B2B marketing is reaching new levels of sophistication. Already, we’re seeing an unprecedented emphasis on consumer-centricity and rapid advances in behavioural marketing, underpinned by data and machine learning.
With the digital transformation gathering pace, and 68% of B2B marketers planning to increase their budgets next year, the time is right for the upscaling and evolution of research and analytics, which is set to redefine what it means to be a B2B market leader over the next five years.
It’s against this backdrop that two agencies – each leaders in their respective fields – have now decided to act.
The acquisition by gyro, a full service global agency dedicated exclusively to B2B, of B2B International, a leading specialist B2B market research company, will offer a powerful end-to-end B2B research and analytics proposition that will dramatically increase the provision and sophistication of B2B insights.
Combined with the best strategic solutions, thought leadership and a steady stream of technological innovation, it will be ideally positioned to help every B2B brand to navigate digital and strategic disruption and achieve its business and marketing ambitions.
Why now?
Our move is a natural response to a number of shifts within the B2B marketplace.
First, research is increasingly being commissioned by marketing managers, marketing directors and even directly from the c-suite, with B2B clients looking for a more end-to-end approach and joined-up process.
Second, greater emphasis is being placed by clients on quality and depth of insight. This is something best achieved when a research agency has a deeper and more sustained, on-going relationship with a B2B client and so, by definition, deeper and more sustained understanding of their market.
Third, the potential for new research techniques to identify new business opportunities and solutions to business challenges that a B2B client may not yet have thought of. This is something that happens best when a research agency is part of an on-going conversation with a client, rather than simply project-focused or an add-on.
And, of course, our coming together is a way of upscaling and better servicing larger, multinational and global B2B clients – many of whom our two agencies already share. The larger the multinational B2B corporation, the more distanced they risk being from their customers, so the more critical it is they secure and act on the very best customer insight.
The demand for data
Any and every business strategy starts with having the right information on which to base decisions. And knowing about your competitors and potential customers is just as important as having information on your current customers.
Yet in today’s world, data has never been more readily available and many clients are still struggling to get to grips with the implications of the latest technology. This means the best information to base business decisions on can be hard to find. And deploying it effectively is key.
The marketing landscape is changing at rapid speed and demands insight-led creative communications capable of helping B2B clients win in every market. Yet for too long, the B2B marketing sector has been seen as the poor cousin to B2C. Not anymore. For the rise of digital has changed all that – releasing many new opportunities and, we hope, we will now be best-positioned to maximise them all.
