There's a proliferation of research into how, as B2B marketers, we are planning to leverage Social Media to grow our brands (Cyance / ABBA) and with some variations they tell a familiar story. Apparently we are all increasing spend on web based media, on Google and on social media whilst at the same time reducing our investment in advertising and direct mail. We are using email more and we rely on our websites for an increasing proportion of our leads. Some of us are also investing in Lead Management Automation and other automation tools in our bid to increase efficiency and ROI.

But how many of us can honestly say that this diversion of effort and spend is in reaction to any quantifiable change in our buyers' behaviour. Have all our buyers changed how they buy? Are they all buying in the same way? Is the rate of change the same for all our audiences and markets? The fact is, currently, we just don't know.

Since it's our job to advise on how to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the Digital Age we decided it was down to us to help inform these decisions. Thus the research we are about to publish which looks at "The Buyersphere" in detail in an attempt to identify the differences and similarities in behaviour across sectors, ages and different types of purchase. This first wave focuses on B2B buying in the UK and we'll be looking at global and regional differences later this year.

The report is still being finalized but I can say that the data looks very interesting. Having looked at some of the early findings it is likely that some of us have been too keen to assume that our buyers are no longer influenced by traditional media having switched almost entirely to the Social world. I could also name a few that are missing tremendous opportunities as their audiences are the ones who have embraced the Digital Age.

One thing is clear, as predicted, there is a generational wave coming and if, as I believe we should, we use this information to help us plan around our audiences not around our own prejudices there is a tremendous opportunity for the B2B marketers that are ready to listen and react.

If you'd like to receive an early copy of the report let me know.

If we stop and think about the trends we have seen, and continue to see, in how buyers find, investigate and choose potential suppliers the future isn't too bright for any of us. Marketing agencies and marketing professionals in general could well become extinct unless we adapt and evolve.

The death of marketing communications as we know it may well be a pessimistic view of the future, or there again it could be the beginning of something new and exciting. All the research we see indicates a slow but sure move of budgets from outbound communications to inbound marketing, from shouting about your brand to get your buyers' attention to delivering compelling experiences that create online conservations much more influential than any trade ad campaign. But where could it all lead?

It's great when an idea is picked-up all around this world. So I was pleased to see this use of our very own Beyond Idea for CWJobs the skills cloud t-shirt featured during a fantastic and mind blowing presentation for TED by Pattie Mae ... Worth a look!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

Just got back from talking at the IAB's (Internet Advertising Bureau) first B2B Forum feeling surprised.

Pleasantly surprised at the number of attendees. We were aiming for 40, and more than 60 attended with about an equal mix between clients and agencies.

Also, pleasantly surprised at the level of engagement. Three main areas were covered -  Attract, Convert and Retain - and throughout, the hunger to learn was very evident.

OK, this is not strictly a B2B post, it's more an observation about people but I would argue it is still relevant.

Listening to Radio 5 this week there was a phone-in and the subject was "Are the UK's High Streets dying"? And, given the recent demise of such favorites as Woolies, Zavvi, Whittards etc, I wasn't surprised to hear that everyone that rang in, without exception, said that it was. But they didn't just blame the "Credit Crunch", they said it was the fault of the Supermarket giants and online shopping. To a man they called for the banning of both so that our High Streets could return as the true centres of our communities.

Paul Kalbfleisch, VP, Branding, for Blackberry attended our E3 conference last week and he recounted the story of how the Blackberry got to be named Blackberry. There was nothing unusual about the situation, it was how the business, Research in Motion reacted that is noteworthy.

Had the privilege recently to spend 3 days with some of Europe & North America's more progressive agency minds doing what we all like to do - pontificating about the future - and it was enlightening and scary at the same time. The theme was reacting to and driving change. The focus: our clients' customers. The challenge: helping them to recognize and react to what is round the corner.

The fear? That everyone would become shocked into over-reacting to the credit crunch and the general slowdown in the economy, rather than taking a step to the side and looking beyond and to start planning for the rebound.

