Are B2C marketing campaigns typically more creative than B2B equivalents?

In a hyper-digitalized world, where the prominence of social media channels, streaming platforms, and software applications affords businesses more opportunities than ever to connect with consumer audiences, the battle for advertising supremacy has become increasingly intense.

In this incredibly competitive space, the need to land a unique, effective, and fit for purpose marketing strategy is more profound, as rival companies look to distinguish their goods & services from the rest of the field, and project a brand image that potential clients and customers will enjoy.

Clearly, marketing campaigns differ dependent on who the advertiser is trying to engage, most notably in the context of B2B (business-to-business sales) and B2C (business-to-customer sales). As B2C marketers are usually attempting to sell their product to a fairly sizeable group, which tends to facilitate different demographics and personality types, as opposed to B2B firms who often need to appeal to clients operating in fairly specific or niche sectors, the general consensus is that business to customer advertising naturally stimulates a more creative and agile approach. Indeed, we can point to numerous instances whereby B2C marketers have been impressively imaginative in their work.

Examples of positive customer engagement

Within the gambling industry, we see casino operators commission a range of attractive bonus promotions in an effort to both entice new customers and retain existing members. For example, Betfair routinely issues a mix of casino offers. Some, like the deposit £10 to get 100 free spins bonus, are specifically used to increase sign-up levels, whilst others, such as the daily cash drop initiative and ‘Prize Pinball’ game, are designed to keep registered players returning to the platform.

Spotify’s annual #Wrap’ campaign is another great example of an innovative and effective marketing strategy. Each year, the music streaming service collates and publishes a huge mass of data on listening activity, which not only captures what artists, podcasts and genres are being most regularly accessed but also the behavior of individual users.

As a result, friends (and strangers) can exchange notes on music tastes, forge connections, and tease one another about those guilty pleasures, which all the while helps to build a sense of community amongst app users. By leveraging information that is readily available to them, and encouraging their user population to generate a feel-good factor between themselves, Spotify have developed an intelligent, self-sufficient marketing model that serves to drive immense interest in their product.

The originality stakes: B2C vs. B2B

Whilst B2B advertisers are not averse to developing original concepts and ideas, the statistics arguably suggest they lag slightly behind their B2C counterparts in this respect. According to a recent study conducted by industry experts Marketing Week, which saw 1300 brand-side marketers quizzed on their approach, almost two-thirds of B2B respondents have been more focused on the creativity of campaigns in the previous twelve months than they had in years gone by.

Compare these to B2C responses, and we see that the emphasis on creativity within the business-to-customer segment is already far more embedded; only 54.9% of B2C interviewees have felt the need to increase their focus on creative effectiveness in the past year. Based on this information, and the evidence we see in the field, we can safely assume that this heightened attention towards inventiveness and originality was adopted by B2C stakeholders at an earlier stage. B2B marketers are currently playing catch-up.