“Why is our marketing so damn boring?”

This question is not being asked by roughly 75% of B2B CMOs or 99% of their CEOs, CFOs, CROs, and investors. And in the absence of this question, B2B marketing and B2B marketers are suffering from a self-inflicted malaise.

Let’s review the symptoms of this malaise.

When the Big Ideas Vanish

First, marketing departments are fast becoming the place where fun goes to die. The pursuit of the big idea has been replaced by micro everything. Short-lived disposable campaigns seek nominal bumps in click-through rates. Short-term efficiency has replaced long-term effectiveness, especially as every process gets AI-ified.

CMOs dare not use the word “brand” for fear of appearing fluffy and insubstantial. And don’t even think about having a budget line item with the word “brand” in it. Euphemisms for “brand” like “reputation” have helped a bit in that most executives understand that having a reputation, especially a good one, is critical in this era of self-directed, LLM-informed buying committees. But even using the word “reputation” doesn’t result in less boring content or campaigns.

The negativity about brand-building or reputation-building rolls into an absence of brand health tracking. As the old saying goes, you are what you measure. When all of your measurement energy goes into funnel optimization, there’s little hope of focusing on something extraordinary, like a big, differentiating, highly engaging IDEA that cuts through.

Why Funny Wins in B2B

Boring marketing so dominates B2B that just a dash of humor or creativity rings our collective bells from here to Cannes. I was reminded of this while watching a new video from Iterable (see comments for the line). It expresses an idea. It’s funny. It’s memorable. I like Iterable more than I did before, and I was already a fan.

Full disclosure: The CMO of Iterable, Adri Gil-Miner, is a long-time member of CMO Huddles, and Iterable was a sponsor of last year’s CMO Super Huddle. But if you know me, you’d know I wouldn’t share it if I didn’t think it was worth sharing. Also, I haven’t spoken to Adri yet about the campaign, but I will once she has results to share.

I was also reminded of this when the PR team of ServiceNow reached out for me to interview their CMO, Colin Fleming. Now there’s a company with a long-standing sense of humor. Dare I say it? They’ve built a BRAND that people like. And guess what? That more than pays the bills. ServiceNow’s revenue, earnings, and customer base have all grown faster than the software industry averages. Their operating and gross margins are industry-leading and surpass Salesforce, Adobe, and Workday.

Is it a coincidence that ServiceNow has outperformed the software industry year after year and is one of the few B2B brands with a genuine and consistent sense of humor, with content that simultaneously informs and entertains?

Me thinks not. What do you think?

Written by Drew Neisser