Bright Ideas

AI, RevOps and emotion! A look back at the top B2B marketing trends of 2023

AI, RevOps and emotion! A look back at the top B2B marketing trends of 2023

It’s that time of year where we all start to reflect on the trends that have had the biggest impact in 2023. At Bright we’ve spent our year reinventing marketing with our amazing clients, including injecting greater agility into how marketers work together and with other revenue generating teams to refocus on the customer. It’s been a big year for marketing transformation. Marketing is emerging stronger, leaner, more data-driven and able to be more effective and efficient at engaging audiences.   

It’s been a rollercoaster from a macroeconomic perspective and as a business founder and MD there’s been a lot to navigate personally, as well as helping clients become more adaptable and able to manage change.  

One of my highlights was being selected as a juror for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the B2B Creative Lion. Not only was this an amazing experience but it gave me unique insights into some of the biggest trends and critical success factors in B2B. Ranging from why you need to forge an emotional connection with your audiences, to the need for investment in long-term brand building to augment your demand and performance marketing.

As well as this, we have seen the growth of AI and RevOps (my personal favourite), and marketers moving further away from a traditional funnel to a fly wheel model. Throughout all of this, an agile marketing approach is fundamental to being able to quickly test and adopt these developments by staying responsive, data-driven and collaborative. 

The importance of emotion and patience

During my time as a judge at Cannes Lions it was clear that a shift towards a more creative approach (akin to the boldness of B2C) is increasingly evident and showing results in B2B. It’s evident in successful campaigns such as Workday’s Rockstar and Disco’s Lady J [add links] B2B marketers to use emotion in their campaigns to achieve cut through and connect with their audiences.   

Research has shown that using emotion, storytelling, and humour leads to better audience engagement. Campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) with only rational content according to neurosciencemarketing.com. This is still fairly new ground for B2B marketers so using agile principles to test and measure what works and what doesn’t is key. 

The other trend I saw emerging at Cannes Lions was that patience is a virtue in B2B. From the entries we consistently saw more of a focus on long-term brand building, and a move away from over-reliance on performance marketing. According to LinkedIn’s B2B Marketing Benchmark report, 59% of B2B marketing leaders say their C-suite has increased the importance of brand building given economic conditions. Fellow B2B Creative juror Ty Heath, Director of Market Engagement at LinkedIn’s B2B Institute commented: “Brand building is the single greatest opportunity in B2B. We see that most B2B marketers are over-leveraged in lead generation, but brand building is what drives future cash flows.” 

The AI wild west

No 2023 wrap-up would be complete without mentioning the impact of generative AI. This was the year when AI really started to disrupt B2B marketing, and beyond. The areas where we have seen the biggest impact from generative AI has to be in content generation with the launch of ChatGPT back in November 2022, what a difference a year makes! Other content AI tools soon followed. Lead generation tools such as LeadIQ and Kartra are also helping to identify and generate high-quality leads for B2B marketing campaigns. 

AI in marketing offers unpreceded opportunities, with many starting to realise efficiency gains through simple use of AI apps within their existing martech. Longer term marketing leaders will need to understand which types of AI to test and invest in and how to approach it. Privacy and security related issues are a key consideration. Leaders need to set up their teams to be able to successfully test AI solutions by putting in place the guardrails for successful and safe adoption of AI. This points to an agile marketing approach and being able to test and learn then quickly scale where value is demonstrated. Marketing leaders need to be careful to safeguard and remain customer centric and authentic. Quick efficiency gains could spell disaster without proper consideration around effectiveness and the impact on engagement. There is plenty of upside in AI adoption as long as developed within a proper framework.

From funnels to fly wheels 

The move away from a funnel view of our customers to a fly wheel model continues to gain traction. In a traditional marketing funnel model, the focus is on attracting customer prospects and then converting them to purchasing customers. But marketers have realised that it’s not just about acquisition and customers can fall out of the model. Smarter marketers are recognising the full value of a customer and the need to market to clients at every stage of their lifecycle. By fostering loyalty and advocacy you can maximise the customer lifetime value.  

The flywheel model focuses on keeping existing customers engaged and turning them into repeat customers who are also willing to act as promoters for your business. The flywheel business model is more effective and should drive higher revenue because it prioritises the customer. 

