B2Bold: Three more of the most creative B2B campaigns

At Wildfire, we’re all about B2B creativity. For us, great, memorable campaigns don’t need to be exclusively for consumer-facing brands. We believe B2B buyers are BORED of the same old content and the same old campaigns.

That’s why, in this blog series, I’ll be diving back into the archive, revisiting the most creative, effective, and memorable campaigns from B2B brands across the years.

Here are a few of my personal favourites…

1. Epson is swimming in ink

When Epson needed a way to promote its new EcoTank printing system to fashion and retail brands, it enlisted the help of an unlikely partner…the US national synchronised swimming team.

Diving into a giant, 17,000-gallon see-through swimming tank in the centre of Times Square, the pro athletes performed numerous high-energy routines throughout the day — all while wearing swimming costumes printed with Epson’s dye, designed especially for the fashion industry.

While the campaign may seem a little random, it secured serious buzz on social media and provided an amazing picture stunt, driving coverage in the B2B press.

It was a good example of how to make a splash — and to use attention-grabbing imagery to secure column inches.

2. Slack: “So Yeah, We Tried Slack…”

Riding off the back of popular mockumentaries like The Office and Parks and Recreation, Slack used one of its own customers as the basis of this mockumentary-style video.

While this is technically an ad rather than a PR campaign, it does an awesome job of creating funny, shareable content that people actually want to watch. The video also does a great job of packing in information in an engaging and funny way.

Best of all, it’s a real-life client testimonial!

Sandwich Video — the protagonist of this short film — is a real Slack customer, explaining the benefits they’ve experienced since using Slack’s communication tool.

What a unique way to showcase a client’s story. Far better than yet another boring, corporate case study.

3. Salesforce protests Siebel Systems

We’re taking a trip back in time for this one. In what is one of B2B PR’s most famous stunts, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff launched one of the industry’s first ever ‘fake protests’.

Shortly after Salesforce.com was launched, Benioff hired actors to pretend to be protesters outside of competitor Siebel Systems’ flagship conference.

At the time, Salesforce had built its reputation around being “software-free” (cloud-based), something that competitors like Siebel were yet to catch on to.

Using this hook, Benioff’s protestors waved signs branded with Salesforce’s “No software” symbol, while chanting: “The Internet is really neat…Software is obsolete!”.

Benioff even went so far as to hire a fake TV crew to cover the ‘protest’.

As the cherry on top, Siebel’s event organisers phoned the police to have the protestors removed. This turned the fake protest into a real-life news story, justifying pick-up in the local and national press. All the more publicity for Benioff’s stunt!

For more great creative campaigns check out B2Bold