Show Notes:

1. Introduction to Chris LeClerc and his company, Territory6 (0:00)
2. The meaning behind the name "Territory6" and its connection to storytelling (1:30)
3. Discussion on the simplicity and power of storytelling in marketing (3:45)
4. The importance of visual storytelling and showing vs. telling (9:00)
5. Trends in brand storytelling: from mini-documentaries to narrative films (11:30)
6. The "barbell approach" to marketing: balancing entertainment and brand messaging (14:15)
7. Challenges of long-form content vs. traditional commercials (16:00)
8. The risk and reward of storytelling in advertising (18:30)
9. Analysis of the famous Eminem Chrysler commercial (22:00)
10. Defining story: the importance of conflict in narratives (24:00)
11. South Park creators' approach to storytelling: "This happens, but then this happens" (26:00)
12. Final thoughts on why conflict makes stories compelling (27:30)

Key Quotes:

• "Stories have been around since the beginning of the earth, and they always take you to a different place." - Chris LeClerc
• "Would you rather have people wanting to watch a thing that only shows your logo once, but they watch it five times because they love it, or people watching 5% of your ad only once because they hate it?" - Guy Bauer
• "Are you able to stop the world for just a moment and make them remember?" - Chris LeClerc
• "Good is boring." - Guy Bauer

References:

• Territory6
• Don Hewitt and 60 Minutes
• Googleheimer project
• Apple's "Apple at Work" series
• Eminem Chrysler "Imported from Detroit" commercial
• South Park creators on storytelling
• Spaceballs quote

Here are the 5 tips for making an obligatory corporate video feel less cringeworthy:

Get out of the office for interviews

• Shoot outside or in interesting locations, not just stale office settings
• Frame shots creatively, not typical corporate talking heads=

Never use stock footage

• Plan ahead and storyboard to avoid relying on generic stock clips
• Get creative with illustrations, animations, or recreating scenes yourselves

Keep it super short

• 2.5 minutes max, no exceptions
• If you need more time, make it a series instead of one long video

Find the music first before shooting

• Let the soundtrack inspire shots, edits, pacing
• Build in natural transitions around musical cues

Pay for color grading

• Adds a premium, polished look that elevates it beyond typical "video"
• Differentiates it from amateur productions

Guy Bauer unveils an innovative approach to getting more leads: mind-reading your clients. Learn how to delve deep into your clients' thoughts and pinpoint their exact needs and frustrations. Guy guides you through the process of crafting marketing messages that resonate so profoundly, they feel personalized. If you're seeking a groundbreaking strategy to transform prospects into leads, this episode is a game-changer for marketers and business owners alike!

Links we mentioned:

Kids in Space – Parts I-IV

Apple – The Lost Voice

Matomo – Googleheimer

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

Guy Bauer unveils the unconventional approach that powers Umault's marketing success. It's a tale of bold trials, numerous failures, and unexpected triumphs. 

Discover why an 85% failure rate isn't just acceptable, it's the secret ingredient. Hear about their hit-and-miss adventures, from the unexpected viral success of a parody trailer to the deafening silence of well-crafted campaigns. 

Guy demystifies the art of marketing with real-world examples, proving that sometimes, the most profound insights come from what doesn't work. 

This episode isn't just about marketing strategies; it's a masterclass in resilience, analysis, and the art of learning from failure. 

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

Guy Bauer uses personal stories to illustrate the complexity of clients, showing they're more than their professional façade. From his love for news shows to viral TikTok trends, he reveals the diverse interests people hold beyond the boardroom. This episode is a must-listen for content creators, offering a fresh, humorous perspective on engaging with multifaceted audiences. Tune in for an entertaining and eye-opening discussion that will transform how you view and interact with your clients!

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

This week on "Death to the Corporate Video," host Guy Bauer throws the rule book out the window! Tired of tick-box creativity? So are we. Dive into an episode that challenges everything you thought you knew about being "strategic" in the B2B video world.

Guy dissects the unexpected viral success of their Halloween parody, "Possessed," and exposes the truth behind creativity: there's no secret formula, no checklist, and certainly no predicting what will hit the jackpot in the B2B marketing space.

