Episode 216: B2B Ignite Teaser: Unlocking the human elements in B2B, with Deliveroo

Speaker A: Foreign. And welcome to the B2B Marketing Podcast. My name is Kavita Singh. I'm head of growth Solutions content at B2B Marketing. And today I am joined by Amy Pharrell, who will be speaking at B2B Ignite. We are here today to tease a little bit about her session. So, Amy, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing?

Speaker B: I'm good, thanks. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah, thanks for joining us today. I guess to kind of kick things off, do you want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your career journey and sort of what led you to your current role?

Speaker B: Sure. So, hi, everybody. I'm Amy. I look after marketing at, uh, Deliveroo for Work, which is Deliveroo's B2B business. So I have worked in marketing for, yeah, like coming on to 16 years now, building the foundations of my career in FMTG businesses like Nestle and Suntory before moving to Deliveroo in 2021. And I've been in my current role since 2023. And the role really started with a big blank piece of PA is actually my favorite type of bereave. So figuring out how to structure ourselves as a marketing team, understand our customers, figure out how to articulate our proposition, our right channel mix, et cetera. And now it's three years in, and we are certainly more established, so it's a pleasure to talk about all that we've learned.

Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah, it's really great to have that sort of background and context for sort of today's discussion. I know at B2B Ignite, you'll be talking about the idea that B2B decision makers are just like M, me and you. But I guess it'd be great to know what do you mean by that? And, you know, why did you want to build a session around this particular topic?

Speaker B: So, great question. We have been doing a bunch of research and, uh, delivery for work over the last 18 months, helping us to really understand our different audience groups, from the decision makers in the benefit space to the teams actually eating our food in their working day. And we have really understood that they are all human like us. From, yeah, messaging me personally to tell me that they're running late for a focus group because they need to pick the kids up or discussing the challenges in their working day or referencing the kind of content that really stops them from scrolling. People in the B2B space are just like all of us, human, and deserve all brands, whether B2B or B2C to speak to them in that human way. There still Seems to be this latent perception that B2B marketing is boring or should be more functional or traditional in its communication style. And so we thought it was really interesting to, yeah, myth bust around this topic.

Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, no, I love that. And I think, yeah, there is a lot of, I think, sentiments out there around B2B sort of being boring compared to B2C. But yeah, I definitely would argue the opposite. Are there any pieces of research, trends or insights that you've seen that really support this more like human view of B2B decision making specifically?

Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So it's been really interesting to hear from our audience of decision makers and what informs their decision making when it comes to food or benefits more broadly in the workplace. And so we understood firstly that where they source their information from is fundamentally human. And don't get me wrong, digital advertising plays a key role, as you might expect. But we also found that 68% of our audience get their information about food and benefits providers from their own personal network through conversations and word of mouth, AKA other people they actually trust as well. So it's also interesting to hear what's important for them. When it comes to an outwork food provider, it's really easy to assume that the most important factors are price and administrative ease. And don't get me wrong, they play a key role. But the most important factor for our audience is their employee satisfaction with the food.

Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah, I 100% agree with that. I think to push back a little, I know food is, to me at least, it's naturally a pretty engaging category to work in. So what advice would you give to marketers working in industries that might not feel as exciting or maybe emotionally driven on the surface?

Speaker B: I guess I would push back on that as well and say that no matter what business you're in, businesses are often referred to as companies. And the company is fundamentally a group of people. People are at the heart of any form of enterprise. Businesses have humans at their heart. So no matter what the industry, if you have a decision maker or personnel within that company who is a person, there is emotion at the heart of so much of that decision making, whether that emotion is a desire to do a really good job in running for a promotion so that they can take their kids to Disneyland or stream a process so that everybody gets to leave the office at a decent time and grab a beer or get home for bath time or whatever that might be. We are, as people, complex creatures with complex emotions, and we do not leave that at the door when we go into our Working day. In fact, in many cases, no matter what the industry, quite the opposite.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's so important. Yeah. I think it could feel like B2B might be very buttoned up, but I think when you arrive into a space that feels a lot more open. And also I think a huge point is like, just being very understanding of everyone's in different shoes, everyone's walking different walks of life. And I think that's so important to kind of keep in mind, to kind of look beyond that sort of like, you know, buttoned up sort of structure there. I know that you guys have also launched a new catering proposition. I did want to talk about that. Can you maybe walk me through what that's all about at Deliveroo? Of course.

Speaker B: So Deliveroo for Work is all about providing simple food solutions for the workplace, which up until recently was centered around our allowance product, enabling client to set individual budgets, called allowances to members of their team, so that their employees can order whatever they want on Deliveroo without the hassle of expenses. And now we've expanded our proposition to include catering, which is really exciting because it allows us to deliver, uh, for more at work. Food moments. We know that catering can play a really important role in teams getting together across all sorts of everyday moments, like breakfast briefing or weekly team lunches. And so now our catering service is all. All about meeting those different moments, bringing teams food they actually want from restaurants they already love for all of those everyday team moments with a service that allows for orders to be placed in advance, tracked and delivered in one go. With a range of restaurants, from the Salad Project, Bee Bagel to Blicker and Pizza Pilgrims, we really do have something for every mood, taste or requirement.

Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah, that's really great. I love that you touch on, like, how, you know, there's different types of event formats, like breakfast briefings. I think there's conferences. And actually, a couple weeks ago, I hosted an event and we were talking about, like, what resonates most to audiences at events. And we're talking about, like, a lot of people walk away remembering the food, which might not be like, you know, in essence, what the, uh, event might be about, but it's just something that will stick with people. So I think that's so important that. And it's definitely, like, there is that emotional aspect to it.

