The Art of Comedy in B2B Marketing

When you think of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, you might not immediately think of humour as a key ingredient. After all, the B2B world can be serious business! But we decided to challenge that perception with a unique and creative approach: our Comedians-in-Residence program. After all, who said technical content has to be dry?

Yes, the world of cleantech, engineering, and manufacturing is filled with complex concepts and jargon. And yes, it can be challenging to make these subjects engaging and accessible to a wide audience. But we realized that humour can be a powerful tool to shake things up and bring a fresh perspective.       

Over five months, we teamed up with The Improv Centre in Vancouver and engaged the comedic talents of Angela Galanopoulos and Andrew Barber. Together, we explored the funnier side of B2B. We took the complexities of our industry and turned them into comedic gold. The result? A more engaging, memorable, and downright entertaining approach to content creation.

But it wasn’t all fun and games.

Our journey into comedy wasn't as simple as cracking a few jokes and calling it a day. It required us to step out of our comfort zones and embrace a new way of thinking. We underwent rigorous corporate training at The Improv Centre, where we learned the art of improv and brainstorming, and honed our creative skills. If you’ve never tried comedy improv, we highly recommend it as a brainstorming and team-building exercise. It’s no joke – it really works!

This experience pushed our creativity to new heights. It allowed us to experiment with comedy concepts such as parody, satire, and slapstick, and apply them to our clients' content, such as product launches, social media graphics, and holiday cards. The results were often surprising, always entertaining, and, most importantly, they made an impact! (For obvious reasons, some concepts, like an “Eye of the Tiger” event intro video, never made it off the editing floor!).

Our adventure with comedy has re-energized our team and broadened our creative horizons. We've already seen a difference in the development and implementation of creative initiatives like an Artist-in-Residence program, an engineering focus group, and several fun product and brand launches.

In the world of B2B marketing, standing out from the crowd can be a challenge. But through our Comedians-in-Residence program, we've found a way to differentiate ourselves and our clients in a fun and engaging way.

So, next time you're stuck on how to make your technical content more engaging, remember: don't be afraid to inject a little humour into the mix. After all, who said B2B can't be a laughing matter?