ISSUE #271

The three elements behind every memorable B2B campaign

The launch of SaaS campaigns

Picture this: It's San Francisco in the year 2000.

You're standing outside a conference hall when all of a sudden, you hear commotion – protesters waving picket signs.

A crowd gathers around them, and so does a camera crew. You lean in, curious what the spectacle is about, and make out what they're chanting: "No Software!"

Not a far stretch from today's times, huh? (I'm sure there are protesters screaming "No AI" somewhere right now.)

But those protesters weren't angry customers or angry people, for that matter. They were actors. Hired by a startup called Salesforce.

A twenty-five-employee company going head-to-head with two dominating incumbents: Oracle and Siebel Systems. It was a bold bet. But one that paid off.

Following the mock protest, Salesforce got press coverage from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications, and signed up more than 1,000 customers within weeks.

All from a single campaign - one that would shape an industry and the company’s growth story.

Which got me thinking: what separates campaigns that stick from the ones that fall flat?

Attributes of a good campaign

After curating campaigns over the past two decades, I noticed a pattern.

The ones that stick – the ones people reference years later – follow a similar playbook. It's less about budget size or fancy creative agencies, but rather tying three core elements together.

1. Crafting the Narrative – How you reframe the conversation entirely

2. Legitimizing the Narrative – Getting the right voices to validate your story

3. Styling the Delivery – Matching the message with your brand

Of course, these aren't the only elements that matter, just the ones I've indexed on.

To put this in context, let's walk through three different campaigns that illustrate these elements in action.

1. Crafting the narrative

Campaign: Salesforce – "No Software"

When Salesforce launched, its product was objectively inferior to Siebel's. Fewer features, less customization, basic functionality.

So instead, Marc Benioff pivoted from selling the benefits of a CRM to selling the freedom from everything software represented.

The "No Software" campaign made traditional enterprise software the villain.

Not Siebel specifically, but the entire category: the installations, the IT nightmares, the budget overruns. That red slash through a CD-ROM represented a story executives could finally rally behind.

In theory: Narratives work because people connect with stories.

Benioff understood that executives had been suffering through software implementations for years but didn't have permission to hate the process.

His story gave them that permission. It transformed frustrated buyers into believers by making them the heroes escaping from software tyranny.

In practice: Your narrative needs to make your audience feel something before it makes them think something.

Find the story your prospects are already telling themselves about their frustrations.

Then amplify it, give it a villain, and position yourself as the guide who helps them win. Remember: people don't buy products – they buy better versions of themselves.

A framework like StoryBrand can help structure this approach - I've used it for several campaigns to clarify the hero's journey.

2. Legitimizing the narrative

Campaign: Slingshot AI – "Ash" Launch

When Slingshot launched Ash earlier this year, for 48 hours, your LinkedIn feed featured the same content - I counted over 30 posts saying essentially the same thing.

VCs posting about breakthrough mental health tech. Therapists sharing personal testimonials. NBA players talking about AI therapy.

Slingshot assembled an "Expert Clinical Advisory Board" of former Surgeon Generals, NIH mental health institute heads, and respected clinicians. But the real impact came from individual voices within that network.

When Lori Gottlieb, the bestselling therapist and New York Times columnist, posted about being "surprised by how different" Ash felt, that carried more weight than any company blog post ever could.

The company embedded its narrative into a matrix of trusted voices all saying the same thing: this isn't just another AI chatbot. This time is different. Ash IS the responsible alternative.

In theory: You're still convincing your audience directly, but you're not relying solely on your own influence.

You're reinforcing the narrative through the people who already influence your audience. Authority gets borrowed, not claimed.

By getting respected figures to validate their story, Slingshot made Ash feel inevitable before most people had even tried it.

In practice: You have two paths here.

1. Authentic influence means earning coverage and endorsements from people who genuinely care about your mission - industry experts, press, thought leaders who will champion your story because they believe in it.

2. Paid influence means partnering with creators who have followings in your space - paying them to showcase your product to their audiences.

Both work, but authentic influence carries more weight. Map out who your prospects trust, then decide which approach fits your budget and timeline.

3. Styling the delivery

Campaign: Mailchimp – "Did You Mean Mailchimp?"

When people kept calling them "MailKimp" (thanks, Serial podcast), most companies would see this as a branding nightmare. Mailchimp saw an opportunity.

Instead of correcting everyone, they leaned in. Hard.

The company responded with a creative campaign: "Did You Mean Mailchimp?"

They created fake products around every misspelling: MailShrimp became a seafood delivery service, MaleCrimp was a fake fashion trend, FailChips sold the crushed pieces from the bottom of chip bags.

Each fake brand had its own website, art direction, and backstory. But what made it work was the tone. Playful, self-aware, “absurdist.”

The campaign worked because it perfectly matched who Mailchimp already was: the approachable email platform that doesn't take itself too seriously.

In theory: Your narrative makes people feel, your influence makes them trust, but your style creates the bond between you and your audience.

This is where the relationship deepens from transactional to emotional. Mailchimp understood that personality becomes your moat in a commoditized market.

You can't out-feature competitors forever, but you can out-personality them when you're authentic to who you are.

In practice: Your style needs to be distinctly yours and consistently applied everywhere - from website copy to customer support emails.

Start by defining what makes your brand different emotionally, not just functionally.

Then express that difference through every touchpoint. The key is consistency: your voice, visual identity, and approach should be immediately recognizable whether someone sees your billboard or reads your error message.

The launch of your next campaign

Now, picture this: we are in the year 2025.

The attention economy has never been more ruthless. Every SaaS company is fighting for the same eyeballs, using the same playbook, saying the same things.

The companies that break through aren't the ones with bigger budgets - they're the ones that understand how to craft stories people actually want to be part of, borrow authority from voices people trust, and deliver it all with a style that creates genuine connection.

How will you make your next campaign stand out?

Ian at SaaS Weekly