The Drum’s Sam Anderson recently explored the shift towards emotion and long-termism in B2B branding. Pooling thoughts from those working in the B2B space to further understand this trend, Anderson begins his exploration of this topic with an overview of the major players:

Ask a panel of B2B specialists who the standard-setters are in their world and a few names will keep popping up: Google, Mailchimp, Autodesk. Chief among those is cloud software behemoth Salesforce, and its hugely varied suite of marketing assets like learning platform Trailhead, advocacy-pushing Trailblazers, and mega-event Dreamforce.

According to Anderson, the success of these companies lies with their branding – which is no surprise to us at Novagram. He says that it is ‘brand-building work that has made those top examples from big tech so sticky’. As an example of brand-building work, Anderson references Mailchimp’s ‘Email is Dead’ campaign, which was created in collaboration with the Design Museum.

One thing that we experts agree on, is that branding is an essential part of creating a successful business – especially in the B2B context. Vanessa Cheal, a branding creative, says:

Anywhere there are highly competitive markets with fast growth, where medium-sized businesses are trying to break through and compete with the big boys, we’re seeing a massive uplift in the attention around improving brand.

B2B companies have had a reputation for branding that is serious and unexciting – designed to appeal to ‘professionals’. The untapped potential of B2B branding lies with understanding B2B buyers: they are not just professionals, they are human. Understanding this has led to a shift towards more emotional branding.

In the constant push-and-pull between the marketing world’s left-brain of performance and right-brain of brand (simplified as that dichotomy is), this is clearly a win for the latter. It’s also a victory for marketers and agencies who have been advocating for long-termism, says AgencyUK’s creative director, Dan Srokosz: “There’s a real Renaissance, which is fantastic. I look forward to B2B gaining confidence… there needs to be a break away from ROI and performance. Data and performance marketing have facilitated an over-focus on short-termism, which can lead to quite stale or short-lived creative. I look forward to more bravery.”

‘Long-termism’ and ‘bravery’ are two concepts that may appear at odds with each other at first glance: what lasts is usually derived from tried-and-tested formulae, while the ‘brave’ is new – innovative and experimental. However, a happy medium between the two does exist.

At Novagram, we have decades of design experience, and this informs our creative experimentation. We create brands that last for as long as our clients need them to. Our robust creative process allows us to deliver work that is consistently creative, original, and high-performing. We understand that, in every branding project, there must be a delicate balance between function and form – between bravery and long-termism, and we know which elements of your brand you can, and should, change to stay current.

Our end goal is to create work that communicates effectively with our clients’ clients. As Anderson writes:

This surely does not mean the end of functionality-focused creative in B2B – those bonds are too secure – but perhaps functionality plus emotion is on the up.

With the rise of AI (and its associated criticism), focusing on the human aspect of branding feels like a good thing. However, Anderson highlights that humanity is only a good thing when it’s authentic.

We shouldn’t get carried away about the newness of all this. Marketers have prophesized great creative shifts in the B2B landscape for a while. One rubric under which they’ve made this point is the ‘humanization’ of B2B, and a corresponding push to make brands more ‘human’. Our panel cautions that this isn’t exactly what they mean when they celebrate an increase in emotion, brand, and long-termism.

Vanessa Cheal says that there is a pressure to ‘come up with a purpose that tries to save the world; that shows we care; that you can trust us.’ And, according to strategist, Alastair Hussain, ‘many B2B clients do genuinely create world-changing products and services, working on world-changing problems.’ Perhaps, then, the challenge is to uncover this purpose and highlight it: distil and communicate the human problem (and solution) at the core of the company’s offer.

In closing, Hussain highlights another important point, saying: “Broad-brushing the whole of B2B as ‘human-to-human’ is a giant leap through a vacuum of logic. We aren’t exactly the same people in every context.”

Whether you want to appeal to your clients’ humanity, or their professional side (or both) – we can help. Get in touch today to discover what Novagram can do for your business.