From breaking his own rules to recognizing the magic in irrational choices, Guy argues that true creativity is about experimentation, understanding human irrationality, and most importantly, trusting your gut.

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

If you've ever found yourself impatiently tapping the "Skip Ad" button on YouTube or zoning out during a commercial break, you're embodying the title of this article. 

No matter how many millions are poured into producing that Acura ad, we are inclined to skip it if it interrupts our favorite YouTuber. Even if a commercial is of GEICO quality – a brand known for its entertaining commercials – it doesn't change the underlying reality: most of the time, we'd rather not watch it.

However, does this mean the art of creating ads is futile? Not at all. There's a workaround. By understanding that 99.9% of viewers don't want to see advertisements, brands can craft more effective strategies.

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

What’s the big idea? It can seem there are endless decisions to make when starting a B2B video marketing project. In this episode, Guy and Hope discuss what the single most important thing you need to invest in to get the most effective video ad possible. 

Additional discussions include what to look for when choosing a video ad agency. (We know a good one, but they’re not right for everyone.) And listen to the end of the episode for a special announcement.

For more, listen to the episode or read the transcript below.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

A lot of B2B marketers worry about the wrong things when making a B2B video ad. They focus on the little things but ignore some of the major issues that will make a video ad successful. 

6 things that B2B marketers should start worrying about

1. How much money you have budgeted for paid media. 
2. The video ad length. It’s probably too long! 
3. What your customers think of your ads, not what your coworkers or friends think of your ad. 
4. Millennials are becoming (or already are) your B2B buyer, and they have different buying habits than previous generations. 
5. The long game. Video ads may take a long time to see results.
6. Everything after the video. What’s the video title, description, distribution plan, landing page, customer offer (and more)?

We’re going to come out and say it: All B2B videos have the potential to be cool. Yes, every one. All testimonials, all explainers, all B2B ads — they can all be cool if you put in a little extra effort.

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope share six tips for how to make your B2B videos cool.

How to make a B2B video cool

1. Get rid of details. 
2. Make it shorter. 
3. Production design. Make it look cool. 
4. Embrace weirdness. 
5. Be aware of your creative immune system. Don't let it reject things that are new. 
6. Elevate with texture and cool accessories.

For more on each tip, listen to the full episode or read the transcript below.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Today we are taking an idea from a listener and breaking down a recent project. We’ll get into the good, the bad, and the lunch recommendation.

Before listening, please watch our spot “It’s time for Slingshot.”

In this episode, we’ll unpack:

• Who the client is and what they came to us for
• What our strategy was
• How we came up with the project creative
• Wins and challenges across pre-production, production, and post

Like this episode? Hated it? It’s your last chance to complete our podcast survey! Let us know what you think about the show and enter for a chance to win either an Amazon gift card or a donation to your local food bank.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

The Super Bowl commercials for 2023 had a lot of themes seen in previous years: nostalgic callbacks, fun dance moves, and celebrity faces (literally, in one spot this year). 

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss the B2B entries in the 2023 Super Bowl: Squarespace, Workday, and Crowdstrike.

We also break down the favorite ads across these categories:

Most beautiful

Funniest

Made us cry

Best use of a celebrity

Most cringe

Most meh

Worst

Favorite

Miss any of the commercials we discussed? 

Watch all of this year’s spots.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

In this episode, Guy breaks down what he believes is the single most critical step in producing an effective B2B video ad campaign. He reveals it's not the initial concept, scriptwriting, storyboards, production, or editing - but rather successfully getting buy-in on the script draft itself.

Guy likens this script review phase to the "max q" moment during a rocket launch - the point of maximum dynamic pressure where if not handled perfectly, the entire mission could fail. Similarly, the first script draft is where a video ad concept transitions from abstract idea to concrete reality, making it extremely fragile and vulnerable.

Guy provides tips for expertly navigating this make-or-break script approval process, including:

• Never just send the raw script draft - "prime" it first by recapping the strategy/goals
• Consider reading/acting out the script instead of just circulating text
• Intentionally including some "playground areas" that stakeholders can tweak
• Making the case for why this step requires careful handling

He stresses that once you get through this maximum pressure point of script approval, the remaining production steps become much smoother since everyone is firmly aligned on the creative direction.

