B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth

For decades, the legal sector has been built around deep partner relationships, reputation and specialist expertise. But buying behaviour is changing – and the traditional model is under pressure. This week, Benedict speaks to Tricia Weener, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Linklaters, about how law firms are adapting to a more complex, competitive and procurement-led market....

In B2B organisations, "one brand voice" often sounds straightforward. In practice, it is far more complex - especially in firms where reputation is carried by people, expertise and relationships. This week, Benedict speaks to Paola Garbini, Head of Marketing Europe at Oliver Wyman, about the realities of building brand coherence inside a global consulting business. As Oliver Wyman strengthens its...

Welcome to the first episode of the Special Edition: Law Firms podcast, where we speak with CMOs and senior marketers at leading law firms about how brand actually drives growth in legal services. Law firm marketers speak about differentiation, but most still communicate trust, expertise and experience in near identical ways. The underlying buying behaviour has not dramatically changed. Legal serv...

Brand architecture is often treated as a structural or design choice. In reality, it is a leadership decision with emotional, political and commercial consequences. Benedict Buckland hosts Ify Jibunoh, Group CMO of Cassava Technologies, to discuss house of brands versus branded house through a human and change-management lens. Jibunoh explains that Cassava’s brand architecture decision was a leade...

ABM is still spoken about as a silver bullet. A way to open doors, personalise at scale and finally align sales and marketing. The problem is that most organisations expect it to behave like magic rather than work. In this conversation, Benedict speaks with Lauren Daly and Andrew Shepherd from Palo Alto Networks about where ABM breaks down in reality. Drawing on experience running ABM in a large,...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , Benedict talks with Jigsaw's Head of Marketing, Jason Miller about the renewed importance of brand in B2B marketing. Once seen as “fluffy” or reserved for consumer giants, brand is now the foundation for differentiation, trust and long-term growth. Jason argues that lead gen and performance marketing alone can’t cut it, and explains how cla...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , Benedict explores a striking paradox with Nicole German, Global Chief Marketing Officer for Corporate and Institutional Banking at HSBC. His challenge is that despite having unprecedented amounts of customer data, many B2B organisations seem further away from truly understanding their clients than ever before. Nicole refutes this assumption...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , Benedict speaks to Craig Welsh, Head of Research Marketing at Elsevier, about why most B2B teams are still stuck using AI as a content tool, and what they’re missing. Craig argues that the bigger opportunity lies in data, analytics and lead scoring, where AI can solve real marketing problems and help marketers become more strategic. Craig d...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , Benedict asks a leading insurance CMO what it takes to build a meaningful brand in a category known for conservatism. In this episode, Georgina Peters Venzano, CMO at Beazley, joins us to challenge the long-held assumption that B2B must be strictly rational. She shares how authenticity, emotional resonance and brand consistency are key to m...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , Benedict speaks with Martin Dyhouse, Head of Sponsorship at Intuit, to challenge the notion that B2B sponsorship is little more than overpriced hospitality. Martin shares his framework for building effective sponsorship strategies—from audience and brand alignment to commercial value and long-term integration. Drawing on his experience lead...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , Benedict speaks with Nick Rose, Head of Brand Marketing and Digital Communications at Linklaters, to unpack the complex (and often misunderstood) relationship between personal and corporate branding in professional services. From law firm conservatism to the growing influence of digital-native employees, Nick shares how modern firms must al...

Are marketing personas as we know them extinct? Or do we just need to change the way we understand them? David Keene, Wipro's CMO, has the answers. In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , host Benedict Buckland speaks with David about what brand building should really look like for B2B marketers in 2025, from establishing a focused buying committee to using content to 'mirco...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth , host Benedict Buckland speaks with Dan Roche, CMO of Workbooks CRM, to uncover the uncomfortable truth about conservative B2B marketing. Dan shares candid insights from running bold campaigns, including a Minions partnership at SCORO and the provocative "No Bullsh*t CRM" campaign at Workbooks. He challenges the industry's risk-averse cultur...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict is joined by Joel Harrison, Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of B2BMarketing.net , the leading community for B2B marketers, to explore the shift from lead generation to growth marketing, drawing insights from B2B Ignite, their flagship event. He challenges the ambiguity of "growth marketing" and introduces the concept of the "commerci...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict is joined by Kayleeann Maritz to define marketing's role in shaping commercial strategy. Kayleeann makes the compelling case for over investment in tier two accounts and provides multiple practical tips for how marketers can transform lead generation. Tune in to learn how a diversified approach built on robust segmentation and targe...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict is joined by Katrina Nichols to interrogate Linkedin as a platform. Katrina eviscerates much of the received wisdom about what works on Linkedin and advocates for a rebalance from influencers to evangelists. Tune in to hear a progressive perspective on how marketers can get value through novel, persona-led approaches to social platf...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict is joined by Efi Naskou to discuss how misconceptions about D&I are holding B2B brands back. Efi challenges the sentiment behind the finding that B2B leaders don't think D&I is an important part of brand's narrative, making the case for a more nuanced and progressive approach. Listen to find out how B2B marketers have both a...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict is joined by Kate Cox to discuss how B2B sales models need to be reimagined as the purchase decision evolves. Kate provides a detailed analysis of the changing buying dynamics and convincingly makes the case for marketing to have jurisdiction over critical early sales activities. Listen to find out how B2B marketers can fine-tune th...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict sits down with Haralds Gabrans Zukovs to discuss how complex B2B products require sophisticated strategies and solutions. B2B products and services are oftentimes much more complex than many of our B2C counterparts. And even within B2B, some offerings are particularly complicated. This distinction puts the pressure on B2B marketers...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict is joined by Will Sturgeon to discuss how marketing needs to adapt to make better use of specialists. In a B2B marketing team, it’s crucial to have a well-rounded group that can tackle a variety of challenges that may come. Each individual needs to bring a unique skill set in order to make this happen. Many may say that specialising...

In this first episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth in 2024, Benedict speaks to Chris Wade about how maturing B2B organisations need to adapt. As a company grows and establishes itself firmly in the market, it can be easy for it to fall into an all too comfortable pattern. Once business settles into a groove, it can become hard to make changes that ultimately are better for progress. Com...

Benedict Buckland of alan. agency moderates PANEL: Marketing + Sales A Winning Combination? Thank you to everyone who attended the session! Benedict was joined by our lovely panel: - Tom Boston, Brand Awareness Manager at Salesloft - Julia Pikes, Senior Marketing Director, EMEA at Hubspot - Thomas Van der Staaij, Senior Marketing Manager at AWS - Freya Ward, Global Sales Director at Headley Media...

We brought the podcast to you LIVE from the B2B Marketing Expo at the ExCeL London! Thank you to everyone who attended the session! Benedict is joined by our distinguished panel: - Áine Bryn, Partner & CMO at Marsh McLennan UK - Craig Welch, SVP, Head of Research Marketing at Elsevier - Gonzalo Garcia Villanueva, Global CMO at NielsenIQ You can find our panelists, Áine , Craig , and Gonzalo on...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict sits down with Paul Afshar to discuss the practicalities of using AI in B2B marketing. AI has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds in the B2B marketing space. Even on this podcast, there has been much discussion about how AI has the potential to completely reinvent the industry. However, there’s only so much hypothesising one c...

In this episode of B2B Marketing: The Provocative Truth, Benedict speaks to Matthew Harper about redefining the role of the CMO. Not only is the role of the CMO not understood by the rest of the business, the CMOs themselves sometimes hardly know how to be effective leaders for their company. This has led to the CMO having the shortest tenure of any role in the C-suite. But it doesn’t have to be l...