You know sometimes there are those trailblazing ad campaigns you see everywhere? On billboards, in magazines, in Love Island ad breaks? Yeah this isn’t a story of one of those.
This is the story of how a B2B campaign with humble beginnings lead to our graphics department complaining about making more ‘we’ve won an award’ assets.
EU Automation is the type of client you can only dream of. They came with an open brief. They let us shape it with them. They let us run with it creatively. When we proposed three routes some would say they picked the brave one. Except they didn’t.
They actually picked the one that made complete sense for two reasons:
1. It followed the picture-perfect narrative journey that is tried tested and true in film making, BUT is wide open as an opportunity as many brands fall at that hurdle. They put their audience squarely in the hero’s seat, quite literally with the main character - Jeff.
2. It put simple human emotion at the centre. Something we know wins hearts and minds in advertising. The data tells us it sells more stuff. Yet creators of B2B campaigns so often reject it because it’s not what the competitive set is doing.
Before we go any further - watch the film so the next bit makes sense...
So you see, EU weren’t worried that tickling someone’s funny bone would alienate their deadly serious business customers*. No, they knew that business to business comms is human to human comms, it’s just that sometimes those humans are wearing a tie.
* Customer alienation is a myth - but that’s a blog for another day.
Those very same emotions that make us fall in love with Skittles, remember Tango, snort at the Dollar Shave Club (points if you remember that one) work regardless of whether the person watching is Derek from Leeds with a penchant for The Best a Man Can Get, or Derek from Leeds who’s sandwich machine has just broken down and needs a spare part, like…right now.
So while all their competitors were dealing in the rational - talking about speed, price or ability to source obscure parts. Or worse still technical expertise (are you still awake?) EU Automation decided to show that by enlisting their service you’ll feel like a God on the factory floor.
So as we sit here today on our golden thrones (swivel chairs) that all these award wins have afforded us, we reflect on the 3 key lessons Jeff, our factory hero can teach anyone embarking on a B2B comms mission:
1. If you look around at all your competitors and see lists of reasons why you should use them, it’s time to high five yourself because you just found yourself an opportunity to be distinctive.
2. If you think about ads you’ve loved and remember and they’re all B2C there’s a good chance you innately get it, and are ready to embark on making some stand-out comms.
3. If you don’t understand the classic story arc, get to know it. It will make all of your comms better, it will help you avoid the common pitfalls many brands don’t, and it will position you as the obvious choice to your audience because you’ve done all the thinking upfront.
We lied there’s a 4th lesson:
Speak to us - we’re obsessed with all of the above. We can have a whoooole lot of fun creating something together.