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- 76% Say Non-AI Marketers Will Fall Behind — 2025’s Competitive Mandate
76% Say Non-AI Marketers Will Fall Behind — 2025’s Competitive Mandate
AI has become a baseline expectation in marketing, reshaping budgets and performance standards as teams shift toward automation and personalization to stay competitive.
Good morning, ! This week we are tracking a clear shift in what makes B2B buyers and PE decision-makers engage. Interactive emails are surging, with 97% of marketers adopting them, and AI is now a baseline expectation — 76% say brands that don’t use it will fall behind. On the PE side, the highest open rates (up to 84%) come from headlines with specific capital flows, large real-world markets, and actionable investment angles. The data is consistent: urgency, scale and clarity are winning attention.
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AUDIENCE DATA DIVE
What Private Equity Clicks: The Data Behind 1.5M+ Impressions
Private equity readers are telling us exactly what they want—and the numbers aren’t subtle. After analyzing 1.5M+ impressions across 50 newsletters, the highest-performing content shares three traits: specificity, scale, and capital in motion. Headlines featuring named deals, $500M–$8B deployments, and asset-backed themes drove record results—like 84.16% and 82.24% open rates. Trends tied to NAV growth, AI infrastructure, data centers, and $1T+ real-asset markets consistently outperform broad outlooks or macro takes. If you want to understand exactly what gets dealmakers to click—and what doesn’t—this breakdown reveals the patterns shaping PE attention today. (More)
AD INTEL
Interactive Emails Are Becoming a Budget Priority in 2025
The inbox is more competitive than ever, and marketers are responding with interactive email design. New data from Litmus shows that 97% of marketers now use at least one interactive element in their campaigns—a clear signal that static emails are no longer enough to drive performance.
The biggest investment shift is happening around interactive buttons and CTAs, which lead adoption at 35%. Marketers are prioritizing these elements because they deliver faster paths to conversion and stronger mid-funnel engagement. Interactive forms (14%), surveys and polls (13%), and countdown timers (12%) follow, reflecting a broader push toward reducing friction and boosting click-throughs without leaving the inbox.
Only 3% of marketers avoid interactivity entirely, underscoring how quickly this trend has become standard.
Bottom line: Interactive elements aren’t a creative flourish—they’re becoming a budgeted performance lever as teams optimize email for engagement, responsiveness, and measurable action.. (More)
THE FUNNEL REPORT
What’s Actually Driving Leads in 2025
New data shows that despite years of digital transformation, in-person events remain the strongest lead-gen engine, with 65% of marketers calling them their most effective channel. Right behind: website marketing (55%) and email (51%)—two evergreen workhorses that continue to outperform flashier tactics.
But the middle of the funnel is getting more dynamic. Video (48%) and webinars (46%) are proving they can warm audiences fast, especially when paired with strong retargeting or nurture flows. Meanwhile, SEO and gated content have slipped toward the bottom, suggesting that organic capture and form-fill conversion are no longer the dependable engines they once were.
The pattern is clear: high-intent channels are winning, passive channels are lagging, and marketers are gravitating toward tactics that create real interaction—not just traffic. For teams rethinking their 2025 funnel, this is a strong signal: invest where engagement is active, experiential, and measurable. (More)
BUDGET SHIFTS
AI Adoption Becomes a Competitive Mandate
AI is officially crossing from experiment to expectation. New data from Ascend2 shows that 76% of marketers believe companies that fail to adopt AI in the next five years will be at a significant competitive disadvantage. Nearly one-third strongly agree, underscoring how quickly AI is moving from optional optimization to operational necessity.
This shift is reshaping how marketing budgets are planned for 2025 and beyond. Teams are reallocating spend from traditional execution to AI-powered personalization, automation, and data-driven decisioning. Even as 24% remain skeptical, the momentum is unmistakable: AI is becoming the backbone of customer engagement strategies.
For CMOs, the takeaway is clear: maintaining competitiveness now requires investment in AI infrastructure, training, and workflow redesign. The next phase of marketing performance won’t come from adding more tools—but from embedding intelligence into every part of the craft. (More)
BUYER’S ROOM
What B2B Buyers Really Value in Thought Leadership
Buyers say they’re flooded with “thought leadership,” but most of it feels interchangeable. The data reflects why: 80% of marketers measure success by engagement, while only 40% look at direct audience feedback, and just 38% track brand authority. In other words, most teams optimize for performance metrics—not for the credibility buyers expect.
And the commentary under the chart captures the core tension: everyone produces thought leadership, but very few involve enough true subject-matter experts to make it meaningful. The note is blunt: if fewer than 5% of employees with specialized knowledge participate, you don’t have a thought leadership program—you have a content team trying to “look smart on LinkedIn.”
From the buyer’s perspective, this mismatch is obvious. They’re not rewarding volume—they're rewarding depth, expertise, and signals that the content comes from practitioners, not just marketers.
The takeaway: buyers want real expertise, not engagement-optimized content. (More)
CREATIVE THAT CONVERTS
Why Video Creative Is Getting Harder in 2025
New data shows that B2B teams are hitting real friction in video production—even as video budgets continue climbing. The top pain point? Maintaining high quality on tight timelines, with 54% of marketers saying they’re stretched between ambition and resources. But that’s not the only hurdle. Teams are also struggling to stand out in crowded feeds, align creative to business goals, and generate strong ideas consistently.
What’s interesting is how many of these challenges stem from strategy, not just production logistics. Marketers aren’t just trying to make “better videos”—they’re trying to make videos that serve the funnel, land differentiated messaging, and scale across multiple channels without burning the team out.
For creative teams, the takeaway is clear: the winners in 2025 won’t just be fast or flashy. They’ll be the ones who build repeatable systems for ideation, cross-channel consistency, and ongoing performance optimization—so creative isn’t just high-quality, but also high-impact. (More)
CASE STUDY
Boomi x Superside — Redefining B2B Creative
Boomi partnered with Superside with a clear objective: overhaul its traditional, conservative lead-gen creative and replace it with a bold, witty, high-impact approach—without inflating budgets or timelines. Superside’s model, built on specialized design pods operating across time zones, allowed the team to deliver consistent, high-quality creative at speed and scale.
Superside transformed Boomi’s visual identity using 3D-inspired design, bright color systems, and AI-assisted asset generation, shifting the brand away from flat, safe creative toward a look built to stand out on LinkedIn and other paid channels. Powered by tools like Adobe Firefly and Midjourney, the team explored a broad range of concepts before refining them into polished, brand-aligned assets.
The impact was substantial:
24% LinkedIn engagement rate (vs. the 1–3.5% benchmark)
Strong internal praise from Boomi’s global creative and social teams
A scalable visual system Boomi can now apply across future campaigns
Takeaway: Boomi’s shift wasn’t cosmetic—it was a full creative reinvention. By pairing strategic design thinking with AI-enabled production, Superside delivered a campaign that elevated performance while setting a new creative benchmark for B2B tech brands. (More)
PUBLISHER SPOTLIGHT
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