The rise of RevOps 

Another big trend in B2B marketing this year has been the growth of  Revenue Operations or RevOps . Aligning your revenue generating teams – sales, marketing and customer success functions across the customer life cycle to drive growth and keep teams focused on the same metrics and KPI is quickly becoming table stakes. This cross-functional alignment clearly requires an agile approach, breaking down siloes to improve communication, collaboration and alignment to business goals.  

Agile remains key 

What’s clear is that 2023 has been one of the most exciting years for B2B marketing. All of these trends have the potential to transform how we engage with our audiences and increase marketing effectiveness. While the developments and trends in our industry are exciting, it can get overwhelming to keep up and remain innovative. An agile, growth mindset, alongside the related tools and processes enables marketing teams to respond quickly and effectively to changing customer preferences, market conditions and developments to ensure they are delivering the best results for their companies and clients.  

Get in touch to find out how Bright can help you harness agile marketing to deliver your marketing strategy in 2024.

Resources/reading list:

December 7, 2023 Zoe Merchant ,
Zoe MerchantAI, RevOps and emotion! A look back at the top B2B marketing trends of 2023
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Marketing Retrospective 2023 Webinar

Marketing Retrospective 2023 Webinar

Where effectiveness equates to competitive advantage, the application of agile marketing has become a key framework for B2B marketing leaders focused on improving their strategic impact in 2024.

In this webinar, we have brought together leaders in agile marketing to reflect on the learnings and successes from 2023. Watch the webinar to discover how you can embrace new techniques to enhance your B2B marketing outcomes in 2024.

Our experts dive into practical strategies around the following themes:

👉 Streamline operations and decision-making through agile adoption for effective marketing.
👉 Leverage data to optimise marketing strategies and showcase their value.
👉 Elevate marketing relevance through personalised interactions with your audience.
👉 Build brand consistency to drive loyalty and increase customer lifetime value.
👉 Foster a culture of experimentation for high-impact strategies and continuous improvement.

Missed the session, watch it on demand!

Meet the speakers

Jim Ewel

Co-Founder and Author, Agile Marketing Alliance

Jim is an Agile marketing pioneer who has guided over 70 organisations in adopting Agile practices. He helped create the first Agile Marketing certification and authored ‘The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing’

Zoë Merchant

Managing Director, Bright

Zoë is an agile marketing aficionado — a passionate believer in staying ahead of the competition with resilience, adaptability, and pace. After 20 years of delivering B2B marketing strategies. Using agile marketing to test, learn and build on success. Zoë leads the team in delivering results through continual and focused improvements to support clients’ business goals.

Kirsten Dixon

Marketing Performance Director, Informa

Kirsten is an experienced Marketing Performance Director, leading the EMEA Marketing team for Informa Markets. She is responsible for driving marketing effectiveness across the company’s diverse portfolio of markets and products.

Sian Heaphy

Accredited Agile Marketing Trainer and Director

Sian uses agile methods to encourage creativity, curiosity, and data-driven decisions in marketing. She works with teams to design experiments, gain insights, and achieve business goals. Sian promotes continuous improvement through experimentation and learning.

December 7, 2023 Paul Keegan
Paul KeeganMarketing Retrospective 2023 Webinar
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The power of inclusive design: Crafting creative experiences for all

The power of inclusive design: Crafting creative experiences for all

When it comes to engaging with your audience, you could have the most exciting, innovative product or piece of content, but if it’s not accessible then it won’t deliver the results you’re looking for. The concept of accessibility in design has reshaped the way we create products, experiences, websites, apps, and digital platforms, requiring designers to be even more creative in our approach to consider and deliver for all audiences and ultimately leading to increasingly innovative and inclusive design.

Understanding accessibility in design

Good design can connect with people around the world and across different cultures to create equity and accessibility, helping to foster an inclusive and socially responsible community. Embracing accessibility isn’t just a trend, but a commitment to designing with empathy and foresight to have a positive impact on people’s lives. It’s important to not think of accessibility requirements as a restriction, but instead an ignition to creativity, to innovate past basic delivery and offer different design layers.

