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B-to-b creative tends to follow a set formula: product features + disembodied voice-over + generic visuals.
You know what we’re talking about—stock images of professionals in gray suits sitting around a conference room table shaking hands. Text that describes your product in excruciating, quantitative detail. 111% ROI, 33% faster speeds, 77% reduction in costs. Generic attributes that could apply to any brand—“innovative,” “reliable.” And don’t forget the voice actor with the soothing baritone. And then, at the absolute last second, the big branding reveal.
The problem is that this formula for b-to-b creative does not work. And we know it doesn’t work because we’ve looked at the evidence.
At the B2B Institute, we recently partnered with System1, a global marketing research and effectiveness company, to measure more than 2,500 b-to-b ads from 2020 to 2022. We tested for ad likeability—and brand growth potential—using System1’s “five-star scale.” One star means the ad is unlikeable and unmemorable, while five stars means the ad is likeable and memorable. The more likeable the ad, the better chance it has of getting noticed and being remembered. More importantly, ad likeability is a useful predictor of sales growth.
Since 95% of b-to-b buyers are not currently in the market for your products and services, the primary job of b-to-b creative isn’t to generate an immediate sale (though some buyers will see the ad and purchase the product). Rather, the primary job of b-to-b creative is to build memories of the brand that make future purchases more likely.
So, how does b-to-b creative score on likeability?
More than two-thirds of b-to-b creative scored one star. In other words, those ads were forgettable. System1 recommends three stars as the minimum for an effective ad; fewer than 1 in 10 b-to-b ads pass the three-star standard. B-to-b substantially underperforms business-to-consumer ads on these metrics, and the gap has doubled since 2020.
System1 also tests for brand recognition using its “brand fluency” metric. Fluency is measured by determining what percentage of buyers can name the brand after watching the ad. For creative to work, the ad doesn’t just need to be likeable—it also needs to ensure that the right brand is remembered, and not a competitor’s brand.