Link: "Freddy reads script" opening scene from Mad Men

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

There are certain marketing myths that we hear over and over that make our blood boil. Believing in these myths holds back your company and your marketing efforts. As we enter 2023, we want to leave these myths in the past.

5  B2B marketing myths (that need to die)

1. In order to be relevant, you have to be trendy.
2.  Marketing is a faucet for leads you can just turn on and off.
3. If you make a good ad, people will share it.
4. My business or industry needs to be professional and boring.
5. The perfect marketing framework exists.

And bonus: mountain climbing is a great metaphor for business.

For more on each marketing myth and why it’s untrue, listen to the episode or read the transcript below.

One more thing: Please take 5 minutes to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you think of the show. One lucky respondent will win either a $50 Amazon gift card or a donation to their local food bank. 

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

As you are planning how to use your video marketing budget for 2023, you likely want to get as much value out of your dollars as possible. In this episode, Guy and Hope share six tips for getting the most out of your B2B video marketing budget

How to get the most out of your B2B video marketing budget

1. Keep in mind the 60/40 split. Spend 60% of your budget on branding activities, 40% of your budget on activation. 
2. Find budget efficiencies by batching your video production projects. If you have limited budget, don't just make one video. De-risk yourself by making several different spots that you can use, test, and find what works best.
3. Have your strategy and messaging finalized before you start creating video or any other expensive creative assets.
4. Align your budget proportionally along the sales funnel for video production. Spend the most on awareness/top-of-funnel spots and less as you go down.
5. Identify one channel that generates the most leads. Create content that works specifically on that channel, instead of trying to make content for every channel.
6. Invest your budget in creative, not production.

For more on each tip, listen to the episode or read the transcript.

(Hey listeners: Please take 5 minutes to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you think of the show. One lucky respondent will win either a $50 Amazon gift card or a donation to their local food bank.) 

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Top B2B video marketing trends for 2023

1. Corporate video will continue to die.
2. B2B companies will launch their own streaming networks for video content distribution.
3. B2B marketers will embrace more humor in their video ads.
4. B2B companies will explore new channels for distributing video ads, including TV and OTT.
5. Disruptors are coming, and they're using B2C marketing tactics, not classic B2B tactics.
6. B2B video is getting shorter. It's time to start making more video ads. 

For more on each trend, listen to the episode or read the transcript below.

PS: Are you a regular listener? Please take 3 minutes to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you think of the show. One lucky respondent will win either a $50 Amazon gift card or a donation to their local food bank.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

When starting a new project of any kind, unrealistic expectations are the quickest way to guarantee failure. Since many B2B companies are new to creating video ads, this episode will provide the realistic expectations that you should have going into a new video ad project.

Top 5 realistic expectations to have of your B2B video ad project

1. It can take a while to start working.
2. It’s expensive.
3. Producing the ads takes time.
4. Attribution is difficult.
5. You need a distribution plan and budget for paid media.

For more on each one, listen to the episode or read the transcript below. Plus: all these expectations sound like a real bummer. Why should you make a B2B video ad anyway?

Listen to part one of this series: 5 realistic expectations to have of your audience

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” we’re spilling our biggest secret: how to make a game-changing video ad for your B2B brand. 

The process doesn’t start with a video shoot, and it doesn’t even start with coming up with an idea. The way to make a video ad that will be most effective for your brand is to start with a detailed strategy. Once you have that, you can move into concepting.

Throughout the episode, Guy and Hope give advice for marketers on everything from:

• How to run an effective brainstorming session
• The important of hiring the right copywriter for your video script
• Why you shouldn’t skip the storyboarding step
• The best places in the process for a snack break

Recommended resources include Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

When releasing marketing videos, especially in B2B, we all need to have realistic expectations of our audience. They are generally not approaching your video with the same mindset that you are. Keeping these realistic expectations in the back of your mind as you create content will help you make videos that are more likely to be watched and thus more effective.

