B2B brands are increasingly looking to combine traditional demand generation with humour and personality – by no means an easy task.

One brand seeking to strike the right balance is US software firm ServiceNow. From ads staring actor Idris Elba to whitepapers, the brand tries to adopt a variety of tones and formats to grow demand and build brand awareness. This approach is playing out on LinkedIn.

“When it comes to B2B, LinkedIn is the place to be in terms of a social ecosystem,” says vice-president of marketing for media and sponsorships, Jonathan Vu.

“It’s a really proper, holistic marketing engine that we have within our organisation.” 

We look at connecting with our audiences as a whole human in terms of their broader interests.

Jonathan Vu, ServiceNow

According to internal performance data, ServiceNow saw both increased brand awareness and stronger lead generation when combining in-feed video on LinkedIn with BrandLink ad placements across premium publishers.

A LinkedIn/Nielsen Brand Lift study found a 30% increase in leads among people first exposed to ServiceNow’s BrandLink campaign and a 9% lift in aided awareness among target audiences. These results, while self-reported by LinkedIn, were enough to help the brand make the case internally.

“It’s not a really hard discussion to say we should increase our budget on LinkedIn, because it’s no longer ‘We need to invest in brand versus demand’ or anything like that,” says Vu.

The ability to connect brand exposure to lower-funnel metrics, he argues, has reduced friction with the finance team.

“Because it’s an end-to-end honest platform, we can connect brand and addressable media to our demand-gen media and quantify its impact on lower-funnel consideration and ultimately pipeline,” Vu explains. “It’s more precise than other channels.”

ServiceNow’s role as an early adopter of social media extends beyond basic ad formats. Vu describes the brand’s philosophy as “trying new things ahead of the curve”, noting that its audience – including IT leaders, CIOs and operations teams – are often heavy LinkedIn users.

The company has experimented with LinkedIn’s Connected TV (CTV) offering, launched in 2024 as part of the video ad ecosystem. CTV allows advertisers to reach professional audiences on streaming platforms using LinkedIn’s data, which is a notable shift for a platform originally built around feed-based interactions. For Vu, the benefit is not reach for reach’s sake, but knowing who is seeing the ads.

“[It] allows us to run B2B marketing in comedy and drama through CTV, and it unlocks a new space with more precision,” he explains.

BrandLink itself, which allows advertisers to run pre-roll against publisher content on LinkedIn, has been a similar testing ground for ServiceNow.

Vu describes it as a way to balance “consumer-style engagement” with the business context the brand needs. According to LinkedIn, people are 18% more likely to become a lead after being exposed to BrandLink content .

Today’s thought leadership

“Over the last several years, [LinkedIn has] built in features that are very much akin to consumer platforms in terms of building community, thought leadership, editorial and content,” Vu says.

For ServiceNow, this means elevating both corporate announcements and leadership viewpoints. Executives post regularly about operational challenges, industry trends and internal culture rather than the sanitised, corporate updates of a decade ago.

“Part of our strategy also is recognising that business decision makers aren’t singularly minded,” he states. “We look at connecting with our audiences as a whole human in terms of their broader interests.”

The biggest challenge is how you have breakthrough and differentiated narratives.

Jonathan Vu, ServiceNow

This includes everything from ServiceNow’s AI Enterprise Index to posts tied to cultural moments such as Women in Engineering Day and mental health awareness. Vu avoids any strict formula for the content mix.

“It’s not about saying 50% of content must be X,” he notes. “It’s about building the right narrative for the moment we’re in.”

Despite the team’s experience, Vu acknowledges cut-through on LinkedIn is not guaranteed. The rise of AI-driven “thought pieces” and a steady stream of industry commentary make it harder for substantive content to surface.

“We are a platform that automates workflows…The biggest challenge is how you have breakthrough and differentiated narratives,” he notes.

‘The war for attention’: B2B brands on why the role of creativity is ‘much clearer’

Going forward, Vu would like greater transparency around how LinkedIn’s algorithm evaluates quality.

“Everyone has a hot take now. I do wish the algorithm was clearer about indexing substance versus punditry,” he states.

The problem isn’t unique to LinkedIn, but the platform’s professional focus arguably heightens the tension between signal and noise. Advertisers face the same challenge: how to produce work that feels fresh in an environment where the volume of content continues to rise.

Ultimately, Vu says the brand’s philosophy is simple: “We’re connecting with people, not just job titles.”