sawdust charcoal briquettes Summer Series: Business As Unusual: The World of Business-To-Business Advertising

* Our summer series is broadcast on radio CBC 1 at 1: 30 pm every Saturday.* We explore the business world this week-to-Commercial advertising.It used to be the most boring advertisement in the world.Where did the green copy cut its teeth and wash it-The copywriting ended their career.But when B2B companies dare to advertise on Super Bowls and show the marketing world that ad industrial equipment can be as sexy as an ad sports car, all of this has changed.As early as 1919, the automaker Henry Ford invited Edward, a real estate agent in Michigan.Kingsford is on a camping trip.Kingsford was not the only guest on that outing.Ford also invited inventor Thomas Edison.Although it was an outdoor camping trip, they hardly went camping.The team is in a fleet of six cars with a driver and a chef with a fully equipped kitchen truck.According to the New York Times, Ford invited the realtor because he wanted to discuss a business deal with him.The theme is wood.Specifically, wood grown on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.Look, Americans bought more than 1 million T-cars a year.Between the frame, wheel spokes, dash and row boards, each vehicle contains about 100 board feet of hardwood floors.Henry Ford wanted to have a hardwood floor and produce his own wood.Soon after, Edward Kingsford helped Ford buy 313,000 acres of woodland in Uptown Michigan, where a sawmill and parts factory were built soon.The factory produces all the wood Ford needs, but it also produces a lot of waste in the form of stumps, branches and sawdust.When Ford bowed his head, he saw the money lying on the ground.So he found a chemist who could make pillows.Fuel blocks formed from sawdust and mill waste.He combined it with tar and put it together with corn starch.He called the invention a "charcoal coal ball "."Next, Ford signed a contract with Edison to design a molding fuel plant next to the sawmill and recruited Edward Kingsford to run it.Soon, Ford was selling "picnic bags" containing coal balls and portable grills at his dealership, taking advantage of the connection between driving and outdoor adventures.After World War II, backyard barbecues caught fire as the suburbs began to occupy.In 1951, a group of businessmen bought Ford Charcoal and named the company after the first person who ran the molding fuel plant-Kingsford charcoal molding fuel.Today, backyard BBQ is a great pleasure for the North American weekend.This is the result of a business-Ford Motor Company-doing business with Edward Kingsford real estate-then hiring a chemist to make charcoal coal balls-and then signing up with Thomas Edison's company, build and then hire Kingsford to run Ford Charcoal and later become Kingsford charcoal.This is a business.to-business-to-business-to-business-to-Business success storyWhen most people think of marketing, they think of a company that promotes its products to the public.However, there is another way of selling that the public rarely sees.This is the business world-to-Commercial advertising.This is a different kind of marketing-because it is not targeted at the public and usually involves advertising for industrial services and products.It used to be the most boring advertisement in the world.Then everything changed ...... When I started my career in my early 80 s, business --to-Commercial advertising is called trade advertising or industrial advertising.Usually, the green copy will bite the teeth or wash the teeth here.Business-to-Commercial advertising-what is now called B2B advertising, is a serious marketing.It was created to sell commercial products to purchasing agents within the company.In most cases, products advertised are expensive and technically high.Such as industrial machinery, or inventory management systems.Copies in B2B advertising are usually dry goods of a range of components and specifications.The headline news posted fascinating information such as: "The new vertical sewage pump offers 3,000 gallons per minute!Exclamation mark.Unlike mainstream advertising, the buying cycle in the B2B world is long-meaning buyers may take months or years to make a decision.Most B2B ads are made in trade magazines or in the form of brochures and detailed product reports.Some organizations have chosen B2B, but they have been marginalized by more exciting mainstream organizations.There have never been ambitious advertisers who want to work for B2B organizations, and trade ads are even classified as awards ceremonies that they rarely attend themselves.B2B stands for boredom-to-boring.Humor is considered totally inappropriate.Sexy consumer ads never mix up with brushesCutting the world of industrial advertising.Until one day, a cowboy met a cat ...... Back in 1962, rose Pero-who ran for president 30 years later, Rose Pero-borrowed $1,000 from his wife to startHe called the company an electronic data system company.Pelo's idea is to provide data management for big companies.To 1980 generation, Electronic Data Systems, or known as EDS, have become more than oneA