While fun creative social media campaigns in the B2C space always seem to get a lot of attention (and win a lot of awards), it turns out that a large number of B2B companies are not only using social media campaigns and smart digital marketing tactics – they are doing it with a new level of style and sophistication.

At birdsong gregory, we use an insights-based shopper marketing approach to help our clients grow their market share and top-line revenue, but, as we’ve said before, not all shoppers are shopping for apple juice or a new pair of socks.

Some “shoppers” are on the path to purchase high-volume B2B services and products, which means that while B2B companies may be marketing themselves to other businesses, that doesn’t mean they have to boring. At the end of the day, your customer is just another consumer, and they are influenced by and willing to share and engage with much of the same types of content that power B2C social media campaigns.

Check out what Owens-Illinois, for example, is doing with social media.

Owens-Illinois Inc. is a Fortune 500 company that specializes in container glass products. It is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of packaging products, holding the position of largest manufacturer of glass containers in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe (after acquiring BSN Glasspack in 2004). Approximately one of every two glass containers made worldwide is made by O-I, its affiliates, or its licensees.

The company has just launched a global marketing push with a new logo and tagline “Glass Is Life,” all highlighted on a new website that anchors this information-rich, integrated campaign. The media plan includes print ads (in 12 countries and seven languages) supported by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where inspirational interviews play up the importance of glass. Owens-Illinois is also using Postano to aggregate and moderate the best content from their Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo channels and displaying it in a visually engaging page on their campaign microsite.