Accessibility in design is about creating products and services that can be easily accessed, understood, and used by people, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities. It is a key component of inclusive design, which puts accommodating diverse users’ needs and preferences at the core of a project.

Where to start with inclusive design

When you begin to consider how you can apply inclusive design thinking to your projects, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are international standards that help creatives develop accessible web content. While guiding structures around design can feel limiting, these guidelines set a platform for diving deeper into the creative process and encourage an innovative approach to deliver for all, not just the majority.

These guidelines are built on four guiding principles that fit under the acronym POUR:

The Inclusive design principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust

Example infographic using inclusive design principles

Infographic using inclusive design principles

Creating an accessible design involves incorporating features and considerations that enable people with disabilities to use a product, website, or environment effectively. Here are some essential elements that make the examples below more accessible:

  • Consistent navigation and layout
  • Plain language and easy-to-understand content
  • Contrast and colour choices
  • Readable fonts and typography
  • Digestible content in sufficient time

Promoting inclusive design

So, how can we deliver content and experiences for our audiences across different platforms that are digestible for everyone without sacrificing creativity? We put together some practical tips to help promote inclusive engagement whilst also ensuring creativity.

Test alternatives for visual content

Whether you are producing for a website or another digital product, descriptive alternative text (alt text) for images and graphics allows you to get creative with your visual design, while ensuring users with visual impairments can interpret what you’re communicating. Include descriptive text for the mood, story or artistic intent behind the image, not just the practical explanation, to enhance the experience for everyone.

Business reports and data visualisation

Clear reporting and data presentations are crucial to bringing your audience on your journey and building confidence in your strategic direction. To make these documents accessible, formatting is everything. Accessible PDFs or data tables used alongside visually engaging charts and graphs will give you extra opportunities to represent your data in an effective and creative way, whilst ensuring you’re being inclusive of a broader audience.

Experiential event design

When you think of an event experience, your first considerations are sight and sound. However, by incorporating other sensory elements such as touch, smell or taste into a tactile exhibit, you allow further opportunities for your audience to engage with your brand. You’ll find your full audience benefits from this well-rounded and memorable approach to event design.

Captioning and transcripts for multimedia

Turning on subtitles is becoming more popular across different audiences for TV shows and movies regardless of ability. If your project involves multimedia content like videos or podcasts, tools such as closed captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions help ensure you will reach a wider audience. Within inclusive design, these additions don’t just make your content more accessible for users with hearing or visual impairments, but also open opportunities for creative storytelling through synchronised captions or tailored transcripts that can capture nuances in spoken content. In the same way that a script has stage directions for actors, you can create a more valuable experience for your audience with further direction on how they can interpret the content.

Inclusive design is a journey that not only aligns with our social and ethical responsibility as creatives, but also expands the potential for innovation in design. It means designing with diversity in mind from the very beginning, rather than as an afterthought.

Whether we’re working on web projects, product packaging, or experiential events, inclusive design isn’t about compromise; it’s about expanding our horizons and reimagining the creative process. By thinking inclusively about our diverse user needs and providing alternative ways for people to engage, design can play an important role in making the world a more inclusive place. We encourage you to imagine and innovate without boundaries and explore how you can supercharge your creative design for your entire audience.

Resources/reading list:

October 20, 2023 Alaina Roberts
Alaina RobertsThe power of inclusive design: Crafting creative experiences for all
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AI in marketing: Unpacking the opportunities and challenges

AI in marketing: Unpacking the opportunities and challenges

Elevate your marketing strategies and dive into the world of generative AI at our latest Smarter Marketer panel event. Whether you’re grappling with how to harness the potential of AI to drive business growth or seeking actionable tips on how to integrate AI into your marketing efforts, our event covers it all.

Our exclusive panel discussion simplifies the complexities of AI’s challenges and guides you towards pragmatic solutions that work for your organisation. Witness first-hand the positive impact generative AI is already having on marketing strategies and outputs.

Our Smarter Marketer panel event delves into:

  1. Generative AI tools unveiled: How AI is revolutionising content creation strategies.
  2. AI in action: Implementing AI for maximum effectiveness.
  3. Testing and adoption incubation: Implementing and testing AI tools.
  4. Operational excellence: Vital considerations for governance in your marketing operations.
  5. Risk management: Identifying, assessing and mitigating risks.