billion-dollar company that provides services for contracts with big companies and the United StatesS.military.But when e-Business broke out after 90 s and EDS began to lose cache.The new, active web company was a hit, and EDS was suddenly seen as a clunky old economy company-rooted in the mainframe and the Single Economy --task terminals.The problem is that this bad reputation should not be.EDS remains a leader in the industry, but because of its age and size it is considered out of sync with the new economy.EDS is no longer short-listed for e-Signing a business contract makes it impossible to recruit young skilled workers.It's clear that EDS needs to reshape their brand.To do this, two things have to be done: first, it requires media like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times to sit and watch.Second, it requires technology decision makers to completely re-Evaluate the company.So in the 1999 S, EDS did something that B2B advertisers rarely did.It decided to advertise on the Super Bowl.This is a brave move.At that time, the total number of technology decision makers in Fortune 500 companies was likely to be less than 2,000.The Super Bowl shipped about 100 million people.So why pay more than $3 million for one?Minute Super Bowl ads when you only try to reach 2,000 people?This seems to be a very inefficient marketing purchase.But EDS has a plan.It wants to reach out to tech decision makers who don't usually watch TV-but they all watch the Super Bowl.Most importantly, the company wants to re-Introduce yourself to the world.So it won time in the most epic broadcast of the year and created an epic business.Its title is "cat herdsmen ".In the science and technology world, "sheep cats" is a perfect metaphor, because success is determined by the combination of three clumsy things --Information, ideas and technology.The take-Away: EDS thrive by overcoming complexity.Results: Media coverage is estimated to be worth $12 million, and more than 230 news agencies have mentioned cat owners in Super Bowl reports, including the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.The audience of the Super Bowl was full of praise for the cat owners.Even President Clinton mentioned this in a speech, saying that China is trying to crack down on Internet freedom, just as Cowboys are trying to put cat ads for EDS."This is the best advertisement I saw on TV last year," the president said .".But most importantly, EDS's sales grew by 20% compared to last year, and new businesses grew by 40%.The day after the Super Bowl, the number of hits on the EDS site exceeded 1 million for the first time in history.It broke through 7 million a week later.Cat raising is no doubt a business.to-Commercial advertising.This marks a whole new day for EDS and forces potential customers to start over completelyEvaluate the company.EDS broke the rules of trade advertising.Not boring or stiff.This is just one of the best ads on the Super Bowl.When EDS surprised the audience with a powerful and creative Super Bowl ad, it readjusted the industry's view of trade advertising.This is a lesson no other company has lost.Pssst.Would you like to buy a router for $250,000?When Cisco wanted to launch its new ASR9000 router, it designed a wide range of businesses --to-Business marketing activities including usual reports, presentations, and product specification sheets.But it also includes videos uploaded to YouTube.This is an unusual video as it shows this quarterThe million dollar ASR9000 router could be a good Valentine's Day gift: as Cisco's marketing director said, his company wants to reduce business confusion by making customers smile.Cisco knows this business.to-Business buying decisions are made emotionally and then rationalized according to logic and facts.That's why humor plays a key role in the company's marketing.Humor creates connections.Connect to create confidence.Confidence creates trust.Immediately after the video was played, the person who exerted an impact on the purchase of a commercial product began to post positive feedback about the Cisco video.Enthusiastic comments were made in trade publications.The New York Times published a positive article.The most important thing is that the client starts to bring together meetings and presentations.The campaign succeeded in humanizing a device, usually located in a dark room behind the office, which turned the launch day into a launch that lasted for several weeks by generating constant chatter, this makes Cisco feel stylish and confident.It was one of the top five launches in the company's history.The video breaks the B2B rules and makes the ASR9000 aggregation service router sexy, which seems impossible.Do you remember the moment of danger: this is a shocking sight?The two best "dangerous" champions competed in real time with IBM supercomputer Watson.In the end, Watson became a dangerous champion of the Championship.10 million people watched the show.However, most of the 10 million people did not realize that Watson's appearance at the dangerous edge was a major business --to-Business marketing activitiesIBM has been looking for