B2B Big Plays: news and events from the planet
Share
B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.
Can this be actually true? Ads on social networks perform 2.5 times better than ads on other channels
It seems for every hard luck story about social media and advertising, you get something like this poking its head up. The boffins from media intelligence company Aggregate Knowledge have published the ‘Q4 2012 Global Media Intelligence Report.’
The guts of the findings are: ‘Ads on social networks perform 2.5 times better than ads on other channels, such as ad networks, ad exchanges and portals.’
The results of this study are based on an analysis of 530 online ad campaigns for Fortune 500 brands, with more than 35 billion ad impressions. No, we don’t know how many are pure B2B which is frustrating.
Not all bad news for ad exchanges, though. They deliver clicks and conversions 29% cheaper than other channels, including social networks, portals and ad networks.
You can’t keep a good American B2B marketer down
The US-based B2B Online website, published their findings on optimism. The report, ‘Outlook 2013: Marketing Priorities & Plans’, found that 49% of respondents expected to spend more this year, up from 40% in 2012. Only 10% said they planned to cut their budgets.
The report is mostly US based, and says that marketers plan to markedly increase spending this year. Sounds good to the rest of the world. Here’s hoping for a US-led recovery. Now, what about the Italians, Spaniards and Greeks?
IBM, the people company
John Kennedy, vice president of corporate marketing at IBM Corp, says he wants to showcase employees in marketing efforts. “We do business through our people, showing that IBMers are an important part of our programs,” Kennedy says.
Okay, admittedly John has not provided a great insight (who would have guessed that business is done by people?), but it is a noteworthy approach. These days too many companies are terrified of social media and making heroes out of their people. IBM, it seems, is embracing it.
Marketo IPO, the next billion dollar silicon baby?
When Oracle snapped up Eloqu, it ruffled the market for cloud-based marketing companies. You don’t want a significant platform getting a massive boost like that. Talk about synergies!
Marketo has played their cards as close as they can to their chests, using US-based rules to keep the IPO under the radar, but it is all now well and truly out in the open.
They have previously raised more than $100 million in venture money and was ranked the fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley by the Business Journal in 2011.
Who is going to be the third and forth horse to enter this race? Or are we facing a duopoly at the high end of town?
Dell launches ‘personal achievements’ UK campaign
Hoping to hit both business and consumer audiences (and the chances of success are…?), the campaign will run on TV, as well as online and in print.
Stephen Gater, marketing director, consumer, small and medium enterprises, for Dell in the UK says, “This campaign creates a synergy between the professional and the personal, emphasising Dell’s strong belief that technology can help anyone realise their dreams.”
Is he right? Did they nail it? You be the judge:
B2B MARKETER SPOTLIGHT: Sonia Adams
Company: GHD – engineering, architects and environmental consultants
Position: Internal secondment for two years from global CMO to client liaison NSW. The focus in my new role is on positioning GHD for the key infrastructure projects likely to come on line in the next few years. This new role has a significant top line revenue target: 30% growth.
Why did you get into B2B marketing?
Got caught up in the early stages of my career communicating intangibles and value propositions rather than selling ‘stuff’. I never pictured myself selling toothpaste, cars or handbags – bigger deals always interested me.
Your biggest B2B marketing high?
Convincing a group of builders to join government to bring new home buyers into the market in a ‘rent to buy’ scheme. Seeing hundreds of industry participants including, builders and banks meeting potential home buyers in a ‘market bazaar’ at the convention centre. This event changed real estate marketing in Canberra and the role of government in the supply chain.
A forgettable marketing moment? (Or someone else’s!)
Walking the streets of Sydney in the 90s, cold calling travel agents promoting a Canberra tourism accommodation and attractions package, trying to convince them to hang our poster in their windows.
What are your top three challenges as a B2B marketer?
- Getting cut-through with clients who also have relationships with all of your competitors.
- Creating meaningful touch points with government buyers who are restricted in how they deal with you by their probity requirements.
- Putting some sizzle into deeply technical pitches.
What is the most useful book you have ever read?
The Trusted Adviser by David Maister.
If you were a brand, which one would you be?
Mercedes – enduring, quality, reliable and occasionally quirky (gull wing – who would have thought?)
When not marketing, what else do you do?
I am totally addicted to golf – on leave in November I played 26 rounds.
I am also the president of APSMA (Asia Pacific Professional Services Marketing Association) representing marketing and BD professionals from law, accounting and engineering firms.
Your big B2B marketing prediction for the next 12 months?
Mobile apps and tools will create stickiness in relationships if (we) the hosts can figure out how to design what our clients need and how to get them to market effectively.
B2B Big Plays is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.