Missed the session, watch it on demand!

Unlock the AI advantage – activating AI

Ready to embark on your AI journey? Our tools and use cases for marketers resource is a great place to start – download yours today.

Meet the speakers

Mark Breslin

Chief Product & Technology Officer, Informa Tech

Mark is responsible for leading the Product & Technology at Informa Tech. This team focuses on working with the leadership teams across the business to shape and create product strategies and roadmaps for new and existing products and services.

Kate Cox

CMO, Bright Bid

Kate is an experienced CMO with a focus on marketing for the digital age and is a native AI marketer in her current role at Bright Bid, an adtech company using AI and human expertise to improve the effectiveness of paid digital activity

Zoe Merchant

Zoë is an agile marketing aficionado — a passionate believer in staying ahead of the competition with resilience, adaptability, and pace. After 20 years of delivering B2B marketing strategies, Zoë founded Bright to help tech, engineering and consulting firms get the most from their marketing investment. Using agile marketing to test, learn and build on success. Zoë leads the team in delivering results through continual and focused improvements to support clients’ business goals.

Interested in reading more about the capabilities of AI in marketing?

Check out our reading list here – Ignite your knowledge: The ultimate AI adventure begins

September 25, 2023 Paul Keegan , ,
Paul KeeganAI in marketing: Unpacking the opportunities and challenges
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Ignite your knowledge: The ultimate AI adventure begins

Ignite your knowledge: The ultimate AI adventure begins

As the days grow shorter and the nights get cozier, there’s no better time to embark on a journey into the world of AI. To kickstart your adventure, we’ve curated a list of unmissable reads and listens that will light up your path to AI enlightenment.

For the bookworms:

Rewired – The McKinsey & Company guide to outcompeting in the age of digital and AI.

MIT study: Experimental Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence – Examining the productivity impact of the assistive chatbot ChatGPT.

AI-powered marketing and sales reach new heights with generative AI – McKinsey & Company discuss how AI technology, particularly generative AI is transforming the fields of marketing and sales, impacting both B2B and B2C players.

10 Ways PPC Automation and AI Can Improve Your Campaigns – A look at AI and Automation in PPC campaigns from BrightBid.

Black Mirror meets marketing: the ethical implications of AI – A look at the privacy and ethical concerns around AI from Informa Tech.

Seven ChatGPT experiments content marketers should test now – Ideas from InformaTech on how to experiment with ChatGPT to create compelling content and improve market research and analysis.

For those always on the go:

The future of search in B2B marketing– Podcast with Kate Cox, CMO at BrightBid, which examines how AI will change Search Engine Marketing for B2B customers and B2B marketing.

AI will save the world with Marc Andreessen and Martin Casado – Co-founder of a16z, dives into the world of AI, aiming to quell concerns about its impact on humanity.

Which tool to start with?

With so many AI tools out there, here are a few sites that can help you decide which tools to get started with:

There’s an AI for that: https://theresanaiforthat.com

Futurepedia: https://www.futurepedia.io

TopAI.tools: https://topai.tools

And finally here’s a site which lists all the comparison sites!

Interested in hearing more about the capabilities of AI in marketing? Check out our panel discussion “AI in marketing: Unpacking the opportunities and challenges” for more insight, as well as helpful AI resources.

Happy reading from the Bright Team.

September 21, 2023 Paul Keegan ,
Paul KeeganIgnite your knowledge: The ultimate AI adventure begins
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Developing a strategy for your website continuous improvement

Developing a strategy for your website continuous improvement

What does Continuous Improvement mean to you?

Identify, plan, execute, review. Continuous improvement is a well-known process in the world of supply chain and business operations, but its benefits in marketing activity and website management are often overlooked.

It’s a common misconception that once a website is launched, the hard work is done, and we move into the ‘set and forget’ phase. In reality ongoing maintenance and continual improvement of the site and its assets is crucial to performance and success.

