The majority (95 percent) of B2B marketing leaders in Australia say B2B “creative confidence” is growing, according to new research from LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network and leading B2B advertising platform.
Marketers who believe B2B companies have become more confident with producing creative campaigns recognise that creativity is essential to long-term brand building (42 percent), and helps drive memorability amongst customers (25 percent), which is spurring them to reach new creative heights.
The study of more than 1,600 B2B marketing leaders from across the globe, conducted ahead of the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, finds that B2B marketers in Australia (95 percent), Brazil (95 percent), India (94 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (94 percent) currently have the highest creative confidence.
With 87 percent of B2B marketers agreeing that B2B purchasing decisions are just as emotionally driven as B2C, around a third (32 percent) are increasingly harnessing storytelling, emotion and humour to help make their creative campaigns stick. The majority (94 percent) say that B2B brands are now producing creative campaigns that rival consumer brands.
B2B companies bolster brand building
B2B brands have traditionally prioritised performance marketing to boost short-term sales, but an industry-wide shift looks like it’s underway. The large majority (93 percent) of B2B marketing leaders recognise that brand building is just as important to driving long-term revenue growth in B2B as it is in consumer marketing. Nine in ten B2B marketers now say they are planning to create campaigns that improve short-term performance marketing and long-term brand marketing results in the same period.
This comes as a report from the B2B Institute, LinkedIn’s marketing think tank, and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia, finds that 95 percent of B2B buyers are not in the market to buy today. It’s therefore imperative that B2B brands create a memory link in buyers’ minds so that they are top of mind when the buyer is ready to make a purchase.
Battle for creative talent in B2B
Three quarters (75 percent) of B2B marketing leaders believe B2B marketing is more challenging than B2C. But despite the professional opportunity, 93 percent are concerned that the best talent in the
industry is drawn to working in consumer marketing over B2B marketing. This comes as nearly two-thirds (63 percent) admit they are finding it challenging to recruit creative talent currently.
B2B marketing leaders say data analytics, problem solving and innovation are the top skills needed for B2B creativity today. Just over half (54 percent) say fostering a strong creative output is largely reliant on diversity of experience within a team. And when it comes to agency partners specifically, diversity of skills (47 percent) was deemed most important to fostering creative output.
Matt Tindale, managing director LinkedIn, Australia & NZ (pictured in the central image above), said: “It’s fantastic to see the spotlight on B2B marketing at this year’s Cannes festival and the growing creative recognition it is receiving. LinkedIn is the home of B2B, so supporting Cannes Lions in the development of the new Creative B2B Lions was a natural fit. Aussies are leading the charge in the B2B sector, with our local marketers having the highest creative confidence of any country globally. This creative confidence reflects the great work produced on our platform locally – with key brands such as National Australia Bank having run ground-breaking campaigns.“
“We’re thrilled local brands like NAB are choosing our platform to showcase their creative campaigns and develop content in unique and innovative ways. To ensure brands continue to maximise LinkedIn to reach their desired audience, we’ve launched new products, such as LinkedIn Business Manager, which will provide a centralised platform, making marketing on LinkedIn easier. We’ve also released a new B2B creativity playbook that will show creative best practice on the platform.”
Paul Hirsch, creative B2B Lions Jury President, said: “For too long, B2B has been an often-overlooked part of the advertising landscape. With the news of this study and Cannes Lions expanding to include B2B as its own category, it certainly feels like creativity in B2B is finally having its moment. Although we have only recently started judging this year’s entry, I’m excited by what I’ve seen. As a first-time festival category, my hope is that the work we’ll award with Lions in a few weeks will justify the category optimism, inspire creatives, and embolden B2B marketers for years to come.”
Helping B2B brands unleash creative campaigns with ease
To help B2B brands unleash their most creative work and execute campaigns with ease, LinkedIn has announced:
- LinkedIn launches new consultancy service – To help companies gain a competitive advantage, LinkedIn a marketing think tank, which uses original research and IP to help B2B customers including Oracle, SAS, and Workhuman, drive “performance branding” – a new approach to brand strategy, creative, distribution and measurement that is designed to help brands maximise profits.
- New features for Pages – More than 58 million organisations have a Page on LinkedIn to help them foster their communities. LinkedIn is launching new tools to help brands spark conversations, engage with their communities and drive discoverability, including @mentions and # hashtags in Articles and Newsletters, in addition to the ability to respond to any post in the feed as their Page.
- LinkedIn Business Manager – LinkedIn Business Manager will launch in the coming weeks, offering marketers a new, centralised platform that will simplify the way they manage people, accounts, Pages, and the businesses they work with to make marketing at scale even easier on LinkedIn and across the company’s network of publishers.
- Marketing Labs certification – LinkedIn is introducing a new free certification on LinkedIn Content and Creative Design as part of LinkedIn Marketing Labs to help marketers upskill and demonstrate their expertise in creating and maintaining paid and organic content, including managing an active LinkedIn Page and designing a visually compelling creative.
- New LinkedIn Creativity playbook – LinkedIn’s creativity playbook empowers brand marketers and creative agencies to build campaigns on LinkedIn, taking a unique perspective on our product suite, data and insights and exploring what creative best practice looks like on the platform.
