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A gathering storm

By Nicole Jones ExxonMobil – allegedly – predicted climate change as early as the 1970s. Researchers claim the oil and gas giant ‘predicted how burning fossil […]

Assumptions 101: How to not make an ass out of u and me

Making the right choice comes down to balancing insights with intuition – something our CSO, Billy Hamilton-Stent, discussed when he sat down with ‘B2B Better’ podcast host, Jason Bradwell, to talk all things assumptions.

Monkey Business

By Billy Hamilton-Stent I’ve never had much time for Robbie Williams. But I’ve just watched the trailer for his new biopic Better Man five times. For […]

Publicis Pro features on the new podcast from The Marketing Society

Our Chief Strategy Officer, Billy Hamilton-Stent, took part in the new podcast series “In My Humble Opinion,” a collaboration between The Marketing Society and Publicis Groupe […]

Talking AI for agencies on the PRMoment Podcast

On the back of our launch of B2B Lab, affectionately known as Otto. Our CEO, Jon Lonsdale and CSO, Billy Hamilton-Stent sat down with Ben Smith […]

Hot Fuss

By Jamie Fewery There have been enough blogs, articles and LinkedIn posts written about levelling up creativity in B2B marketing. So this won’t be one of […]

Brat summer? Here’s a silly little Pub Pro Playlist Poem

What happens when Brat Summer meets silly season in a B2B marketing office? We make a Brat Summer acrostic poem marketing playlist of course, plucked from some of the biggest and brightest albums of this year.

5 Things Buffy the Vampire Slayer can Teach B2B Marketers

I’m not ashamed to admit that, when faced with a dilemma – work or otherwise – my first thought is often: what would Buffy do?

Untrended Investigates: How to Love SMBs (and make them love you back)

SMBs: The backbone of business. The lifeblood of the economy. The heartbeat of Britain. Call them what you want, SMBs matter. But understanding what makes small businesses tick and how you can best work with them can be hard yards.

Introducing B2B Lab

B2B Lab, affectionately known as Otto, is an AI-based application trained exclusively for B2B. It accesses multiple leading Large Language Models (LLMs) and live data feeds to deliver smart results, fast.

Celebrating our 4th Consecutive Year in the Top 100 Campaign Best Places to Work

We’re excited to share some fantastic news. For the fourth consecutive year, we’ve secured our spot in the Top 100 Campaign Best Places to Work. It’s […]

Work Experience? Cheers Miss.

Our CEO, Jon Lonsdale, talks about how work experience guided his career.

Behind B2B: Tom Pepper

For the latest installment of Behind B2B – our series exploring the extraordinary people leading the way in our industry – we spoke with Tom Pepper, […]

Creative Refresh at Publicis Pro

B2B agency Publicis Pro has announced new creative leadership, re-energising its offer to clients with a focus on delivering extraordinary creativity in business marketing. James King […]

Finding Extraordinary

Here’s a question:

What about you and your business is extraordinary?

Dremio appoints Octopus Group as PR partner

Dremio has appointed Octopus Group as its retained PR agency to support its ambitious growth plans for 2024.

Pigeon Problems: How To Contextualise Your Brand

Giving context can pigeonhole your brand and hamper growth. But at the same time, being too broad might make your brand feel weak or diluted.

The challenger challenge.

Challenging the status quo, or in this case the most common marketing approaches, can be a bold but oh-so risky move.

Tik Tok. Slow launch. The ‘Big Tease’.

The importance of long-term brand building for targeting future B2B buyers.

Is your ABM Intent-Driven?

If you’re really looking to target the 5% of buyers ready to spend, then you’ll need something that can help focus your efforts more keenly: intent data.

Behind B2B #23: Dean Lindsay

For our latest instalment of Behind B2B – our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry – we meet Dean Lindsay, Customer Marketing Lead at Soldo.

Easier, Better, Faster, Stronger: Ten commitments on how we’re using AI to enhance our work

10 client commitments defining how we will and won’t be using AI on your behalf

Let’s Eat AI for Breakfast: A roundtable round-up

Read about our roundtable: Let’s Eat AI for Breakfast

Behind B2B #22: Jason Miller

B2B marketer by day, music photographer by night, Jason Miller balances his love of rock’n’roll with a zealous approach to marketing. Ahead of the release of his new book ‘Second Skin – A Metalhead’s Journey of Becoming’, Jason emerges from the digital mosh pit to talk about the importance of pushing the boundaries, and what marketing trope keeps him up at night.

