This Caterpillar video is a great example of B2B Marketing for a number of reasons including strategy and influence.
B2B Marketing often targets specific demographics based on their ability to purchase and make decisions.
The rise of influencer marketing is predominantly focused on B2C and therefore creating content that is directly targeting the influencer (and intended user) but not necessarily budget holder (such as YouTuber using specific camera equipment that the young child cannot afford but wants for Christmas) is common place.
Archie Llyons, Global Creative Director at Caterpillar has taken this approach to the video below in a B2B context. As commented in Advertising Age:
"The campaign is designed to reach people outside of our normal scope of customers," Mr. Lyons said, noting that Caterpillar typically targets buyers of heavy equipment for construction, agricultural, mining and other industries.
"The viewer for these videos could be a teenage boy who likes to play Jenga, and he might show his mom and dad, or uncles, who may work in construction," he said.
So is there actually any indication this is a valuable exercise?
The team at Think With Google have conducted another round of research into the B2B marketing space and found the following results:
- 81% of non-C-suiters have a say in purchase decisions.
- 64% of the C-suite have final sign off, so do almost a quarter (24%) of the non-C-suite
Admittedly the idea of a child influencing their parent to buy an excavator is quite extreme however it is a reminder that content strategies need to adopt a broad approach. Importantly content needs to come from all levels within your firm to help reach the buying influencers in your target organisations.
The research mentioned above also notes the high use of mobile and generic searches when reaching projects indicating the firms amplifying content across their employees networks will also be at an advantage from the competition.