The 5 realistic expectations to have of your B2B audience

1. They don’t care about you or your competition as much as you do.
2. They don’t pick up on subtlety or nuance
3. They’re satisficing. They are not on a journey for ultimate truth or knowledge. 
4. In the absence of your marketing, they will default to safety.
5. The odds of them watching a whole video are low. 

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

The website needs to be updated. The product isn’t ready. Leadership wants to wait until Q2. 

What excuses have you heard or made for why a video or marketing campaign wasn’t launched? In this episode we discuss the root of why many marketers hold on to completed projects (hint: it’s fear of failure), how to identify the problem, and what you can do to overcome it.

Correction: In this episode we talk about a controversial Pepsi ad and say it starred Kylie Jenner. It was actually Kendall Jenner. We were correct to say it should never have been released.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

When starting a new creative project, marketers may worry about making a mistake by overpaying or choosing the wrong agency.

However, the biggest mistake that we see clients making has nothing to do with the RFP. The biggest mistake is when clients start a new creative project with the final idea and creative solve already baked in their minds.

What are some issues that arise when you’ve already settled on your creative idea before the project even starts?

1. If you already have the idea finalized in your head, you may be resistant to the agency’s suggestions. 
2. You may contort a strategy to fit the creative idea, rather than going where the strategy takes you. You end up using a flawed strategy to justify what you were going to do anyway (which defeats the point of a strategy!).
3. If you got project approval based on an idea rather than an outcome, you may have trouble with stakeholders. They may be resistant to the agency’s suggestions, or they may blame you if the result is ineffective.
4. If the idea is good, then skip the creative agency entirely! Go to a production company or a designer to execute your vision. It’ll save you time and money.

For more on each side effect, listen to the episode or read the transcript below.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

One of the most common requests we get as a B2B video agency is: We need a video that explains what we do. Great! But then too many of these videos become two and a half minutes of software screens with droning voiceover. And at the end of it, viewers still don’t know exactly what it is you do.

On this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss the problems with the way most B2B companies explain what they do in video, and provide two alternate frameworks for creating something helpful and engaging for your audience.

Resources and videos mentioned in this episode

HPE IT monster ad

Umault’s “What we do” spot

Synchronized Planning & Fulfillment use case video

Previous episode: Using video throughout the sales funnel

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

New platforms like MNTN are making it easier than ever to advertise on streaming TV networks like Hulu. With competitive pricing and supposed precise targeting, is now the time for B2B companies to join in?

Advertising on streaming platforms, known as OTT advertising, could be the perfect way for B2B companies to increase brand awareness. Or it could result in a lot of wasted views on the wrong audience. 

On this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss what B2B companies should consider when weighing the pros and cons of OTT advertising.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Don't get bored or try to be too creative if your current formula is driving results.

Key Points:

• Umault received a comment pointing out their frequent use of movie trailer parody videos, suggesting they had become formulaic
• Initially, Guy wondered if they were overusing that concept, but realized the flaw in that thinking
• The goal of marketing is to deliver your message effectively to the audience—if you've cracked that code, why change it?
• Guy draws a parallel to working at a radio station playing the same 50 songs on repeat - seems repetitive internally but not to the audience
• Even if some audience overlap, most people don't critique using the same shtick twice if it's impactful
• The bigger risk is deviating from what works and missing with an untested new gimmick
• Jerry Seinfeld: "The rule in Hollywood is when you have a hit, don't touch it because no one knows why it's a hit"
• Breakthroughs in marketing are so rare - changing things up on a whim is irresponsible
• You have to milk a proven winner until interest naturally declines before moving on

Quotes:

"Who cares if insiders perceive a pattern when your audience doesn't?"

"When it works, keep doing it. Do not move on from it."

Episode Links:

Teamwork.com "The Client" movie trailer parody video

Umault's past Halloween video promos

We recently declared the end of the one-size-fits-all video in B2B marketing. What should B2B companies do instead?

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” we break down the three videos every B2B company needs to create a full video marketing funnel. 

These three videos are perfect for brands just starting out with video marketing, or those looking to refresh that brand film from 2014. 

The three videos every B2B company needs

1. An awareness ad for social and paid media that introduces the problem you solve.
2. A consideration video that explains what the product or service is and how it benefits the customer.
3. A decision video that reassures buyers that your product is a safe bet.