Octopus Group shortlisted at the UK Agency Awards as a B2B Agency of the Year

This year we’ve been nominated as a B2B Agency of the Year at the UK Agency Awards, in the large category.

Behind B2B #21: Matthew Leopold

Matthew is the Head of Brand, PR and Content Marketing at LexisNexis – a legal intelligence company. He has previously worked for British Gas, US tech-giant RingCentral and an aviation scale-up.

The case for first-mover advantage 

First-mover advantage. From brand name recognition to loyalty, it comes with all sorts of competitive advantages. 

Sharp Europe selects Octopus Group for European Digital Marketing Support

Sharp Europe, the European B2B business for the global technology company, has selected B2B marketing specialists Octopus Group as its Digital Marketing agency of record after a competitive pitch, run by Ingenuity.

Q&A: AI and its impact on PR with our Head of PR – Toby Brown

Our head of PR, Toby Brown, recently took part in the inaugural Meltwater Agency Grind – a forum for agency leaders to share experiences and ideas to enhance how we all work. The session focused on AI and its implications for agencies. The session wasn’t recorded, but we asked Toby to share his thoughts to the questions raised in the debate and have shared the responses below

Octopus Group Shines in the PRWeek UK Top 150 2023 B2B rankings

Here at Octopus, we’re most excited about business data and insights innovation, building generative AI into our workflows, the growth of b2b commerce and the shift back to business brand-building from a pure performance focus. All big opportunities that lie ahead.”

Spilling the LoyalTea. B2B Loyalty is the New B2B 2.0

Check out the latest instalment of the Spilling the LoyalTea podcast. OG’s Chief Growth Officer, Nicola Pestell, joins Brad Blackmon (EVP of CRM at Publicis Commerce) and Melissa Berger (EVP of National Strategic Growth and Solutions at Digitas) as they spill the tea on B2B loyalty.

OG’s AI Editorial Guidelines

Well, since I published my first thoughts on AI for creatives last December, the chat around ChatGPT has only got louder. (Other brands of AI overlord available.)

Octopus Group Rises in the UK B2B Marketing Agency Table

Despite a year of continuous change and the constant challenges, we face in our economic environment, all whilst recovering from the blows of the last three years. This year’s B2B Marketing Agency rankings are officially here to provide clarity.  

Campaign’s Best Places to Work, 2023

For the third year in a row, Campaign Magazine UK has named us a Best Place to Work! We take culture here at OG very seriously and believe it is a large part of our agency’s success, so seeing our name on such a prestigious list is an honor.

We’re going ALLIN on Wellbeing

Staff wellbeing days have been around for a number of years now. We’ve all heard of “Wellbeing Wednesdays”, featuring free massages and smoothies once a month (a perk plenty of agencies have enjoyed).

Gen Z Power: Modernising the $3.9 trillion LGBTQ+ market

To truly look behind the lens this LGBTQ+ History Month, we need to understand what the current lens looks like. Before, this would be the writer’s perspective in a piece of fiction, or the director’s camera, creating the gaze for a groundbreaking piece of television.

Re-branding Herstory: The rise of drag culture

That’s constructive input from iconic, bar-raising drag queen RuPaul, during ‘commercial challenge’ week. This is the point in RuPaul’s Drag Race where competing queens attempt to solidify their brand identity.

Targeted advertising history: Opening the brand gates to queerness and the modern family

That was the title of a 2019 BBC article, looking at how popular culture has engaged with the LGBTQ+ community like never before. It posed the question: was this progress genuine? While many could argue that any progress is progress – genuine or not –  others might see through queer inclusivity and portrayals as mere factors of consumer capitalism.

Queer in the media: Changing global representation

Queer media representation has taken many different forms over the years. Decades before the likes of Queer Eye (Netflix), PinkNews or non-binary and trans artists topping the music charts – positive queer representation was nonexistent.

Behind B2B #20: Todd Latham  

With experience across multiple disciplines, Todd Latham has become an expert in all things B2B throughout his successful career. We sat down with Todd and discussed how being unsure of what you want to do when you’re younger can actually be a good thing – and why businesses are not as rational as we like to think they are.

