Business-to-business marketing agencies are thriving in an uncertain economic climate, with 79 per cent reporting growth and 71 per cent describing the market as buoyant or very buoyant, whilst none described it as regressive. This is the central finding of the first B2B Marketing Agency Survey, in association with The Thinktank.
Growth figures for agencies varies dramatically between 91 per cent and minus 45 per cent, although the vast majority demonstrated positive growth during the past 12 months. The average growth reported by B2B agencies in this period was an impressive 15 per cent, which suggests the wider B2B marketing sector is generally in also good economic health.
However, whilst optimism reigns, it is far from blind or unqualified, with respondents citing a range of major concerns for their businesses going forward, chief amongst which was, unsurprisingly, pressure on clients budgets” which was identified as the chief challenge for the future by 47 per cent of agencies. Encouragingly, given its importance, the second most significant challenge identified by the survey was ability to measure campaign effectiveness. At the very least, this suggests that measurement is where it belongs: near the top of agencies’ priorities. Whether most are any closer to finding workable answers to this is questionable.
Other factors cited were clients’ appreciation of creativity,ability to attract/retain quality staff and “migration to fee-based renumeration”.
The diversity of disciplines required by B2B agencies was highlighted by the survey, with 10 of the 15 disciplines listed on offer by over 60 per cent of the agencies responding. Web/digital services (website design) were revealed as the most commonly offered discipline, confirming the Internet’s rapid rise to become the pre-eminent business-to-business marketing medium.
Direct mail was the second most popular discipline (along with graphic design and strategic planning) and was also the runaway leader in terms of being the biggest single discipline for the largest number of agencies, perhaps unsurprisingly. This reflects its accountability, and its historic dominance as the primary B2B discipline.
Amongst the least popular tools, meanwhile, was search marketing, which is only offered by 46 per cent of agencies. The rapid evolution of this medium and its growing importance in business buying process, suggests that B2B agencies are missing an opportunity to provide this service as part of their offering. As a consequence, they may be missing out to specialist search agencies who understand little of the specifics of business marketing.
Meanwhile, rumours of the death of off-the-page advertising in B2B appear to be extremely premature, with over 70 per cent of agencies still offering it as a discipline. Similarly, the reputed paucity of branding in the B2B sector is called into question by the survey, with 81 per cent of agencies providing brand and corporate identity services. Perhaps there is a pool of persistent B2B brand offenders who need to take advantage of this expertise within the agency community.
Amongst the more predictable results of the survey was that technology is the most popular sector for B2B agencies, with 62 per cent currently working in it in some capacity, and 31 per cent (the largest segment for this question) citing it as their biggest area of operation. Telecoms was shown to be another popular area, also quite predictably, as was financial services. Other big sectors were retail, professional services and business services.
The biggest surprise in this area was construction, which was cited as the third biggest area of growth by B2B agencies, outstripping traditional sectors such as financial services and business services. This is a reflection of the ongoing property boom, which despite a drop-off in the housing market has kept construction companies busy producing more stock and commercial premises, and required a steady flow of marketing activities.
What was more unexpected, however, was the diversity of operations of B2B agencies, with 21 sectors in all being cited, many of which are broad catch-all definitions (eg. technology). This shows the sheer spread of expertise of most B2B agencies, which will typically have to get to grips with the differing needs of requirements and dynamics of clients in hugely different industries, with similarly distinct offerings. The B2B agency practitioner has to be a jack-of-all-trades to succeed.
The Association of Business-to-Business Agencies was revealed as the most popular trade body by the survey, although with only 31 per cent of respondents claiming membership it still only represents a hard core of the community. The Direct Marketing Association was the second most popular trade body, reflecting the roots of the B2B sector in direct marketing and its traditional reliance on this medium.
Other bodies such as the Business Design Association were mentioned, although the Institute of Sales Promotion did not figure at all, which was surprising given that 60 per cent of agencies count promotional marketing amongst their skills sets.
Finally, the Marketing Communications Consultants Association has relatively little penetration into this sector, which is perhaps reflective of its membership fees. As a consequence, perhaps it should change its name to the CMCCA: the Consumer Marketing Communications Consultants Association. This is, after all, the audience that it appears to be representing.
Given the restraints of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it was inevitable that independent agencies would predominate in this league table. But even if the likes of Ogilvy Primary Contact and McCann Erickson had been considered in this survey, it would have been clear that the majority of B2B marketing is carried out by independent mid-sized firms, who are often regionally based. A stark contrast from the world of FMCG, where power is centralised amongst the canyon-like warrens of Soho and in the hands of the large subsidiaries of big international marketing groups.
Perhaps this decentralisation and lack of corporate parent has in part been responsible for the prejudice with which some consumer marketers have viewed the B2B arena. To the experienced practitioner it is doubtless one of the many reasons why they are committed to B2B. What it lacks in glamour and budgets, it makes up for in integrity and sense of challenge.
