As B2B companies aim to boost advertising efficiency, they are adopting a digital flagship strategy.
Steven Duran, VP, Global Commerce Lead at Merkle, details how this approach unifies customer touchpoints for a single view.
This strategy generates deep first-party data, enabling precise ads, frictionless self-service, stronger partner networks, and valuable AI initiatives.
B2B companies are finding a new competitive advantage by consolidating their digital properties into a "digital flagship." This approach consolidates every customer touchpoint—dealer portals, e-commerce channels for parts and machinery, warranty contracts, training certifications, and even data from connected devices—into a single, cohesive ecosystem. With B2B digital ad spending projected to continue its climb well into the tens of billions annually, the consolidation can create a structural advantage that positions them not just to catch up with their B2C counterparts but to outperform them in advertising efficiency.
To understand the transformation, we spoke with Steven Duran, VP, Global Commerce Lead at Merkle. With a proven track record leading global technology and digital transformation initiatives for Fortune 500 companies like Carrier, Duran has been on the front lines, architecting systems that help enable the move.
According to Duran, by mastering this new model, B2B leaders are moving beyond their B2C counterparts to build a durable advantage for the next era of digital commerce. “The most mature B2B organizations invest strategically in their digital flagship, meaning they take all of their environments and consolidate them so they have a single pane of glass into how customers engage with them,” he says.
A primary source of the digital flagship's power lies in the asset it generates: a better, wider, and deeper pool of first-party data. The power of this data stems from the nature of B2B relationships, which are inherently detailed and multi-layered, generating continuous streams of information well beyond a single purchase. As Duran explains, a single sale of an HVAC unit to a hospital can spawn a dozen subsequent data points, from warranty packages and service contracts to aftermarket parts and building management solutions.
Pinpoint precision: The ongoing, multi-layered data relationship can create a structural advantage that allows B2B brands to build a far more nuanced understanding of their customers. Duran notes, "With better first-party data, you can build more tailored audiences for your advertising and media spend, which allows you to identify buying signals and know more about when your customers are ready to make a purchase."
Better bang for your buck: Such data mastery is often powered by enterprise-grade Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) from industry leaders like Adobe, Salesforce, and Treasure Data, allowing brands to move beyond guesswork and identify true buying signals with precision. Duran emphasizes, "When you have more tailored audiences and better buying signals, the value proposition is clear: higher ROAS and lower ad costs. It allows B2B organizations to move beyond a spray-and-pray approach, which is really just a wish and a prayer, and be more effective with their spend."
With this data foundation in place, many leading B2B organizations are adding robust self-service capabilities that create a direct, measurable line from ad spend to revenue. The concept, "frictionless commerce," is designed to allow customers to handle everything from simple re-orders to intricate, configured purchases without ever needing to speak to a human. The capability is enabled by established enterprise players like Salesforce and Adobe, alongside the fast expansion of platforms like Shopify into the B2B marketplace.
Frictionless flow: For institutional sales, it can mean solving the challenge of navigating intricate configurations, as was the case for the Financial Times and its B2B subscribers. Duran states, "Self-service means a frictionless commerce experience where an order can come through and I don't have to touch it. It replaces the traditional process of having to call somebody during business hours, catch a fax, do an email, get a purchase order, send an invoice, and get a payment."
Follow the money: For brands with extensive retail networks, it means empowering independent shops, a strategy demonstrated by the self-service portal created for toy company Melissa & Doug. Duran observes, "When you have frictionless self-service, you gain an intimate understanding of your ROI because the business cases are aggressive and can tell you exactly how much money you make on each transaction."
The strategy extends beyond a company's direct customers to empower entire partner ecosystems. In the common B2B2C model, a brand's success is tied directly to the success of its dealers. By leveraging the first-party data and consolidated content capabilities of the digital flagship, manufacturers can create a powerful "flywheel" effect, feeding their channel partners with highly qualified leads. Duran points out, "If you can increase revenue for your channel partners, you are both successful, and that creates a flywheel. You get more channel partners, they make more money, and you get a higher return on ad spend. It creates a cycle where everyone grows together."
From cold to hot: For Volvo Trucks, it meant using rich data to identify specific truck-buying audiences and arming dealers with the right content to engage them—a clipping strategy for a digital age—helping transform the sales process. Duran highlights, “When a person comes to the door of the dealership, it's not a cold lead; it's a hot lead. That turns into more revenue, and you can track that all the way through.”
Unlocking innovation: Ultimately, this transformation is seen by many as a foundation for the next wave of innovation: AI. As B2B companies look to unlock growth with generative AI and accelerate their advertising timelines, Duran says that, in his view, the success of these initiatives is entirely dependent on data quality, stating, “The AI use cases that are built by these B2B companies are only as good as the data that they collect. If there's nothing for the AI to train on, it simply won't be valuable.”
The dependency on data is driving a fundamental change in how B2B companies go to market. As Duran explains, the new approach focuses on being more intentional with buying moments while also augmenting the capabilities of existing sales teams. The old playbook of closing deals over drinks is giving way to a new reality with potential customers demanding proof-of-concept over spoken promises.
The evolution creates new opportunities for B2B brands and, in doing so, sends a clear signal to the advertising platforms that serve them. The challenge for advertising platforms is to go deeper with their audiences, enabling new capabilities like automated video ad creative. If they can go deeper, they can offer more valuable inventory and more effective strategies to the B2B brands they serve. Those who can adapt will be best positioned to lead the experience race and be a case study to brands across industries.
