We at Wizikey understand how tricky communications for B2B can be. Hence, we put together a list of best PR campaigns done by B2B companies in 2019, to inspire your PR activities.
What makes a B2B PR Campaign great?
Although it makes for a nice alliteration, B2B doesn’t have to be boring, with its communication! You don’t have to talk only about features, prices and benefits. There are many creative ways in which PR can help you acquire customers.
Your product/service can definitely be amazing and win customers on its own steam. However, PR helps bias them in your favour. At the end of the day, businesses are run by humans. So your communication needs to be tailored to engage them.
1. UPI Payments Launch | Udaan
Product launches are great PR opportunities. They can be used to create buzz for your company and renew public interest in your existing products or services. A good example of this use of PR in India was when Udaan, India’s fastest unicorn launched UPI payments.
Udaan is an online marketplace which connects manufacturers and wholesalers with retailers. To become a holistic B2B e-commerce platform, they partnered with YES Bank to launch the UPI payments service. This allowed e-tailers to experience full-stack services from procurement to delivery. This also solved the problem of payment reliability faced by the sector. With this move, they’ve mirrored Flipkart’s strategy of launching Ekart & acquiring PhonePe.
“A lot of B2B businesses today are local, and so cash is still a big component. But over time, just as B2C commerce goes online, I’m sure there will be more business between buyers and sellers across different regions. And that’s when UPI mobile payment will become useful.”
Vaibhav Gupta, Co-founder, Udaan
What does Wizikey’s data say?
Udaan announced its funding of $585 mn which generated over 30 mentions. They sustained this peak of interest in the media with this product launch, which generated around 16-18 mentions. The average media mention for Udaan was 3-4 per week prior to the launch.
2. National Freight Index | Rivigo
Rivigo – Best B2B PR Campaigns
Having a brand property or owned media outlet like a newsletter or industry report can be extremely useful. It creates recall for your customers. This happens by providing them with information or solving a problem.
Rivigo, a tech-enabled logistics company launched a National Freight Index (NFI) in an attempt to bring transparency to the logistics industry. NFI listed both the live rates and historical trends of spot price movements in the road freight industry. The majority of the logistics sector is unorganized and the majority of cargo movement happens via roads. Thus, knowing freight rates in real-time helped all stakeholders involved.
The information showed was drawn from Rivigo’s machine learning and economics powered pricing algorithms. Hence, NFI became a brand property and helped strengthen its positioning as an industry leader.
Talking about the need for the NFI, Rivigo co-founder said,
“In the existing logistics market structure, there are high inefficiencies due to information asymmetry, which leads to a great loss of value. NFI will bring transparency in the market and propel the logistics sector towards efficiencies and growth.”
Gazal Kalra, Co-founder, Rivigo
What does Wizikey’s data say?
The average media mention generated Rivigo per week is around 4-5. With the Freight Index launch, it generated over 16-20 mentions distributed over 2 peaks.
3. Building It Up Podcast | Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann India Investments – Best B2B PR Campaigns
When it comes to owned media property, podcasts are gaining more popularity with B2B companies and Venture capital funds. Podcasts are an easy way to establish companies as authorities in their field/industry. They also allow them to invite their own clients and customers onto the show, highlighting them in the same go.
Recognized by Apple as the best business podcast of 2018, Building It Up is
India’s first growth-focused podcast done by Bertelsmann India Investments, the strategic investment arm of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, a German private multinational conglomerate. The podcast features candid conversations with prominent CEOs & Founders, sharing the hard realities of scaling a startup in India.
What does Wizikey’s data say?
BII’s latest episode was with Harsh Jain, CEO & Co-founder of Dream11. Dream 11 is India’s most popular freemium fantasy sports platform. This activity generated good media traction with around 8+ media mentions. BII receives an average of 4-5 media mentions per week.
4. Hackathon | Icertis
Icertis – Best B2B PR Campaigns
Organizing an event is a PR tactic that never gets old. Events serve as golden opportunities for building relationships with both your potential customers and with media persons.
Icertis is a software company which provides contract management software to enterprise businesses. It organized India’s largest hackathon on AI/ML and Blockchain in December. They wanted to develop an automated crop insurance system, to help ensure timely crop insurance payments for Indian farmers.
The hackathon required teams to build a web and mobile interface, utilizing appropriate AI/ML algorithms and cloud services. These included the likes of Microsoft Azure Blockchain. It saw participation from over 10,000 developers and coders.
“We at Icertis believe that we will continue to thrive and innovate, only if we listen, learn and collaborate with the best brains in the community. And what better way to achieve this than nurturing the community and encouraging the best talent through a Hackathon.We believe that we have so far only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of how AI/ML & Blockchain will transform our lives.The problem statement is socially relevant, and a means to harness our energy for the public good.”
Harshad Oak, General Manager, CTO Office
The winning team, ‘BlockchainMegaminds’ won Rs 5,00,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Seattle, with their innovative solution.
What does Wizikey’s data say?
Icertis, as one of the newest unicorns in India, generates about 4-5 media mentions per week on average. Its Hackathon helped in garnering around 20+ media mentions!
5. MOU with IIA | Power2SME
Power2SME – Best B2B PR Campaigns
Partnerships/associations are very important when it comes to building public perception of your company. Hence, it’s imperative to plan PR activities around partnership or association announcements.
Power2SME, India’s most affordable Raw Material Supplier and first Buying Club for SMEs attracted a lot of media attention recently. It signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Industries Association (IIA).
“The MoU seeks to help MSMEs resolve key issues such as lack of access to working capital and raw materials procurement. Through the MoU, Power2SME is looking to extend its comprehensive solutions to MSMEs across IIA’s 40 chapters and cater to their raw material needs while also offering financial aid and MRO services.”
Sudha Sarin, Senior Vice President – Marketing and Communications, Power2SME
What does Wizikey’s data say?
Power2SME although creates lower news generally. Its MOU signing with IIA generated around 3-4 media mentions. Therefore, this was good as compared to the average of 0-1 media mentions per week.
To Conclude
In the fast-paced age of the internet, when it comes to B2B campaigns, informative communication doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s too dry to catch and engage the attention of potential customers. Thus, it’s time to don your creative thinking hat. Start communicating with humans running the business!
Here are some links that may help you with that: