B2B marketing has never had more ways to reach people.
We can personalise advertising, automate email, tailor content, identify intent and increasingly use AI to do all of it faster and at greater scale.
But as personalisation becomes easier to produce, does it become less meaningful?
James Bacon thinks it might.
James is Founder and CEO of We Are MEaT, an independent events agency creating business experiences around the world. His perspective is rooted in something digital marketing doesn't always get: what makes somebody actually remember a brand.
"A live experience gives a brand something digital marketing cannot fully reproduce: people's undivided attention in a shared moment."
That word, attention, comes up again and again.
An email can be useful. An advert can be relevant. A piece of content can be personalised. But all of them arrive while somebody is doing something else.
A live experience can give a brand the chance to shape how people feel, who they meet, what they discover and what they remember afterwards.
Being there is not the same as remembering it
James is clear that getting people into a room is not enough.
A large event can be forgettable if it has been designed for an anonymous audience, while a dinner for 20 can stay with people because the guest list, setting and conversation were properly considered.
"Scale is not the problem, but scale without intimacy often is."
The best experiences, he says, give people a story they want to retell. That rarely comes from spending the most money or putting the biggest logo in the room.
It comes from understanding the audience well enough to create something that feels distinctive and worth their time.
Personalisation is not proof that you paid attention
This is where the conversation gets particularly relevant for marketers.
B2B talks constantly about personalisation, but James makes a useful distinction.
"Putting somebody's name on a badge, gift or email tells them you have their data. Making them feel considered tells them you have paid attention."
The difference might be who is invited, what gets discussed, who sits together, what happens afterwards or simply whether the experience feels as though somebody has thought about the people in the room.
"The best personalisation often goes unnoticed because the experience simply feels right."
That becomes even more important as AI makes the first type of personalisation increasingly easy.
Marketers are putting budget back behind experiences
This isn't only a conversation about what might happen next.
In Spanb2b's 2026 State of Marketing Survey, several of the B2B marketers we spoke to told us they were reinstating event investment for H2 2026, or shifting budget into events from areas including paid social and content syndication.
That's particularly interesting given some had allocated less than 25% of their H2 2025 budget to events.
And we're not the only ones seeing the shift.
IDC's 2026 Sponsor Survey of 150 senior tech marketers across the US, UK, Germany and Singapore found that 58% expect their event budgets to increase, while more than 90% said events deliver the most value at the mid-to-late stages of the funnel.
It doesn't mean digital channels are disappearing from the plan. But it does suggest marketers are reconsidering where physical experiences sit in the mix, particularly when the objective is deeper engagement and influence with the people and accounts that matter.
Which makes James's point about attention especially timely.
Source: IDC, Why B2B tech marketers are doubling down on events in 2026
AI could make human attention more valuable
James doesn't see AI as a threat to events or face-to-face interaction.
In some ways, he thinks it could make them more valuable.
"When everybody can produce a personalised message at scale, personalisation alone is no longer particularly impressive."
A thoughtful invitation, a host remembering a previous conversation or an experience built around a group's genuine interests carries more weight because somebody had to care enough to make it happen.
His distinction is simple: efficiency and connection are not the same thing.
AI can improve research, planning, administration and content. But as audiences become more aware of automated communication, James expects them to become more selective about what deserves their attention.
That could make communities, dinners and live experiences a more important part of B2B marketing, provided they are used deliberately rather than simply added to the calendar.
Meaningful attention beats shallow reach
We gave James a deliberately unfair choice.
£100,000 to reach 100,000 target buyers digitally, or £100,000 to give 100 of the right buyers an experience they would talk about for the next year?
He chose the 100.
With one important condition: they need to be the right 100, and the experience has to connect to a clear commercial plan.
James would still use digital before and after the event to extend its value. For him, the choice isn't really physical versus digital.
It is:
"Shallow reach versus meaningful attention."
That might be the more useful question for B2B marketers generally.
We're becoming very good at producing more. More content, more messages, more personalisation and more ways to reach exactly the people we want.
The harder question is whether any of it deserves their attention once it gets there.
Three things to take from James
1. Design for attention, not just reach
Getting in front of the right audience is only the start. Ask whether what you're creating is genuinely worth their time, memorable enough to stick and relevant enough to influence what happens next.
2. Personalisation should prove you paid attention
Knowing somebody's name or company is data. Making them feel considered requires understanding what matters to them and designing around it. The best personalisation might barely be noticed because it simply feels right.
3. Keep asking three questions
James says the biggest lesson from his career has been to keep coming back to:
Who is this for? Why should they care? What do we want to be different afterwards?
They're questions he uses when creating an experience, but they're just as useful for a campaign, piece of content, ABM programme or pretty much anything else we put in front of a B2B buyer.
MQL: Marketing Qualified Lowdown
As part of our MQL series, we're asking every guest the same final question:
B2B marketing in 2027 is...
"More automated, but more accountable for creating moments that feel genuinely human."
About James Bacon
James Bacon is the Founder and CEO of We Are MEaT, an independent events agency creating business experiences around the world. With a background in marketing, events and travel, he helps brands turn live moments into stronger relationships and real business impact.