The role of your website in achieving business goals

Technology updates and trends move so quickly that it’s easy to fill up your task list with changes and reworks. However, a website is often the greatest go to market tool a company has, and a comprehensive website strategy helps to give your work purpose, map a path to reach your overall goals and informs how you measure results. Here are five things to consider when building out your continuous improvement strategy for your website.

1.     Identify your current state

There are different considerations to make depending on the status of your website – have you just launched a new site? Are you aiming to drive new visitors or diversify and expand your offering? Understanding your priorities will help guide you towards your plan.

As soon as people begin visiting your site, behaviour data starts to build – what pages they’re visiting, whether they are on their phone or computer, what they like (and don’t!). This data helps you understand your current website and where potential gaps are.

Undertake a full evaluation of your current content. Having an aim to regularly update and refresh your content will ensure your website flexes and develops alongside your business. By analysing your content and identifying your strong and weak spots, your content plan will begin to develop.

2.     Map your goals and objectives

So now you know where you are, but how does this align with where you want to be? Your website is an important tool for your sales, business development, and customer engagement teams. Aligning your digital goals with your overall company vision and purpose will help you unlock the potential of your platform and ensure the work you are putting in will be delivering for the organisation in the long run.

As your website continuous improvement and content development has no real end-date, it’s easy to get disheartened and feel overwhelmed, but by outlining clear KPIs for the short, medium, and long term, you’ll be able to celebrate those successes along the way to keep energy levels up and stay focused on optimisation.

4.     Focus on your audience

There can sometimes be a gap between what your company thinks the audience wants and what your audience actually needs. To continue to build improvements into your platform, you need to think as the customer. Is it easy for your users to work out where they need to go to find the information they need? Optimise your navigation, page load times, and test different design elements and ways of using content.

5.     Create your content

Keep watch for opportunities to create fresh content and ensure you are getting the maximum value from it by implementing SEO best practices and technology updates. In the same way that a Google Bot will trawl your content and learn to adjust its own algorithms, you can keep your SEO practices up to date to stay ahead of any changes.

When in doubt, use targeted survey questions and feedback forms to get a direct line to your audience and make changes based on their feedback.

Bonus consideration: Experimentation

Experimentation is a great way to drive your continuous improvement. Improving understanding of your audiences, user design, conversion and doing it quickly. Using clear, time bound experiments to increase the effectiveness of your website. When experimenting with your website think about:

  • Your experimentation shouldn’t be about vanity metrics – it needs to focus on where you can drive the most business impact. So, places to start are:
    • Pages, sections or areas that have the highest impact
    • Starting at the end of the funnel
  • Don’t just focus on A/B testing – think about big radical ideas that drastically improve the user experience. This is where you’ll see the biggest improvements

Remember to be agile – when it comes to continuous improvement it should be about spending your time where you can drive the best possible results – for your audiences and for your business goals. Test, learn and build on your findings.

Your continuous improvement journey

While website development and maintenance is a never-ending cycle, the benefit it can bring your business is tangible. By being purposeful and consistent in your continuous improvement strategy, you’ll drive better engagement with your customers and ensure you are well positioned to adapt quickly to an ever-changing digital environment.

September 15, 2023 Sian Heaphy ,
Sian HeaphyDeveloping a strategy for your website continuous improvement
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The power of an engaged social community

The power of an engaged social community

Building connections that drive success

Social media has become a cornerstone of communication, connection, and business growth. We’ve seen its growth in e-commerce, as a search engine and its use a channel to reach target audiences.

Gone are the days when your follower count would suffice. The quality of engagement matters just as much as the quantity of followers. But an engaged community isn’t just a mere collection of likes and comments either, it’s a vibrant ecosystem where authentic connections flourish – where members actively participate, share insights and initiate conversations.

What’s the magic of an engaged social community?

Build brand loyalty and trust

An engaged community can transform passive followers into brand advocates. Not only will they support your products or services but will likely promote them willingly.

Enhancing customer support

This is something you see a lot with B2C brands as well as SaaS firms and an engaged community can serve as a real-time customer support hub.

Own content amplification

An engaged community will actively amplify content you generate, increasing reach, visibility, and brand awareness.

