What’s a child’s favorite toy:
The one in mint condition? Or the one that’s lovingly been used—even if that play has made it… weird?
In her 2023 Opening Remarks from B2B Forum, Ann Handley—using examples from Barbie to Sewers—encouraged marketers to embrace the power of weird to stand out in the marketplace.
Get Ann’s weird insights in the video clip or read the transcript below.
Ann returns to the stage at B2B Forum this fall—and it’d be weird if you weren’t there with her!
Block off your calendar for Nov 12-14 and join the B2B marketing crowd in Boston. There will be dozens of informative sessions and inspirational moments you won’t soon forget. But don’t wait—tickets are extremely limited. Find all the not-so-weird details here.
In the B2B Barbie movie that we are creating together…
Barbieland is populated by these sort of neat, beautiful, perfectly coiffed, pastel Barbies.
Except for one who stands apart.
Weird Barbie has been played with a little too roughly.
She smells like basement.
Her damage is what makes her one of the most memorable, effective, appealing, and most interesting Barbies of our entire movie.
Because she does not fit in with the rest.
Like, look at her right there. That’s some loose hips. She’s got that going on.
She’s seen things that other Barbies would not believe!
You could say that she’s kind of a common trope, like that outsider who is suddenly revered and her differences proved to be the thing that we all need.
But I think she’s more than that.
I think she’s very memorable.
She’s approachable.
And why do kids color on her?
Because they play with her. They interact with her. They’re not afraid to be with her.
One of the things I have learned since the 1990s modem is that the weirder you are, the more memorable you’ll be—and the more effective you are as a marketer.
I think that weird gets a bad rap.
When I’m talking about weird, I’m not talking about unhinged.
I’m talking about thinking about your special talents. Your gifts.
What do you bring to the table?
Weird is good. Weird is real. Weird tells the truth. Weird is memorable. It is entertaining. And weird stands out.
So key in B2B marketing, at an age when we don’t have to choose between entertaining content and education in our B2B marketing.
So yeah, tech is our wing person. Your “from line” matters more than your “subject line.” And Weird Barbie is our hero.
But you know what? We got to make it real. This all sounds good, but let’s bring it home. Let’s make it real.
This is the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Twitter account.
They are the kings of Twitter.
Their handle is N-E-O-R-S-D, or… NEEORSDAH?
It’s the worst acronym in the history of acronyms.
The NEORSD Twitter account is so fantastic.
They do an amazing job of celebrating… sewers.
For example, you know those guys that are always working on the line? They celebrate them.
This looks like a movie trailer for our movie.
If there’s not a line around the block for autographs for these guys? Well.
Their Twitter feed is so well written, it’s almost…
I need to share this with you.
“In the warm sun of the easterly wastewater plant, a brickface tower casts long shadows over the asphalt. Trucks come and go, hauling grit for landfill, choc full of remnants of things we flush away just outside the power plant. Just think what might have landed there. The seed that grew this tomato plant may have been yours.”
Now, we do have some people from Ohio here. Anybody want to claim it? Looks like a big roma… that’s a kind of tomato.
The more successful that they have been, the more they leaned into it.
When Elon Musk took over Twitter?
“They’re always there for you.”
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, also known as NEORSD, has grown their Twitter following to an exponential degree.
Per 1000 customers, this is that big tall one right there. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District—NEORSD—is next to San Antonio. There’s Philly, there’s Houston… There’s New York City.
They are such a small community, the NEORSD people are, but look at how much impact they have had!
They have now taken that Twitter approach and extended it to their website as well.
They redid their website with these goals in mind:
A better understanding of municipal infrastructure, the unseen systems that really are the fabric of our lives.
Number two, visibility for people who work there. Shining a light on the employees, and also using it as an HR recruiting and retention tool.
And number three, flushable wipes are flat out lying to you. They are not flushable. I know it’s in the name. Very bad branding. They wreak havoc, says NEORSD.
They’ve launched a newsletter.
Look at the writing on this newsletter!
They’re touring the underground systems underneath the NEORSD district.
“Vince Toronto narrated our journey like a Netflix documentary. He has more than 20 years of maintenance knowledge under his hard hat and soaked into the very fibers of his flannel lined hooding…”
He’s painting a picture.
This is a newsletter from a sewer company!
I don’t live in Northeast Ohio. I have no particular interest in sewers, nor infrastructure.
I subscribe! That’s how solid this is. That’s how great it is.
Listen to the poetry of this:
“The kshhk, kshhk, kshhk as we’re walking through…”
Now, you might look at this and you think there’s a big agency behind this. They put some money into this. They probably hired somebody out of New York.
Nay nay. This entire approach is the brainchild of this guy.
This is John Gonzalez
And you may be thinking, “oh, he’s the CMO, he’s the executive director.”
He doesn’t have executive in his title.
He is a communications manager at NEORSD.
Last week I was at Content Marketing World.
And I saw John Gonzalez across the ballroom and I was like, “oh my God, there’s John Gonzalez!”
And I ran up to him like, “John, hi… it’s Ann.”
And he’s like, so unassuming, so quiet.
And he was just… not up for that.
So you know what he did?
He handed me some stickers and it said on the top of it:
“You are my favorite InfluenSewer.”
Published September 25, 2024
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