Rumour has it there’s a spirit of collaboration in the air. B2B brands increasingly want to work together, exchange ideas and share data. They want to be hubs, they want to be platforms, and they want to form and leverage strategic partnerships.

B2B marketing has a problem: information overload. Of course, this isn’t unique to the B2B world – we live in an age of information overload – but it still stands that there is an enormous amount of data available to marketers. The trouble is – this data is often underutilised.

As many of us know, sales and marketing don’t always see eye to eye. But for a leader like José, knitting the two together comes naturally. We sat down with Visa’s Head of Product and B2B Marketing Europe to hear how having one foot in both worlds helps him drive results for a major global brand. 

For some, this shift will be welcome. An automated B2B sales process provides ample opportunity for data analysis, which can be used to inform decisions about customer experience.

These days, the term ‘platform’ is bandied around a lot. You’ve got your communications platforms (Meta, Twitter), your innovation platforms (GitHub, Apple), your marketplace platforms (Alibaba, Amazon), your workplace platforms (LinkedIn, Fiverr), and your finance platforms (Visa, Stripe).

Odigo, a leading global provider of Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solutions, has appointed Octopus Group as its UK PR agency. Octopus will support Odigo with commercially-focused earned media campaigns to support its UK growth strategy.

A couple of months ago, I would have firmly told you that I knew nothing about marketing, especially B2B marketing. But while my friends were out partying in Portugal during the summer holidays, I spent a week working at Octopus Group.

Measurement has long been the Achilles Heel of PR. Thankfully the days of AVEs are passed, but many have struggled to replace these comforting, if meaningless, financial figures with frameworks and metrics that make sense to businesses.

Listen to this brilliant instalment of the Agency dealmasters podcast series with OGs Managing Director Pete Hendrick. Podcast host Nathan Anibaba and Pete discuss the intriguing growth of Octopus Group and Pete’s fascinating career over the years. 

For the 17th instalment of Behind B2B, we’re speaking to Sakina Najmi, Vice President of Marketing at Tractable.