B2B marketing is a radically different place in 2014 after a decade of innovation and intense competition – so what were the key milestones and events on the road to this transformation? Joel Harrison, editor-in-chief and co-founder of B2B Marketing, looks back on 10 eventful years
There’s an old saying that a week is a long time in politics – given the 24-hour, multichannel, instant-gratification world we now live in, that’s increasingly true of any aspect of life. Events, stories and agendas evolve at an astonishing rate, sometimes being revolutionised in the space of a few short days. So if a week has become a long time, a decade is surely an age, or an aeon; an almost unfathomable amount of time.
Back in 2004, the B2B marketing industry was a very different place. Indeed, you could legitimately argue that there wasn’t a B2B marketing industry – at least outside the USA. As a result, practitioners typically felt like second-class citizens within the wider marketing industry – B2B roles were perceived to be less interesting, less important and, above all, less sexy than their B2C counterparts.
Fast-forward 10 years and things have changed dramatically: the B2B marketing industry is now dynamic, vibrant, recognised and above all visible – in other words, it has changed almost beyond recognition.
As with any such transformation, it’s been driven by a combination of smaller, incremental events that we can see from today’s vantage point as a massive leap forward. So what were the key milestones along the way? Here are my thoughts on the events that have shaped today’s B2B marketing industry – it’s not an exhaustive list (I have a finite wordcount to work to) but hopefully some will resonate with anyone who, like me, has been championing B2B for the last 10 years, and may provide some context and a new perspective for those who have arrived on the scene more recently.
1. 2005: The launch of the B2B Awards
In the interests of fairness and objectivity I’m anxious to avoid blowing our own trumpet in this article, but if there’s one single thing that galvanised the B2B marketing industry over last 10 years, then the launch of the B2B Awards has a great claim to be it. Previously there were isolated B2B categories in other awards programmes, but they were (and arguably remain) token gestures – this ringfencing or special status mainly served to reinforce the view that B2B wasn’t really important enough to play on the main stage.
From humble beginnings back in 2004, when we worked with Information Arts to launch these awards, they are now fiercely contested and highly coveted by clients and agencies alike. The ceremony is the must-attend event of the year in the B2B marketing industry, and is regarded as the ‘fun’ awards by most practitioners. In 2005, the industry welcomed the B2B Awards with open arms – at long last, B2B marketers could recognise and celebrate success on their own terms and their own stage.
2. 2006: Bank of Scotland’s ‘Look at things differently’ campaign
Throughout most of 2005 and 2006, the ‘Look at things differently’ campaign by Bank of Scotland was everywhere – on billboards, on public transport, on lorries and on ‘building wraps’. It was the first example, that I can remember, of a true blockbuster campaign in B2B. If not necessarily the greatest creative idea ever, it was simple, eye-catching and memorable, particularly when it’s plastered across the entire side of a five-story building next to the M62. The aim was simple: to turn Bank of Scotland into a major force in the UK business banking market.
This massive campaign, in collaboration with a more ‘relaxed’ attitude to lending typical of the mid-noughties boom, resulted in significant success for the bank. All of which came crashing down around its ears in 2008, with the advent of the credit crunch. The subsequent trials and tribulations of Halifax Group, which owned the Bank of Scotland and is now owned by Lloyds, have been well documented. While certainly an excellent, effective and highly memorable campaign, ‘Head for business’ can also be seen in hindsight as the embodiment of an era of excess – which we’re all still paying for.
3. 2007: The emergence of marketing automation
The first time I became aware of marketing automation was over a beer outside a noisy pub in Mayfair in summer 2007, following a B2B Marketing networking event. Eloqua had been running a one-man operation in the UK for a few months at that point. It was a very inauspicious introduction to a technology category that has since become one of the defining topics of conversation in B2B marketing, and the central component of the battle between the global IT giants to dominate the marketing industry. The total absence of PR in this introduction appealed to me – I liked the sound of this unpretentious Canadian technology company, perhaps that’s why I’ve continued to be a flag waver (and sometimes apologist) for the technology.
