Beige 2 Brilliant: Bringing creativity back to your B2B event marketing

Article
14.11.2024

Let’s set the record straight: I’m not saying all B2B events are void of creativity, but I am saying that there’s a noticeable difference between big-budget B2B, like CES or SXSW, and your basic B2B conference. This shouldn’t be the case - creativity is non-negotiable. Simple. Of course, it’s easier to dial up on Cannes Beach in June than it is for your annual trade convention in Stoke-on-Trent on a rainy Tuesday night, but the point still stands, we wade through far more beige than we ought to.  

So, in the interest of practising what we preach, this won’t be your standard prosaic article. Let’s cut right to the chase and give you earnest marketing folks the scoop with a little creative seasoning: 

Format, format, format. 

Everyone loves B2B at Cannes, not just because of the booze, sun and A-listers but because the traditional rule book of B2B “expectations” gets thrown into the sea, meaning these events don’t actually feel like traditional B2B ones. Delivering the unexpected removes the dread people might have as soon as your event invite hits their inbox.  

Here is your guide to escape the beige: 

01 Surprise: If I know exactly what you’re going to say and how you’re going to put it together, why should I get excited? Just because you can’t change the location of the exhibition or when the keynote happens doesn’t mean you can’t spice up other aspects. Push the boundaries and ask yourself what story you're telling for the brand. Is it the exact same one you’ve been telling for the last 5 years, presented in a copy & paste format? Yikes. 

02 More human centricity, more passion! Appealing to human emotions is the first step, which the industry does with varying levels of success. The problem is this is where most stop. Even after all the years of thought leaders imploring B2B marketers to treat their audience as people instead of beige bots, the call is still falling on deaf ears.  

Being truly audience first means taking all your B2C learnings and embedding them in your B2B experience. This means segmenting properly and diving into your audience's attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and pain points. It’s realising that people have different learning styles. Learning through play isn’t just for kids, why do we assume that business people want to be dictated to for hours on end? Who says it has to be this way? 

Killer examples:

Pinterest Pinvision 2024: 

You say Pinterest, I say positivity. That’s exactly the energy they brought to shatter the conventional B2B format for Pinvision. The event was the literal embodiment of an ecosystem that enriches its visitors, inviting hundreds of advertisers through a 5-room, immersive tour of the platform’s inner workings, including a gameshow, holographic displays and serene light installations. Of course, they could have delivered the same information just as succinctly with a big wig presenter and some spiffy slides… but they didn’t, and it shows! The format disrupted expectations and gave rise to an exciting narrative that got people talking beyond just the event.  

TikTok Creativity Summit 2024: 

We’re no strangers to shifting the vibes on a large scale, either. For TikTok’s exclusive Creativity Summit, we dashed the rulebook to bring together a dynamic mix of emerging and top-tier creators with publishers. We understood that the brilliance of the summit lies in the mutually beneficial exchange between both parties, and that would only happen if we held their attention throughout. So, instead of forcing creators to sit still for hours on end, we designed our experience to pique their curiosity by offering a little more than first met the eye. Our theme of “Other Worlds” transported participants to parallel worlds through a portal, symbolising the union of creators and publishers.   

Final takeaway: 

The most memorable experiences are the ones that stimulate strong emotions - this isn’t an approach reserved for B2C audiences! The element of surprise is a brilliant way to shock people into joy and excitement, but it often gets overlooked in this area of the industry. And while your audience expects the data and rigour to back up your claims, they will thank you for saving them from another route one event in a stuffy conference hall with dry biscuits and a bland coffee.