Get ahead of the B2B pack in 2026 with these three strategies

And now that AI is assisting so many in creating that content, the “sea of sameness” only seems to be getting deeper. Sam Altman himself recently commented that social media was starting to feel more “fake” and cited one possible cause as: “real people have picked up quirks of LLM-speak”.

So for B2B brands that are truly looking to stand out in the year ahead, I’d like to propose a better use of those social and influencer budgets (or at least a portion of them).

Prestige media

Marketers across all industries have been attempting to course-correct the over-emphasis on performance marketing this year, but B2B marketers in particular have leaned into the importance of brand building. This is evidenced in a move toward measuring revenue-focused KPIs, as well as an increased focus on more creative campaigns.

Nevertheless, 81% of CMOs surveyed by Dentsu agreed with the following statement: “The future is about building my brand through culture, but there aren’t enough tried and tested examples of how to do it.” To this I would counter, prestige media buying is back, baby.

Take AT&T’s ‘Wake up with Craig’ campaign, which was aimed at small business owners with a series of commercials featuring Craig Robinson from The Office. Considering 81% of B2B ads fail to gain adequate attention or drive recall, this is exactly the kind of high-impact campaign that leads to a brand eventually making the shortlist of B2B buying groups.

With this in mind, it makes more sense to move budgets away from buying programmatic digital and invest in high-visibility, prestige media. And with newer formats such as connected TV, you can marry more precise audience targeting with high-trust, high-attention moments – a win-win scenario.

Brand success

When it comes to building brand awareness, 43% of B2B marketers rank in-person events as delivering the highest ROI. But an overlooked opportunity lies in creating similar events just for employees.

The fact is, the best brand ambassadors are the people who literally bring the brand to life everyday. And with 94% of marketing professionals agreeing that trust represents the most important factor for B2B brand success, it’s crucial that employees authentically feel (and therefore outwardly reflect) that trust.

This can be particularly important when a company is going through major changes. For example, back in February, business intelligence platform Microstrategy announced it was rebranding to Strategy and essentially doubling down on its unique approach to Bitcoin – something that could rattle customers.

Shortly after, the company hosted a collection of fully rebranded sales kickoffs complete with swag, step and repeats, and stage design. While I’m sure these events served to align the global Strategy team, they also appeared to energize and inspire employees who then turned to LinkedIn to brag about it. And when this kind of call is coming from inside the house, it goes a long way in both bolstering brand awareness and garnering trust.

Cultural relevance

Lastly, every B2B brand wants to be known as leading the conversations that are actively shaping their industries, but it’s a fight to even be heard above all the bots and noise broadcast by ever-changing algorithms.

If you create the ecosystem wherein those conversations can thrive, however, you’re guaranteed a participating role.

This is precisely what Snowflake did with the creation of their SVAI Hub earlier this year – a hybrid creative and co-working space for AI innovation in the middle of Silicon Valley. By physically providing a space where developers, startups, and business leaders can congregate and hold events, Snowflake has positioned itself as a central collaborator within the larger AI community.

Beyond so clearly associating the brand with AI, having a physical hub where they can invite others in creates opportunities for cultural relevance that would otherwise be much harder to predict or tap into.

So before rationing 30% of your marketing budget for the year ahead on social, consider a campaign less-traveled, where relevance exists outside of the influence of an algorithm.