HOT TAKES FROM ANA MASTERS OF B2B MARKETING CONFERENCE

This year’s ANA (Association of National Advertisers) Masters of B2B Marketing Conference took place in Naples, FL. The association brings together both brands and agencies to learn together and exchange ideas with the ultimate goal of driving growth. It was jam-packed with great speakers from the likes of (takes a deep breath) Broadridge Financial, Carhartt, Cigna, Deloitte, GE Healthcare, Mastercard, Michelin, Northwestern Mutual, Owens Corning, Vanguard, Xerox, Captivate, CMO Confidential Podcast, Code & Theory, Evidenza, LinkedIn B2B Institute, Stein IAS, System1, Type 2 Consulting among others.

If you think it got hot in Naples, you’d be right, but not as hot as these takes from my perspective as a judge and an attendee:

  1. ALL THINGS AI. The best current value of AI is in customer personalization and synthetic research.
    • CUSTOMER PERSONALIZATION
      • According to a recent CMO Survey, content personalization is one of the top uses for AI. Not surprisingly, two talks centered around this topic. The first from Code & Theory, a highly respected tech-first creative agency. Their approach: “We need to solve for human needs, with technology as a tool. If we can make AI work for humans it will unlock a durable competitive advantage for business.” They then shared a 360 CX Model to help think through ways to use AI to personalize customer experiences at every point of contact. A few different examples were mentioned, like igniting brand salience, using AI to identify ideal target audiences for media, even using it to understand category entry points to serve customers and get them closer to a transaction. They further spoke to using AI to customize messaging and tools (e.g. chat bots, calculators) to help customers feel personally seen. Code and Theory then demonstrated how AI can deepen the relationship we build with them at purchase and beyond: growing the relationship using AI to customize email messaging, customer support and more. Keep in mind, having usable, clean, accessible data is critical to maximizing AI.

      • David Edelman and Mark Abraham literally wrote the book on using AI for personalization. Similar to Code and Theory, they encouraged marketers to lean into really knowing their audience, and use AI to reach, show, delight, and empower them. Apply this thinking to your marketing tactics like direct mail, email, savings/cost calculators, chat bots, ABM, etc.

    • SYNTHETIC RESEARCH: The concept of Synthetic research was presented by Evidenza.ai. Let’s go straight to the clip, as it does a better job of explaining it than I ever could

2. BRAND + DEMAND. It’s not one or the other it’s both. More B2B marketers are embracing this concept, putting it to work and winning.

There were no less than five references to the graphic above (or some version of it) that explains the 95/5 rule and the “side” funnel. To me this means that the concept is more understood than ever, actually being used, and working.

A few key points:

  • We know funnels are no longer linear, but that’s not the point of this. The point is to help explain the “rule” and the effect of strong brand marketing on ensuring growth with future cash flow.
  • 95/5 “Rule”: 95% of buyers (or the majority) are out of market, while only 5% are in market and ready to buy.
  • Brand doesn’t stop on the demand side. It runs through everything.
  • Demand isn’t the only driver of performance, brand does too, but both short and long term performance.
  • Some research shows that demand-side results see a 6x improvement when brand is running at the same time.
  • If we only rely on performance, we are going down a path of commoditization, where decisions are being made on price and function alone. But where is the money spent? On the demand side. Wouldn’t your CEO, CFO, and business teams be happy to have more sales?

3. BRAND VALUE. Brand value will diminish unless marketers show CFO’s how & why strong brand building and marketing drives growth.

Why? Because as Richard Haigh, managing director of Brand Finance, says “A business’s brand is one of its most important financial assets. Strong brands can unlock vast financial value for businesses and stakeholders.” Intrigued? This statement is also supported by data.

Yet, according to a US CMO Survey from September, 2023, the biggest challenge in B2B is that Marketers don’t speak finance (the language of business) so they are unable to get the budget to support the work to drive the future of the business.

So how should markers talk to CFO’s? By talking in terms of how branding and marketing drives financial value. This framework by the LinkedIn B2B Institute helps marketers convey the importance of branding and marketing in CFO terms: Growth, Profit, and Risk Mitigation. 

  • GROWTH: Combination of brand + performance (demand), enhances current and future cash flows.
  • PROFIT: Strong branding creates room to raise prices.
  • RISK: Strong branding creates more predictability of demand, ensuring more certain cash flows, thereby reducing risk.

This was the closing slide from LinkedIn B2B institute which is also in their brand new whitepaper that launched at the conference and Cannes. 

  • If you want future growth, invest in mental availability because mental availability drives customer acquisition and lifetime value of customer-accelerating GROWTH.
  • If you want pricing power, invest in emotional ads, because emotion drives customer willingness to PAY much more effectively than rational drivers. Side benefits: more favorable terms from suppliers, the ability to attract and retain top talent.
  • If you want to mitigate risk, invest in stable brand associations, because brand associations (like intelligence, climate control, energy efficiency, energy management, sustainability, quality, excellence, being transformative, etc.) enhance brand equity and value, leading to more predictable demand and cash flow, and therefore MITIGATING RISK.

4. CREATIVITY. B2B creative can be just as good as B2C creative.

Generally B2B Creative isn’t very effective. Research by LinkedIn B2B Institute and System 1 shows that 75% of B2B Ads score only 1 star out of 5. Yikes! B2B ads are mostly not liked and pretty much forgettable.

B2B creative is ineffective because, typically, their communications are often boring. They’re boring because—unlike B2C, where firms are considered to be marketing-led—this is rarely the case in the B2B sector where the focus is typically on product, engineering, or driven by sales. B2B leadership and culture leans more towards this rational communication, focused on the product’s benefits and features. The old adage, “If it’s a great product, of course our customers will buy it!” doesn’t always hold. Consequently, the power of emotion, which is proven to be effective, is undervalued and underestimated in B2B. 

Despite all of that, there is some great, effective work in the B2B space. Here are a few ANA B2 Award-winning examples we all can look to for inspiration.

Company: Deloitte
Campaign: WNBA Sponsorship/Women Championing Women
Objective: Support women’s sports and women business leaders
Insight: Girls who play, become women who lead
Key Tactics: 4 National TV spots, Campaign Landing Page, Social Media, Internal, PR
Impact: 24.5M impressions during WNBA playoffs and finals, over 350 clients engaged, 6M social reach, 260M PR reach
Awards: Gold ANA SeeHer GEM (Gender Equality Measure) Award, Gold Sponsorship Program

Company: Carhartt
Campaign: More Than A Uniform
Awards: 9 B2 Awards including: Bronze Integrated Marketing, Bronze Demand Generation, Silver Sales Enablement, Silver Video Marketing, Silver ROI/Growth, Gold Product Launch/Relaunch, Gold Lead Generation, Gold Corporate Branding, Marketer of the Year

Company: Workday
Campaign: Rock Stars of Business
Objective: Turn around the 5 years of diminishing incoming demand and break away from the brand’s limiting reputation as an HR specialist
Insights: Humor drives mental availability, “RockStar” is widely used at work
Key Tactics: Video/TV, PR, Social Media, Outdoor, ABM
Impact: 65% increase in brand consideration, 14% increase in awareness, 24% increase in brand trust, 50% increase in leads
Awards: ANA Gold Integrated Marketing Program, Gold Best in Show

If you’re curious about how to put these hot takes to work for you, reach out to us!