LinkedIn and the B2B Institute held their B2B Trends update on the key things to look out for in 2025. As an agency partner, Hallam were lucky enough to be invited along to this, and here are our insights.
A key theme of the update was the aim to challenge behaviours that we see in B2B, and to empower brands to provide a commercial advantage in the category at the moment.
Alex Jackson, our Paid Media Lead attended and has summarised the most important takeaways for you below;
The first impression rose
Leaving a strong impression early on vs. waiting until the last minute to make a move
- 86% of B2B buyers start with Day One list
- 3 avg. brands on Day One list
- 92% of B2B buyers purchase from that list
Bold creative is not a risk. Remaining memorable in the first impression is crucial – need to have attentive, branded ads.
Sea of sameness
“Van Restorff Effect” > noticing something that stands out from the crowd. Opposite of the rest within the subset.
- Blue brands in B2B
- Huge misattribution if you are not the largest brand in the category > means that your brand becomes more salient with competitors
- Brand Attribution does not align with Misattribution
- Immediate increase to growth of market share with diversified assets and creative vs. ads website and product within category
- 81% of b2b ads are drowning in sea of sameness
- Lower ad attribution means lower correct brand identification means much lower brand recall
- Characters are not used enough – Salesforce saw a +6% uplift to brand attribution by using Astro
- Brand characters can also be leaders within the company (Thought Leadership Ads)
Memory mix modelling
Attention through to connection (has to connect for us to remember accurately), through to revision (needs to be reminded to stick in memory), through to recall (has to be tested on it in some way).
- How we test how well the real job of advertising has been done – to stay in memory.
- B2B often prioritise clickability over memorability
- Clicks are useless in long term memory and have no baring on long term recollection, ad recall, purchase intent or brand awareness
- Attention vs. reach is more important – prioritise what gains attention (sharing, engaging, ad recall etc.) and how this pervades across the category
- Passive attention is also important – ad on-screen time, paying attention vs. switching focus – similar to dwell time
- Video: Active Attention > Build Memories
- Image: Passive Attention > Maintain Memories
- See screenshot below for differentiation between media mix vs. memory mix
Circles of doom
Differentiation between the Circle of Marketing and the Circle of Sales; Marketing and Sales misalignment.
- Marketing = reaching everyone in category
- Sales = reaching every buyer reach by marketing
- AVG overlap is 10%, should be 100%
- Demand marketing vs. Brand marketing = 6% avg alignment
- Demand = reaching current buyers
- Brand = reaching current and future buyers
Hidden buyer group
People who we should be talking to, that we probably aren’t.
- 49% of buyers are hidden, and 51% are targets
- Essentially understanding the difference between audiences and buyer groups
- Over 40% of B2B deals fail > because 40% of influence comes from the hidden buyers – but we aren’t getting in front of them
- Hidden buyersare too busy focused on being technical experts; finance, operations, etc.
AI > more deals are getting stuck due to commercial decisions being shrouded in fear and people trust and understand what is going on. To resolve economic impact, trust and education at the wider hidden (buying committee) needs to be a priority.
Technical experts already know.
- Awareness through almost 100% of buyer group survive the process
- Media plan tool in LinkedIn highlights both the hidden and target buyer groups
General questions
How to measure attention:
- Seeing non-stuck scrolling behaviour, dropping measure of attention after set time
- Static attention measurement drops after 3-4 seconds if no curser behaviour
- Video looks at vid length vs. curser sag
- Lack of screen being active, eye tracking, etc.
Hidden buyer research can be downloaded from b2bi > speak to Jenny to get this data.
How much bias is involved with tech experts based on outliers from hidden group
- Initial confidence in the shortlist defines success rate – huge impact on decision
- Nobody got fired for buying IBM because nobody objected to it due to clarity and knowledge from hidden buyer groups
- More around rationalising the decision as opposed to pushing it through.
In Summary
A lot of this is probably not new to those of us actively working in the B2B world, but it is very important.
If you take nothing else from this, I’d suggest that the single-most important key takeaway is the need to stand out from the crowd. The Sea of Sameness is damaging more brands than doing them good, and it is perpetuating a cycle of lost media share to the challenger brands. Don’t be afraid to be different.
Remember, if we want to disrupt normality, we have to be the ones leading the changes in the industry. Hallam can work with you and empower you to do that too, so please get in touch today to tackle your B2B challenges.
