James Hurman’s Effectiveness Code

LONDON, Today: WARC, the Cannes Lions and LinkedIn B2B Institute have published The B2B Effectiveness Code, a white paper that follows in-depth research by Kiwi adman James Hurman on the effectiveness of B2B marketing.

A key findings were that B2B creative remains dominated by marketing that is at the least effectiveness end of the spectrum.

WARC’s Amanda Benfell said: “Across the last decade, B2B creative commitment has declined significantly. On average, B2B campaigns spend less, run for shorter durations, and use fewer media channels.

“Like B2C campaigns, to reverse this decline in effectiveness and gain competitive advantage, the advice is for marketers to maximise creative commitment by investing more in longer-term and more broadly targeted B2B campaigns.

“The research is part of an ongoing partnership between WARC, The Lions and LinkedIn’s marketing think tank.”

“As a result of the research, the B2B Effectiveness Ladder has been introduced to be used as a continuous improvement tool. It is a hierarchy of the six main types of effects that B2B marketing produces, from least to most commercially impactful.”

“The research is part of an ongoing partnership between WARC, The Lions and LinkedIn’s marketing think tank – the B2B Institute – that is focused on galvanising creativity in B2B brand-building and demonstrating the impact of powerful creative on long-term growth.”

For the research, James Hurman, founder of Previously Unavailable, and co-author of The Effectiveness Code, analysed 435 B2B case studies from the WARC and Cannes Lions effectiveness database that were submitted between 2010 and 2021.

James Hurman said: “This paper builds on LinkedIn’s B2B Institute’s efforts in challenging the assumptions of B2B marketing effectiveness, and demonstrates that success in B2B emerges from many of the same principles that drive growth in B2C.”

• The White Paper
• More here