via Jason Miller, LinkedIn

B2B marketing has come a long way since the days of bland whitepapers and personality-free reports. Marketers have finally realized that “professional” doesn’t have to mean “dull.” We’re starting to see innovative B2B marketing efforts that borrow from B2C’s creativity and authenticity, energizing the content while still keeping the informative approach B2B audiences expect.

Bringing personality to marketing is a subject close to my heart. I believe that injecting entertainment and inspiration into information is the way forward for our profession.

Here are five characteristics of outstanding B2B marketing campaigns, and five brands that brought these characteristics to life. [excerpt]

Authenticity

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, Attention is a Currency

In the B2C world, there are plenty of brands that earn consumers’ attention by keeping it extra real. Think of the charity work TOMS shoes does, or Always’ tear-jerking #LikeAGirl campaign. At LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, we wanted to take that kind of heart-on-your-sleeve authenticity and say something truly meaningful about marketing.

The Altimeter Group’s Brian Solis gave us a no-BS, heartfelt manifesto about life in the digital age, humanity, and marketing. Instead of polishing it up with pristine stock photos, we enlisted Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid for illustrations that matched the message.

The result is a striking collaboration that, in my opinion, is more art than content. Brian and Hugh aimed to say something substantive and they didn’t mince words or dilute the message to be more palatable to a B2B audience.