Over the past year or so, the conversation around the importance of being a commercial marketer has gained serious momentum, and for good reason. As budgets tighten, buyer expectations rise, and marketing’s role in driving business growth comes under sharper scrutiny, commercial accountability is fast becoming the core competency for every serious B2B marketer.
At B2B Ignite 2025, that idea took centre stage. Commercial thinking is no longer optional; it’s the way forward. The keynote sessions set the tone, addressing the revenue gap, evolving marketing strategies and rethinking the buyer journey.
With multiple content streams and hands-on workshops, delegates tailored their learning across themes including AI, brand authenticity, leadership, data and creativity.
B2B Ignite 2025 delivered one of its most insight-packed programmes to date, drawing crowds across a wide array of sessions, from strategic leadership panels to real-world AI applications.
Based on attendee buzz and packed rooms, several sessions stood out not just for their content, but for the conversations they sparked. Here are the key themes and takeaways from the most popular sessions.
Marketing’s Critical Role as a Growth Driver
The day began with a sharp focus on the economic outlook. Susannah Streeter, Head of Money & Markets, Hargreaves Lansdown, joined our CEO, Richard O’Connor, to encourage marketers to see 2025 as a pivotal moment to step into commercial leadership.
Today’s top marketers must drive revenue, influence buying committees and lead business growth. A new Propolis report launched at B2B Ignite, Realise your potential: Your guide to becoming the commercial marketer your business needs, and your future demands, outlines the key skills required to do just that.
An inspiring panel, moderated by our Propolis Expert Shane Redding, brought together senior leaders from Capgemini, The Access Group, Dentsu B2B, and more. Their call to action was clear: bold transformation is needed.
In a rapidly changing world, marketing must go beyond incremental change, embracing commercial focus and strategic influence at the highest levels of business. Marketing must reclaim its role as a growth driver, brand guardian and trusted business leader.
Nick Mason, Co-Founder and CEO, Turtl, reinforced this theme in a compelling keynote. Presenting findings from a survey of 500 marketing leaders, he revealed rising content budgets with little measurable revenue return.
To help bridge this gap he introduced Hatch AI, a new content agent offering automated production, revenue intelligence and actionable insights. Another clear takeaway: B2B marketing must move beyond vanity metrics and focus on KPIs tied to real business impact like pipeline contribution and profitability.
Sharon Forder, CMO, Sana Commerce, and Andy Champion, SVP International, 6sense, urged marketers to own the entire customer journey. Sustainable growth depends on full accountability at every stage, from first touch to revenue.
The AI Reality: Practical, Not Hype-Driven
AI was a recurring theme across sessions, but the focus was refreshingly grounded. Andy Johnson, Founder & Director of Client Strategy, and Darryl Merkli, Head of AI Solutions, HUT 3, showcased how AI delivers the most value through focused, non-flashy applications.
They can optimize processes, support strategic planning, and free up time for human creativity. Ben Lee, Head of Data & AI, Bidwells, explored how even traditional sectors can adopt modern martech without overwhelming teams, while Cath Brands, CMO, Flintfox stressed how creativity and technology can amplify each other.
One of the most popular sessions was The great AI debate: Is AI killing B2B marketing? featuring debaters from Bidwells, Gamma, Pega, PwC and TCS. The session took the form of a boxing match-style debate, refereed by our Propolis Expert, Scott Stockwell.
Over three provocative rounds, the teams tackled some of the industry’s most pressing questions, ranging from emotional connection in content to whether AI could eventually replace marketers altogether.
The pro-AI team argued that AI enhances efficiency, allowing marketers to focus on strategy and creativity. The opposition pushed back with passion, asserting that marketing is fundamentally about human connections, and that AI struggles to understand nuance or challenge flawed assumptions.
In the end, the audience was swayed by the vision of AI as a tool to enhance marketing effectiveness and enable deeper strategic focus. For a deeper dive into the tools shaping AI-powered marketing, explore our B2B AI Marketing Tools 2025 report, your essential guide to navigating the evolving martech landscape.
Demand, Data & Creativity: The Real Work of Modern Marketing
The most forward-thinking sessions at B2B Ignite 2025 made one thing clear: the future of marketing isn’t about choosing between data and creativity, it’s about getting both to work harder, together.
In Building a High-Performance Demand Engine, leaders from Dell, Paysafe and TechnologyAdvice shared how data and well-integrated tech stacks can personalize content, refine targeting and measure what matters without compromising creativity.
That theme of balance carried through “From Gut Feel to Growth”, where Emanuela Mafteiu, Head of Digital and Demand Generation EMEA, Ping Identity, reminded attendees that data guides, but growth comes from pairing it with human judgment and calculated risks.
Creativity was another central thread. In Why Marketers Aren’t Getting Results: The B2B Marketing Gap, Jade Tambini highlighted how pressure and misaligned KPIs are affecting creative output.