We've seen significant changes in buyer behaviour even before the current crisis and this crisis is only likely to amplify those changes. This creates opportunity for those willing to look. Opportunity to not only be one of the first to react to or even anticipate the rebound, but to have developed new strategies for the new world order, whilst others follow using the same old marketing techniques.

The saying "fortune favours the brave" could not be more appropriate.

I read the latest edition of B2B Marketing magazine cover to cover one evening this week (a great read) but was left feeling a little uneasy. The cover story is positioning demand generation as the next big thing. But what is it? I had heard of it but have always thought it was just about taking a structured approach to how you capture prospects and nurture them before (and after) they are passed to sales. So why give it a title?

To make sure I wasn't missing something I did some research in the blogs. I didn't find much of an answer and indeed I was left feeling that (as with crm all those years ago) it was a label given to something familiar in order for some software and service vendors to make it easier to sell their product.

However I did find something useful. A blog entry on the Marketo Modern B2B Marketing Blog by Sean Monahue at last years Demand Generation Seminar in Boston outlining what he believes are the Top 5 challenges for B2B Demand Generation Marketers (i.e. all B2B Marketers). Worth a look and mostly about search.

There's an interesting report just released by McKinsey about the adoption and satisfaction with Web 2.0 technologies. Whilst I'm not keen on the label of Web 2.0 and the bundling of these technologies into a category, it is an interesting snapshot of how Enterprises are recognizing the potential value (slowly), including an analysis of what gets in the way.

We have a couple of clients who have tentatively dipped their toes with the idea that they will evaluate performance and then make a decision whether to dive in, and we know (if we're honest) they haven't really got it. Yet. In this report there's an analysis of dissatisfaction with Web 2.0 and a perception of the barriers. Those that are most dissatisfied identify the biggest barriers as being:

• My company's leadership team doesn't encourage the use of Web 2.0
• My company's culture doesn't encourage the use of Web 2.0
• My company doesn't understand the potential financial return from the use of Web 2.0
• My company doesn't provide sufficient incentives to adopt or experiment with Web 2.0

This highlights some of the challenges facing those of us who believe in the potential. We have to be clear about our arguments. We have to engage businesses at the highest level and we have to paint of picture of just what is possible.

Coincidently, I heard an interview on the radio this week with the author of a book that charts the development of medical sciences and recounts the resistance the Victorian "so called" medical profession offered to things like general anaesthetic. Apparently, at the time a good surgeon was one who was best at restraining patients through the pain, and so they saw the idea of an anaesthetic as a threat to their prowess. It was the surgeon who was known as being the fastest who could see the benefit, as it enhanced his reputation.

To me this suggests that we will have more success in introducing new techniques to B2B marketers who recognize their true role as building sustainable brands and reputations, not supporting sales or creating brochures. If you are one of those, please put your hand up.

For a while at Base One we've been questioning the logic of the single big idea as the basis of a brand's campaigns. Having spent years creating consistent and compelling campaigns around a single idea, why change? It's been proven to work and buyers are still buyers, surely?

Well, yes and no. The fact is that buyers are changing, as Chris Tacy, Chief Innovation Officer at brand experience agency Method, implies in his post 'Is "The Big Idea" Dead?':

'...now we have an entire new demographic who have grown up not having to take it. And as a result, the control relationship between brands and consumers has changed. And it's not going back. Technology has helped - but behavior is a big part of this. And at then end of the day...the chickens are coming home to roost. In this new world...The Big Idea doesn't really hold water. Without the control relationship on the side of the brands, it's not even justifiable.'

It's this change of relationship that is making us rethink. Brand owners have to realise that they will no longer have control of what people think or say about them. We can influence what they say and think but not control it. And our buyers fit many personas, so for each of them the brand can mean different things. Therefore, we need to start developing clusters of brand ideas that can be relevant to different groups, and yet all relevant to the brand.

Strong brands in the future (even B2B brands) need to resonate as part of the sub-cultures that exist within our markets. Sub-cultures are different, yet they overlap; so too must the ideas we place at the centre of our brands.