Resources

How to video throughout the sales funnel

Our testimonial video episode

Why you shouldn’t make just one video

How to allocate your video marketing budget

Why you should consider a “year of ads” strategy

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

We’re just over halfway through the year, and we’ve been noticing some common trends in B2B ads in 2022. Guy and Hope sat down to discuss four trends that you can jump on for 2022, and one that’s played out.

Top 5 B2B ad trends for 2022

1. “Not boring” B2B advertising is the new normal.
2. B2B brands are starting to use more celebrities in their ads.
3. The word of the year for B2B ads in 2022 is “brand.”
4. The one-size-fits-all B2B video is dead. RIP.
5. Using history to explain web3 and Industry 4.0 products is played out.

To learn more about each trend, listen to the episode or read the transcript. The “2030 B2B Trends: Contrarian Ideas For The Next Decade” report from the B2B Institute is available here.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

In a recent LinkedIn poll, 64% of respondents said their favorite commercials were funny. So why are so few B2B video ads funny? 

Some people are scared. Others don’t want to take the risk. But lots of marketers likely don’t know where to start.

On this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope share six tips for using humor in B2B advertising. Read the tips below and listen to the episode to hear more.

How to use humor in B2B advertising

1. Understand that humor is fugu — poisonous in the wrong hands.
2. If you want to make something funny, work with people (writers, directors, agencies) who know how to do humor.
3. Don’t try to be funny.
4. A funny premise isn’t enough.
5. Avoid jumping on bandwagons or memes.
6. Keep it short.

Examples of funny B2B ads

PremiumBeat - The voice of PremiumBeat

Umault - The Stalking

Gong.io - Super Bowl commercial

Dissolve - This is a generic brand video

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

When the Umault team is preparing to pitch creative to a client, one of the questions we have to answer is “What’s pizza about this?” Answering this question will help you create better and more effective B2B content. 

The pizza question was inspired by a revelation years ago about what content most resonated with readers of a company intranet. The answer, unsurprisingly, was pizza. Turns out everyone loves pizza. 

In this episode, Guy and Hope break down why your B2B content needs to be more like pizza, and how you can get there.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Last week Guy and Hope attended the B2B Marketing Ignite USA conference in Chicago. The sessions followed several common themes, which illuminate the state of B2B marketing in 2022:

• You need to build a brand. Now.
• Building a brand is about more than revenue. It’s essential to attract the best talent.
• Brand building is your moat to protect yourself from competitors copying your features and benefits.
• B2B buying decisions are emotional, and brands that deliver can generate more loyalty than even the best B2C brands.

For more on each theme, listen to the full episode or read the transcript below.

(Bonus: See any familiar names among the Elevation Awards winners?)

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

As B2B brands focus more and more on brand awareness activities, we’ve noticed that many of them do not have an established or consistent brand voice. They want to make more content, but lack the framework needed to ensure all the content has the same voice. 

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss:

• What a brand voice is
• Why it’s essential for building B2B brand awareness
• How to create one (or check if you have one)

Before you think, “But wait, we have a brand voice. It’s definitely a line in our brand book” and skip this episode, ask anyone who creates content for your brand what it is. If they don’t all give you the same answer, you don’t have a brand voice.

Oh, and listen all the way to the end for a surprise announcement.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

You know you’re an agency founder when you go to Disney World for spring break with your family and return with a deeper understanding of effective B2B marketing. 

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss what B2B marketers can learn from Disney World, including:

• Get people in the right mindset to buy your product.
• There’s nothing wrong with giving people what they want.
• Prospects should leave every interaction with your brand in a better mood than they entered with.

Here’s the Hubspot spot we talk about in the episode, which was also named one of the best B2B ads of 2022!

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

One of the most common requests we get from prospects seems harmless. “Here’s a video ad my competitor has,” they say. “We want to make one of these for our brand.” This simple request has the potential to start the whole video engagement off on the wrong track.

The most effective video ads do not have a lot of comps out there. It’s scary to make something new or to put your own spin on an ad format, but game-changing campaigns only come from original creative.

