Remarkable Content with Ian Faison One, Ten, One Hundred: B2B Marketing Lessons from Wistia’s Webby Award-Winning Documentary with Chris Sheen, Director of Content & Social at Celonis
You don’t need to have an unlimited budget to make remarkable marketing content. In fact, it's better if you're working under some constraints. We have proof.
The folks over at Wistia did a little experiment they called One, Ten, One Hundred. They made an ad for the same product (Wistia’s Soapbox video recorder) on three different budgets: $1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 dollars, to see which one would perform best. And in this episode, we’re giving you the inside scoop on what they found. You’ll be surprised at the result.
Today, we’re showing you how combining a bit of inventiveness with a touch of resourcefulness is more powerful than just throwing money at your marketing. Because when cash is a bit strapped, that’s when you’re forced to get creative. And it’s that creativity that resonates with viewers. That’s what we’re talking about today with Chris Sheen, Director of Content and Social at Celonis. So take out your scissors and craft paper for this episode of Remarkable.
About our guest, Chris Sheen
Chris Sheen is Director of Content and Social at Celonis. He joined Celonis in February of 2022. Prior to his current role, he served as CMO at Sideways 6 and SaleCycle. He has also worked at Teradata and Experian. He is based in London.
About Celonis
Celonis is the global leader and pioneer in process mining.
They pioneered the process mining category 10 years ago and the company is now valued at over $13 billion dollars - decacorn status no less.
About One, Ten, One Hundred
One, Ten, One Hundred is a Webby Award-winning four-part documentary in which video software company Wistia challenges video production company Sandwich Video to make three ads on different budgets: 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000-dollars. The goal was to explore the impact budget has on creativity in video ads. Wistia then measured ad performance and audience reaction to gauge success of each. It was also a way to advertise for Wistia’s tool, Soapbox, which is a video creation tool for SMBs.
The metrics they tuned into were traditional demographics, engagement data, cost per customer acquisition and return on investment.
The idea for Wistia’s documentary came about because their production team realized they didn’t have a good understanding of the money-in-money-out ratio. Wistia Founder and CEO, Chris Savage said, “Our production team felt that creativity was the single most important element in producing an effective video and this fits in with our vision to grow through creativity.”
What B2B Companies Can Learn From One, Ten, One Hundred:
- Show the “making of” process behind your product. There’s an appeal to seeing a transformation from beginning to end. Ian says, “We like to know the process of making something. The making of something is just as interesting, or even more interesting, than the final asset. People like to watch transformation. They like inside information.” Chris says that it also shows the humanity behind the product, behind the company. He says, “I think B2B companies can just feel like a faceless organization that has a product, that has software. But when you show the making of things, like one of my favorite easy tricks is showing an outtake at the end of a video. It's a, you know, a five second outtake. It shows the human side, it shows the mistake and it completely changes how you feel very quickly about the brand, about the company.” Showing the process humanizes your brand and makes it more appealing to potential customers.
- Play up how long your product was in development. This conveys to your audience a sense of your specialty and standards of excellence in the industry. Chris says, “Apple and Dyson really show you the level, the hours, the days, years, months, they've gone into making their products, really crafting what they do and the art behind it. Like, ‘We've perfected this. We weren't going to ship it until it was ready.’ This is so powerful as a marketing technique. Because it works. It really makes you feel like, ‘Okay, this is going to be something special.” So show the rigor that went into crafting your product.
- Edutain your audience. Don’t just try to educate them. Make it fun. Chris says, “Great content marketing is like entertainment. You've got to know your audience to do that well. Wistia really does. How many companies sat there thinking, ‘We'd love to have a great explainer video for our website, but we just don't have the budget’? I watched [the documentary] and I'm literally thinking, ‘I need to get my craft papers out. I'm going to steal my daughter's school stuff and start making stuff to help sell Celonis.’ Because it brings it to life in so many different ways.” So when you’re creating content, ask yourself, “Is this educational and is it entertaining?” A good way to measure this is to ask, “Would viewers watch it in their own time?”
- Create something that you enjoy. Because it’s likely what your audience would enjoy too. Chris says, “With Wistia, they're clearly doing it as much for themselves as anyone else. They're clearly loving it, enjoying it, learning a lot themselves. And at the end of it, you kind of feel that they've got as much out of it as I have watching it. And I think that in itself is a great sign of content. If you can do something that, when you look back, you think, ‘I think I would enjoy this if someone else had made this,’ I think that's a really strong point if it fits your target market.’
Quotes
“When you watch [One, Ten, One Hundred], you don't feel like you're watching a piece of content marketing. And that's probably the ultimate B2B marketer’s goal, or any marketer's goal really, is to make that content not feel like it's selling something. It's just selling entertainment and education.” - Chris Sheen
“We always strive for perfect, don't we? We want perfection in the market. We want it to feel great and look great, sound great. Sometimes it's worth taking a step back and thinking, ‘Actually, what's going to get the message across the most authentically?” - Chris Sheen
*”Creative work has to have constraints.” - Ian Faison
*”[The documentary] really was binge worthy, which is the ultimate goal for content marketing. It passes the driveway test. That’s when you're listening to a song, you get to the end of your journey, you're sitting in your driveway. Do you get out of the car and just walk away, or do you stay to finish it?” - Chris Sheen
Time Stamps
[00:54] Introducing Director of Content & Social at Celonis, Chris Sheen
[1:48] Why are we talking about Wistia’s One, Ten, One Hundred documentary today?
[3:21] What is Wistia’s One, Ten, One Hundred documentary about?
[5:50] What makes the documentary remarkable?
[12:51] What are some marketing lessons we can take from One, Ten, One Hundred?
[30:22] What’s Chris’ content strategy?
[36:15] What are some projects at Celonis Chris is proud of?
Links
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
About Remarkable!
Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.
In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.
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