Looking Ahead to 2026: The Trends That Will Shape B2B Strategy
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
Release Date: 01/09/2026
When Competitors Become Partners: Rethinking How Markets Are Won
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this episode, the team explores how companies like Nvidia are redefining competition by partnering with competitors to build full ecosystem solutions. Rather than fighting for share within existing categories, they are expanding the market itself by helping customers succeed end-to-end. The discussion highlights how B2B companies can identify when co-opetition makes sense and how to apply it strategically to unlock growth.
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Why Paramount Beat Netflix: The Strategic Power of Playing the Game Forward
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this episode, the team breaks down the surprising outcome of the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war and why Netflix—despite a strong strategic position—didn’t win. What began as a logical, best-fit decision quickly shifted as Paramount reframed the deal around certainty and risk. The conversation explores how strategy evolves through competitor moves, stakeholder priorities, and external pressures, and why most teams underestimate these dynamics.
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Growth Starts with Subtraction: Rationalizing Your Portfolio to Win
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this episode, the team explores why growth in B2B doesn’t always come from adding more products, brands, or acquisitions — it often comes from trimming. From product lines to brand names, organizations tend to hold onto legacy assets long after their strategic value fades. The group unpacks how to think more objectively about what to double down on, what to maintain, and what to let go — and why rationalization is less about cost-cutting and more about disciplined growth.
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What B2B Technical Leaders Can Learn from Ring’s Super Bowl Misstep
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this episode, Mary and Tom unpack the backlash surrounding Ring’s Super Bowl ad for its new “Search Party” feature — a tool designed to help locate lost dogs through Ring cameras. On the surface, the idea felt like a winner: people love dogs, and technology that helps reunite pets with owners sounds inherently positive. But the reaction exposed deeper issues around privacy, positioning, and cultural sensitivity. The discussion explores how technically impressive products can stumble when companies assume a “slam dunk” and skip critical commercial disciplines.
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How AI is Rewriting the B2B Growth Funnel
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
Search, as most B2B marketers learned it, is no longer the center of gravity. In this episode, the team explores how AI-driven answer engines are changing the way buyers discover, evaluate, and narrow options — often before a salesperson or website ever enters the picture. What starts as a conversation about SEO quickly becomes a strategic discussion about needs-based segmentation, decision logic, and what it really takes to be recommended when AI is acting on a buyer’s behalf.
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Why Generational Labels Fail — and What Segmentation Gets Right
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this episode, Mary, Tom, and Sean are joined by special guest Ginny Ertl, a change management and leadership development expert, to explore why generational labels fall short as a way to understand how people actually behave at work. What starts as a discussion about Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers quickly moves past age-based assumptions and into a more useful lens: segmentation. Drawing on needs-based thinking, the group examines why motivations, behaviors, and values explain far more than birth year — whether you’re trying to understand employees, leaders, or customers.
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Looking Ahead to 2026: The Trends That Will Shape B2B Strategy
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this episode, Mary, Tom, and Sean look ahead to 2026 by exploring how digital health, AI-driven micro-segmentation, and workforce shifts are beginning to intersect. Rather than focusing on a single dominant trend, they discuss why understanding second-order effects — and viewing change through the eyes of customers and stakeholders — will be critical for effective strategy in the years ahead.
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The Year in Review: What 2025 Revealed About Strategy and Readiness
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
In this year-end discussion, the team unpacks what 2025 really highlighted about organizational strategy. They examine how high-performing teams used AI to widen the range of strategic choices, why uneven economic shifts made scenario planning a necessity, and how Nike’s distribution reset underscored the importance of understanding influence systems. The episode emphasizes that the organizations that made real progress were the ones prepared to act without perfect clarity — because they had built readiness long before they needed it.
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Why Quibi Failed — And What It Teaches Us About Strategic Blind Spots
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
This episode breaks down the rise and fall of Quibi — and the strategic lessons behind its rapid collapse. You’ll learn how trend shifts, assumptions, and lack of customer testing can undermine even the strongest ideas.
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Why Great Companies Lose Their Way
The Accidental Marketer Podcast
This episode explores why great companies fall behind — and how to avoid the same mistakes. The team breaks down the forces that cause once-dominant brands to lose their way and the practices that keep customer-aware companies on top.
info_outlineIn this episode, Mary, Tom, and Sean look ahead to 2026 by exploring how digital health, AI-driven micro-segmentation, and workforce shifts are beginning to intersect. Rather than focusing on a single dominant trend, they discuss why understanding second-order effects — and viewing change through the eyes of customers and stakeholders — will be critical for effective strategy in the years ahead.