Driving user generated content

We know content is king, but content from your users about your products and services? Gold dust. The challenge is getting it. An engaged community makes that process a lot simpler and they’ll show genuine enthusiasm for the brand.

Fostering social engagement

Here are some of the things to think about when focusing on increasing engagement from your audiences.

Creating valuable content

Engagement starts with content that resonates with your target audience. Invest time in developing personas and understanding their buyer journey to understand their interests, pain points and preference. Use these insights to craft content that educates, entertains, or inspires to encourage interaction.

Encourage two-way conversations

Engagement is a two-way street. Responding to comments, questions and messages demonstrates you value your community’s input, drives connection and belonging.

Blend the physical and the virtual

When focusing on engagement, it’s important not to look at virtual and physical in isolation. They should work together to increase your reach, drive engagement, and foster your community. Physical events like exhibitions, roundtables, and meetups alongside interactive events like contests, polls, online Q&A sessions, and live interviews inject an element of excitement into your community. These events encourage participation and provide an opportunity for followers to actively contribute.

Showcase user generated content

Peers like to hear from their peers so promoting, sharing, and celebrating user generated content is a great way to encourage contribution.

Don’t focus just on the brand

Your company pages and profiles are a great starting point to driving engagement, but building your community shouldn’t stop there. What can you do as individuals to foster the community? What subject matter experts and industry leaders are within your business that you can use to fuel your community building activity?

Measuring the success of your activity

Good engagement can be tricky to measure. It’s not just about the number of likes, comments, shares or engagement rate. That’s only part of the equation. The other parts of the equation are who is liking and engaging, are they in your ICP? And finally what’s the impact you’re seeing of that engagement? This could be increased conversion of unknowns to knowns, improved engagement and marketing audiences, brand sentiment and even increased revenue.

The future of engagement holds exciting possibilities. Virtual and augmented reality, and AI-driven interactions promise to create even more immersive and interactive experiences. As technology evolves, engagement strategies will evolve with them, redefining the way communities connect and thrive.

An engaged social media community is more than just a digital gathering—it’s a powerful catalyst for success. As the digital and social landscape continues to evolve, nurturing an engaged community will remain a cornerstone of successful social media strategies. Continue to research, use your social media data and audience data to develop strategies that not only increase your reach, but forge meaningful connections.

August 18, 2023 Sian Heaphy ,
Sian HeaphyThe power of an engaged social community
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The top five use cases for generative AI for B2B marketing

The top five use cases for generative AI for B2B marketing

The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 propelled AI back into the spotlight. Widely considered as the best chatbot to date, it signifies a step change in the evolution of generative AI and has led many organisations to wonder how best to harness the ever-growing potential of AI.

The applications of generative AI for B2B marketers are numerous and wide ranging, with many CMOs initially prioritising solutions that improve personalisation and the customer journey. Here are the top five use cases we think you should be considering right now:

Content Generation

Generative AI can be used to create high-quality, engaging content for B2B marketing purposes such as blog posts, articles, social media captions, and product descriptions. This technology can also provide personalised content recommendations based on user preferences and behaviour. While this type of AI can undoubtedly save time and effort for content creators, all content needs to be reviewed and carefully edited, bringing in your own industry knowledge and experience. Any content you put out into the public domain should always reflects your brands’ unique tone of voice to ensure it remains authentic and fact checked for credibility of sources and references.

Lead generation

Generative AI such as LeadIQ and Kartra can help identify and generate high-quality leads for B2B marketing campaigns. By analysing vast amounts of data, including user behaviour, demographics, and firmographics, AI models can predict potential customers and generate targeted lead lists. This enables marketers to optimise their lead generation efforts and focus on the most promising prospects. Always remember as marketers, you’re only as good as your data, and never more so than in the age of AI. Prioritising regular data hygiene is a must, along with regularly updating your ideal customer profiles and personas.

Personalised email campaigns

Personalisation is crucial in B2B marketing, and generative AI can play a significant role here. By analysing customer data, AI models can create a personalised experience including ads, social outreach and tailored email content, including subject lines, body text, and recommendations. This level of personalisation increases the chances of engagement and conversion, leading to more effective email marketing campaigns. The caveat here is that personalisation and privacy is a delicate balancing act and marketers must ensure they avoid becoming invasive and use reliable data sources.

