B2B has a bad habit of leading with features and speeds. Sure, some do it better than others. But it’s still product front and center. It was time to buck that trend to show B2B that a story-based approach to marketing actually works.
Our audiences are people first, B2B buyers second. They’re getting younger, bringing fresh perspectives, and using LLMs for answers – making built-in brand trust key to winning. But asking clients to “be brave, not boring” is a big ask. So, we put our money where our mouth is.
We set out to prove that brand storytelling, when done with cinematic ambition and emotional honesty, could outperform traditional, campaign-led B2B tactics. As such, our goals were to:
Inspire CMOs to embrace story as a growth driver
Convince internal stakeholders to self-fund a film where we weren’t the hero, and neither was a client. In other words, produce a film to prove the model; not promote a product
Demonstrate that a narrative with minimal product presence could deliver pipeline and bookings
Create a respectable model for ‘documentary-grade’ B2B content
INSIGHTS & STRATEGY
B2B audiences, like all people, are driven by curiosity, creativity, and connection. But in today’s landscape where AI’s compressing the middle funnel, trust becomes a deciding factor for success. Brand storytelling solves this challenge by building trust in before a buyer enters the market.
Brand storytelling isn’t advertising. Process and rigor give way to a director’s creative vision. Telling senior B2B marketing leaders to simply go against the grain and “trust the process” is never easy.
Then it came to choosing the right story. B2B businesses run the world in the background, but only IBM Watson’s story aligned perfectly with our storytelling ambitions: to show how brand, technology, and human ingenuity intersect to create lasting impact.
This project was our opportunity to prove that – especially in B2B – brand storytelling could be both deeply human AND commercially relevant as a trust-building exercise.
BIG IDEA
‘Who is… Watson? The Day AI Went Prime Time’ isn’t an IBM commission. It’s an ode to brand storytelling (before it was a thing). A short documentary detailing the brilliant people who bet a company’s global reputation on moving AI from lab to living room through its historic win on the gameshow, Jeopardy!
IBM Watson’s story was the perfect vehicle to showcase our storytelling ambitions. And with Celia Aniskovich – an award-winning Producer & Director who’s worked with Ben Affleck (The Merchants of Joy) and Hillary/Chelsea Clinton (Facing the Falls) – behind the camera, this was THE opportunity to show how brand, technology, and human ingenuity create lasting impact.
EXECUTION
After screening an advanced preview at this year’s Cannes Lions, we orchestrated premieres across New York, San Francisco, and London – each accompanied by live salons with senior leadership from IBM and our own documentary team – to maximize momentum and reach.
Unlike traditional releases, we fully integrated digital and in-person channels (think workshops, teasers, quote cards, ‘behind the bet’ snippets, and maker notes) as part of an ABM-style approach to relationship building and promotion.
Media Strategy
Audience: B2B marketing professionals and growth leaders (CMO, VP Marketing, Brand/Demand Directors, Strategy/Content Leads)
Channels:
LinkedIn (native posts, video teasers, Conversation Ads, Matched Audiences lookalikes)
Programmatic (contextual and ABM segments: marketing trades, tech/business sites; frequency-controlled, viewability-optimized)
Email (house file + curated exec lists; event RSVPs; post-view nurture)
Creative: 15/30/60s trailers, quote cards, “behind the bet” snippets, maker notes
Sequencing:
Tease (Cannes buzz, early access RSVP)
Premiere-week flight (city-specific invites and recaps)
Evergreen (always-on LinkedIn retargeting to grow brand storytelling inquiries)
Measurement: View-through rates, qualified RSVPs, post-screening meetings, pipeline attribution, closed-won
‘Who is… Watson?’ has showed B2B that not only is there appetite for emotionally resonant storytelling in our industry; it’s a necessary evolution of brand building that will separate the long-term winners from those that get left behind.
While this project was created more as a proof of concept for a repeatable model for documentary-grade B2B content than a business-driving exercise, we’ve already driven significant results in less than three months since our premiere:
A 6,054% ROI (production costs vs. $8M influenced pipeline)
30,000+ views so far
Attendees across NYC (100), San Francisco (45), London (90), and Cannes (40)
