Editor's Picks for ANA Magazine's B2B Department

As traditional B2B advertising channels continue to wane, savvy B2B marketers are turning to videos featuring influencers to drive engagement and build brand trust. Most B2B marketers (81 percent) have dedicated influencer-marketing budgets, says a new survey, while another 9 percent plan to follow suit this year.

B2B marketers consider brand advertising important, says a new study, but most of them are still in the preliminary stage of developing a branding strategy. The gap between rhetoric and reality carries major risk as an increasing number of younger buyers attuned to branding enter the market and demand more original content.

While immensely popular with consumers, gaming commands less than 5 percent of global media spending. That's starting to change, as brands like Jack in the Box, Jägermeister, and Lowe's ramp up their investments in the sector either by creating their own online venue or partnering with big gaming platforms.

Marketers who trust their data are three times more likely to report revenue growth, according to a new report from Anteriad. The report, based on a survey of 450 B2B marketing leaders, found that 39 percent of marketers use intent data, while marketers reporting strong revenue growth are 62 percent more likely to use it.

Search engines fueled by artificial intelligence, or zero-click search, are starting to eclipse traditional search. That's leading marketers to reevaluate their search engine optimization strategy from keyword-stuffing to context-crafting.

Generative engine optimization (GEO), a digital marketing strategy centered on ensuring a brand's name is featured in the top answers provided by platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and other large language models, is starting to accelerate throughout the marketing and ad sector.

Social media continues to be a critical marketing channel for SMBs, yet many companies struggle with creating enough content to feed the maw and measure ROI effectively. To close the gap, SMBs are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence (AI), which can spur content creation and personalize messaging, new surveys reveal.

Ricky Abbott, president of global B2B marketing agency Transmission, thinks the status quo is untenable for B2B advertising and says marketers needs to embrace more of an entertainment model to serve both existing and emerging customers.

Justin Thomas-Copeland, who was recently named CEO of the 4As, says the ad agencies best positioned to thrive in the current climate are flexible, fast, and have a large window into their clients' business.

B2B events are on the upswing this year, according to a recent survey. However, while B2B marketers recognize the necessity of events in an increasingly fragmented media environment, they can't rest on their laurels and need to produce events that cater to attendees' rapidly changing expectations.

Account-based marketing (ABM) has been a tough sell in the past few years. But the tide may be turning, with 87 percent of marketers saying they expect their organization's ABM budget to increase in the next 12 months, with an average bump of 9 percent, per a recent study.

Less than three years after AI-based ChatGPT launched, spurring dramatic change throughout the marketing and advertising field, large language models (LLMs) are taking marketing operations to yet another level.

The technology behind deepfakes — in which someone uses manipulated content online for malicious aims — has been coalescing for years and is now encroaching on the B2B field. According to a recent survey, most B2B CMOs are ill-prepared to deal with it.

Despite ample lead time, many brands remain ill-prepared for the European Accessibility Act, which goes into effect on June 28, 2025. Those marketers who haven't already started may need to enhance their websites and algorithms to comply with the comprehensive new law and cater to people with disabilities.

Spending on B2B experiential marketing is on the rise — outpacing B2C — as B2B firms reimagine their live events to create more memorable experiences for their audiences.

Donald Trump's first term in the White House put businesses' ability to deduct advertising expenses on the chopping block. Experts say his next term could have equally significant — and surprising — implications for the industry.

David Edelman, an executive adviser at the Boston Consulting Group and co-author of "Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI," discusses how marketers can deploy artificial intelligence to create new kinds of personalized experiences that both marketers and salespeople can rally around.

"Principal media," or when agencies purchase — or negotiate — inventory from media owners at bulk rates, then resell it to their clients at a markup, is taking off. In a recent ANA study, 41 percent of respondents expect to use principal media throughout the next year. But while offering myriad benefits to marketers, principal media is fraught with challenges, ranging from potential conflicts of interest to low-quality inventory.

The time between when a piece of content is requested and the moment it is actually opened — called the "consumption gap" — is getting longer, according to a recent study. However, there are several remedies to shrink the gap, ranging from creating the kind of content that will help prospects do their jobs better to modeling on-demand webinars on live events.

Lenovo recruited award-winning actor and entrepreneur Queen Latifah to be the face of a marketing campaign supporting women- and minority-owned businesses, with assistance from generative artificial intelligence.