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss why it’s harmful to start your project by trying to copy someone else, and how you should start your project to improve your chances of success.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Much like the laws of physics, video ads are all subject to a handful of immutable laws. In our experience, all successful video ads have followed these laws. Break any one of them, and you set yourself up for failure.

The 7 immutable laws of video ads

1. You can't edit a bad idea to be good. And you can't edit a good idea to be bad. 
2. All videos need to have a distribution strategy and a release plan.
3. Subtlety is for amateurs. 
4. Video is just a medium for a message. 
5. No one will notice the things you notice. 
6. The success or failure of your video ad is not based on the production day. It's all what happens on paper beforehand. 
7. There are no asterisks or pharmaceutical disclaimers at the end of a spot. People will only judge based on what’s on the screen.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Ah, a plain potato. Full of nutrients and yet so boring. In his book Alchemy, Rory Sutherland uses the potato as an analogy for hiring practices: It’s better to hire several people with complementary skills instead of one jack of all trades. 

While reading the book, Guy was struck by how the same analogy applied to B2B marketing videos. Too many B2B brands are still making one video and hoping it will do everything. And they’re about as satisfying as a plain baked potato.

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope break down:

• The problem with potato videos
• How to tell if your B2B marketing videos are potatoes
• How to fix them if they are, and how to make sure you don’t make potatoes moving forward

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Tired of chasing trends that quickly become irrelevant? This episode offers a contrarian blueprint for crafting marketing that resonates with fundamental human truths that never go out of style. See why enduring creative work like Monty Python connects by satirizing eternal experiences, while topical trend-focused content often dates itself rapidly.

Learn more about Guy and Umault at umault.com

In Wistia’s State of Video 2022 report, survey respondents were asked what new types of video content they planned to create this year. The number one answer was Original Branded Series. 

Interestingly, only 7% of respondents had made an original branded series in the past. That made us start thinking: Why are B2B marketers suddenly interested in original branded content? And how does someone even get started with it?

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope dive into branded content for B2B video marketers. Listen to the episode to learn:

• The difference between original branded content and ads
• What types of original branded content are available for B2B brands
• How to get started with original branded content
• Possible pitfalls to avoid

Branded Content examples

Apple at Work - Escape from the Office

Salesforce - The Story of Sales

Umault - Trapped in a Corporate Video

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Yes, we know we’re already two months into 2022, but we have high hopes for this year. In this episode, we discuss our 22 wishes for B2B marketing in 2022. Read the quick list below, and listen to the episode for more details.

Interested in our wishes for 2021? Revisit last year’s episode.

Umault’s 22 wishes for B2B marketing in 2022

1. Stop thinking of making a video as a goal in and of itself. 
2. Everyone should read B2B Institute's 2030 B2B Trends: Contrarian Ideas For The Next Decade report.
3. More asynchronous video messaging and fewer camera-on meetings. 
4. Morph your marketing KPIs to allow you to have more time to do brand-building marketing. 
5. Bosses, start to give marketers more time to make things good instead of pushing quick returns. 
6. “Not boring” B2B is soon going to be standard. This year is the time to invest in creative marketing.
7. B2B brands stop seeing emotion as a four-letter word. 
8. Develop confidence in marketing's role in the company. You are important!
9. Make distribution a clear part of your B2B brand's video strategy. 
10. Make some smart work. 
11. Attend in-person conferences again. 
12. Make everything shorter.
13. Stop using that stock footage of a robotic human hand to represent the future. 
14. Rethink gated content. Give away your content for free. (And check out our video “The Stalking.”)
15. Social media marketing isn’t free. Start investing in it properly. 
16. Use creativity as your secret weapon in B2B marketing. 
17. Focus more marketing efforts on wide and out of market prospects. 
18. You need to ask yourself, does anyone care about this? Don’t be a “no one” meme.
19. Think about ads and marketing as a strategic asset.
20. Every ad can be a Super Bowl ad. Make some Super Bowl ads this year.
21. Hug more people this year (with their consent, of course).
22. Stay healthy and have boundaries.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Super Bowl LVI was about the Rams, the Bengals… and the commercials. In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” Guy and Hope discuss the best and worst Super Bowl ads in 2022, and what B2B marketers should learn from them.

