My first marketing event - why “safe” B2B campaigns are the riskiest choice

When I attended Babel’s ‘Brave B2B Gallery’ event last November, I knew there would be a panel and a chance for some networking. But to be completely honest, I had expected it to be a seminar of practical campaign ideas - some strict do’s and don’ts, mixed with a smattering of B2B buzzwords. Yet sitting there during the panel, keen to soak up any and all advice as a young PR and marketer, what I hadn’t expected was the consensus amongst these marketing veterans to be that B2B marketing is currently holding brands back. 

Some words from Jenny Mowat, our CEO, really stuck with me: playing it safe is the biggest risk in B2B marketing. 

A short statement, but one that reveals a sort of hidden-in-plain-sight truth. When I think about brands that stand out, even those in a consumer space, the ones that spring to mind are those that spark some kind of emotion. And when I turned this lens on the brands we interact with in the day-to-day, it became clear just how many were missing this trick. So many just fall into that ‘sea of sameness’. And it made me think, if that’s the case, then what is the point? 

I’m a self-professed newbie when it comes to all of this, but I wanted to share a couple of my key takeaways I thought might be useful. 

Killed by KPIs

Sarah Roberts, Boldyn Networks' Global CMO, shared an interesting story. Having shown the Boldyn marketing team examples of different branding from some of their competitors, the team was unable to differentiate between parts of the campaigns. Why? Because the default amongst these telcos had become ‘professionalism’. To keep this aura up, they had all morphed into one. Oh for sure their branding was sleek and professional, but completely forgettable. 

The upshot being, if you don't differentiate, you don't exist - and sadly, no amount of budget can dispel an invisibility cloak.

I also hadn’t properly considered the insatiability of sales teams that marketers are up against. If your marketing campaign has strident MQL targets, it's easy to supplement long-term growth with quick fixes and short-term appeasement. 

The root of the problem goes much deeper. It isn’t (only) that your campaign isn’t being remembered, but that your buyer simply isn’t seeing it. 95% of buyers aren't in-market (I share your disbelief at this statistic). So with this in mind, marketing as if all your buyers are already part of your audience suddenly seems pretty narrow-minded. As for an obsession with short-term MQLs? They’re stifling your marketing team. 

This poses the question: where is the target audience? If they’re not already part of our audience, we’re wasting time firing blanks at a bullseye that isn’t there. 

B2B is a Humanism 

B2B marketing shouldn’t be limited to capturing existing demand and instead must create future demand. This is why resonant and human campaigns aren't just a B2C ‘thing’. They are in fact, a comms one. 

Emotion as a mechanism - a spark rather than a format - is something PR has always instinctively understood. It’s certainly something we’d like to see more of in the B2B marketing space. 

Emotion drives attention, narrative builds memory, and meaning carves reputation over time. So perhaps Babel’s new Brave marketing isn’t simply inspired by highly emotional campaigns so often seen in B2C. Rather, it is applying PR’s logic to marketing. It’s about speaking to how humans make their decisions. Because if your work doesn’t tell a human story, it’s probably being ignored.

The best campaigns, however, don’t follow the playbook. They create their own.

Maria Colorge-Webb, another panellist, provided a powerful example from one of her campaigns with Beats by Dr Dre. ‘The game before the game’ campaign honed in on the pre-game moment, the athlete’s ritual, as a moment for music with Beats headphones. 

Whilst this was a consumer-facing campaign, the initial idea also applies to B2B. You’ve got to find those areas where the influence is happening that no one else is paying attention to.Finding this untapped moment, an overlooked audience, or an unharnessed emotional context will revolutionise your marketing campaign. Perhaps bravery starts when we reframe the problem? It’s abundantly clear you don’t win customers simply by outspending your competitors. The end of the rainbow is when you spot the moment your competitors have missed.

But it all comes back to bravery 

However, I think my biggest takeaway from the panel was the real sense of possibility. B2B marketing doesn’t need to be louder, safer, or even more polished; it needs to be braver, more human, and happy to undermine the status quo. 

The winning brands aren’t the ones ticking boxes or chasing short-term metrics. They’re those who understand how people think, feel, and decide. In a landscape where blending in is the norm, distinctiveness isn’t a risk. It’s your advantage.

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