Is it an eye-watering budget? Maybe. But whether you’re flush with cash or in the grips of a marketing budget cut, there are core psychological elements from these great B2B brand marketing campaigns that we can all learn from.

Psychology plays in key role in marketing, and the most successful campaigns tap our subconscious for connection. There’s no doubt the most successful, memorable campaigns have neuromarketing – literally front of mind.

What is a B2B campaign?

A B2B (business-to-business) campaign is a marketing sequence delivered from a company to other businesses that promote a singular idea/theme throughout all communications. Some campaigns are solely focused on building brand awareness and/or loyalty while others are designed to drive a particular action e.g. buying a product/service, renewing a contract, etc.

Check out key B2B marketing ideas after each example featured. If you’re looking to kick off your next email campaign, a new cycle of killer social content, or anything in between, the best practices identified will work for you.

1. Spotify – Wrapped for Advertisers

Every Spotify user knows about Wrapped. The streaming service’s highly personalized, highly sharable, snackable B2C campaign has been running every November since 2015, creating more and more organic publicity each year. So to answer “What makes a successful B2B marketing campaign?”Spotify looked at what rang true with their customer base.

Wrapped for Advertisers takes data that consumers love to see about themselves, and offers businesses access to these extraordinary insights into people’s music preferences. And they do it in a way that makes user data look exciting by focusing on opportunities and understanding.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

Associates their B2B product with a familiar B2C campaign
Showcases statistics to enhance claims
Features social proof, with testimonials and positive reviews
Maintains brand tone of voice
Reveals seasonal and demographic consumer trends and behaviors

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: Use behavioral data to drive performance

Spotify knows that audience insights are the major selling point of this B2B marketing campaign. Capturing audience insights to enhance strategy is a driving feature of the best B2B marketing campaigns.

Having access to behavioral data allows you to improve campaigns and communications continually, and this applies to much more than adverts. You should analyze every element of your marketing campaigns to identify what works and what needs improvement.

2. Upwork – Hey World

Upwork, a marketplace for freelancers to showcase their work and connect with clients, dared to do the impossible and combine personalization with mass marketing.

The campaign included a series of short animated videos and rented eye-catching out-of-home assets like billboards, which name-dropped high-profile individuals (like George R R Martin) and household names (like Amazon).

The campaign capitalized on the power of personalization – particularly scalable personalization. It didn’t just use names to catch audience members’ eyes but also ensured their ad copy remained relevant to the name or business attached.

Turtl calls this psychological marketing technique deep personalization. This approach goes further than just adding first names, instead tailoring content even further – and getting enhanced content results for marketing teams in the process.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

Personalized campaign
Scaled assets to maximize outreach
Eyecatching designs
Pushes the boundaries of traditional B2B campaign content

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: Personalize for results that connect

Personalization isn’t a new concept for marketers. But it isn’t always easy, even though many of the better B2B marketing campaigns are predominantly digital. Unless you’re thinking outside the box as Upwork did, it pays to make sure your B2B marketing platform is capable of simple, scalable personalization.

3. Slack – “So yeah, we tried Slack”

Riding the coattails of popular sitcoms like The Office and Parks and Recreation, Slack created this funny, mockumentary-style video ad to show exactly why they’re better than other communication apps.

The video follows the company Sandwich Video, one of Slack’s real customers, as they introduce Slack to their office. The result is a testimonial-packed case study and a genuinely entertaining piece of media.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

A humorous approach to their B2B marketing campaign
Packed with information relevant to their audience
Targets audience pain points
Ingenious case study content
Slack knows how to align B2B content marketing with its core mission

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: You’re allowed to be fun

Injecting fun into your B2B marketing campaign is no bad thing. Studies have found humor in marketing builds persuasion and influences a positive brand experience.

More and more businesses are attempting to make their B2B adverts entertaining, but Slack found the perfect balance and even managed to squeeze a long list of integrations into their advert.

The comms your business produces play a big role in establishing your reputation and as Slack’s video points out, can impact internal company culture too.

