18.09.2024 By Lakshmi Rajendran, SVP, Current Global

B2Brilliant: Creativity is for Everyone.

Everyone has their favourite creative campaigns they’ve worked on. The ones that were so intense in the run up but so worth it when the coverage hit just right in the end. The ones that made the audience laugh, the ones that made them cry, the ones that made them want to change the world. We definitely know the ones we liked so much that we wish we’d thought of them first.

Amongst all of these it’s easy to assume that when we think of a creative campaign, we’re most likely to land on something that’s come from a consumer-facing brand, one that knows just how to tap into our emotions. But think again!

While it’s true that entertaining campaigns and emotional storytelling often grab headlines, the power of creativity is equally potent in the realm of B2B. That’s because, while the end goal might differ, the underlying principles of engaging an audience and building a compelling narrative are universal – after all, we’re all humans, it’s just a matter of finding the right spark to connect meaningfully with a certain group at a certain time.

The challenge for B2B campaigns lies in understanding how to translate a creative idea into a language that resonates with a typically more analytical audience. Also, B2B organizations often deal with complex products or services – that don’t necessarily lend themselves to the headline grabs of consumer brands. This combination might seem to limit creative possibilities, because we might assume that we need to lead with data and rationality, instead of humanity or vulnerability – but that’s a false dichotomy. A B2B strategy should combine data-driven insights (to speak to the all-important ROI metric) with personality and authenticity (to engage and excite). After all, we’re still talking to human beings.

This means a few things in practice.

Audience insight has to allow for audiences not being uniform.

In the world of technology, B2B buying cycles are longer than they used to be and involve more touch points across more channels. An average of six to ten people sit on buying committees today, according to Gartner research. We used to be able to focus efforts on one or two (primarily technically savvy) key decision makers. Now, influencing more stakeholders, both direct or indirect and likely with varying levels of understanding and interest in the nuances of B2B technology, takes thoughtfulness and creativity in equal parts.

For example, to reach decision-makers in the public sector, showing what the latest tech innovation can help do for the communities they serve is a lot more compelling than focusing the core message on how it does it. When we came up with the (client) Microsoft Digital Futures Index, we knew that government leaders needed compelling proof points to give them the confidence to invest in digital transformation. So, we brought together over 1,000 data points into a single, interactive data model which effectively linked digital development to innovation, productivity, sustainability and economic growth in 11 countries across Central & Eastern Europe – showing how technology investments could go the heart of the public sector agenda.

Strategy eats fun for breakfast (to paraphrase the well-known adage).

Over the years, I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve heard a variation of ‘what about some kind of stunt?’ in a creative campaign brainstorm. And while I don’t intrinsically have a problem with a campaign that coalesces around a specific object or moment, I always come back to the question of ‘why’. Why that object, why that moment, why do it at all? What’s the business purpose that activity is going to draw attention to? And that’s something that’s as relevant to consumer-facing campaigns as it is for B2B audiences.

In the last couple of years AI has rapidly grown from a topic of interest for the tech sector to the top of the mainstream news agenda. For Current Global’s client Sandvik, a company with a heritage in mining and manufacturing, the challenge was to harness its credentials in traditional sectors to lead conversations about emerging digital technology.

The Impossible Statue was created to meet this need and challenge perceptions about digital manufacturing. We needed to show what Sandvik can make possible to new and potential customers and thereby generate sales leads. The statue itself was designed by training multiple AI models on the work of five of the world’s greatest and most renowned sculptors, while our earned-first media strategy has made it a go-to example in wider media reporting on what cutting edge manufacturing and AI can achieve. Since then, images of the statue have been used to illustrate stories in national newspapers around EU AI policy, making it a visual representation of the biggest technology trend of the last year – and positioning Sandvik (a 161-year-old company) as the home of unrivalled engineering and manufacturing expertise that can make the impossible, possible.

This campaign has been shortlisted for Best International Campaign at the 2024 PR Week Awards – Sandvik being the only B2B company that made it into the category, alongside household name consumer-facing brands Virgin Atlantic, Apple TV+, Magnum, PUMA and Candy Crush.

Data in itself isn’t the story.

In the B2B world, data is king – but that doesn’t mean it automatically rules. Finding the right topical hook or human truth is what truly characterises successful data-driven storytelling – finding the story amongst the data, as it were.

In our ongoing work with mobility data company INRIX, every year we activate its Global Traffic Scorecard with media audiences around the world. On the face of it, a report about the state of traffic conditions could be classed as data, but not necessarily insight – what truly elevates this report, year after year, is a creative approach to making it relevant every time. Sometimes, that’s about exploring the impact of newly installed cycle lanes in London’s busiest streets, sometimes it’s about identifying the economic implications of time lost to traffic jams in New York and Chicago.

Bottom line? Creativity isn’t just about being flashy or fun or cute; it’s about finding innovative solutions to complex problems. And in the B2B world, there are plenty of complex problems to solve!