A few key takeaways:

• Keep it simple, stupid. You only have 30 or 60 seconds. Make sure you aren’t trying to cram too much in there.
• Say your brand name. Integrate your product into your spot. Make sure your product couldn’t easily be swapped out for another. If I can swap the logo out at the end for a competitor, chances are people aren’t going to remember which crypto company made it (for example).
• Make sure the audience knows what your category is and, ideally, your value proposition. Especially in B2B, don’t assume that everyone knows what you do, or that anyone will take the time to find out. Make sure you tell them during your slot!

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Our plan for 2021 was to release a new video ad for Umault every month. We met the goal, but how did our campaign do?

In short, spectacularly.

In this episode of the podcast, Hope and Guy discuss our 5 key takeaways from a year of monthly video ads.

1. Don’t make ads focusing on your competitors. Focus on your client’s competitors.
2. Plan for the year of video ads upfront, but leave room to improvise.
3. We saw no correlation between production cost and effectiveness.
4. Distribution plans are everything.
5. You can make effective ads that don’t hit on your RTBs (reasons-to-believe).

Here are some of the video ads we released this year:

Disparate silos of cereal - Corporate jargon parody

We can't make your kids listen to you

The Stalking

Cookieless 

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

Ideas are elusive. Where do great ideas come from? A bolt of lightning? A passing thought in the shower? Years of being immersed in advertising? When you work in marketing, you don’t have time to wait for inspiration to strike for every campaign. You need great ideas now.

In this episode of Death to the Corporate Video, Guy and Hope walk through the Idea Generator 1.0, a distillation of our actual process for coming up with killer ideas for B2B video ads. The purpose of the Idea Generator is to help you narrow down the possible creative avenues until you find one that makes sense for your campaign.

We’d love to hear any feedback on the Idea Generator. Email the show at hello@umault.com. 

Additional resources to help you use the Idea Generator

Guide to using video across the B2B customer journey

How to develop a B2B video marketing strategy

Using the “pizza test” for marketing ideas

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

We talk a lot on Death to the Corporate Video about the importance of starting any video advertising project with a strategy. That strategy step works out your key messaging, target audience, video uses, and more. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a disappointing trend in B2B video marketing emerging. Brands are skipping doing their own strategy in favor of copying a competitor.

To be clear, we encourage B2B brands to do a competitive analysis as part of a wider strategy project. However, the purpose of the competitive analysis is to determine what not to do and how to stand out. The purpose is certainly not to say, “Hey, I love this spot Competitor A made. Let’s make our own version of it!”

On this episode, Guy and Hope discuss the problem with copying your competitor’s creative, and what you should do instead.

Learn more about Guy, Hope and Umault at umault.com

It’s a running joke in the production world that if something goes wrong on set, we’ll fix it in post. In other words, we can use editing or VFX magic to get rid of that plastic bag that blew behind a person’s head, or cut that take when your talent flubbed. But there’s one thing we can never fix in post, and that’s authenticity. If it wasn’t captured on the day, it won’t be in the final video.

When creating a video featuring real people, authenticity comes from letting them be themselves. It’s key in testimonials, recruiting videos, or CEO interviews. But so many brands make decisions that actively work against authenticity. 

Factors that work against authenticity:

• Scripting or using teleprompters
• Forcing people to restate answers to fit brand guidelines
• Overediting to remove filler words like “um,” “ah,” or “like”

On this episode of 

Death to the Corporate Video, 

Guy and Hope discuss why authenticity is key in videos featuring real people, and how to make sure you capture it.

After many years working in video, we’ve found that almost all effective video ads fit into one of three basic categories. They are either funny, beautiful, or make you cry. It may sound simple, but take a moment to think about your favorite commercial of all time. I bet it was funny, beautiful, or made you cry (or it may have checked multiple boxes, like one of my favorite ads).

The thing is, there are real psychological reasons why the most memorable and effective ads are funny, beautiful, or make you cry. In this episode of Death to the Corporate Video, Guy explains how he formed this theory, and Hope shares psychological research on the relationship between emotions and decision making and what that means for B2B marketers.

