he business-to-business marketplace is changing. While this may not come as a Tsurprise, the way things are evolving might serve as a wake-up call for some brands. That’s because over the past two years, there have been some rather interesting shifts, not just in how B2B buying decisions are happening, but also in who’s responsible for them. This was certainly something the folks at Caterpillar recognized when they launched four new videos for their “Built For It” brand campaign last year. According to Caterpillar Global Marketing Services Manager Renee Richardson, Caterpillar understood that the B2B audience was now younger and online. Thus, the company set out to make the Cat® brand more human, more approachable and more relevant. It's not a secret that the B2B audience is online. We know that 89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process. On the surface, this isn’t much of a change from 2012. If we dig deeper, though, we can see that while the percentage of people using digital may have remained the same, what’s happening behind the scenes hasn’t. So what’s changed? Google partnered with Millward Brown Digital to find out. Approximately 3,000 B2B researchers were surveyed about their research and purchase habits as well as their use of digital (specifically, search, mobile and video). In addition, Google analyzed 13 months of clickstream data from Millward Brown Digital’s desktop panel. The study, which was fielded in 2014, mirrors research from 2012, enabling us to see the shifts over the past couple of years. The results debunk a number of widely held beliefs and have major implications for B2B marketing strategies. MYTH #1: Millennials aren’t making B2B business decisions REALITY #1: Nearly half of all B2B researchers are millennials Over the past two years, there’s been a dramatic shift in the B2B researcher demographic. Back in 2012, there was a pretty even mix across age groups. In 2014, however, 18- to 34-year-olds accounted for almost half of all researchers, an increase of 70%. thinkwithgoogle.com 2