Marketing automation arrived at exactly the right time: the words ‘sub-prime’ entered the vocabulary not long afterwards, and the world entered a full-blown economic catastrophe soon after that. Marketers found themselves under scrutiny as never before, and the promise of a tool that would prove ROI and improve the relationship with sales was an answer to many prayers. The reality, however, seven years later, is that the installed base remains relatively low, and only a small proportion of those who have taken the plunge have managed to utilise it fully to enable maximum potential returns to be realised. But then, nothing that was ever worth doing was ever easy.
4. 2008: The IDMF shuts up shop
While the arrival of Eloqua signalled the beginning of the digital era in B2B, the beginning of the end for the direct marketing era (if not the exhibitions era to an extent) was probably marked by the demise of the International Direct Marketing Fair (IDMF), which was its landmark exhibition event. You could legitimately argue the IDMF had become a dinosaur long before 2008 – the concept of a vast trade show, with companies large and small attempting to hawk their wares direct to passing buyers, appeared distinctly old-school, albeit not in a hip or trendy way. But vendors and buyers continued to turn up well into the noughties, maintaining a kind of collective delusion: if no-one blinked and questioned what they were doing there, then the myth would persist and the show would go on.
But in 2008, the wheels finally came off, a number of key exhibitors jumped ship, and the show was unceremoniously cancelled by Reed Exhibitions ending decades as an industry institution. The IDMF brand was sold to UBM to be ‘incorporated’ into Internet World, which itself has been struggling ever since. Marketing exhibitions continue to exist, although only TFM&A is even remotely relevant to B2B, and that is increasingly focused on free seminars to lure in the attendees, with the exhibition stands increasingly relegated to a sideshow. The simple fact is that, in the digital age, the majority of purchasing decisions are made online, and buyers no longer need to attend exhibitions to meet or vet suppliers.
5. 2009: The demise of Precision Marketing
Perhaps the biggest casualty of the credit crunch, at least as far as the marketing industry was concerned, were print magazine brands. Back in 2004, there were up to 20 UK print publications designed to serve marketers – these were the days of controlled circulation, where magazines were free for those who fitted the distribution criteria, paid for by ads.
In 2009, it became apparent this model had been in trouble for years – the onset of the credit crunch and a general collapse in confidence among the advertisers amounted to a mass extinction event, with the marketing portfolios of Haymarket and Centaur in particular decimated.
Of all the titles lost during this period, it was the demise of Precision Marketing that shocked me the most. As a title it seemed so closely and inexorably aligned with its audience of DM practitioners and agencies (occasionally even mentioning B2B) that it could not possibly fail. The exploits of its editor Charlie McElvy were legendary throughout the bars and restaurants of Soho. The end for Precision Marketing was swift and brutal, at least as far as most of the journalists involved were concerned, and was yet another example that nothing is permanent. The message was clear: the era of print-only controlled circulation business publications was finally over.
For our part, B2B Marketing has always operated as a subscription product – we didn’t believe the controlled circulation model was viable long term. And so it proved.
6. 2010: The arrival of content marketing
The question of whether content marketing is anything new in B2B remains highly contentious. The cynics say B2B brands have always produced content, in numerous forms – case studies, brochures, whitepapers, emails etc – so there’s nothing new here. The proponents say, yes, but search and social technologies make these content elements findable as never before, and automation tools enable nurturing, and these profoundly change the discipline.
What there is less argument about, however, is whether content marketing is effective – there is almost universal agreement that it is, and potentially highly so, hence both clients and agencies are embracing it wholesale, whether that’s for demand generation activities or thought leadership.
It’s hard to put a precise date on when the term content marketing actually emerged, but the decision in 2010 by the trade body for customer magazines (previously known as the Association of Publishing Agencies) to change its name to the Content Marketing Association, suggests it had gone mainstream by this point. The content bandwagon is rolling, and there is still no sign of it stopping.
