Think Outside the Brief: How Taking Creative Risks Can Help a Brand Stand Out

B2B ads these days feel the same. The messaging feels tired and no longer connects with audiences. It’s time for B2B brands to think outside the box (or brief) and take creative risks to get the results they need. How can B2B brands do so without losing their identities? At the same time, what can B2B brands learn from Penji, a graphic design company that has shown its creative prowess by blending humor and storytelling that appeal to audiences?

The Hidden Cost of Playing It Safe

Many B2B companies today aren’t reaching their audiences or making a significant, memorable impact.

One thing’s clear: B2B advertising is the same these days.

Most B2B companies still rely on the same advertising messaging and formulas that make them forgettable today. Audiences may not bat an eye at B2B brands that promote features and put the company first. Some brands may copy other brands, just because it worked for one. Others may put metrics before promotion. These outdated strategies or blunders may hurt your brand. And your audiences won’t hesitate to go to your competitors.

It’s time for B2B companies to embrace storytelling in their marketing campaigns. The shift to storytelling can be challenging, especially if you’re unfamiliar with it. You might need a couple of attempts to refine your story since you don’t want it to sound like a pitch! If you need inspiration on how to make storytelling work for your brand, see how Penji used storytelling to position itself as one of the top graphic design companies to partner with!

Case Example: The Penji Crime-Comedy Series

Penji is an unlimited graphic design service for companies and agencies that need a creative extension of their team without the added cost and overhead! As a full-service creative support service, it’s not surprising the brand wants to showcase this in its latest campaign, “Weapons of Mass Creative Disruption”.

Penji’s out of the box creative campaign is now in full swing, starting with an Official Trailer that teases what’s to come and how Penji positions itself as a disrupter in the creative industry. And if you’ve not caught up yet, the first episode of their cinematic series, The Manhunt, is out now on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

In the series, founders Khai Tran and Johnathan Grzybowski pose as wanted fugitives during a press briefing about Penji as a weapon of mass creative disruption. Several individuals have questions about Penji’s capabilities, and one man in particular would have benefited from Penji’s expertise and creative team. The first episode showcases Penji’s scope of services and what makes Penji different from its competitors.

Penji demonstrates how humor and storytelling can coincide in a B2B space. After all, B2B can be considered a “serious” industry since the target audience is professionals. Plus, it’s a great example of how to get a brand on the map and clarify what Penji is about: helping businesses increase capacity without adding headcount and reducing costs.

The graphic design service will drop the next episodes in the next few weeks.

Why Creative Risks Work

Investing in a creative risk by building a cinematic narrative like Penji may be challenging to execute, but not impossible. Here are the reasons why creative risks work, and why you shouldn’t be afraid to take them for your marketing campaigns:

1. Memorability

Being a memorable brand is an achievement for any B2B business. After all, there are millions of B2B businesses worldwide, but you want to stand out from the crowd. Leverage your company’s strengths and address pain points to get started. The more you focus on how to help another business, whether it’s their workload or efficiency, the more you can become a memorable brand in the long run.

2. Shareability

Telling a story like Penji can make your marketing campaign deliverables shareable. The more entertaining your story is, the more likely people are to share it. Post your campaigns on the right social media platforms so your audience can share them, too! Or, you can nudge audiences to share your content on the deliverable or in your post’s captions, too!

3. Humanizing the Brand

Your brand needs to be personable. To do this, show how authentic your brand is. Your brand’s authenticity can touch your audience’s hearts. Or it can make your brand feel human, which can attract audiences and drive action. You can make the brand human through customer stories or by letting your company’s employees talk about what makes the brand something valuable or worth rooting for.

How to Take Creative Risks Without Losing the Plot

How can B2B brands take creative risks? Here are some feasible goals and action steps you can take to showcase your creativity without losing your brand’s identity.

Set a clear goal and tie it to an idea

When establishing a marketing campaign, establish one goal that would be the basis of your whole story. Make your campaign revolve around that idea, which can be the overarching theme of your campaign. Sticking to that goal will help you remain consistent. Plus, your team can be aligned with the goal.

Understand your audience

It’s a given that your audience should be your target. However, targeting your audience isn’t enough. It’s essential to understand them better. You can ask yourself these questions:

• What makes them tick?
• What makes them laugh?
• How can I develop an emotional connection with my audience

It can be difficult to know what your audience likes. You might need to do some in-depth research to understand their interests and how to connect them to your campaign.

Start small and test

It’s tempting to go all out to reach wider audiences. However, starting small is the best approach forward. For example, you can start small with your campaigns or deliverables. If you have current leads, you can target those to convert them into customers!

You can also segment your audience by industry or pain points. Once you’ve identified what to tackle, you can personalize the campaign around those target areas. From there, see how your campaign performed with these small audiences. Once you’ve seen the metrics and results, you can tweak it to another audience segment.

Plan distribution

Don’t let your ideas go to waste. Make a strategic plan to distribute your campaign, so that your target audience can see it. Make sure you have the right deliverables and post them on the right channels. Also, make sure your deliverables tell your brand’s cohesive story. And give your audience something to tease.

Following Netflix’s strategy of publishing all episodes from one season on a single day can make your audience binge your content. But what would they have to talk about after a few days? You can post weekly or every few days so your audience stays up to date on what’s happening with your campaigns!

Plus, if you want wider coverage, consider partnering with influencers or running a concurrent PR campaign. This way, you can reach more audience members. Plus, this can increase your engagement or conversion numbers!

Track results and adjust

As you take creative risks, ensure that you’re tracking and monitoring your campaign’s progress. You don’t want to run a campaign and forget the numbers behind it. Fortunately, even while tracking campaign progress, you can improve performance by learning which posts need a boost or an overhaul to connect with your audience.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

As much as you want to show off your creative side, overdoing it can ruin your whole campaign. Here’s what you need to avoid so that your campaign doesn’t get flamed out.

1. Humor that overshadows the message

You can integrate humor into your messaging, but don’t let it drive your campaign. After all, humor is subjective, and not everyone may find your brand of humor funny. You can prioritize humor by weaving it into your story, but stay clear on your brand’s message and keep your customers at the heart of it.

2. No clear call to action

Telling a story isn’t just about narrating something to your target audience. If your story lacks action, your campaign may not get the results you expect. Ensure that your storytelling marketing campaign still has a clear call to action, which helps your audience decide on their next steps!

3. No plan to measure results

Publishing your marketing campaign can be exciting. But don’t forget to track performance as you monitor your marketing campaign. These days, most marketing applications integrate marketing campaigns. This lets you understand your campaign’s status and adjust it even while it’s running.

Final Thoughts

B2B advertising doesn’t have to be boring. You can ditch the tired old formulas and create a marketing campaign that gets people talking about your brand. You can take a page from Penji’s out of the box creative campaign by creating a cinematic series people want to tune in to, while educating the audience about your business. Or, you can go a different direction with themes or stories! Whatever you choose, make it a memorable story that your audience will talk about. Who knows, you might get the customers you’ve been looking for all along?