Back in the depths of time, OK in 2014, B2B Marketing celebrated its 10 year anniversary. As part of the birthday celebrations, I was asked to provide my thoughts on what B2B marketing would look like in 10 years. A bit of fun, but always dangerous to do predictions easily within one’s own lifetime, let alone career. Reminds me of Gerry Andersen’s 70s TV series Space 1999 forecasting a future just 20 years away. Bold!
Well, as we've just exited 2024 I can now do a quick hope vs reality check. And looking at my contribution I’d put my predictions down as a solid “B” grade. Firstly, here's what I said
"My dream is that B2B marketing will be a discipline people aspire to build a career in, rather than fall into. And that Cannes Lions will recognize B2B marketing excellence more than B2C.
My hope is that B2B marketers will base more and more decisions on fact not gut-feel, fuelled by greater insights and automation tools to scale out their marketing efforts. We’ll be fully in the land of real time, hyper-personalized marketing based on individual customer behavior. Campaigns and content will be tested on the fly to drive dynamic content at the point of interaction. 80% of marketing budgets will be spent on digital, not events. And marketing will be seen as driving the business not supporting it."
So how did I do?
➖ Aspirational career? Not so sure, but definitely less stigma in 2024 vs 2014.
✅ Cannes Lions Champions? Not much has changed, but Marketing Week not only nominated their Marketer of The Year to a B2B marketer, but also their Campaign of the Year was B2B. I’ll take the win!
✅ Fact, not gut-based decisions? Yes! Some may say we’ve now gone too far 🙄
❌ Hyper-personalised marketing? I think not. Privacy concerns knocked the wind out of knowing everyone’s inside leg measurements and our track record in martech implementation hasn’t exactly been commendable (just wait until we have a crack at AI).
❌ 80% of spend on digital? Well maybe during the pandemic, but my view is we’ve snapped back to the comfort zone of events-is-the-answer, now what’s the question?
➖ Marketing as driver not passenger? Jury’s out. We’re certainly attuned to the conversation of being “commercial" marketers but as an industry progress has been mixed.
So on balance, we’ve made some progress in 10 years but still a lot to do. Its definitely better to be a B2B marketer in 2024 than 2014, and the industry continues to innovate. So I’m going with that solid “B” grade. What do you think?