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B2B Marketing Trends 2025: Insights from ROI·DNA's Surj Gish
1. What are the biggest differences in B2B marketing expectations or behaviors across EMEA, APAC, and North America and how does your team adapt accordingly?
There are a couple of primary differences between regions: cultural nuances and technical variations.
We have experts on the ground in key regions like Japan, Singapore, Australia, and throughout Europe, which allows us to adapt our approaches based on lived experience and a true understanding of the people in these areas.
Technical differences are often manifestations of cultural differences. For example, privacy laws in the European Union reflect a higher level of concern for data privacy, which affects the effectiveness of account-based strategies. We adapt to these concerns by rethinking targeting with an eye for context and focusing on networks like LinkedIn, where there is a combination of high-quality targeting data and clear consent.
2. How do you support ABM and ABX strategies, and what kind of client impact have you seen since its launch?
We’ve been doing account-based B2B marketing since before it became popular. The ability to focus on specific accounts or groups of accounts based on fit and value has been game-changing. However, it’s not a cure-all—factors like business maturity, sales support, and internal alignment all play a role in ABM success. As a result, we still run targeted demand generation campaigns where they make sense.
3. How are you evolving your demand generation and paid media strategies to match the pace of change in the B2B tech buyer’s journey?
The pace of change continues to accelerate, and we’re here for it. The easy answer is AI and automation, and we’re certainly investing in these areas to deliver faster, work smarter, and scale more effectively. But we’re also listening more closely than ever to our clients. One of the most important things we heard was the need for customized solutions instead of off-the-shelf tools.
This feedback led to the creation of our AI Lab and a suite of proprietary tools: Hotwire Spark and Hotwire Ignite. Hotwire Spark helps clients understand how AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Perplexity are answering questions from potential customers and influencing purchase decisions. Hotwire Ignite enables faster, smarter prioritization of target accounts.
4. What are enterprise tech companies looking for most in an agency partner today and how do you deliver differently?
Obviously, serious expertise is table stakes at this point. Over the past year, we've seen clients place much greater emphasis on the partnership and people aspects of their agency relationships. They want to work with engaged, committed teams—not at arm’s length. They want to actually enjoy the experience.
This has always been our approach. We’ve been focused from the start on being a true partner, delivering strong results and being genuinely enjoyable to work with.
5. What’s the next frontier for global B2B growth marketing, and how are you preparing for it?
This is a tricky one. A lot of people would point to using AI to scale, and that’s a solid answer. Like many, I see huge potential in scaling pseudo-1:1 campaigns with AI tools.
But honestly, one of the biggest challenges we still see is the weak link between sales data—actual contracts—and campaign performance. That data is often outdated or inaccurate, which makes smart optimization tough.
Just as we’ve been building our own AI tools, we’re also tackling these data issues head-on by creating custom solutions for each client. Every engagement starts with a data onboarding and integration process that leads to tailored performance dashboards.
6. What key trends should CMOs and B2B marketing leaders be watching over the next 12–18 months?
A big shift we’re already seeing is in the search landscape. SEM is typically a major part of program spend, but search isn’t limited to traditional search engines anymore. We now think of holistic search as a combination of organic and paid results, plus AI-generated responses—from ChatGPT answers to in-SERP AI results. More and more, people are seeking answers outside of standard search engines.
It’s a massive undertaking, but there’s a huge opportunity for brands that can invest in and effectively manage efforts across all three areas: organic, paid, and AI results. With our decades of deep expertise and proprietary tools like Hotwire Spark, we’re well-positioned to help our clients win.
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