4. General Electric – What matters

One thing many B2B companies struggle with is getting audiences to care. Whether the product or service they sell is widely used or an everyday tool, audiences usually don’t get beyond “What’s in it for me.”

So, GE played up to this. They created an ad that uses short but powerfully told stories demonstrating how GE uses technology to improve people’s lives. The resulting ads build brand affinity and evoke emotion by showcasing the direct implications of their technological innovations.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

Superb brand storytelling
Humanizes the brand’s mission
Awareness of reputation
Use of statistics

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: Emotions are important

Responding to stories is something we all do instinctively as humans. Well-structured, well-told stories connect storytellers and audiences, triggering chemical reactions that influence preferences and choices.

B2B marketers can capitalize on this by creating marketing collateral that plays into the fact that B2B decisions are emotional.

Marketers who use storytelling can choose a platform for interactive long-form content that captures attention, drives engagement, and provides first-party intent data.

5. Airbnb – Become a host

Airbnb understands that the businesses they are marketing to are unconventional. The audience they’re trying to engage might not even be considered businesses by some – they’re homeowners! But if this dive into the best B2B marketing campaign examples has taught us anything, it’s that non-conformism is often the key to success.

In its campaign to turn homes into businesses, Airbnb keeps its messaging simple. They understand this particular decision is a personal one. This B2B marketing campaign speaks to these psychological drivers, appealing to hearts before minds, leading with visuals, and keeping copy light.

The image-first approach captures attention quickly and encourages those curious enough to find out more for themselves. Statistics, details, and compelling arguments are reserved for content that supports the main campaign.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

Visual first format
Target personal pain points
Focus on story-led benefits for their audience
Encourages exploration of more detail

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: Focus on your visuals

The best B2B campaign ideas don’t try to do too much, too fast.. Remember that your top-of-funnel content doesn’t have to contain your whole pitch – it just needs to create intrigue and make your audience want to find out more.

Creating intrigue is something that imagery is perfectly suited to, especially when balanced with the right copy. For campaigns beyond the world of bespoke ads, visually focused content will grab your audience’s attention.

6. Canva – Canva Create

Launched to encourage people into the tool and encourage them to share their designs, a million people signed up for the inaugural launch of Canva Create in September 2018.

Every year up until 2022, a million more have joined – meaning a staggering 5 million people were actively involved in the campaign at its peak. According to Canva (and Google Bard), the #CanvaCreate hashtag has been used over 100 million times by participants.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

User-generated content at its finest
Gets people into the tool, fast
Directed at an audience who love sharing across socials

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: Cohesive content marketing that maxes momentum

Having built up steam, the campaign was brought forward to March 2023 and used its five-year momentum to announce a batch of product updates. A glitzy live online reveal hosted by CEO Melanie Perkins kicked off a content marketing plan that showcased Canva’s latest releases with flamboyant socials, great copy, and a well-oiled hashtag.

Today’s most influential kind of marketing comes directly from people. User-generated content pulls psychological triggers building trust, advocacy, FOMO, desire – the list goes on.

7. Mailchimp + VICE Media – Second Act

This video campaign forms part of Mailchimp Presents which focuses on humanizing the brand with storytelling. A musician takes the starring role, narrating his dreams and aspirations and how he overcame the struggle to come out, through discovering a welcoming LGBTQ+ community rooted in music.

What makes this B2B marketing campaign work?

Powerful human-centric storytelling
Aligns the brands with societal awareness
A feel-good factor of 10/10

Takeaway B2B marketing idea: Humanizing content from a brand that’s not afraid to experiment

Mailchimp Presents features films, documentaries, and podcasts about everything from making noodles to inspiring stories about people. The brand’s willingness to try unexpected content and partner with players like Vice Media (known for its edgy publishing) pays off. Most B2B marketers stick to tried and tested campaign formulas but often, developing ideas that nobody else dares is precisely what wins

By capturing relatable human struggles and triumphs, each story’s hero pulls us into the narrative – and closer to the brands. Partnerships mean resources are split between brands for better results and reach.