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B2B marketing is changing quickly, and many of the shifts are already visible in how people search, buy, and build trust.
That was the focus of the first Power to the People LinkedIn Live event, hosted by Katie Street. She was joined by Andy Lambert, co-founder of ContentCal and now part of Adobe, and George Sullivan, founder of The Sole Supplier.
The conversation explored how people-powered and human-centred marketing is shaping the future of B2B and why traditional approaches are becoming less effective as we move toward 2026.
Here’s what stood out from the conversation and why it matters in 2026.
Katie opened the session with a stat that stopped people in their tracks: 94% of B2B marketers now say trust is their most important KPI.
This framed much of the discussion that followed, particularly around how trust is built in an environment dominated by AI-generated content, automation, and increasingly impersonal brand communication.
The answer isn’t more polish. It’s visibility, honesty and people.
Andy shared a moment from his ContentCal journey that summed it up perfectly. When asked why a major customer chose them over much larger competitors, the buyer said:
“Your product was on parity but we chose you because we trust you.”
Andy explained that this trust was not driven by campaigns or traditional brand messaging, but by people showing up and communicating directly.
Pressure on traditional B2B marketing channels
Andy outlined several structural shifts that are impacting how buyers discover and evaluate brands.
Andy noted that these behaviours are not replacing traditional channels entirely, but they are weakening the reliability of a playbook that many B2B teams have depended on for years.
George added that brands that rely solely on controlled brand messaging struggle to cut through. Growth tends to come from sustained word of mouth, community endorsement, and people choosing to talk about a brand because they genuinely value it.
Employee advocacy was another topic explored in depth (particularly where it often goes wrong).
Andy was clear: most companies get this wrong by treating it as a distribution hack. One post, reshared by everyone, over and over again.
That might work once but it rarely builds trust over time.
What actually works is empowering experts inside your business to:
George summed it up bluntly: “If people don’t believe in the product, they won’t advocate for it and audiences can tell instantly when it’s forced.”
At Street Agency, this is something we care deeply about. Giving people a platform doesn’t dilute the brand, it strengthens it.
One of the most practical takeaways from this session was about how content looks, not just what it says.
Katie shared something we see constantly with clients:
Why? Because it feels human.
In a world where AI can generate “perfect” content at scale, imperfection is becoming a trust signal.
That doesn’t mean high production is bad. It means:
Don’t wait for perfection. Don’t overproduce at the expense of personality. Choose formats that feel natural and repeatable for you
Where attention is going next
Another big shift discussed was where B2B marketers should be showing up.
Andy highlighted clear patterns emerging:
Andy shared that three out of four LinkedIn citations in LLMs now come from articles, not posts which has huge implications for how B2B brands think about written content.
Substack was also discussed as a platform gaining traction for long-form thinking and niche communities. George described it as a space where people are willing to spend more time with ideas, rather than scrolling quickly past them.
This was just the first Power to the People LinkedIn Live.
We’ll be running these sessions monthly, diving deeper into people-led growth, creator partnerships, platforms, and how B2B brands can actually show up differently (and better).
If you’re building a B2B brand and want to cut through the noise without losing your soul, you’re in the right place.
Power to the people.
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