Renata Florio, Global Chief Creative Officer, Gravity Global, showed how bold creative can earn a lot of attention, while Sophie Bowkett, CMO, Bird & Bird, explored building brand around people in a way that feels genuinely human and culturally aligned.
Some sessions also looked at the future of teams and talent. Piero DePaoli, VP Global Marketing, Strategy and Culture, ServiceNow, discussed evolving talent strategies for a disrupted future, while a live podcast recording by OrbitalX and Contentsquare tackled the core challenge of “doing more with less.”
Measurement and accountability remained front and centre. A standout session from Cummins and Bray Leino showed how well-applied analytics can directly drive ROI. Our Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Joel Harrison, positioned trust as a critical, evolving currency in B2B.
The most effective thought leadership goes beyond insight, it closes trust gaps in expertise, market readiness and implementation. Joel’s message was clear: trust isn’t just earned but sustained through consistency across brand, demand and sales. Ultimately, trust is a commercial strategy.
Leaders Roundtable: Bridging Strategy and Measurement Gaps
At B2B Ignite, roundtable discussions revealed a common challenge among marketing leaders: while teams were generally clear on overarching business goals and the specifics of their own roles, there was often a gap in understanding the commercial strategy that connects the two.
This disconnect was made more difficult by inconsistency within teams, some members were highly motivated and strategic, while others focused only on what directly impacted their day-to-day tasks. Participants agreed that explaining why the strategy matters can be just as challenging as communicating the strategy itself.
One attendee shared that their team achieved strong alignment only after major budget cuts slashed two-thirds of the marketing function. In response, the remaining staff had to fully understand what they needed to achieve, why it mattered, and how it aligned with new business priorities.
This pressure led to a “self-sufficiency mindset,” where team members proactively stepped up to deliver real value. Measurement was another recurring theme, especially in relation to sales collaboration.
Several participants noted that sales often dictated measurement priorities, sometimes introducing data inconsistencies, such as reopening closed opportunities, which disrupted attribution and masked marketing’s true impact. Legacy metrics and the struggle to explain outdated or flawed data added to the complexity.
There was widespread agreement on the importance of building strong relationships with RevOps or SalesOps, viewed as the neutral “Switzerland” in the process, to improve collaboration and drive alignment.
Most marketers said they were early in their journey toward agreeing on shared, meaningful metrics. As one participant put it, “We need to stop arguing about whose pie slice is bigger, and start focusing on making a bigger pie.”
The discussion also highlighted the need to shift internal perceptions, particularly the misconception that lead volume equals business impact, and to work more closely with sales to define shared goals and improve marketing visibility.
Hands-On Workshops and Memorable Networking Moments
Beyond the stages, delegates got stuck into practical learning in workshops. Yeshim Harris, Freelance Consultant, Trainer and Senior Research Fellow, University of Kent, helped attendees explore how to move “From Conflict to Cohesion”, bridging internal silos for stronger external impact.
Fiona McKenzie, CEO, Revere, unpacked the buyer journey, prompting real debate about how to rebuild buying experiences that actually reflect today’s B2B reality.
The afternoon included sessions on personal branding by Robyn Hartley, Founder, Paper Kite Media, and a fast-paced workshop by Simon Schnieders, Founder & CEO, Blue Array, drew a packed room eager to future-proof their SEO strategies.
Of course, no B2B Ignite would be complete without the buzz of networking. At the Connections Networking lunch, ideas flowed with marketers from across different industries swapping stories and building genuine connections. One of them had flown nine hours from the US especially to attend our event!
For those hungry to sharpen their copy chops, our Propolis copywriting specialist, David McGuire delivered a “Lunch and Learn” workshop, offering fresh takes on making content connect in a noisy world. His signature wit and actionable frameworks had marketers scribbling insights between bites of dessert.
Big Finish: Bullsh*t, Endurance and Darts Showdown
As the day wrapped up, the keynote stage delivered a punchy finale. Our Propolis Expert, Karla Wentworth, exposed the messiness many marketers face behind-the-scenes and how to clean it up. It was a candid moment of collective relief for many attendees struggling with tech stacks, integration gaps and cross-functional silos.
Then came a crowd favorite: The World Cup of B2B Bullsh*t 2025, with David McGuire hilariously roasting the industry’s worst jargon and buzzwords. The audience voted and “circle back” was crowned the winner.
Lowri Morgan, endurance athlete and adventurer, closed out the event with a motivational keynote. Her stories of pushing physical and mental limits left the audience inspired, reminding B2B marketers that true transformation is driven by resilience, determination, and the right mindset. As she put it:
“Failures aren’t infallible. What matters is how you respond: analyze the gaps, learn the lessons and reenter with wisdom and hope. You don’t lose by falling down; you lose by staying down.”
In a world where markets shift and technology constantly disrupts, her words were a powerful call to lead with purpose and resilience.
The day concluded with drinks and darts, bringing out everyone’s competitive spirit in the most relaxed way possible. It was the perfect way to unwind, and a fitting close to a day that blended sharp thinking with a real sense of community.
