B2B. Sexy or boring?
This post is from an article by GyroHSR, who are, as they put it themselves:
The world’s largest and most critically acclaimed B-to-B focused agency. GyroHSR has been cited as ‘Top Agency’ 14 times in 14 years by Advertising Age’s B-to-B Magazine, B2B Marketing and the Business Marketing Association International.
By Milan Martin. President, GyroHSR, NYC
The saddest thing about B2B – whether you want to admit it or not – is that most agency pros still shy away from it in favor of what they see as the more “sexy” assignments. It’s as if we’ve raised our young in this business to see a paradigm of: Consumer = Sexy, B2B = Boring.
Here’s my theory: The notion of B2B is simply a flawed descriptor.
No matter how many times I see the phrase “business to business,” I can’t get the image out of my head of someone shouting at a large, faceless corporate HQ building.
Have you ever tried marketing to a business? Damn near impossible. They don’t seem to respond at all to any kind of messaging or take an affinity to your brand – no matter what you do. Why can’t we get through to these businesses, you ask? Maybe it’s because businesses don’t have Little League games to get home to. Or maybe it’s because businesses won’t Twitter about the great experience they had with your brand. Nor will they care enough to trash your brand after a disappointing experience on their Facebook page. Businesses won’t do any of these things that create a real connection. Real brand value. Real purchases. But people will.
The only good B2B communications out there today puts people (er, “consumers”) at the center of it. People who are VPs of IT by day and VPs of TLC by night.
As D.O. put it, you can’t bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them into it. Why wouldn’t this apply to people making purchases on behalf of their company?
Too many agencies and marketers look at B2B as a place where good enough is good enough. “Yeah, it’s not the most exciting ad you’ve ever seen, but, hey, it’s not the most exciting product either, is it?”
As a result, the talent in our industry gravitates toward consumer assignments. And they miss a huge opportunity to do what our business is really about: Making our clients lots of money by creating insightful, meaningful and break-through communications with people.
From a go-to-market perspective, yes, B2B does stray from consumer marketing. While selling a data network needs to start at the same people-centric, gooey, insightful core as selling a can of Coke, the road to the sale on the B2B side of things is often a gauntlet of gatekeepers, influencers, decision-makers and check-writers. It’s the job of today’s smart B2B shop to become intimate with each of these players. And create a plan of attack, expertly orchestrated, that creates relevant connection between your brand and each of these folks.
But this can be intimidating, and I believe it’s where some agency talent skulks away in fear and seeks the comfort of simpler consumer campaigns. But for those brave souls who really dig this stuff, this is where it gets interesting!
Read more on creativity and innovation in B2B:
Creativity in B2B marketing. Are you serious? Brand positioning: a quick case study
Outstanding B2B marketing: Wunderman for Barloworld Logistics
Back to The Long Hello: making B2B marketing work for the bottom line
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Very good blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics talked about here? I’d really like to be a part of online community where I can get responses from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Cheers!