And climbing another two places in this year’s charts is…

Every November B2B Marketing, the leading international information provider for business marketers, publishes its annual B2B agencies benchmarking report. In their own words, “The B2B Agencies Report 2014 is a comprehensive examination of the B2B marketing agency sector. It’s an indispensable resource for B2B marketers seeking to evaluate and appoint specialist B2B agencies. It provides exclusive insights into key trends and detailed breakdowns of performance of the leading players.”

We were delighted last year when brandformula & Lamb broke into the top 30, coming in at number 28. We are even more proud now as, when discounting agencies’ non-B2B marketing activities, we have climbed a further two places to 26.

Reflecting upon this, we owe a couple of big thank yous.

Firstly, to our team who have worked so hard throughout the year to produce work of such a consistently excellent quality.

Secondly, to each and every one of our clients who have supported us so well during the year. We cannot achieve what we do without that support and more so with the trust that is placed with us to deliver their campaigns.

b2bmarketing.net b2bmarketing.net/resources/b2b-agencies-report-2014

Is Instagram suitable for B2B brands?

Instagram may be growing as a marketing tool for B2B financial service brands. Instagram defines itself as a “fun and quirky way to share life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. We’re building Instagram to allow you to experience moments in your friends’ lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos.”

It has a large number of strong communities focused on specific interests and locations. These communities are willing to engage with brands as long as those brands understand the platform and behave as the communities expect.

Whatever your industry Instagram could play a part in your marketing and communications strategy to help clients and potential clients discover more about your business. This may be around the products and services you offer, the personalities and expertise of your employees or events, conferences and exhibitions that you are attending and participating in.

Instagram in numbers:

• over 150 million users on the platform, 16 billion photos shared, and 1 billion likes happening each day
• 22.4% of the Fortune 500 have Active Instagram Accounts. With the platform being launched in the USA first, American brands are ahead of UK and European businesses
• compare that to 387 of the Fortune 500 having Twitter accounts and 348 out of the Fortune 500 that have Facebook pages. While not as mature, Instagram is growing very quickly among the Fortune 500
• in terms of managing expectations it was found that for every 33 likes you get 1 comment on average
• among the F500 brands there is on average 18.54 likes per photo per 1,000 followers

Sources:

- http://blog.bufferapp.com/instagram-stats-instagram-tips - http://info.trackmaven.com/fortune500-instagram-report (provide your details for the free report)

And the winner is...

Many of you will know that for a few years now Lamb CMC have created the theming for Post Magazine’s annual British Insurance Awards. Seeing this year’s shortlist being published always gives us here a timely reminder of what a great event this is and how the reputation of winning a “BIA” have helped drive some stellar work by all those who feel it worthy of submitting their efforts for stringent, objective and external scrutiny. As a business that has the word brand at the spiritual heart of everything we do, we take our collective hat off to all those that made this step and would congratulate them in equal measure as those that have been shortlisted and the eventual winners. Within the insurance industry “brand worth” is something that is sometimes not properly understood or appreciated to itself, but the metrics that define it are. It is a sector that is utterly driven by reputations at the corporate or personal level founded upon trust. Another word for which could be truth and it is the ability to show this across the business and more importantly deliver it in its service offerings that truly define a real winner.

When we look at a business’s brand, we look to four key facets that we believe define it:

Authenticity – How ‘true’ does the business remain to its original vision

Compelling – What emotional connection does the business make with its clients

Distinctive – How different is the business to others/competitors

Excellence – Does the business offer any unique service or skill and is it good at it/a leader

To us a good brand has to deliver on all four. Any failing within any of these can, in our mind, cause an imbalance that will mean the business will never reach its full potential and stand out amongst a “Night of the Champions”.