Many companies use case studies as a way to show the market how their products and services work. And the case studies fail big time.
Why?
Because talking about you is exactly the wrong approach because nobody really cares about you or your products. Unfortunately, the vast majority of case studies I see on the web are simply ego stroking by the company using a traditional advertising approach of inserting product messages into a customer example.
What people care about is solving their problems. If your product or service helps people to solve a problem, then a case example can be great marketing tool.
Here's an example of a video case study by Neighborhood America. The video called Adidas Goes Mobile At NBA All-Star Week 2007 highlights their client and barely talks about the Neighborhood America at all. And also notice how video is a great way to tell this particular story.
Consider how different this approach to a creating a case study compared to most of examples that are either a) dreadfully boring or b) prattle on about the product or c) are egotistical or d) all of the above.
