Cannes, June 17, 2024 – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2024 has become a central stage for LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network and leading B2B advertising platform. This week, LinkedIn is transforming the iconic Carlton Cannes hotel rooftop into “the place to B2B,” offering an array of B2B-focused panels, studio sessions, and networking events from June 17 to June 21.
LinkedIn is set to demonstrate its extensive tools and insights that empower B2B marketers to effectively reach and engage buyer groups, fostering “collective confidence” among decision-makers. This unique engagement is facilitated by LinkedIn’s robust professional community of one billion members and 68 million companies.
A highlight of LinkedIn’s presence at Cannes is the collaboration between LinkedIn’s The B2B Institute and Bain & Company. Together, they will unveil new research on the mainstage, exploring what drives $18 trillion in global B2B purchases. This research, titled “Buyer Group Marketing,” delves into the emotional drivers behind B2B purchasing decisions, emphasizing that brand familiarity among the entire buyer group is paramount.
According to the study, B2B buying cycles are long and emotion-driven, typically involving six to ten stakeholders. Remarkably, 81% of the 500+ senior B2B buyers surveyed stated that the product they eventually purchased was known by everyone in the buying group from the onset. Conversely, only 4% said a purchase was made when the product was known by just a few decision-makers.
Minjae Ormes, VP of Marketing at LinkedIn, commented, “This year at Cannes Lions, LinkedIn will offer a glimpse into the future of B2B and show how far we’ve come as a category. We’re excited to unveil new research that will help marketers make better and more strategic decisions by unlocking the black box of B2B buying.”
Also Read: Claxon Wins Wideline Group Media and Creative Account, Extends Client Roster
Throughout the week, LinkedIn will also launch new insights and creative activations aimed at inspiring B2B marketers. These activities are designed to spark conversations on driving growth, fostering creativity, confidently measuring outcomes, and leveraging AI to build the marketing organization of tomorrow.
Jamie Cleghorn, Senior Partner at Bain & Company, added, “B2B markets are a multi-trillion-dollar frontier of high-value opportunity that’s yet to be fully exploited. B2B buying is much more complex than many sales and marketing organizations have appreciated. We’re hugely excited that Bain’s research with LinkedIn cracks the code of how marketers can tap this potential.”
Cleghorn continued, “Unlocking these markets means understanding and enabling ‘dark populations’ of hidden buyers, who hold massive decision-making influence for B2B, to agree to purchases. While technical experts that B2B companies have focused their marketing on are motivated by the ‘fear of missing out,’ we show how understanding the under-targeted hidden group’s ‘fear of messing up’ (FOMU) unlocks marketing strategy for B2B in a fundamental way.”
LinkedIn’s innovative programming at Cannes includes:
- Unlocking B2B Opportunities: Why FOMU is Greater than FOMO (June 17 @ 12:30 pm CEST, Rotonde stage): LinkedIn’s VP of Marketing, Minjae Ormes, and Bain & Company’s Senior Partner, Jamie Cleghorn, will present new insights on what drives $18 trillion in global B2B purchases, spotlighting the emotional drivers of B2B buying and the importance of brand familiarity.
- 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark Launch (June 17 @ 4:45 pm CEST, live stream panel discussion – “Creativity Is Not Enough: What’s Critical for Modern B2B Marketing Success?”): LinkedIn will release the second annual edition of the “2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark,” featuring insights from over 2,000 B2B marketing leaders worldwide.
- World Premiere of “Everybody’s Business” (June 17 @ 5:30 pm CEST, Carlton Cannes rooftop): LinkedIn will host the premiere of a new documentary exploring the evolution and rise of B2B marketing, created in partnership with two-time Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot and Breakwater Studios Ltd.
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the way companies hire, learn, market, and sell. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph. LinkedIn has over 1 billion members and has offices around the globe. www.linkedin.com / mobile.linkedin.com.