Speaker B: I love that. And, yeah, it's very true. Often the food moments in our working day are the highlights in our working day.

Speaker A: Yeah, of course. Yeah, absolutely. I guess it'd be great to know. How do you Stay so close to your audience's needs at delivery work and how does that sort of shape your marketing approach?

Speaker B: Yeah, so I've referenced a couple of times that we run a research program or that we have got insight back from our audience. And so yeah, we have a insight program that involves a combination of both qual and quant. So a bunch of surveys, including NPS surveys, but broader total market surveys as well alongside specific focus groups or one to one discussions to understand trends within our sector, key dynamics, drivers and of course get our clients feedback. And we use these insights to inform everything really from product development and improvement to shaping commercial conversations and then feeding into our um, marketing content itself.

Speaker A: M. Yeah, no, definitely. I think we talk a lot about how, you know, customer insight is so important and while in our day to day lives it feels like how are we, you know, meant M to engage with all these different conversations at once with everything else that you have going on. But it could just be a matter of, you know, saving like five minutes at the end of the call or just taking that extra like couple of minutes to figure out, you know, what our audience is resonating with. So yeah, no, definitely agree with that. Are you seeing any shifts in the like channels or the types of content that BT the audiences are responding to most right now? I'm curious, just obviously with your background. Yeah.

Speaker B: So I would open out that question to. Yeah, really looking at shifts that we're seeing across the total market in terms of channels and content that people are consuming. So rightly or wrongly, we are spending hours on our phone every day with social media platforms being a big recipient of that attention where of course short form video meme or native style that's going from strength to strength. So yeah, this has informed a bunch of our marketing. In the past 18 months we've been working with content creators like Rob Mayhew and the Sheerlux team to bring our proposition to life in really entertaining social first ways. And we're doubling on that organic content that's most engaging and bringing that into our paid advertising niche mix which is seeing a big uptick in click through rate engagement.

Speaker A: Awesome. Are there any specific channels that seems to be really resonating like TikTok or Instagram?

Speaker B: So for us at Delivery for Work, LinkedIn is will always be a key channel because it's where our audience are. Ah. When it comes to thinking about yeah. Solutions like ours equally we are very present on TikTok and Instagram post that organically and often take trends or content that is performing on those channels and lift them into LinkedIn where we can be really disruptive because there is a trend maybe towards, I guess like more traditional content on LinkedIn. It is changing, but what is exciting is that we are one of the brands that is working to change that.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. It's. I think it's more about like expanding the type of content that we see on LinkedIn. Especially as you said, like in B2B specifically. I think, yeah, I would say LinkedIn has a huge presence, but at the same time, I think if you're looking to like maybe embed some of those more like human elements, then maybe it is a matter of bringing some of those trends from, you know, the sort of platforms that we're scrolling on every single day. So, yeah, definitely agree with that. Are there any brands that you personally admire right now? Do you think that there's someone that's sort of particularly getting it right in the industry?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean there are a bunch of brands that we admire, but all for different reasons. So at the moment at Delivery for Work, we are really looking and working to scale up our email ecosystem. So we are always looking out for brands that are doing personalization really well and just stand out emails really well. Sephora is a brand that seems to be doing personalization in a really nice way. And then when it comes to email that actually entices you to open them and really engage with the content. We actually look to a lot of our delivery restaurant partners. So Farmer J have lovely emails that they design the content, super relevant, super engaging. Same with Joe and the Juice. So yeah, that's a lot of inspiration there. And then when it comes to other brands, one that springs to mind who we are working with as well is Sheerlux. So we at uh, Delivery for Work are really seeking to shine a light on the way that food plays a key role in our own culture, how it supports our culture and all the different food moments that we have and bring that to the screen, show people what it's like being in the Delivery for Work team and the way that food plays its role. And as we think about that employee generated content, we look at brands like Sheerlux who feel like they were the kind of OGs in that space and have really become famous for that office dynamic. And yeah, so take a lot of inspiration from them.

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean really great examples. I definitely know exactly the type of videos that you're talking about because it constantly comes up in my feed. But yeah, it's definitely like you go away remembering that brand as well, which I think is quite nice. Obviously, you're speaking at, uh, B2B Ignite. What is one misconception you're trying to dispel with your session?

Speaker B: Yeah. If there is one key thing that I would like people to take out from the session or that I'd like to eradicate, it's eradicating the question that I hear sometimes, which is, yeah, but is this true for a B2B audience? So I would love everyone to come away. Yeah. Recognizing that the B2B audience is fundamentally human and influence them. You need to meet them where they are for sure, but also make them feel something.

Speaker A: Oh, I love that. That's really great. And just one last thing. What are you excited about for Ignite?

Speaker B: I think it's always so valuable to step away from our day to day and the kind of minutiae and detail of our day to day and meet other people in the industry, learn what challenges they have, what they're focused on. Realize that an awful lot of the time we have similar challenges and similar focus areas. Share that. Yeah. Connect with people and hopefully hear from some great speakers.

Speaker A: Awesome. Um, great. Well, I think that about wraps up our session to our audiences. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you like this episode, we highly Recommend Attending our B2B Ignite conference, which is taking place in London on July 1st. You'll be able to unlock a ton of B2B marketing insights as well as Amy's full session, which I'm excited for personally. We will leave a link in the description for the event information as well as an exclusive discount code which you can use at checkout. Thanks so much, Amy, and stay tuned for another B2B marketing podcast episode. Thanks so much, Amy.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me. Bye,

Speaker A: Sam.