Winning the battle for attention takes innovation—whether through an unexpected presentation, a new tech application or a provocative message. These 15 projects demonstrate that creativity and daring are possible within a wide range of budgets, industries and formats (in no particular order). 1 Project: CityOne – A simulation game from IBM For its daring approach to educating the planet through a game IBM, long a leader in gaming-as-content, breaks new ground with a business simulation game called CityOne. “Games have been used for a long time in government and also in sports in order to share concepts around strategy and also deepen skills,” explains Nancy Pearson, vice president for marketing integration middleware IBM. “They’re not just for fun, and we understand that at IBM.” In CityOne, players solve problems in four key areas—banking, retail, energy and water. Each scenario offers opportunities to understand real-world implications of business decision-making in a Sim City-style...

One of the most common questions I am asked is, “What does it take to have a successful corporate blog?” While there are probably thousands of articles answering that question from an editorial perspective, the amount of information that exists from an operational perspective pales in comparison. And due to that, I find that I am spending as much time with my clients helping them organize themselves operationally for blogging as I do editorially.Continue reading

If you are assessing your marketing efforts and investigating ways to transform your approach to attract today’s more savvy B2B buyers, undoubtedly you have run into the term content marketing. (You found the Content Marketing Institute, right?) In almost every introduction to content marketing, you also have undoubtedly heard (or read) phrases like, “you are now the media” and “think like a publisher.” What you may be having a hard time finding after learning that “you are the media” and that you must “think like a publisher” is content to help you learn how to do so. This post is for marketers interested in learning how publishers think and act. It’s a mindset that, when applied to your B2B content marketing strategy, will open up a whole new world of ideas and possibilities.Continue reading