Case studies and best practices in B2B content marketing from 2013, with a close look at what's working (and isn't) in the area of online/viral video, social and mobile.

1. CAN BRANDS
BE STORY
TELLERS?
MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA: WHAT’S WORKING ,
WHAT ’S N OT, A N D W HY …
20 13 FALL MEE T IN G O F TH E ISBM B R AN D CO NS O RT IUM
& ABM MARKETER/MEDIA/PUBLISHER COUNCIL
T H U R S DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 4

2. AGENDA
1. Emerging media’s impact on brands,
agencies and publishers
2. Growing priority of content marketing in B2B
3. Why it’s so difficult to do well
4. Who in B2B is doing it well and how?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SAP
Sales Benchmark Index
Xerox
Sungard
Cisco
Salesforce.com
Google
5. Using video to drive brands

3. INTRO
YOUTUBE
“WEBSTAR”
• One of YouTube’s
most-watched
video creators
• More than 1,000
videos watched
277 million times.
225K subscribers.
CAREER MARKETER
Directed large consumer
brands and emerging media at
Johnson & Johnson and Merck.
Worked with dozens of leading
brands on YouTube promotions.

5. ONCE UPON A TIME,
5 STRANGE THINGS
1. Daily 4-7:00 am video
shift
2. Video collaborations
with complete
strangers
3. Recognized in public.
We had to unlist our
phone number
4. I started making more
money from YouTube
then the day job
5. Became poster child for
quitting boring
corporate job

6. FIRST SPONSORED
VIDEO

7. THE BALANCING
ACT OF SPONSORED
VIDEOS
These confuse traditional
roles of brand, agency
and media properties.
Source: Playlist of Nalts sponsored videos.

8. MAKING B2B MARKETING
THRIVE IN “AGE OF CUSTOMER”
1. Data-backed insight that
familiarizes employees with
customers before each encounter.
2. Digital customer experiences and
service that enhance the human
touch.
3. Sales channels enabled to deliver
account-specific experiences and
return rich intelligence.
4. Relevant inspired content
delivered through interactive,
information-rich experiences.

9. 93% of B2B marketers
use content marketing
today

10. IT’S NOT NEW
Content marketing is when
brands attempt to create and
distribute valuable content…
…to attract audience
… with purpose of driving
customer action

11. IT JUST SEEMS
A LOT EASIER NOW
B2B content marketers use thirteen
content marketing tactics on
average…
•
Social media
•
Website articles
•
eNewsletters
•
Blogs
•
In-person events
•
Case studies
•
Videos
Source: “B2B Content
Marketing 2014: Benchmarks,
Budgets & Trends.” Content
Marketing Institute, Marketing
Profs and Brightcove

12. SO WE END UP WITH THIS…

13. “AWKWARD FAMILY
PHOTOS” MEME

14. “RECREATE
FAMILY PHOTO”
MEME

15. Some Favorites
• Infographics
• Curating for narrow
audiences
• Native advertising
• White papers
• Niche communities
• Competitions
• Sponsored content
• Trend reports
Source: Smart Insights

16. SHOULD BRANDS BE
NETWORKS?

17. Entertaining
Where we
usually land
Persuasive

18. BEING PERSUASIVE AND
CHARMING IN REAL LIFE (IRL)
ISN’T EASY EITHER
The attack of the
killer multi-level
marketing friend

19. OUR CHALLENGE?
LIMITED CAPACITY FOR
CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

20. 93% cite lead generation
as a goal.
(but only 54% of us said
content management
improved lead gen).

21. Source: @BrennerMichael,
http://www.blogs.sap.com/
innovation
SAP Mission: “To earn
our audience’s attention
through content that
shows business people
how technology and
innovation can help them
grow their business, outperform their competition
and advance their
careers.”

22. IS IT FAIR TO MEASURE
ON LEADS ALONE?
SAP scorecard
shows
.0008%
of visits
“converting.”

24. “The audience actually
wants to work for its
meal… we’re born
problem solvers. We’re
compelled to deduce and
deduct. It’s the well
organized absence of
information that draws us
in. Give them 2+2 not 4.”
Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, WALL-E),
TED Talk 2012 “Clues to a Great Story.”

