Obviously, you’ve seen the Kenzo World campaign video. The green dress, the dance (like a lunatic), the very pretty girl and - ok, this one maybe you’ve actually missed - the last 2,5 seconds showing the unusual bottle of the fragrance by Kenzo.

Cool we’re on the same page.

If you’re a B2B marketer, we’re definitely on the same page.

I was inspired to share with you a couple of valuable reminders that your B2B marketing can be more effective - if only you dare to step out of the box.

Reminder#1 - Conferences are boooooring.

There she is, the pretty girl in the green dress (that’s your brand). She took the time to arrive at the gala, sat down with other rich and famous (those are your competitors). Everyone is friends - at least throughout the duration of the “leading industry conference”. Until she snaps.

Because actually, most conferences feature a very similar line-up of speakers (the successful bunch), range of trending topics and take up a lot of you time. Unless you stop - and do your thing. Action plan, please?

• Plan your “conferences season” smartly. Select (a maximum of) 3 conferences you’ll attend (speak at - if you’re in the successful bunch) this season. This will keep you excited (and less bored) by the whole thing.
• Be the rookie you were years ago - and plan 1 thing that you want to achieve during each event - this will keep your attention focused.
• If it’s not worth your time, use the Emergency Exit door. Your time is precious. You don’t have to dance your way out, but if you decide to - pick a good song. Here’s a song proposal for you.

Reminder#2 - Your videos can be less booooring.

So you feel this weight on your back, because your field (e.g. aluminium recycling or resource management) is not a dance competition and your customers are really heavy-weight Excel-lovers, who have their “style”. And you have a budget for corporate videos, but you make sure the agency stays in line with your website visual identification etc. Say no more, I know the game. But we both know it can be different.

The marketing game is changing for B2C and B2B alike.

Before this Kenzo World commercial, Kenzo’s videos used to look like this:

B2B videos can and should be creative. Check out this B2B video my company has created for Airbus Defence and Space or this one for Growbots . Run away from boring videos, please. Your customers will not run away, actually they’re more likely to stay - and watch.

Reminder#3 - Learn how to read your customer insights right.

You’ve been working with research agencies to get as much customer insight as possible. Your experience also shows what worked and what didn’t. So you plan your B2B marketing activities “in line” with this knowledge.

If Kenzo had used the same logic, we wouldn’t be talking about his campaign here today. Because customer insights (if your customer base are women 27-43) and precious campaign experience shows that fragrance commercials look like this:

Today, we are talking about Kenzo’s commercial because it looks like this:

 That’s because they read their customer insights right: i.e. skipped the first obvious findings, crossed out of the report everything they’ve seen before in previous customer insight reports, in order to clearly see the actual, latest-news, happening-now part. Point in case: Women, after watching #Rio2016 for a whole month and reading/liking/sharing/incorporating all the “Why should women be expected to perform/talk/be scrutinised differently than men?”- talk, are in the mood to see empowerment outside #Rio2016. This, combined with Sia boosting from your radio and TV - gave birth to the commercial that’s our inspiration today.

Here’s my CTA to you. Read your report and cross out everything you knew already. Read what’s not crossed out. That’s where you find your value proposition. Happy to help you with this one.  

Author: Mara Puacz, Content Director at Clipatize

<<gone dancing like a loonatic in our Mokotow villa, which fortunately is not at all similar to the opera house in the Kenzo ad, so I can do my own dancing routes. feeling empowered >>

**3 images sourced at the SEPHORA Youtube channel.