In October, we were among some of marketing’s biggest names to showcase ‘Who is… Watson?’ at Advertising Week New York. But a great reception to our doc wasn’t the only thing we experienced at the event.
Ah, Advertising Week New York. It’s an event packed to the absolute brim with insights from marketing’s changemakers, immersive content experiences that push the boundaries of what we should consider ‘experiential’, and of course, a great opportunity to show off Transmission’s own chops.
While we may have been there to host the New York premiere of our brand storytelling documentary, Who is… Watson? The Day AI Went Prime Time, we left with renewed confidence in the future of our industry – especially for those of us in B2B.
So, what did we learn? What do we think you should know? Read on to find out.
And that means big things for businesses that are willing to take more creative risks. In The Yes Advantage, we proved that 50% more buyers rate a brand as more competent and trustworthy after seeing them confidently break category norms. As behavioural scientist, Richard Shotton puts it:
“Pinpoint the pointless norms in your category – and break them. Your brand won’t just stand out; it will be awarded a higher status!”
We work in a landscape where trust needs to be built in from the beginning of the buying journey. Traditional research behaviours are being left in the past as buyers use LLMs to compress the middle funnel, meaning that if you’re not already in their minds before they start researching, you’re already behind. Here, creativity is quickly becoming a competitive advantage B2B brands can’t ignore.
In the past, B2B marketers have pointed to challenges with measurement as a key sticking point for a lack of creative investment. But things are changing. Analytics tools have come on leaps and bounds, even compared to as recent as last year, and leadings brands are already blurring the lines between measurement and creativity.
Who remembers when we used to discuss ‘orchestrating the buyer journey’? All of us? Yep. But today, the conversation has moved on from simply serving customers what they need, when they need it, to a focus on how buyers experience every brand interaction.
In other words, less head, more heart.
Identify where there might be friction in your buyer experience (think slow demos, confusing pricing pages, stale nurture streams, etc.) and fix them first. If your brand experiences across the channel are clunky, you throw hurdles in the way of prospects who may have a genuine interest in what you have to offer. More hurdles = a lower chance of you closing deals.
Working in B2B doesn’t insulate us from everything else in our lives. Outside work, we have moments of vulnerability, moments of joy, and moments where don’t want to think at all. Tapping into those pockets of humanity with your messaging is how you build stronger, longer-term customers.
Take what we did with Who is… Watson? as an example. Instead of putting the product front and centre, we focused on telling a story of the grit and genius involved in turning AI from Star Trek fantasy to fundamental reality. The doc isn’t a case study, it isn’t a product feature, and it certainly doesn’t explicitly promote Transmission.
What it does do, however, is showcase a story our audience is more than willing to watch. It makes the IBM engineers and decision-makers the beating heart of the narrative, presenting the true reality of how Watson won on Jeopardy!; not an over-polished, sanitary message in keeping with ‘traditional’ B2B content.
Today, the line between ‘content’ and ‘entertainment’ is blurring. B2B brands that recognise there’s space in their strategy for real voices over polished monologues will be the ones buyers bring up first in procurement conversations. It’s all about presenting a message in a way that ties into real human problems, industry pain points, and cultural shifts – it’s a competitive moat, after all.
Discover how to tell a story your audience will really want to hear. Get in touch.