Social top brand building channel in B2B, study finds
Eight in 10 B2B firms are using social media for brand marketing, while less than a tenth are investing in cinema, radio or TV.
· Marketing WeekBy Charlotte Rogers 28 Sep 2026 1:50 pm
Social media is the number one brand building channel for B2B businesses, according to new Marketing Week research.
Some 80.8% of the 300 respondents to the 2026 State of Brand in B2B survey are investing in social media for brand building, far ahead of events/experiential (63.8%) and PR/editorial/thought leadership (62.7%).
Just under half of the sample (47.2%) describe direct marketing as a key brand channel, followed by sponsorships (37.3%), podcasts (28.4%) and influencer/creator activity (24.4%).
Less than a fifth of respondents are spending on outdoor (17.3%), while under one in 10 are investing in streaming/broadcast-on-demand (8.5%), linear TV (7.4%) and radio (7.4%). Just 1.1% see cinema as a viable brand building channel for their business.
Social media is the biggest recipient of brand investment regardless of business size.
Some 83.7% of SMEs (250 employees and under) use social as a key brand channel, followed some way behind by PR/editorial/thought leadership (63.1%), events/experiential (60.3%) and direct marketing (45.4%).
Over half of B2B firms to ramp up brand building
Under a third of B2B SMEs are investing in sponsorships (29.1%), podcasts (27%), influencer/creator marketing (21.3%) and outdoor advertising (14.2%).
Linear TV (2.1%) and streaming/broadcast-on-demand (2.1%) are barely even on the radar within smaller B2B firms, while just 0.7% are investing in radio and none are allocating any budget to cinema.
Social (77.7%) is also the biggest recipient of brand spend within large B2B companies, followed by events/experiential (67.7%), PR (62.3%) and direct marketing (49.2%).
Sponsorship is a larger part of the equation within big businesses (46.2%) than in smaller firms, although the amount spent on podcasts (30%), creators (27.7%) and outdoor advertising (20.8%) is relatively consistent with SMEs.
The data also suggests bigger B2B firms are more likely to see streaming/broadcast-on-demand (15.4%), radio (14.6%) and linear TV (13.1%) as demonstrating brand building potential, although cinema (2.3%) is still at the bottom of the pile.
Proving efficacy
When asked how effective they believe these channels are at brand building, three quarters (74.9%) of the total sample rank PR/editorial as the most effective, despite this channel not being the main recipient of their brand spend.
Under two-thirds (62.4%) are firm believers in the efficacy of social media.
In fact, under a tenth of respondents say PR (3.3%) and social media (7.7%) are ineffective brand building channels.
Half (50.6%) of respondents value the effectiveness of sponsorships, while two-fifths (41.7%) say the same for podcasts. Just over a third (35.4%) of B2B marketers deem creator marketing an effective brand building channel, followed by outdoor (33.9%), linear TV (23.6%), streaming/broadcast-on-demand (17.3%) and lastly cinema (14.8%).
Cutting the data by company size, the vast majority of SME marketers (79.4%) and those working within large organisations (70%) rank PR/editorial/thought leadership as the most effective brand building channel.
Most B2B marketers see value in ‘emotional storytelling’
Two-thirds of marketers in small firms (66%) and over half (58.5%) in large businesses agree social media is an effective form of brand building.
There is strong belief in the value of sponsorships regardless of company size (SME 53.9%/large company 46.9%), while SME marketers are more bought into the brand building potential of podcasts (45.4%) than their peers in large organisations (37.7%).
Just over a third of marketers in small businesses (34%) and those in big firms (36.9%) describe influencer marketing as an effective brand channel, while SME marketers have a slight preference (37.6%) for outdoor compared to their peers in large companies (30%).
A quarter of marketers in smaller firms (24.1%) and their counterparts in big businesses (23.1%) rate the effectiveness of linear TV, while 14.2% of those in SMEs and 20.8% in large companies say the same for streaming/broadcast-on-demand.
Some 14.9% of SME marketers and 14.6% in bigger organisations believe cinema is an effective brand building channel.
Over half of B2B CMOs (57.9%), marketing directors (56%) and senior managers (68.1%) agree social media is an effective brand marketing channel, although more than three quarters (CMO 77.2%, marketing director 76%, senior manager 76.7%) are convinced of the power of PR and editorial.
The data also suggests CMOs (43.9%) are less bought into the brand potential of sponsorships than marketing directors (58.7%) and senior managers (51.7%). The same is true of working with influencers (CMO 28.1%, marketing director 38.7%, senior manager 36.2%).
However, most senior B2B leaders (45.6%) are bigger fans of outdoor than their marketing director (33.3%) and senior manager (31.9%) colleagues. A similar dynamic plays out around the ability of cinema to deliver brand effectiveness, with CMOs (19.3%) more likely to be convinced than marketing directors (10.7%) and managers (15.5%).
Marketing Week will continue reporting from the State of Brand in B2B research over the coming weeks.