B2B Website of the Year at the UKDEA Awards

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve only gone and won B2B Website of the Year last night at the UKDEA Awards for our recent project with Charthop.

Everyone’s talking about ABM. So why do so many companies still struggle with it?

ABM is a staple part of many B2B marketers’ arsenal. But still, the amount of businesses who are still relatively inexperienced with ABM can be surprising. 

A Year in B2B Marketing: 2022

2022 has been a big year. The England football team won the Euros, two prime ministers left Downing Street, the UK economy took a turn for the worse, and Octopus Group interviewed some of the brightest minds in the B2B marketing world. 

Key takeaways from the OG PR roundtable

Four PR leaders walk into a room. One data, one teleco, one fintech, and one health and security.

International Men’s Day at OG: The men who inspire us

In the same way we encourage everyone to celebrate and uplift women, International Men’s Day is a day to promote a positive conversation about men, manhood and masculinity. And there’s a good reason why we should. One of the goals for the occasion is to raise awareness of predominantly male-affecting issues.

Mamma Mia, here we go again…

I don’t know about you, but after a two week holiday it’s sometimes tough to get your head back in the game. The memory of your holiday fading as quickly as your tan while you wade through an inbox that’s overflowing, all the while daydreaming of being back on the beach with a pina colada in hand.

Behind B2B #19: Paul Wooding

With an impressive career spanning both agency and in-house, Paul Wooding is the mastermind behind a wealth of award-winning B2B PR campaigns.

Our Ultimate PR Agency Relationship Checklist

If you’ve been poking around our website, you may have noticed we have a pretty sizeable PR team made up of people of different backgrounds, specialties, age, and experience (I for one have been in PR for more years than I am willing to admit outside of a pitch room).

Sodexo Engage appoints Octopus Group as UK PR partner

Sodexo Engage, the UK’s leading employee engagement expert, has appointed Octopus Group as its UK PR agency to support its ambitious UK growth plans.

Octopus Group win Marketing Agency of the Year at the UK Agency Awards

Last week we sent some of the finest dressed OG superstars down to the UK Agency Awards in hopes to bring home some gold.

It’s safe to say we were absolutely thrilled with the result. We only went and won Marketing Agency of the Year! Wow, what an accomplishment.

Coopetition, Collaboration and Partnerships

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.

Who Goes Where? Data Hires for B2B Marketing Teams

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.

Behind B2B #18: José Pons

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. 

Can you fully automate the B2B sales process?

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.

Welcome To Platform Land

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 appoints Octopus Group for UK PR

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.

My week of work (experience) at Octopus Group

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.

Measuring what matters in PR

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.

Agency Dealmasters Podcast: Meet Pete Hendrick

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. 

Behind B2B #17: Sakina Najmi

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

Welcome To Platform Land

Learn about the importance of platforms within B2B and how platforms are dictating the future of growth.

Roctostock 2022 – We came, we saw and we’ve just about recovered…

It’s safe to say Roctostock – our annual company festival – has a mythic status at OG.

BMC Podcast: Business Marketing Heroes

The Business Marketing Club podcast is currently running a series interviewing Business Marketing heroes. Dave Stevens, business marketer and chair of the BMC, sat down with our very own B2B marketing hero and chief strategy officer, Billy Hamilton-Stent.

When clients kill their own campaigns

Client-agency relationships often start like any other relationship: the agency wines and dines, the client checks out their options, a match is made and the honeymoon phase commences. 

UX design in B2B: what you need to know

User experience (UX) design has been increasingly thrust into the spotlight over the last five years. Marketers across both B2B and B2C are seeing a sharp uptake in interest around UX after businesses started to realise its importance – and crucially, how it can impact the bottom line.

Behind B2B #16: Addy Frederick

Much like our previous Behind B2B interviewees, Addy didn’t always know what she wanted to do. From a Classics degree at King’s College to PR at the Edinburgh Fringe, Addy went on to forge a career in comms, working with the likes of LV, Barclays, and Bupa. Now Head of Group Communications at Admiral Group plc, we sat down to discuss her experiences, the stories she’s most proud of telling – and whether or not we should all be on TikTok.

Campaign’s Best Places to Work, 2022

We’re thrilled to share that we have been named as a Best Place to Work for the second year running by Campaign.