For anyone who wants to read more about the research linking emotions and decision making, we recommend these articles:

Why emotion plays a critical role in decision making

Emotion and Decision Making

Most marketers, especially in B2B, want to get the most out of their video production budget. One of the most common questions we get when a client has a limited budget is, “Can we just write it?” 

In this episode of Death to the Corporate Video, Guy and Hope break down why that is the absolute wrong question, and what brands should do when they need to trim video production budgets. The answer is think like Danny Boyle when he made 28 Days Later. (Hire Cillian Murphy? Listen to find out.)

For more on choosing the right video production company for your project, read our buyer’s guide to hiring a video production company.

Paul Cash, co-author of Humanizing B2B, believes that B2B marketing has lost its humanity. We can say “lost,” because, yes, it used to have humanity. In the early days, B2B marketing was done by knowledgeable, expert salespeople who made real connections with their customers. Then came the internet, minimizing the role of the salesperson, and over time the humanity leaked out of B2B. What we’re left with is the B2B marketing that many of us know today: product-centric, bland, corporate, and forgettable.

What can we do to bring it back? On this episode of Death to the Corporate Video, we talk to Paul Cash about how we got to where we are today, the state of the B2B buyer, and what we can all do to convince the C suite that things need to change.

Note this episode contains some explicit language.

In this episode, we expose a deceptive B2B marketing tactic that's on the rise - the "fake podcast interview." Discover why we believe this practice is damaging to brands and explore a better, more genuine approach to connecting with prospects. Join us as we take a stand against this marketing ruse.

Learn more about Guy and Umault at Umault.com

B2B marketers are often dealing with tight budgets. To stretch their marketing dollars, they decide to make one video that can be used across the sales cycle. One video for the home page. Use it again for social media. Use it again in sales presentations.

The problem with this approach is that it completely ignores the fact that prospects at different stages of the customer journey need different things. Early stage buyers need to be inspired. Late stage buyers need to be reassured. You can’t do both at once without ending up with a mullet video.

Tailoring your video content to each stage of the customer journey allows you to support your prospects where they are, and to maintain control of your narrative.

For more on using video throughout the B2B customer journey, check out our complete guide.

Recently, we posted a new video on our LinkedIn page called “We need to talk.” It tells B2B marketers to be bold with their creative advertising. A viewer left a comment: "The challenge is convincing your executive team."

He’s right. Many marketers and agencies can come up with amazing ideas, but then can’t get the boss on board. We’ve found that one of the biggest challenges that B2B marketers face is push back or conservatism from executive teams. On this week’s episode of “Death to the corporate video,” Guy and Hope sit down to talk about our silver bullet for convincing executives to take a risk.

We’ll give you a hint: It has nothing to do with an amazing, knock-their-socks-off creative idea. It starts back in the strategy phase with the competitive analysis.

Everyone always wants to know the secret or the top 4 steps to getting the best work out of your agency. As we planned this podcast episode, we originally wanted to give tips or tricks to get great creative work. But as we sat down to talk about what we’ve learned from our best work and our best clients, there was only one common denominator: Trust.

The only way to get the best work out of your agency is for you to trust them and for them to trust you back. Trust leads to more creative work, more on brand work, and more effective work. When there’s trust in the relationship, your agency feels safe and motivated to push the creative envelope.

In this episode of “Death to the Corporate Video,” we discuss why trust is essential in the agency-client relationship, how to find an agency you can trust, and how to develop trust as you work together. Metaphors include airline pilots and those death traps known as hot air balloons.

Most B2B marketers love to draw a solid line between B2B and B2C marketing, and pretend that never the twain shall meet. Smart B2B marketers, on the other hand, peek over that wall to find practices that work and can be adapted for their marketing and advertising.

TV commercials are considered firmly in the realm of B2C, but there’s a lot that B2B marketers can learn from the best practices honed by TV advertisers over the past decades.

4 things B2B marketers should learn from TV commercials

1. Stay short and sweet.
2. Assume your audience is disinterested.
3. Know you’re making an ad.
4. Invest in good writing and original ideas.