Do you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting through the day? Don’t turn to a sleeping pills at night, just crack open a B2B technology whitepaper, it will make you dose off instantly. Let’s be honest, 90% of B2B brands are extremely bland, boring and dry. In this post I’m going to discuss some of the problems with current marketing communications, as well as share some examples of companies who are doing it right and getting positive ROI.
The Problem
The B2B space has a serious communication issues with both the visual imagery presented and the copywriting used.
I’m sick of those cliché and overused stock photos in the marketing collateral of business-to-business companies. I’ve seen the same iStockPhoto model in literally hundreds of websites. The writing doesn’t get much better. You’ve got a flexible, scalable, groundbreaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge product? Really? Wow!
Sophos is a good example of a homepage that breaks away from the clichés.
We are marketing to businesses, when we should be marketing to people.
Business buyers and decision makers are humans made up of flesh, blood, and emotions. There is more to a large business purchase than just ROI and product specs. It’s time for B2B marketers to connect with people, truly understand them, and of course, entertain them. I believe we need to shake up the B2B world with compelling and creative marketing that contains a good dose of humor.
Reasons to Use Humor in B2B
Humorous marketing often goes viral, bringing lots of traffic to your website.
When your messaging is spreading like wildfire, you’re likely to reach the desk of important business decision makers. IBM’s funny video, “Mainframe: The Art of the Sale, Lesson One” has received over 270,000 views. The video caused blog traffic to increase 25 times, and the campaign received mainstream press coverage. HubSpot, a marketing software company, simultaneously educates and entertains prospects, and four out of the 10 of their most read blog articles from 2009 are fun-based. One of my favorite B2B viral videos is from Cisco for their ASR 9000 router.
Funny marketing has a longer shelf life.
Eloqua’s The Conversation campaign was launched over a year ago, but is still relevant and continues to consistently drive leads for them to this day. It’s hilarious, interactive and it tackles real problems that companies are having today – without being overly salesy. Funny advertising can, in fact, directly lead to sales, even in the B2B world.
Eloqua does a fantastic job with e-mail marketing as well.
Humor makes you seem… Human.
Incorporating personality into your company’s brand makes you seem friendly, approachable and authentic. This can help you to differentiate your brand from the vast array of competing companies. Most importantly, you will be remembered. And don’t think you need an exciting product to have exciting marketing.
Marketing for networking products doesn’t have to be dull, as
seen by this hilarious four page Playboy parody for Sun's Server of the Month.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Humor
Humor may be misinterpreted
What has one person laughing, may have another person furiously angry and offended. The marketing piece may fall flat, or it may backfire. I had a lot of positive feedback on my article, “Treat Your Landing Page Visitors Like 5-Year-Olds With ADD” however there was a complaint from a reader whose son has ADD. Also take into account if you’re an international company that the humor may not translate well in other cultures. If humor isn’t appropriate for your audience or might easily be misinterpreted, tone it down or avoid using it all together.
Challenges
There are many barriers in large companies where a marketing piece has to pass through legal, sales, marketing, branding etc. before being approved. But I encourage you to get in touch with your inner Michael Scott, and at least try.
Feel free to share your experiences or any examples on humor in B2B marketing in the comments below.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Many B2B companies are afraid of humor. “We sell serious products” they say.
But people do business with people. So humor works for any company, especially B2B!
A genius at this is my friend Tim Washer @timwasher
David
Hey Ricky! Love this! I think humor (almost) always has a place. I’m working on something right now and this is exactly what I needed to see today
Do what works. Humor is good.
I share your hatred of corporate BS – and I’ve commented on it here:
http://www.connected-uk.com/2010/04/about-us-the-good-the-bad-and-the-missing/
The best marketing hits where it feels comfortable. It can be too stiff and so dull that people don’t feel comfortable with it, and don’t finish reading your marketing materials. It flops.
It can also become TOO humorous, and be more comedic, more carnival sideshow like, and also miss the point.
It does take knowing your market, and how to make them feel not only comfortable, but know that you are credible and serious where it’s important to be.
I love telling stories of clients who had success, which puts it more into the personal issues, and if you can make that fun, and laughable, great!. That losens things up and makes the stories seem real.
But using humor when talking about your products or services directly may be a different animal.
There is a time and a place, for the right market at the right time.
Hi Rick,
You should check out these B2B marketing toons for some humor – http://www.leadforce1.com/martoons/
Cheers
Merlin
Great points on the proper use of humor. Takes some real creative talent to pull it off without shooting the brand in the foot so to speak.
This one was pretty good. Low budget, but entertaining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2uxmdzgVc
- LM
P.S. It spun off of the original viral Double Rainbow video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI
Really interesting post…
Wonderful post. I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of using humor.
Nice post.
One of our clients, Lawson software, actually embraces humor in its marketing! Great to work with! See an example of one of their campaigns. http://ow.ly/35z1x
Nice one.
We’re big fans of humor (or ‘humour’ as we call it) at Velocity.
But we’re also careful not to assume it’s easy to get laughs.
Aiming for comedy and falling short is disaster (like canyon jumping).
We like warm, gentle wit — plain, human language with a bit of a wink — rather than trying to compete with Ricky Gervais.
Here are two video examples:
http://www.hyperionam.com.au/Video2.php
http://www.shipserv.com/info/2010/05/17/shipserv-pages-the-movie/
Hi Rick, Thoughtful article this. When I read this post, I got reminded of these two.
1. Why not “humor” in email marketing be taken up as a b2b consulting practice per se?
2. Win – win articles or win-win conversations in the b2b world are the need of the hour …and when this is clubbed with humor then the results could make the cloud nine ROTFL.
Now, we have FOLLOW feature while I think the b2b world awaits a “HUMOR” button
~Mani
http://www.wapr.com
B2B Platform for SMEs to connect & collaborate.
I have a lot of appreciation for this particular comment…. “Business buyers and decision makers are humans made up of flesh, blood, and emotions.” I always remind myself of this whenever I am, well…. communicating in person, on the phone, presenting, or approaching large, mysterical, magical, and powerful companies. There ARE people behind big Brands; people who have kids, who don’t, who have cats, or hate them ( I prefer dogs btw) and people who actually use the bathroom, just like the rest of us common folk. ( I don’t hat cats btw) Now, some being smarter than others, hence, big brands; but hey… they are still “human” and I could not agree more with Rick about the fact that humor can be “smart” when done right. Even a somewhat distasteful message or image can be hilarious when it is something the masses can actually relate to somewhere from inside themselves. Thanks for the humbling reminder. Much appreciated, Rick. -Jennifer