When should we use playful B2B campaigns?

A playful B2B campaign should express the offer through its creative choices. For Lawyers on Demand, The Frameworks used anagrams, wordplay and bold typography to demonstrate the legal-services brand's focus on seeing things differently. The campaign appealed to human curiosity while reflecting what the business offered: a different way of thinking.

The useful principle is to make the playful device part of the proposition. In the Lawyers on Demand campaign, playing with words demonstrated the brand's perspective rather than simply decorating a conventional sales message. The Frameworks argues that business communications still address people, whose professional responsibilities do not remove their capacity for curiosity or enjoyment. Playfulness belongs in a serious campaign when the audience's enjoyment helps communicate the business idea.

Participation can make a serious business subject playful without stripping away its substance. In its discussion of games in B2B, The Frameworks points to IBM's CityOne, which asked professionals to make decisions about running a sustainable and environmentally conscious city using data and technology. The game supplied information and guidance about the domino effects of decisions, then gave players a score.

The practical lesson is to build participation around decisions that matter to the subject. CityOne's playfulness came from making choices, exploring consequences and receiving a score, while its content remained concerned with professional challenges. The Frameworks argues that games can support storytelling because people enjoy playing and gain knowledge through it. A playful experience can therefore give buyers an active role in exploring a serious idea.