25. SOCIAL
STORYTELLING…
• Includes customer stories
as part of the brand story
• Conveys brand attributes in
a more memorable context
• Entertains customers and
keeps them interested
• Teaches and educates in a
fun, non-preachy way
Carrii Bugbee, award-winning creator of
Peggy Olson (Mad Men fan twitter) and
social TV explorer, social media marketing
strategist & speaker; advertising/PR pro.
CarriBugbee.com
• Inspires customers to
spread the word about you
• Builds fans and advocates
• Maybe even goes vir…
“Storytelling: The next wave of social media marketing”
(South by Southwest, 2013) by @MarkWilliams & @CarriBugbee

26. A CORPORATE
STORYTELLER
Tim Washer, Cisco’s senior
marketing manager, has a
background in comedy (as a
writer for Conan, Letterman,
and The Onion who has his
own acting reel) and
describes himself as a
“corporate storyteller.”

27. GOOD STORIES
ARE FOCUSED
Case: Sales Benchmark
• Problem: Average new sales
leader fails in 19 months.
C
• Solution: Sales Benchmark
Institute created eBook for
VP of sales
• Purpose: to help them go
beyond 6 quarters

28. Case: Sungard Zombie
SunGard’d Zombie Themed
campaign to build awareness
C
among IT professionals of
SunGard Cloud offerings.
Exceeded brands download
rates by 300%, a 5.7% email
open rate and 20+ leads.

29. SELLING AN IDEA
NOT A BRAND
Case: Xerox Optimist
• Value propositions of all the
companies in Xerox’s space
looked exactly alike.
C
• In the solutions world, most
focused on problems.
Xerox’s went another way.
• Sharing content changed
conversation of first call.
• Forbes is content partner.

30. LIKEABILITY: LET’S
TALK ABOUT YOU
Case: Salesforce.com
• 90% of Salesforce’s content
is about customers, and only
10% is about the product.
C
• Traffic from social sites
increased 300%, and
Salesforce met 70% of its
annual target for newsletter
sign-ups in the first month of
the year.
Rhymes
increase
process
fluency
Source: http://www.likeable.com/blog/2013/05/5-b2b-companies-that-excel-at-being-likeable/

31. ABOUT VIDEO

32. WHY DID OLD SPICE WORK?
(It wasn’t copying
Old Spice)

34. PLEASE DON’T
HARLEM SHAKE

35. THE NARROWING
TOPICALITY LIFECYCLE
Gangnam Style:
Hot
Months following July 15, 2012
Cliche
Harlem Shake:
Weeks following February 2, 2013
Hot
Cliche
Cliche

36. 7 SECRET INGREDIENTS
OF VIRAL VIDEOS
1. Irresistible title & thumbnail
2. Timing is everything: 1090 rule
3. Music and dancing sells
4. Topical
5. Not over produced
6. Funny, sexy, cute, quirky, shocking
7. Surprise ending increases sharing

37. THREE WAYS TO
GET VIEWS
PAID
EARNED
PLACED

38. FOUR TYPES
OF ONLINE VIDEO
Promotional (Viral, Ads)
Educational
Direct-Response
Social

39. PRODUCTION VALUES
DON’T REALLY MATTER
Inverse relationship between quality and views.
Example: “I Are Cute Kitten” seen 45 million times
and took me 88 minutes to shoot, edit and post.

40. TALKING FRUIT

41. WHAT DEPENDS ON
WHERE
• A place for paid
and earned
• Can serve
awareness,
engagement,
direct-response
• Vary video
content by goal
and place

42. UPLOADING VIDEO IS THE
FIRST NOT LAST STEP
• Real work starts
after posting
• Get it
everywhere
• Support with
paid media
• Target audience
via owned social
tools
• Bloggers: “Your
audience may
like this...”

43. SEEDING

44. WEBSTARS
Already have audiences
Fraction of cost of TV production
Power of parasocial

45. YESTERDAY
Charles Trippy sold
$20,000 of merchandise
to fund brain cancer…
(in the first hour).

46. WHEN IT’S DONE WELL (GOOGLE INDIA)