On February 8, 2022, IDG Communications announced its acquisition of Selling Simplified (its fourth acquisition in 18 months), and in doing so became the #1 provider of B2B tech leads globally. One week later, IDGC rebranded itself as Foundry. These events happening seven days apart from one another were no coincidence.
For those that have played in our space for a while, you’ll know that IDGC was a big name with a long history in lead gen. And for those B2B marketers that have had their ears to the ground as these announcements have dropped, I’m sure you’ve pieced together that these events signal much more than a name change and a business deal. We’re getting into industry disruption territory.
This was evidenced by the reactions we received from marketers on site at our first in-person event in over 2 years, which took place earlier this month, and by the uptick in interest we’ve experienced since. Selling Simplified, a Foundry company, sponsored B2BMX in Scottsdale along with sister companies Triblio, LeadSift, and KickFire—all acquired by Foundry when it was still IDGC in the last 18 months. With the momentum of the acquisition and rebrand announcements still relatively fresh when we got there, naturally we were the subject of a lot of buzz.
As we engaged with fellow marketers, you could see the gears turning in their heads as we explained that Foundry was the new name for IDGC, chosen because it both honored the company’s long legacy as a publisher and created opportunity for a complete shift in methodology rooted in digital and data-driven processes.
It’s in this shift that Selling Simplified comes in alongside the other three acquisitions, and where B2B marketers should get excited, because IDGC’s rebrand as Foundry represents the evolution that’s started to take place in B2B marketing—an evolution centered around championing nothing short of real, digital engagement as a means of measuring both marketing success and buyer intent.
While SSG’s competitive leads and scalable delivery paved a clear path for Foundry as they sought to evolve beyond the publisher lead gen model, the overall picture of how we fit into the Foundry ecosystem is much bigger and of much greater consequence to the market
Selling Simplified’s model has been built on this very foundation of capturing engagement through 100% digital means. Our exclusively 1st-party leads represent not just target account alignment but true in-market quality identified by observing and scoring digital actions.
And while our competitive leads and scalable delivery paved a clear path for Foundry as they sought to evolve beyond the publisher lead gen model, the overall picture of how we fit into the Foundry ecosystem is much bigger and of much greater consequence to the market.
I mentioned that Selling Simplified was the fourth acquisition made in 18 months and, in my view, the one that served to round out Foundry’s vision of delivering value to marketers from insights found at the intersection of media and martech. Foundry’s other acquisitions—Triblio, an ABM activation platform, and KickFire and LeadSift, both providers of relevant, in-market intent data—are all best-in-class tools for marketers, yet alone require leverage. But paired with Selling Simplified’s services, and the robust data that backs our services, these tools work even better together to create a true ecosystem of data activation with an output of pure buyer insights.
As technology marketers continue to look to data as a source of truth on everything from the buyer journey to the success of their efforts, those in the martech space will be held increasingly accountable for the value that they bring to the table.
As we continue to integrate, our clients will benefit not just from intent data but from activation of that data; not just from website traffic but from dynamic retargeting of that traffic; and not just from insights but from greater buyer engagement at scale. As a B2B marketing leader myself, I can say with confidence that this stack will be a marketer’s dream come true because it pairs the technology with the intelligence and, frankly, the passion needed to make it run most effectively.
And this is at the heart of Foundry’s vision—to use the best technology to bridge datasets, strengthen the marketer’s efforts in doing so, and ultimately deliver real results that drive real B2B relationships. As technology marketers continue to look to data as a source of truth on everything from the buyer journey to the success of their efforts, those in the martech space will be held increasingly accountable for the value that they bring to the table.
I, for one, see this as a welcome evolution to the B2B marketing landscape—one that empowers the marketer to demand real value from their data, their tools, and their vendors. And based on the excitement we’ve seen from the marketing community so far surrounding the future of Selling Simplified and the Foundry vision, they’re ready for it too. What we’re offering goes beyond the latest in martech—this is the promise of data, technology, and human methodology all being put to good use to deliver value in the form of meaningful engagement that breeds sustainable growth. As my colleague put it as we reflected on all the positive energy, “This is the 800-pound gorilla that B2B marketing has been missing. And they know it.”
This blog was originally posted on Rachael’s LinkedIn page. View the original here.
