Jake Hird, Kiaran Geen, Samantha Cunliffe.
Three former dentsu leaders have formed Grove B2B, a marketing-as-a-service agency.
Grove B2B offers tailored and flexible partnerships, whether a company is fully in-housed, transitioning, or in need of end-to-end management.
The agency is founded by Kiaran Geen (former president dentsu B2B APAC), Samantha Cunliffe (managing director Dentsu B2B AU) and Jake Hird (VP Strategy dentsu B2B APAC).
After 25 years of working in the holding group model, Geen, now Grove B2B's CEO, believes the industry is in urgent need of a rethink.
“The current agency-client model is broken,” Green said.
“Businesses need more than templated frameworks, generic benchmarks and mediocre cookie-cutter activation plans —they need marketing solutions that truly align to their customers and help marketers grow revenue for their organisations.”
Sam Cunliffe, chief client officer, said B2B marketers are under more pressure to prove impact, and that success is achieved through more than just generating leads and efficient cost-per-clicks.
“Marketing should do more than just support the business, it should drive it,” said Cunliffe.
Jake Hird, chief strategy officer, said part of this pressure comes from changing customer expectations.
“It’s no secret that a number of factors, including shifts in both personal and professional behaviours, are contributing to a lot of B2B marketing efforts falling short,” he said.
“Most of the industry agrees that customer-centricity is important, but is often reluctant to invest in research, understand the real drivers behind decisions, and take the time to build strategies that meet their buyers where they are. Brand trust and insight drives marketing success, and guessing is no longer an option.
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