Market research and analysis

Generative AI can analyse vast amounts of market data, including competitor analysis, industry trends, and customer behaviour, to provide valuable insights for B2B marketing strategies. By processing and interpreting this data, AI models can generate reports, recommendations, and predictive analytics that help businesses make informed marketing decisions. Again, the quality of the data here is key and must be up-to-date to be most effective.

Chatbots and virtual assistants

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can enhance customer interactions and support in B2B marketing. Generative AI allows these conversational agents to understand and respond to customer queries, provide relevant information about products or services, and even assist with lead nurturing and sales. This technology enables businesses to offer round-the-clock support, improve customer experience, and streamline the sales process.

These are just a few examples of how generative AI can be leveraged in B2B marketing. The next things to consider are, how do I decide what type of AI to invest in first and how do I test different AI solutions? Privacy and security related issues are also a key consideration. Talk to Bright about setting your teams up to be able to autonomously test AI solutions and establishing the guardrails for successful and safe adoption of AI to drive marketing effectiveness and increase engagement with your audiences.

July 25, 2023 Lydia Kirby
Lydia KirbyThe top five use cases for generative AI for B2B marketing
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Activating Agile Marketing: Moving Beyond the Buzzword

Activating Agile Marketing: Moving Beyond the Buzzword

Embrace the rapidly evolving business landscape with the adoption of agile marketing. Discover the transformative potential it holds for B2B organisations by gaining valuable insights from industry-leading marketing experts who have successfully implemented agile practices within their departments.

This exclusive panel delves into the fascinating journeys, challenges and strategies of these marketing pioneers as they transitioned to an agile way of working. Learn first-hand how agile marketing has revolutionised their teams and discover the benefits it can bring your team and organisation.

Our Smarter Marketer panel event delves into;

  1. Agile Marketing Foundations: Core principles in B2B environments.
  2. Building Agile Teams: Mindset, training, and nurturing adaptability.
  3. Establishing Agile Processes: Flexible workflows and communication tools.
  4. Navigating Challenges: Real-world examples and overcoming strategies.
  5. Measuring Success: Key performance indicators for continuous improvement.
  6. Agile Marketing in Action: Case studies from various B2B industries.

Missed the session, watch it on demand!

Access the reframe cards – Activating Agile Marketing edition

Start activating agile marketing with our reframe cards – purposely created to help you and your teams improve your approach to agile marketing, with tips on how to restructure your thinking.

Meet the speakers

Catharina Rozendaal

Catharina Rozendaal is a results-driven marketing leader with a focus on driving growth. As the Marketing Growth Director for Emerging Markets at ADP, she combines her strategic expertise and deep understanding of market dynamics to execute impactful marketing campaigns.

Emily Nicols

Emily Nicols is a seasoned marketing professional with a passion for driving growth and creating impactful campaigns. As Group Marketing Director at Informa Markets, Emily has successfully implemented comprehensive marketing plans that have consistently delivered measurable results.

Sian Heaphy

Sian uses agile methods to encourage creativity, curiosity, and data-driven decisions in marketing. She works with teams to design experiments, gain insights, and achieve business goals. Sian promotes continuous improvement through experimentation and learning.

Lydia Kirby

Lydia Kirby is a marketing transformation director with over nine years of experience in the agile marketing methodology. She has worked with B2B tech, consulting, and professional services companies to help them use data and creativity to transform their marketing whilst delivering business outcomes. Lydia is passionate about showing tangible value for marketing and finding creative solutions to business problems.

Reading List

Watched the panel and interested in hearing more? Check out our extended list of agile marketing resources:

Blogs:

5 popular myths of agile marketing
A 5-minute read that dispels myths on agile marketing and how theory comes to life and the true practicalities of agile ways of working.

Getting started with agile marketing
A blog that shares practical tips to adopt agile ways of working in a marketing organisation and how to start on the right foot.

Books:

Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker
A great book that explores how applying software-inspired management concepts can accelerate modern marketing. Giving insight into how greater agility can improve customer experience.

Agile Marketing by Neil Perkin
This book dives into adaptive marketing principles and practices, providing guidelines to redesigning marketing structures, processes and culture, to be fit for purpose in today’s changeable environment.

