How to stand out: B2B Marketing Live 2025

Across the conference, one message came through loud and clear: buyers want clarity, expertise and human connection in a world that feels increasingly noisy, automated and uncertain.

Here are our key takeaways from a fantastic two days of listening, learning and using sheer will power to say no to all the free tote bags.

1. B2B can learn a lot from B2C

This notion came up a few times. Darren Burroughs, Managing Director at Sticky discussed it in his talk about the power of clarity. As did Lyndon Nicholson, CEO at Future Group, in a session about what we can learn from Hollywood in B2B storytelling. Both made the point that too often, B2B marketing defaults to the corporate, the cautious, the overly formal.

And it made me think, we do tend to see the companies we’re trying to target as entities. The office building we want to deliver a presentation in, or a logo we want to put on our website under the ‘Our partners’ tab.

But it’s not an office reacting to your brand. It’s a brain. It’s not a logo listening to your podcast. It’s a person. I could go on with the alliteration but the point is, all your marketing activity is received by a human, not a brand.

If you can spark something in that human – an idea, a moment of inspiration, something that makes them remember you – they tell their colleagues. They mention it to their boss. Or if they’re the decision maker, they might invite you to a meeting. Then you get to present in their office and if that goes well, put their logo on your website – voila.

So how to do this? Well, the best B2C brands have long embraced creative bravery, emotive storytelling and a distinctive personality in their branding and campaigns – concepts that most B2B brands hold at arm’s length, especially those in regulated industries.

The hack for B2B brands is to remember that professional does not equal plain. You can show humanity and creativity without compromising rigour, accuracy or trust. The brands that strike that balance stand out immediately.

2. Clarity is a competitive advantage

Another thread running through every talk was the sad truth that most, if not all, consumers (even those representing B2B brands) are completely overwhelmed.

In the past year alone, the rise of AI-generated content has accelerated content saturation, increased the amount of misinformation circulating and in the process, eroded trust.

In his talk, Darren Burroughs shared that the fastest growing audience segment is what they call ‘Clarity seekers’. In content and materials, audiences don’t want density or ambiguity. They want clear, thoughtfully presented information. The formats suggested by Darren were:

• Explainer content
• Tables, graphs and structured layouts
• Clear data sources
• Direct, unambiguous messaging

What this means for regulated brands is that clarity is no longer a hygiene factor – it’s a differentiator.

3. Brands need purpose, not just new paintwork

New logo, new colour palette, new brand guidelines. Our culture will improve and customers will now come flocking… right?

Wrong. It’s a trap that so many companies fall into. The majority of brand problems aren’t visual – they’re structural.

Lee Wardell, Chief Creative Officer at Unbound IA explained that successful brands today focus on:

• Why: A clear sense of purpose. Without it, you’re a vendor, not a brand.
• Use: Branding should exist to be used – to guide products, behaviours and experiences – not just to be admired in campaigns.
• People: A brand isn’t a marketing asset, it’s a business tool. It needs to be lived by product teams, client-facing teams, compliance, HR and leadership – not just designers.
• Flexibility: Rules matter, but taking risks often creates the cultural moments that static brand guidelines never could. In the words of Lee: “Playing it safe drains rather than drives revenue.”

For industries with complex propositions and multiple stakeholder groups, brand purpose and internal alignment matter more than new colour palettes. So if you’re facing issues, go back to basics before going back to brand.

4. Everyone wants to hear from experts, so use yours

Engagement on content is what everyone is striving for – from individuals, to brands, to bots even.

But it’s a challenge, particularly for brands as platforms consistently see higher engagement on personal profiles than on corporate accounts. Liam Bartholomew, VP of Brand & Customer Marketing at Cognism, provided a fairly simple solution – use your people.

He explained that platforms are increasingly favouring the human voice. Google uses its EEAT framework (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) when deciding which domains to surface first. LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritises posts from individuals.

This means brands must build ecosystems of expert voices, not just polished corporate messaging. This is a powerful opportunity if you work in an industry full of specialists, analysts and advisors with the deep expertise that buyers crave.

So empower your SMEs, align them to priority themes they know a lot about, support them with templates and training and amplify their voices through your brand channels. It boosts engagement, authority and internal morale – everybody wins!

5. Playfulness has a place in the professional

The final theme I want to touch on is playfulness; or more specifically, games. There was a fantastic talk on the topic from Peek and Poke, a company providing brands with bespoke games to engage audiences, whether those brands are B2B or B2C.

‘Games? In B2B marketing?!’ I hear you cry. Just stay with me on this one.

I go to maybe 2 or 3 conferences a year and there’s one booth that stands out in my memory. I saw it years ago. One of the walls of the booth was a giant Where’s Wally-esque graphic. Hidden within a busy and colourful cityscape were 52 well-known logos. If you could spot all the logos within a set amount of time you got a prize.

It was a brand research agency that offered B2B companies support in measuring the strength of their brands. I thought it was the perfect way to incorporate their proposition into an interactive, memorable and engaging experience.

That trip down memory lane is all to say that of the hundreds of booths I’ve walked past or interacted with, I remember that one. I reckon there’s two reasons for that:

1. In long and overly structured B2B sales cycles, and during stuffy and samey events, games – even simple ones – can create standout moments.
2. They tap into something within us that is innately human. A sense of achievement, collaboration, interaction, joy, and if you’re like me, a little indulgence in your competitive side.

And apart from anything else, we’re in an attention economy. Games hold attention, and if you can hold someone’s attention for just a minute longer than your competitor, pardon the pun, but you win.

Main takeaways

Budget pressures, longer sales cycles and rising expectations aren’t going anywhere. But B2B Marketing Live made one thing clear: the brands that will lead the way in 2026 understand that clarity, humanity and usefulness are more powerful than ever.

For brands in regulated industries particularly, the opportunity is huge: take the complex, make it clear, and deliver it with purpose and humanity.

If you want to talk about how you could apply some of these learnings to your brand, we’d love to chat. Click here to get in touch.