Putting our values on the wall

Company values sometimes send a bit of a shiver down my spine.  I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because they are so important to get right, but so easy to get wrong.

B2B Marketing’s Martechopia: The expanding and evolving martech space

Last week, we attended B2B Marketing’s Martechopia event. It was packed with industry experts and sessions on how the martech space is evolving. Here are the 10 key takeaways that we found most interesting:

The First Apprentice: You’re hired

I’m OG’s first apprentice, social media executive, part-time fitness lover and full-time eater Mason Lucas! Assigned to the marketing team, I work alongside Giles Shorthouse (Head of Business Marketing) and Jon Lonsdale (CEO). In my role as the social media executive, I’m responsible for all the social media channels we run, as well as assisting with other aspects of marketing.

Behind B2B #15: Jason Bradwell

Like many of our Behind B2B interviewees, Jason’s trajectory (from aspiring film director to successful B2B marketing director) might sound a little unusual. But as our chat with Jason proved, a background in theatre puts you in surprisingly good stead to succeed in the world of B2B marketing.

David vs Goliath: what B2B marketers can learn from B2C

After being postponed for several months (thanks Omicron), the BMC’s big community hall event was back with a bang, gathering a mix of in-house, agency and consultant B2B marketers to discuss what B2B can learn from B2C. 

International Women’s Day – Women Who Inspire Me to #BreakTheBias

Today is International Women’s Day, a day where we celebrate all that women bring to our society, as well as reflect on some of the challenges they face. The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias, in order to create a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.

Business words in a business world: how to insert excitement into B2B copy

The world of business is exciting. It’s exciting to be part of large-scale innovations that impact cultures, social trends and our day-to-day lives. And though business-to-business marketing is often overlooked in terms of creativity, packed inside is a plethora of potential for people to play with. 

Mentorship: That’s the title

“If you want something, dream, dare, do. If you want something extraordinary, dream, dare, do, with great mentors. If you want to learn a powerful lesson about yourself, become a mentor.”

What a difference a year makes

And just like that, we’ve been part of Publicis Groupe UK for a year already! I’m reflecting on that anniversary this week, and remembering my excited thoughts from a year ago.

Behind B2B #14: Emma Windsor

From a sports scholarship in the US to international marketing leader for Grenade, Emma Windsor has risen fast through the ranks of the marketing world – a testament to her passion for the craft in all its forms

B2B Bigtime: spotlight on Mailchimp

Mailchimp had a big year in 2021.

What influencer marketing looked like in 1754!

Marketing in 1754. Allow us to introduce you to “The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director” by the famed furniture designer Thomas Chippendale.

Octopus Group makes several management team promotions to gear for further growth after successful year

Octopus Group has decided to re-structure its senior management team in order to improve the client experience and support further significant growth in 2022.

Behind B2B #13: John Watton

For 2022’s first instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet marketing expert John Watton.

How to create a great B2B campaign

When we launched our series Behind B2B, we had high hopes for hard-hitting stories, inspirational journeys, and industry-insider anecdotes.

CMI’s Annual B2B Content Marketing Report: insights for 2022

This year’s Content Marketing Institute (CMI) annual report drills down into benchmarks, budgets, and trends for the coming year.

Learnings from the B2B Summit

To give you a roundup of what’s what, we popped everything down in a handy report for you to read and refer to at your leisure.

Behind B2B #12: Isobel Sita-Lumsden

For the twelfth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet TikTok’s European Head of B2B Marketing, Isobel Sita-Lumsden. 

The MarTech Matrix

The real-life rise of self-aware marketing machines.

Supercharging B2B

At Octopus Group, we know what it feels like to have our work and our business supercharged. So here’s what we make of it, and how we see the next few years of B2B marketing shaking out.

Behind B2B #11: Andrea Clatworthy

For the eleventh instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet ABM expert Andrea Clatworthy.

Sedex appoints Octopus Group for UK PR

edex, a global membership organisation enabling responsible business and supply chain practices, has appointed Octopus Group as its UK PR agency.

3S Money appoints Octopus Group for UK PR

3S Money, has appointed Octopus Group as its UK PR agency.

Making the most from your marketing automation investment

How can you make sure you’re getting the most from any marketing automation investment?

Behind B2B #10: Leeya Hendricks

For the tenth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring some of the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Leeya Hendricks – CMO at Delta Capita.

