How B2B Leaders Are Redefining Integrated Demand Generation in a Digital-First World

Highlights

Lead with brand and trust: The best campaigns build recognition and familiarity long before a buyer is in-market.
Blend data and creativity: Audience insights, intent signals, and storytelling now work hand in hand to guide strategy.
Keep it human: Buyers respond to real people, authentic stories, and brands that communicate with empathy..
Align across teams: Shared goals between sales, product, and marketing improve funnel velocity and lead quality.
Focus on resonance, not reach: Campaigns that connect emotionally and contextually outperform those that simply broadcast louder.

Introduction

As buyer journeys grow increasingly complex and digital-first, demand generation has evolved far beyond lead forms and gated content. Today’s CMOs and growth leaders are challenged to create campaigns that break through the noise, connect with intent-rich audiences, and drive real business impact.

This month, we gathered insights from leading marketing voices across the B2B landscape on one big question:

How do you build integrated demand-gen campaigns that stand out and fill your pipeline with qualified leads?

Here’s what they had to say.

Here’s Our Expert Panel

Adam Holmgren
Kris Bruynson
David Sweenor
Eric Thum
Swapna Desai
Daniel Kuperman
Shalev Sabag
Hailey McDonald
Tom Kuhr
Alexandra Ferraro

#1 Adam Holmgren

“It’s all about reaching as many potential buyers as possible in the 95% of companies that aren’t looking right now. The key is using distinctive brand assets so you are remembered when they enter the market and getting audience penetration as high as possible within your budget. On top of that, feature people instead of only the company, because people buy from people. Starting out by being active on LinkedIn and then sponsoring the best performing organic posts as Thought Leader Ads is a great way to do that.”

Author Bio

Adam Holmgren is the Director of Demand Generation at Rillion and the Co-Founder & CEO of Fibbler. He’s passionate about helping B2B marketers connect LinkedIn Ads performance to real CRM pipeline and prove marketing ROI. Connect with Adam on LinkedIn.

#2 Kris Bruynson

I build integrated campaigns by starting with audience and journey mapping, using first-party and intent data to understand how buyers actually move through the funnel. From there, I align creative, content, and channels around a single narrative that speaks directly to pain points, not just product features. Communication is key; I use shared dashboards with sales to focus on funnel velocity rather than form fills.

Author Bio

Kris Bruynson is the VP of Marketing & Product with over 17 years of experience driving growth for top Canadian brands like Rogers, BMO, Kraft, and Shoppers Drug Mart. Get in touch with Kris over LinkedIn.

#3 David Sweenor

For product marketers, the challenge isn’t a lack of content; it’s a lack of trust in a digital-first world. While the obvious play is gating assets, the truly impactful, AI-driven strategy is to personalize experiences at scale. We can enable the internal sale by using AI to generate and surface hyper-relevant, ungated content for champions to share, and by fostering niche communities where AI-powered analytics can extract invaluable ‘voice of customer’ insights—directly fueling a more intelligent go-to-market strategy.

Author Bio

David Sweenor is the Director of Product Marketing and a recognized AI and analytics thought leader with over two decades of B2B marketing experience. Stay connected with David over LinkedIn.

#4 Eric Thum

The challenge today isn’t reach – it’s resonance. Too many campaigns still chase clicks, but the best ones earn conviction. To stand out, you have to choose bold over beige and human over hype. Every program should start with a clear, differentiated point of view, amplified through trusted voices (such as customers, partners, or employees) and use data not to automate louder, but to connect deeper. That’s how you become the signal, not the noise.

Author Bio

Eric Thum is a global B2B SaaS marketing executive with a track record of building category-leading brands at companies like Salesforce, VTS, and Juniper Square. Follow Eric over LinkedIn.

