• by Larissa Faw , September 14, 2015

Over the past few years business-to-business advertising (B2B) has shifted away from dry and educational messages to embrace a more consumerization strategy. This is because marketers are realizing that their customers are not businesses, they’re people. And like other people they too like funny ads and videos. 

Now San Francisco-based Traction is putting this newer B-to-B model to work for Lenovo funny bone with the "Users Happen" campaign to promote its laptops and tablets to business consumers.   

The concept is based on the insight that IT guys often share war stories of the wear and tear that their users put on their computers. Hence Lenovo is introducing Chad and Jane as two particularly inept users who regularly inflict harm on their devices, like spilling water on the laptop or dropping their devices.  

"Chad and Jane were actually inspired by two real individuals that our team had worked with in the past—one a likeable klutz and the other a whirlwind of scattered productive energy," says Traction's Adam Kleinberg. "Despite being great people, they had perpetual issues with technology clashing with their physical being... and full glasses of water... and gravity." 

The multi-faceted initiative includes 60-second spots as well as 15-second cut-downs for pre-roll and online banners.  

The campaign also created a series of tongue-in-cheek illustrated eBooks called Users Happen: A Survival Guide to further raise awareness through humor. One chapter, for instance, warns about travel hazards while another "looks at the destructive potential of children and other small animals that users allow into their homes."  

Here’s a link to the campaign landing page.

“Users Happen” is Traction's first work for Lenovo. The agency landed the business earlier this year after a review for certain types of B-to-B work.