mainstream ways to sell computers to Fortune 1000 companies.Jeopardy is a perfect car.This is a height.TV programs for smart content.Two weeks before the release of the dangerous challenge, IBM launched 30 short videos on YouTube, explaining how Watson's technology is applied to various industries.PBS show Nova was invited to broadcast a documentary about Watson a week before the show.IBM teamed up with an editor of BusinessWeek to publish a book about the competition.Due to Jeopardy's schedule, there is still a month from recording to actual broadcasting, so IBM makes the most of these 30 days to vigorously promote supercomputers-fully understanding Watson is a secret winner.After the program was broadcast, IBM attracted great attention.Thousands of articles have been published in the media, and young tech talent has been flooded with IBM applications.But most importantly, Watson's display of power inspired B2B customers to imagine how IBM's technology could be applied to their industry.A week after the crisis, inquiries from companies, universities and government agencies flooded IBM.The challenge for dangerous IBM may be entertainment TV, but it's one of the most successful B2B events in a decade.The activity that most clearly shows the changing trend of B2B advertising comes from the most unlikely source: Volvo trucks.The Swedish manufacturer has developed a new heavy-duty production line.Heavy transport trucks with leading technology.The company wants to promote the technology in an unconventional way.So Volvo hired a very creative Swedish advertising company.In the end, two important insights form the idea: first, the truck driver has an emotional connection with the truck they are driving.Second, a large number of people, including families, colleagues and bosses, have influenced purchasing decisions.Therefore, advertising must cover a wide range of people.As a result, Volvo and its agencies have planned a viral marketing strategy.The idea is to make six short films showing the "live test" of each new truck function ".All these are hot topics on social media.But this is the last movie to be a great success.One of the features of the new Volvo truck is its dynamic steering technology.In other words, the steering ability is very precise and you can drive two Volvo trucksTrailer-high speed-side-by-side -The perfect gap between them will remain 2 feet.Not one inch off.To prove this feat, the advertising company hired a celebrity in the video.The celebrity... Jean-Claude Van DammThe Limber action hero will be an inspiring choice.Van Damm is good.The whole world knows, but he's not one.lister anymore.So he's not that expensive.Then they shot the most amazing thing Van Damm did ...... It has become one of the most watched ads ever, with more than 80 million views.This is an amazing number for any business-not to mention business-to-Commercial advertising.The campaign produced more than 20,000 news reports around the world-equivalent to an estimated $0.17 billion in free broadcast time.There is no doubt that epic split gets a lot of attention.But the real insight is: Volvo wants experienced drivers-drivers who have seen it all --Surprised by the accuracy of the presentation.It wants to communicate closely with drivers who know first-hand informationHow difficult it is to control a tractor-High speed trailer.People around the world are watching action star Van Damm's parting ways, while truck drivers see the real star, Volvo's revolutionary steering control system.A survey conducted after a short period of time showed that half of the truck drivers who watched the ads said they were more likely to buy Volvo the next time they bought the truck-one out of 3 had contacted a dealerAs I often say, creativity is a powerful business tool.According to the Advertising Age magazine, Volvo spent $3 million on making these films, but eventually generated $0.175 billion in revenue.This is a huge return on investment.Business-to-Commercial advertising has come a long way.As early as the 1980 s, there was a variety of industrial advertising: industrial advertisingBoring.Then, in 1999, everything changed appropriately.Centuries have passed, and an insight has changed business --to-Forever commercial: B2B buyers actually prefer the brands they buy more than the average consumer because they have more losses.As General Electric's chief marketing officer recently said, you can return a pair of pants.Buying expensive business equipment is a bigger decision.The risk is greater.Making the wrong choice, the buyer may not only lose credibility, but also lose her job.Therefore, when there is such a great pressure in the purchase decision, it is worthwhile to construct this choice in human terms.This means marketing a person-not a building or company.A lesson in businessto-The business world learned from business.to-consumer world.This is a huge shift in marketing.Not long ago, you couldn't pay enough money for a young copywriter to work for a B2B advertising company.Today, these copywriters are jealous of the business of the ASR9000 converged service router .......When you're affected