#5 Swapna Desai

As buyer journeys become more complex and digital-first, I focus on building demand generation programs that connect strategy, data, and creativity around a clear audience insight. It starts with alignment across sales, product, and marketing to define the ideal customer profile and buying triggers. From there, I create integrated, multi-channel campaigns that combine paid media, content, email, and events to reach buyers at every stage. At SPS Commerce, this approach helped us improve lead quality and pipeline velocity by focusing on targeted segments, creative storytelling, and measurable impact. The result is a marketing engine that not only stands out in the market but consistently delivers qualified leads that convert.

Author Bio

Swapna Desai is a Senior Director of Marketing with a strong track record in building high-growth B2B SaaS, financial services, and CPG brands.For more, visit Swapna’s LinkedIn.

#6 Daniel Kuperman

Remember to keep it human. In the end, buyers want to simply understand what you do, how it helps them solve a problem, and why they should choose you over alternatives. Keeping your messaging (in campaigns, ads, etc.) in simple and accessible language will win every time.

Author Bio

Daniel Kuperman is the VP of Product Marketing at Jellyfish, with previous leadership roles at Atlassian, Snowflake, and MindTickle. He’s passionate about building high-performing marketing teams and driving go-to-market excellence for category-leading tech brands. Get in touch with Daniel on LinkedIn.

#7 Shalev Sabag

For me, as buyers get more digital-first, I try to focus less on getting attention and more on actually being relevant. It’s about showing up where they already are, with something that feels useful and real, not like another ad. I use intent data and context to make sure the message fits the moment and what they care about. It’s not about doing more campaigns, it’s about doing them smarter

Author Bio

Shalev Sabag is an ABM Manager at Atera and a strategic marketer who blends data, technology, and creativity to build campaigns that drive meaningful growth. Connect with Shalev on LinkedIn.

#8 Hailey McDonald

Even in an increasingly digital world, buyers still choose to buy from brands and people they trust. With more noise and less patience, buyers are tuning out the brands that talk at them and leaning into the ones that are real, human, and grounded in shared experience. The best demand generation strategies today hinge on customer stories, employee voices and value-based content. People don’t just want features, they want to feel something – understood, connected, alive. Campaigns and experiences that evoke those emotions create a superhighway to memory, affinity and customer loyalty.

Author Bio

Hailey McDonald is the SVP of Growth Marketing at Marigold, leading initiatives that connect brand strategy, business development, and customer growth. Get in touch with Hailey over LinkedIn.

#9 Tom Kuhr

Marketers and SDRs have hijacked generative AI and are cranking out more ‘personalized’ content than ever. The brands that are winning aren’t the ones shouting the loudest or sending the most email. They’re the companies who have marketers that really understand their audiences, and even differentiate buyers and users. They speak to them in a way that feels real. AI just can’t replace sincere empathy. Think about it like digital ads. They were exciting at first, but over time people just started tuning them out. With adblockers and cookie-less browsers, ads are doing less and less. The same thing is already happening with AI-generated content. That’s why the basics still matter. Know who you’re talking to. Use their words, not yours. Build trust over time. Keep authenticity and human connections front and center.

Author Bio

Tom Kuhr is the SVP of Marketing at Fastbreak AI, helping B2B software companies turn complex technical capabilities into compelling customer experiences that drive rapid growth. For more, visit Tom’s LinkedIn.

#10 Alexandra Ferraro

Demand generation doesn’t start with a campaign launch. It starts long before that. By the time a prospect engages with sales, they’re already about 70% through their buying journey and likely have a short list of preferred vendors in mind. That’s why brand familiarity is the real foundation of performance. When your audience already knows and trusts your value, your demand-gen programs don’t have to introduce you; they simply reinforce why you belong on that shortlist. The result? Stronger engagement, higher conversion, and greater impact on the pipeline.

Author Bio

Alexandra Ferraro is the Head of Marketing at Intelligencia AI, a full-stack marketer with a proven record of driving growth for B2B and SaaS companies through multi-channel strategy and data-driven execution. Stay connected with Alexandra over LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Integrated demand generation today is as much about connection as conversion. The marketers leading the way are those who combine data intelligence with authenticity, ensuring every campaign feels relevant, human, and genuinely valuable, because in a digital-first world, trust is the ultimate demand driver.