It seems to be every day right now that I stumble across a creative marketing campaign which is even better than the last. Today alone I saw the following and each became ‘my new favourite initiative’:
http://bit.ly/iLF08b?r=td (remember Tipex last year?!)
But what place do these campaigns have in B2B marketing? To what extent will a good creative campaign alone deliver you leads? Do you actually get the right message across - do prospects take more lighthearted campaigns seriously? Are traditional methods – email, telemarketing – still effective if you have the right messaging/hit a prospect at the right time? The pace of change is so rapid nowadays, how do you make sure your campaign is better than your competition?
Our current online debate – creativity v science – addresses these issues head on. Whilst I personally lean towards the ’science’ school of thought, there is no way the two can be mutually exclusive. Sometimes it is easy to get carried away with a creative campaign and forget that the overall objective is lead generation – but as long as this is kept in mind at all time, and the creatives address this objective – why not introduce some fun into an industry that doesn’t necessarily always produce the most innovative and imaginative marketing campaigns?
What are your thoughts? Take part in the ’science’ v ‘creative’ debate today by completing our poll or leaving a comment:
http://www.dnxmarketing.com/gospel/
In 2009, 60% of Marketing Directors said generating high quality leads was their priority. In 2010, it was 75%*. In 2011, the figure will go even higher.
Of course, it’s not just about identifying senior decision makers within target accounts. You also need to discover innovative ways to engage with them – and for that you need an agency partner that is up to the challenge.
You then need to understand and generate BANT qualified (that’s Budget, Authorised, Need, Timeline) opportunities, develop the future pipeline and deliver sales intelligence all at the same time. Again, we can help you. We can even show you some unexpected places where you’re likely to find some grade A leads and break down the barriers between your sales and marketing departments. There’s nothing quite like crunching numbers with the sales guys.
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*Source: MarketingSherpa 2010 and 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report
Darren and Lisa are our latest experts to express their point of view – and it just so happens they’re on opposing sides of the aisle. Darren believes that ideas are everything, Lisa believes it’s all in the data.
Watch Darren and Lisa go head to head as they discuss the relative merits of creativity and science. Then cast your vote in our online poll and join the debate.
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It is a very valid point and I will lean more to the creativity side of things. Not that I don’t believe that the ’science’ bit which is important, but at this highly competitive market I guarantee that in the end the ‘creativity’ will be the ‘decision making’ factor.
The three campaigns listed are a great example of my argument. Among all three brands and products I probably not the target audience for either, however I will for sure remember and would like to be involved with them. Only because the superb and astonishing ads attract me visually.
However I do agree that the CTA must be considered and aligned at all times with the creative concepts. So, in the end it is a very taunting question and answers will vary. Yet I’m pretty sure that wherever side you are in (creativity x science), both will agree that a balance is indispensable.
I would say creativity, but then I do distinguish between creativity and commercial creativity. For the former one “does” not require science but for the later he does. A top of the head analogy would be borrowed from fishing. Someone might plunge a hook at the end of some string and be happy with whatever fish crosses that unfortunate path, but if that someone wants a particular fish on his plate he needs particular tools – in the case of B2B those would be provided by science!
There are certainly lots of particulars like that to take into consideration. That is a nice level to carry up. I provide the thoughts above as common inspiration but clearly there are questions just like the one you carry up the place crucial thing will probably be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if greatest practices have emerged around things like that, but I am positive that your job is clearly recognized as a fair game. Each boys and girls really feel the influence of only a second’s pleasure, for the rest of their lives.