The 6 disciplines of Agile Marketing by Jim Ewel
An informative read that provides a concise, approachable, and adaptable strategy for the implementation of Agile in virtually any marketing organization.

Other resources:

Agile Marketing Manifesto
An online resources created by marketers to codify agile marketing and create a manifesto for the industry to utilise and reference.

June 20, 2023 Sian Heaphy
Sian HeaphyActivating Agile Marketing: Moving Beyond the Buzzword
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Behind the scenes at Cannes Lions: Emerging trends in creative B2B

A first-hand account of the role of a juror and the trends emerging

Behind the scenes at Cannes Lions: Emerging trends in creative B2B

Unexpectedly, an invite to join the jury of the prestigious Cannes Lions landed in my inbox, thanks to an anonymous nomination. Quite the surprise, and I can’t deny it, I was absolutely chuffed. It’s not every day you’re offered a chance to contribute to such a distinguished process and simultaneously tap into the pulse of emerging trends for the B2B community.

Now, this isn’t any old jury service. This is the B2B Creative Lion category and it’s just in its 2nd year. A ten-strong team of rather remarkable jurors, which it has been a pleasure to meet, we’ve been handed the baton and with it, the responsibility to spotlight the very best of B2B creativity. We’re a diverse bunch, with different stories and backgrounds, but united by one shared goal — to inspire B2B marketers across the globe.

I will pull back the curtain on this journey — give you an insider’s view of our deliberations, a glimpse at the standout trends, and a deep dive into what really happens in a Cannes Lion jury room.

The jury assembled in May, and we are deep in the throes of the first round of judging, with the deadline steadily approaching. This stage is rigorous and immersive, an explosion of creativity, clever marketing ideas and beautiful crafting of creatives, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the evolving landscape of B2B marketing.

Blurred lines between B2B and B2C marketing

One trend that stands out is the blurring of B2B and B2C marketing lines. B2B campaigns are increasingly employing emotion-driven, personalised elements often found in B2C marketing, resulting in more engaging, human-centred experiences.

Redefining the B2B aesthetic

Bold colour palettes and daring design choices are challenging the traditional, more reserved B2B aesthetic, signalling a shift towards a more vibrant visual language. Combined with the emphasis on clear and simple messaging in the most impressive creative ideas. Amidst the clamour for attention, straightforward messages still hold their ground as the most effective.

A fresh take on creative playfulness and emotional depth has also surfaced in the entries, amplified by the refined use of omnichannel marketing strategies. These campaigns resonate deeply with audiences, reflecting the maturation of the industry.

Business value at the forefront

Marketers have made significant strides in leveraging data and insights, aiming to deliver not only creative campaigns but tangible business value. Personalised experiences, enabled by the blending of channels and tactics, are on the rise, fuelled by the quest for a seamless buyer journey.

Brands rallying around a cause

Interestingly, many submissions underscore a compelling shift towards purpose-led partnerships. Brands are aligning with causes and missions that resonate with their audience, leveraging shared values to cut through the noise. This approach builds authentic connections, deepens brand engagement, and proactively supports many noteworthy causes.

The tech-savvy marketer

The emergence of Web3 and AI technologies within campaign execution, a shift towards a more digital, automated marketing landscape. Clever campaigns tuning into tech-savvy audiences are making the most of emergent channels such as NFTs or AI tools to harness the power of AI for personalisation. These campaigns have fine-tuned their messaging for specific industries or individuals. Demonstrating a next-level understanding of not just where the audience is now, but where they are heading.

The quality of the submissions is high, signalling that B2B marketing is moving up a gear and redefining benchmarks of creative excellence.

I’m excited to continue the journey towards shortlisting the final contenders, and I’m looking forward to the time spent discussing the entries with my fellow B2B jurors, without a doubt, there will be some lively debates on who makes the cut.

I’ll continue this series, documenting the intriguing process behind the scenes at the Cannes Lions Awards. Keep an eye out for the next update.

May 30, 2023 Zoe Merchant ,
Zoe MerchantBehind the scenes at Cannes Lions: Emerging trends in creative B2B
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