There is a particular kind of cognitive dissonance that occurs when you spend the most money on something you do not actually believe is the best use of it. In the world of business-to-business marketing, this appears to have become standard operating procedure.
A survey of 300 B2B marketers conducted by Marketing Week for its 2026 State of Brand in B2B report found that social media is, by a commanding margin, the channel where these companies are placing their brand-building bets. Some 80.8 percent of respondents said they were investing in social media for brand purposes, far outpacing events and experiential marketing (63.8 percent) and public relations and thought leadership (62.7 percent).
The figures for traditional media were considerably more modest. Less than a fifth of respondents reported spending on outdoor advertising, and fewer than one in ten were investing in streaming, linear television, or radio. Cinema, that most captive of audiences, attracted interest from just 1.1 percent of the sample. (One imagines the remaining 98.9 percent have not been to a movie theater lately, or perhaps ever.)
And yet when the same marketers were asked which channels they believed to be most effective at building brands, the hierarchy shifted in a revealing way. Three quarters of respondents ranked public relations and editorial content as the most effective channel — a category that placed third in actual spending. Social media, despite its dominance in budgets, was deemed effective by only 62.4 percent.
The pattern held across company sizes, with both small and large B2B firms directing the bulk of their brand dollars toward social media while expressing greater faith in the persuasive power of earned media and thought leadership.
Mr. Elliott — the one who used to write this column — might have called this the triumph of convenience over conviction. Social media is measurable, immediate, and does not require booking a 30-second spot six months in advance. That it may not be the most effective tool for the job appears to be a secondary concern.
The survey also found that chief marketing officers were less enthusiastic about sponsorships and influencer marketing than their subordinates, though more inclined to believe in the brand-building potential of cinema. Whether this reflects strategic wisdom or a wistful memory of the medium is difficult to say.
Original story published in Marketing Week: "Social top brand building channel in B2B, study finds"