphol’s ‘Magic in function’ film It’s not just enough to be Europe’s 5th largest hub and one of the most innovative airports in the world. Sometimes, you have to remind people that behind the business there’s a clearly defined mission §and vision. Our ‘A day in the Life’ B2P campaign for Schiphol was designed specifically to spark positive conversations internally and with new

high-quality partners. More specifically, the short film combines the Schiphol elements people know with behind-the-scene action they don’t – the functional and the magic of an airport.

Media Mix Brand story, Film

“Lemon managed to reinvent our corporate message and create a brand story that makes us appealing to virtually everyone. Never before did we get so many thumbs up!”

Chella Busch, Brand Manager Schiphol Group

B2B short 1Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Amsterdam RAI’s inspiring ‘experience angel’

In its effort to further reinforce its status as a business and innovation hub that connects people, the Amsterdam RAI built a new congress building called Elicium. Once built, they needed a campaign that would inform its national and international business network – large corporations, CEOs, organizers – of the Elicium’s cutting edge facilities and, quite simply, fill their halls. With ‘Elise’, we didn’t change the RAI’s messaging, we just changed who was saying it by wrapping all those USPs into an emotionally relevant story. Elise turned all the RAI’s B2B communication into fun testimonials. Next to posters, DM and web, we also turned Elise into a teddy bear that businessmen could take home to their children.

Media Mix Print, web platform, DM, events, brand story, merchandize, PR: plugging & seeding

HOE INTENSER DE ERVARINGHOE KOSTBAARDER DE HERINNERING

Waar je het ziet, is hoe je het ziet. Hier zie je alles op zijn mooist, beleef je het intens. Een galadiner, feest, beurs, congres, vergadering of training... RAI Elicium staat voor

ongekende allure en elegantie. Wil je meer weten? Ik kan je nog veel meer laten zien!

Graag leid ik je rond op www.rai-elicium.nl

Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre | raimarketing@rai.nl | +31 20 549 17 22 | www.rai.nl

Een galadiner, feest, beurs, congres, vergadering of training... RAI Elicium staat voor ongekende allure en elegantie. Wil je meer weten? Ik kan je nog veel meer laten zien!

Graag leid ik je rond op www.rai-elicium.nl

10.05.0061 rai-postersA0.indd 1 11-02-2010 13:09:42

WYSTC 2011’s fake travel trend challenge

We’re starting to really like B2B campaigns here at Lemon. The latest in our string is The Fake Travel Trend Challenge for The World and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) 2011, a conversion campaign and identity rolled into one. The conference organizers asked us to work with them to create a quick-hit B2B campaign that would stimulate key delegates to book booth space and attend the fair. The Challenge invites key travel industry delegates to tweet their best fake travel trend to win prizes. With this cheeky Challenge we’ve positioned WYSTC’s authoritative insights against all those sketchy online travel trends people are so eager to believe these days. We already have a favorite fake trend: “Holy Land tours spike as European youth rediscover religion.” Yeah, right. Sorry, open exclusively to travel industry delegates only.

Media Mix Web, Twitter, identity, Facebook, brochures, DM

B2P Shorts

B2B short 2Amsterdam RAI

B2B short 3WYSTC

No more split personality companies

Transparency of the web means that B2B and B2C are no longer mutually exclusive. Google doesn’t di"erentiate between the two.

From push to pull

Wrap your hard sell in a soft shell. Rational information works, but repackage those facts enticingly (i.e. infographics) and recycle your content in an emotionally relevant way.

Think (more) like a publisher

Content marketing is on the rise. With all those daily clicks going to Facebook and Twitter, content for social platforms is rapidly replacing expensive and flashy microsites – yes, even for B2B.

Telling enables selling

Few things enable sales teams and help generate leads as well as a simple opening story about your company and your product.

Work in your WHY

You can never drive home your vision, mission and company culture enough. However, one caveat: the more you talk about things, the higher the expectations that you make goodon them.

Flip page for next 5 steps.

The B2Psurvival guide10 easy steps to succeed on theNew B2B Frontier

The B2Psurvival

guide10 easy steps to succeed on the

New B2B Frontier

Can’t share? Despair!

Even B2B initiatives should link to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Flickr, slideshare, pdfs, etc. You may have 30 white papers lying around, but if people can’t share them they aren’t going to get around.

Embrace employee advocacy

If it doesn’t inspire Jane in accounting, it won’t inspire anyone else either.

Synchronize your voice

Create a clear and consistent tone of voice across all your platforms that mirrors the culture of your company. B2B too often captures the most boring part of your corporate personality.

Content is key, but only when you do it consistently

Producing content is not enough, you’ve got to produce unique and compelling content – and consistently! And then complement it with the right marketing mix (blogs, videos, microsites, newsletters, social media). Yes, another tip from the B2C playbook.

Post-purchase ambassadors

Perhaps the biggest opportunity for B2B credibility is turning happy clients into post-purchase ambassadors simply by making their comments visible on the platforms people like to visit (i.e. Amazon, retweets)

While we truly believe in universal sharing of ideas and content, our prickly issues are not cut-and-paste a"airs summarizing other people’s hard-thought insights. We read a lot, we talk to a lot of people, we tweet and retweet and keep our ears close to the ground, and our reports are born from all that.If we appropriate original thinking, we give them credit. The rest is lemon being, Well, lemon. We just thought you should know.

www.lemonscentedtea.com