P is for Planning: The Business Marketing Club Podcast

As part of the A2Z of B2B Marketing from The Business Marketing Club podcast series, Billy Hamilton-Stent joined Antonia Wade from PwC, Colin Lewis from OpenJaw Technologies, and Laura Hughes from PayDashboard to talk planning.

Behind B2B #09: Annabel Venner

For the ninth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet global marketing expert Annabel Venner. 

Three tips for better B2B marketing emails

Three of our favourite tips for building more effective B2B marketing emails

Octopus Group sponsors first PRWeek & Campaign B2B Summit

We’re really excited to be the main B2B Summit headline sponsor of the B2B Summit on September 23rd

Behind B2B #08: Mark Choueke

For the eighth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we’re talking B2B bravery with Mark Choueke – journalist, marketing leader, and freshly published author.

Behind B2B #07: Scott Brinker

For the seventh instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Scott Brinker – the godfather of martech (and the brain behind that martech infographic!)

Behind B2B #06: Annette King

For the sixth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Annette King – CEO of Publicis Groupe UK.

Campaign’s Best Places to Work, 2021

We’ve been ranked 7th overall in the 2021 Campaign’s Best Places to Work

Behind B2B #05: Karrie Sanderson

For the fifth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Karrie Sanderson – branding expert, Smartsheet marketing leader and experienced sailor.

Embrace these changes: there’s plenty more where that came from

In Spotify and WARC’s ‘Changing channels in B2B’ report published last year, they take a closer look at the shifting strategies of the tech and telco industries, delving deep into the themes within their marketing, and how that’s changed since last year and into 2021.

Neos Networks and OG: a rebranding story

Find out about how we worked with SSE Enterprise Telecoms to rebrand them as Neos Networks.

Behind B2B / 04. Joel Harrison

For the fourth instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Joel Harrison – founder and editor-in-chief of the globally acclaimed B2B Marketing.

6 marketing certificates all B2B marketers should probably have

We really believe in the value of learning (we even have our own Brand to Sales Academy). So from in-house to internationally recognised, here’s some we’d recommend, starting with three that we all do at Octopus Group as part of our learning and development.

Behind B2B / 03. Fiona Campbell-Howes

For the third instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Fiona Campbell-Howes – one of the UK’s leading B2B tech copywriters.

International Women's Week: The Wonderful Women of OG

At OG, we celebrated International Women’s Day with International Women’s WEEK, where we celebrated the wonderful women of OG, and their essential role in our workplace […]

International Women’s WEEK at OG: 5 things you can do to support

Across the last year and a half, countries with women leaders have received global praise for their effective handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kamala Harris made […]

Our CEO, Jon Lonsdale, speaks with The B2B Marketing podcast

This week our CEO, Jon Lonsdale, sat down with Joel Harrison of The B2B Marketing podcast, and discussed OG’s recent acquisition by Publicis Groupe UK. The pair […]

Our D&I initiative with a difference

Octopus Group has teamed up with two like-minded agencies – The Croc and The Marketing Practice – to collectively deliver an internal D&I initiative with a […]

Behind B2B / 02. Brian Macreadie

For the second instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Brian Macreadie – B2B marketing evangelist and one-time aspiring astronaut

A big week, a big moment, a bigger future

WOW. What a MASSIVE week it’s been for Octopus Group. After nearly 20 years as an independent agency, we’re joining one of the biggest agency groups […]

Look Mum we’re on TV: B2B marketing has made it

Over the weekend the Super Bowl once again treated us to some of the most talked-about, big-budget blockbuster advertising in the marketing calendar. Classic Wayne’s World […]

Behind B2B / 01. Tyrona Heath

For the first instalment of Behind B2B, our series exploring the brightest minds in the industry, we meet Tyrona Heath – Director, Market Engagement at The B2B Institute @ LinkedIn.

Thomas International appoints Octopus Group for UK PR

Thomas International, the UK’s leading talent assessment platform, has appointed Octopus Group as its UK PR agency. Octopus will support Thomas across media and influencer relations […]

Octopus Group's Nicole Jones ICW PRWeek: the challenges of COVID, mental health, and what we are doing to help

The health and wellbeing of our Octopedes have always been a top priority, with four specially trained Mental Health First Aiders on hand for staff to […]

Extraordinary thinking.

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