An ANA InSites Exclusive Interview with Tom Stein, Chairman and Chief Brand Officer, Stein IAS. Interview by Bill Zengel, B2B Practice Leader, ANA
As B2B marketers look ahead to the ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference (www.ana.net/b2b), taking place June 2-4 at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida, there’s one session that promises to frame the future of our industry. I had the opportunity to sit down with Tom Stein, a B2B Hall of Fame inductee and Chairman and Chief Brand Officer at Stein IAS. Stein is a perennial thought leader and changemaker whose agency has won more B2 Awards than any other. He’ll be taking the stage in Naples with Natalie Osborn, Vice President of Brand Marketing and Creative at SAS, to unveil the latest insights from the ANA-Stein IAS Brand-to-Demand Maturity Study. What follows is a preview of that conversation -- and a compelling invitation to join us in Florida for what’s sure to be a landmark gathering for the B2B community.
ZENGEL: Tom, you're speaking at the upcoming Masters of B2B Marketing Conference. What will you be sharing, and why should busy leaders make the time to be there?
STEIN: I’ll be diving into the concept of the Brand-to-Demand Experience -- what we call BDX -- which reflects a seismic shift in how B2B marketing is being approached. For too long, brand and demand were treated as separate disciplines, each with its own teams, KPIs, and budgets. This fragmentation led to disjointed customer experiences and missed growth opportunities.
At Stein IAS, we’ve long advocated for unifying brand and demand into a full-funnel approach. We launched the first Brand-to-Demand Conference with the ANA last year, which led to the development of a comprehensive playbook and maturity model -- now adopted and enhanced through collaboration with WARC and LinkedIn. We’re seeing leading companies, like SAS, already on this journey, and at the conference, Natalie Osborn and I will share the findings of our just-completed Brand-to-Demand Maturity Study.
Why should marketers attend? Because BDX isn’t just a theory -- it’s where B2B marketing is headed. It's the growth engine of the now and the next. If you care about driving effectiveness and efficiency in your go-to-market strategy, this session is a must.
ZENGEL: You’ve also spoken about a “brand deficit” in B2B. What does that mean?
STEIN: In collaboration with Brand Finance, we launched the first-ever Global Most Valuable B2B Brands Index. The findings were eye-opening. While top B2B companies actually have greater total enterprise value than top B2C brands, their brand value component is a trillion dollars lower.
That’s a trillion dollars in untapped value -- a brand deficit of massive proportions. The implication is clear: brand is vastly under-invested in B2B. Most marketers already feel this, but CFOs and CEOs often don’t. Changing that mindset is critical. We’re seeing some progress -- CFOs and CMOs sharing stages at events like Cannes -- but the industry needs to accelerate that momentum.
ZENGEL: Speaking of CFOs, one recently told us, “Brand is fluff.” What’s the marketer’s path forward in changing that perception?
STEIN: That kind of comment tells me the CFO doesn’t understand the strategic role of marketing. Our job isn’t to argue -- it’s to translate. We need to speak the CFO’s language and show how marketing reduces risk, creates future cash flows, and directly supports business outcomes. The insight here is simple: marketers need to make the CFO’s star shine brighter. That’s how we earn the investment and trust we need.
ZENGEL: You’ve championed full-funnel thinking at a time when others are still obsessed with “last-click” attribution. Why is full-funnel marketing non-negotiable?
STEIN: Last-click attribution is a reductive view of the customer journey. It favors bottom-of-funnel channels and ignores the multiple, complex, and nonlinear touchpoints that actually drive conversions -- especially in B2B, where decisions are made by buying groups, not individuals.
With BDX, we recognize that customers move from being out-of-market to in-market over time. To engage them effectively, we need aligned messaging, creative, content, and media across the entire funnel—from awareness to conversion and beyond. Full-funnel isn’t a buzzword -- it’s a requirement for sustainable growth.
ZENGEL: Final question: If you were interviewing yourself, what would you ask?
STEIN: I’d ask: Why have you stayed in B2B your entire career, and why are you still so passionate about it?
My answer: I fell in love with the work -- applying creativity and strategic thinking to solve real-world challenges. B2B isn’t about selling widgets; it’s about marketing solutions that address the most pressing problems facing industries and societies. That’s meaningful work. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Ready to Go Brand-to-Demand?
Join Tom Stein, Natalie Osborn, and the ANA B2B community in Naples this June. Discover how Brand-to-Demand is transforming go-to-market strategies and unlocking new levels of growth for today’s most forward-thinking companies. Learn more and register at - www.ana.net/b2b.
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