ABM + Creative Rules the Roost for Marketers: Key Takeaways from the 2025; Global ABM Conference
The ABM Conference in London wrapped on November 5th and the consensus is clear; Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is not just a tactic, but a central operating system for B2B marketers to make significant, revenue-focused strides for businesses. The event brought together B2B leaders to address the industry’s biggest challenge: how to embrace AI whilst still maintaining human-driven creativity. Where should AI exist in the ABM funnel and where should it not?
For digital marketers in attendance, the day provided insights to help improve their ABM-focused campaigns, with a sprinkling of AI. However, strategy + creativity should remain undiluted by AI from the outset.
A Day of Strategy, Alignment and Action
The conference kicked off with a welcome from B2B Marketing’s CEO, Richard O’Connor, followed by a powerful keynote from Robert Norum of Propolis, titled “ABM Now: The operating system for the commercial marketer”. This set the stage for the day’s core theme: ABM is the engine for aligning go-to-market teams and driving growth.
Following the opening keynotes, the event broke into a multi-track format, allowing attendees to choose their areas of interest:
- Strategy design
- Successful stakeholder alignment
- Turning data into pipeline
- Innovation and AI
Beyond the specific tracks, here are some takeaways from the days sessions:
- Human creativity still wins. AI is a fantastic tool but it shouldn’t be the whole gig. The consensus was that AI should be reserved for automation, targeting, and to some degree brainstorming. The real, top-tier value comes from human creativity + strategic thinking, based on a client’s business objectives.
- Tie Creativity to revenue. Nick Mason from Turtl delivered a critical reminder, highlighting that 47% of marketers are facing revenue expectations. His point was clear that creative ideas are essential, but they must be visibly tied to revenue. That we must ensure creative can deliver on those goals; otherwise the outcome won’t yield profitable results.
- ABM-ers are the ‘Secret Squad’. Bev Burgess put the ABM movement’s growth into perspective, noting there are around 250,000 ABM marketers on LinkedIn. This scale shows how desirable ABM skills are for companies. Invest in an ABM team that knows who to target and how best to reach and communicate with them.
So, was the event worth the hype?
For any digital marketer wondering if the day lived up to its promise, yes absolutely! Here’s why it was a brilliant day:
- Sessions cut through the clutter: The conference was spot on about the big shifts. In a world where AI can churn out content, a marketer’s value is still very much in strategic thinking, targetting and cutting through the noise with thought-provoking, personalised content. Content that understands the end-users hopes & desires, as well as a client’s core problems.
- We left with an actual plan: This wasn’t a day filled with abstract theory and motivational waffle. The sessions delivered practical, ready-to-use frameworks upon which to build a meaningful ABM strategies.
- No-nonsense advice from the pros: The real value came from hearing from peers at top-tier companies. Receiving unfiltered truths from marketers and meaningful case studies was worth the price of admission alone.
- Cracking sales alignment: The event brought together Sales & Marketing leaders in into one room to bridge the gap. For marketers, this was a golden opportunity to understand what sales teams actually need to win those high-value accounts, and visa versa.
Overall, the optimism in the room was refreshing, no sign of the doom-and-gloom of the post-Covid hangover or marketers consoling their lack of resources but rather a clear, uplifting plan of action. As content creation specialists, we’re definitely on the ABM hype train and we look forward to what the event organisers have in store for 2026.
For future B2B Marketing events, check them out here.
