Steve Jobs talked about ads that didn't even show or talk about the product.

I'm mid-reading Return to the Little Kingdom about the very early days at Apple and at some point, he's talking about marketing and ads. He's more concerned with the way the product makes you feel or what the brand represents.

When I read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight -- he talked about their first ad which was a paragraph about running and ended with "there is no finish line" which was a love letter to all runners.

Jobs was also inspired by early Nike ads:

“The best example of all, and one of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike,” Jobs explained. “Remember, Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think of Nike, you feel something different than a shoe company. In their ads, they don’t ever talk about their products. They don’t ever tell you about their air soles and why they’re better than Reebok’s air soles. What does Nike do? They honor great athletes and they honor great athletics. That’s who they are, that’s what they are about.”

I remember years ago seeing a Porsche ad that was more about the experience of driving rather than the product itself. That spoke to me.

What do you want your audience to feel? What do you want them to think about your brand or product?

To me, this applies as much to B2B as it does to B2C.

Know the audience, understand their problems and motivations, and create better ads and content that speaks to it.