A few times a year, Vanilla is proud to run training courses on B2B Video Marketing for our lovely friends at B2B Marketing. And last week, we spent an enjoyable day at their 2017 Ignite event. Aside from the bubbly and the gin and tonic sorbets, a huge range of speakers gave everybody who attended a lot to think about.
One thing that struck us were the few common themes that came out from many of the sessions. And how they were relevant, not only for B2B, but also for B2C comms. As well as how they could all be targeted and used as lessons for how to run video campaigns.
We wanted to share a few takeaway headlines with you, that feel particularly relevant to what we do for our clients around video communications. All from experts in the B2B marketing world.
It isn’t about the detail.
Success is when stakeholders emotionally engage with your product or service. David Burnand, Director of Enterprise Marketing at Adobe said it well when he talked about getting eyeballs on communications within a crowded online world, full of competitor noise: ‘People don’t care about your product. They just want to be entertained and engaged’. Video is particularly good at achieving that emotional connection with your audience, as long as it’s done well. We know your videos have to work hard for you and have clear business goals. But if you don’t prioritise creativity and emotionally-driven, storytelling appeal, your target audience simply won’t watch them.
There was much talk at the event around humanising and dramatising comms, backed up with data driven research. And remembering who your audience actually are. Sally Wright, Marketing Director at Samsung said, ‘I want to be engaged, to be talked to like a human’. Whilst Jeremy Knott, until recently CMO of Deloitte added, ‘Try to find an idea that cuts through the noise, through the sea of grey, corporate sameness’. And his colleague added, ‘Business people are still people. Make the tone authentic’. Creativity is the key to unlocking views. We love Adobe’s recent video offering, targeted at agency peeps, because they’ve prioritised entertainment over product detail, and made something relevant and recognisable to their target audience, with a heavy dose of humour. Yet it still communicates the key message around how Adobe Stock helps you work more quickly. Watch it here
Be brave and take risks.
Great ideas can get watered down during the creative process as individuals client-side get cold feet. Deloitte talked about a re-branding process and its big idea. The marketing department had to hold firm and stay pure to their concept as stakeholders within the organisation sometimes tried to pull back on its bold offering. Whilst Emma Roffey, Senior Marketing Director at Cisco, explained how they are turning their comms around to make them audience-centric in a major shake up of the business and its processes. Brian Macreadie, Head of Brand and Campaign Marketing at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner went even further, even though he admitted he sometimes had ‘Hollywood ideas on an iphone budget’. He added: ‘To stand out you have to be dangerous and different. It takes guts to do things others aren’t doing. But the bravest marketeers are the ones who will succeed. The idea to go for is the one that’s a bit scary. I tell colleagues they can sack me if something doesn’t work’ . Our experience in video comms has also shown us that clients who trust in the big ideas are the ones that will get the greatest rewards.
Collaborate with each other, and your suppliers.
We always get the best results with clients that really work with us as a team. Macreadie encouraged people to ‘challenge your agencies to come up with a big idea’ and then to all pull together to make it work. Whilst Sally Wright of Samsung talked about the importance of taking time out to ‘work with creative agencies and just discuss, brainstorm. Have creative sessions’. At Deloitte, they admitted that this sometimes meant hard work their end, as well as from agencies. But that it was worth it. And collaboration doesn’t stop there. Jeremy Knott added that we should also ‘listen to customers and take it back to the boardroom’, citing testimonials from clients as a great way to support a brand. Emma Roffey at Cisco learned that for them, the way to make their products more audience centric was to build success around customer advocacy, and they are now embarking on a campaign of User Generated Content, based around customer stories.
We're always happy for clients to challenge us. So if you want to get your video comms noticed, we’d love to work with you. Feel free to drop us an email - info@vanillafilms.co.uk or give us a call - 020 8445 8324
Kind wishes
The Vanilla Team
020 8445 8324
www.vanillafilms.co.uk
