December is here, and while consumer brands are launching Spotify Wrapped clones and dropping limited-edition holiday merch, most B2B companies are... doing nothing. Maybe sending a year-end email with a "Happy Holidays from the team" message.

We don't think it has to be this way, and we're excited to share some ideas!

To start, why can’t a b2b/tech brand create this:

The best B2B brands are borrowing playbooks from consumer marketing to create memorable year-end moments that actually resonate. Here's how you can do it too.

When was the last time a B2B ad made you laugh? Actually laugh, not just politely smile?

Atlassian featured comedian Zach Woods in their recent campaign, leaning into humor and self-awareness rather than the typical feature-benefit script. GoDaddy took this even further by partnering with actor Walton Goggins to launch a fake eyewear brand called "Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses" for their Super Bowl spot, demonstrating their website builder in the most entertaining way possible.

The result? GoDaddy's tool usage doubled in the days after the Super Bowl, and the campaign won a Cannes Lion Grand Prix.

Your year-end play: Launch something unexpected. Not a boring case study or another webinar—create something that makes people stop scrolling. Think: an absurd product launch, a tongue-in-cheek award ceremony, or a campaign that pokes fun at your own industry's conventions.

What about a Black Friday-style promotion campaign? Get Sales involved. Create an Amazon store for your real SaaS product. Run a fully integrated campaign where the "discount" is monthly stickers, sparkling water subscriptions, and maybe a 1% discount on a 5-year term?

Consumer brands do this every holiday season. Why can't you? It just needs a bit of planning, like all good marketing.

B2B marketing has an obsession with abstraction. We talk about "solutions" and "platforms" and "ecosystems" instead of the people who use them.

ServiceNow partnered with Idris Elba for their "Put AI to Work for People" campaign, using a recognizable face to make enterprise AI feel approachable. The approach helped drive brand awareness up nearly 9% and strengthened their position in a crowded market.

And now following that up with entertaining product use cases, using real life work characters.

Even dating app Hinge—technically B2C but worth learning from—built their growth strategy around real love stories. Their "No Ordinary Love" campaign featured literary writers crafting narratives based on actual couples who met on the app.

Your year-end play: Put real people at the center of your story. Not stock photos or generic testimonials—actual humans with names, faces, and stories. Feature a customer's journey, spotlight your team members, or create a campaign around the people who make your product work.

End-of-year is perfect for this because it's inherently reflective (and forward looking). People want connection, not another product pitch.

Remember when Spotify Wrapped took over the internet? Every brand now wants their own "wrapped" experience, but most B2B companies think their data is too boring to package creatively.

Wrong.

Your customers have been using your product all year. That's a goldmine of insights waiting to be visualized in interesting ways. How many tickets did they resolve? How much time did they save? What was their busiest month?

Your year-end play: Create personalized year-in-review experiences for your customers. Make the data visual, shareable, and actually fun to look at. Bonus points if it feels more like unwrapping a gift than reading an analytics report.

This one will require cross-department alignment with Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing given the likely sensitive data involved. But lean on Marketing to create some assets for your customers to share on LinkedIn that aren't NDA-required.

Think beyond the dashboard. Could you send a beautifully designed one-pager? An interactive microsite? A video recap?

Here is a simple activation from years ago that a b2b or tech brand could borrow.

If campaigns aren't your thing, here are some lower-lift ideas that still pack punch:

Care packages with personality
Forget branded pens. Send something people actually want—premium coffee, hot sauce, or specialty salt. Make it memorable and specific to your brand's vibe (like a year-long subscription to the hottest sparkling water brand).

The upgrade incentive that doesn't feel salesy
Offering year-end discounts on upgrades? Make the pitch more interesting than "20% off." What about "upgrade now and we'll send you a year's supply of your favorite snack" or "donate to a charity of your choice on your behalf"?

Your own year-in-review (but make it human)
Share your company's wins, sure, but also the weird stuff. The failed experiments. The inside jokes. The moments that actually mattered to your team. Use Suno and create a song for your customers!

Create a game! The end of year is one of the most popular times to play games. How about this year you create one for your customers to play with their families. Fifth Door can help bring this to life.

Consumer brands understand something B2B often forgets: marketing should feel like a gift, not an obligation. It should surprise people, make them smile, or give them something worth sharing.

You don't need a Super Bowl budget to do this. You just need to care enough to try something different.

So as you're planning your year-end strategy, ask yourself: Would I actually want to receive this? Would I share it? Would it make me stop and think, "Huh, that's cool"?

If the answer is no, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

Because the companies winning in B2B right now aren't the ones playing it safe—they're the ones willing to be interesting.

If you're trying to show brand growth and relevance heading into 2026, Double E Analytics can help you measure what matters. Sometimes the best year-end move is understanding where you actually stand.

Want more inspiration? Check out Qualified's list of 30 Agentic Marketers to Watch—featuring leaders from Okta, ServiceNow, G2, Adobe, OpenAI, and more who are pushing B2B marketing forward.

And just because:

What are you planning for year-end marketing? Late to the game? Let's start planning for 2026! Hit reply and let us know what's working (or what you're experimenting with).

See ya soon!
Your Circle Back Team

Follow us on LinkedIn (more coming here in 2026)