Costumed Pugs Don't Belong on LinkedIn in Campaign from 215 McCann

Is LinkedIn a social network? Undeniably.  

But is it a network for ‘Baby Shark’ videos or 245,000,000 search results for 'cat memes' or dance tutorials from famous dancing grandmas? Nope. LinkedIn is a place where business is done, and what better way to prove that point than by bringing typical postings from the internet onto the LinkedIn feed for the first time. Things are starting to look a bit out of place. And that’s the point. 

In the most recent campaign from 215 McCann, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions took key truths from their customers, the LinkedIn platform and the internet in general to create something that should truly stop marketers in their tracks and speak to them in a new and impactful way. 

The first truth came from the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions offering itself – the point of difference and what only LinkedIn can offer. LinkedIn is the place where people come to do business. On LinkedIn you know you enter into a professional environment with an engaged community ready to do business. That truth about the platform and the professionals on the platform was a key to help the work standout.

The second truth is that the internet these days can provide much needed and welcomed distractions – whether it's dancing pugs or oddly satisfying squished sand sculptures - but when you come to LinkedIn you may be looking to shift focus to achieving personal growth or business success. 

The third truth came from looking at the marketers themselves. B2B marketing professionals are generally used to being talked to in a very B2B way – a lot of the messaging looks familiar, in a similar tone, with typical B2B imagery. But the obvious, yet many times overlooked, truth is B2B professionals are just like any other marketing professional – they appreciate humour and reward those that step out of the “expected” B2B world of advertising.

So when you combine these three truths you get the new LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Fish Out of Water campaign.  

This campaign uses the 'meme-able' visual language of the Internet to demonstrate that the place to reach your key audience in the mindset to do business is on LinkedIn – because on LinkedIn, videos of pugs in bunny costumes usually are not getting in the way. Instead, with LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, your digital plan reaches the right people thinking business thoughts, not "pugs in costumes" thoughts.