7. 2011: Data stops being a problem and becomes an opportunity
Traditionally, data was effectively a dirty word in B2B marketing – dirty for two reasons. Firstly because for most companies customer data was literally dirty – in other words, unclean or inaccurate, and of questionable value for marketing. Secondly because most marketers found it desperately dull as a subject, and didn’t want to talk about it, let alone understand it.
But all that changed in 2011 when McKinsey announced that big data was ‘the next frontier’, and that it could have profound implications not just on marketing, but on how businesses were run and created. Suddenly data stopped being something that marketers begrudgingly had to accept as a necessary evil. This in itself is arguably the biggest and most unexpected transformation of the decade.
It’s important to point out that big data was not invented in 2011 – its roots go back much further; to the 1940s, according to some observers. It’s more important to point out that although big data has attracted a lot of hype, the kind of volumes, skills and technologies required to utilise it effectively do not exist as yet in B2B (unless you work for someone like IBM, possibly), and are unlikely to do so for many years. So it remains a pipedream, and a vehicle for hype – as Tim Harford wrote in the Financial Times magazine recently: ‘Big data is a vague term often thrown around by people with something to sell.’ While this is certainly true, at least it got data back onto the agenda, and that has to be a good thing.
8. 2012: LinkedIn’s IPO
It’s ironic that the development of social media so directly parallels the history of B2B Marketing magazine, with leading social platforms all launching in the early noughties. But while Facebook and Twitter, which grabbed all the headlines due to their visibility and controversy that followed them around, LinkedIn became a runaway success in the background, with virtually no fanfare. All three have undergone IPOs, Facebook stock famously nosediving immediately on its debut and Twitter only turning a profit in 2014. By contrast LinkedIn’s stock has performed well, and its developers are proving increasingly effective in transforming it from the ultimate address book to a highly efficient money-making machine. Their challenge is to understand where the limits lie, and not to alienate its users by over exploitation. It’s nice to see one area in which a steadfastly B2B form of marketing is steadfastly outperforming its B2C rivals.
9. 2013/14: The launch of the Business Marketing Collective (BMC)
While B2B marketing has made huge strides in the past decade, the one thing lacking was a centralised, recognised voice for the industry, which would show leadership, shape the agenda and set standards. Launched last year, the BMC was an attempt to create this, and drive the development of the industry to new levels. We at B2B Marketing have been one of the leading protagonists, working together with marketers from both client side and agencies. The new organisation incorporates the Association of B2B Agencies (ABBA) and is intended to be as open and inclusive as possible – we welcome any expression of interest and active participation. It’s possibly the boldest and potentially the most significant thing that’s happened since 2004, and for it to succeed we need everyone’s help.
10. 2014: Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP endorses B2B – the ultimate accolade?
Agencies are without question the bellweather for any marketing sector or discipline, and in this respect B2B is no different. There have been various agency mergers and acquisitions throughout the last 10 years, some successful and some less so – Gyro’s merger with HSR back in 2000 and IAS’s with Stein in 2013 are two that stand out.
But the news that reached us literally in press week that DNX is to be acquired by the mighty Ogilvy (which itself has become increasingly aligned with B2B over the past three years) is surely the crowning glory for the industry. The fact Sir Martin Sorrell, the Sage of Soho Square, has effectively endorsed the sector by validating this deal is even more significant. Who in their right mind could have imagined a B2B agency breathing such rarified air back in 2004? I for one could not, and it’s testament to how far the sector has come in 10 years, and a telling sign of its new found respectability.
Of course, it’s also recognition for the excellent work done by DNX to build such a successful business largely amidst a dreadful recession, and yet still maintain a reputation as some of the nicest people in B2B – a reputation that certainly couldn’t be applied to all the ambitious characters in B2B agency land over the past decade. Massive congratulations to all concerned. It’s a fitting finale to an incredible decade for B2B marketing.
