Building good relationships with journalists takes more than sending emails and press releases. Sometimes, the best way to get to know each other is to spend time together outside the office.

Press trips are a great way to build real relationships with the media. They give journalists the chance to experience a brand, ask questions in a relaxed setting and meet the people behind the business. For B2B companies, where topics can be complex and highly specialised, this can be especially valuable.

Over the years, I've been on many press trips with journalists, including those organised on behalf of Konica Minolta. More recently, while working at Balcia Insurance, I had the opportunity to take journalists covering the insurance industry on an unforgettable trip to Riga.

We explored the city, shared conversations and enjoyed an incredible tour that ended with a Balcia helicopter flight. It was a unique experience and a great reminder that strong media relationships are built through more than just work-related communication.

A press trip isn't simply about getting journalists to write about your company. It's about creating trust, sharing experiences and building relationships that can last well beyond a single article.

Sometimes, the best media relations happen when you step away from the desk.

Why I Can't Stop Thinking About Daredevil: Born Again

Okay, this one's a bit random for a marketing blog, but I promised myself I wouldn't keep this space 100% B2B all the time — so here we go.

I've been hooked on Daredevil: Born Again, and it's honestly one of the best things I've watched in a while. A few reasons why:

The music is doing a lot of quiet work. It's not the usual superhero bombast — it sits under scenes and just builds tension without you noticing it's happening. Same with the direction. There's a real patience to how it's shot, lots of scenes that just sit with two people talking in a room, and it somehow feels more gripping than a fight scene would.

Speaking of which — barely any fighting, and I love that. It trusts the story enough to not need constant action to keep you watching. What actually drives the show is Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk both being forced to rebuild who they are after everything that happened to them. Watching a hero and a villain go through basically the same identity crisis, from opposite sides, is a genuinely interesting way to structure a season.

And here's the thing I keep coming back to: these characters can actually die. A regular guy with a gun, a knife, a bad fall — any of that can end them. That's such a different feeling from watching the old-school Avengers, where half the roster is basically indestructible and you know deep down nothing truly bad is going to happen. Here, stakes feel real because the people are street-level. It makes every choice they make heavier.

Season 3 is already confirmed for March 2027, and it's shaping up to be a big one — Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist / Danny Rand (Finn Jones) are all coming back, basically reuniting the old Defenders. Elektra (Élodie Yung) is returning too. That's a lot of grounded, human-scale heroes sharing a screen at once, and given how patient this show has been so far, I'm expecting it to actually mean something rather than just being fan service.

Anyway. Now, because I can't fully turn off the marketing brain — here's where I think this actually connects back to what I usually write about:

• Reinvention as a brand story. Both Matt and Fisk are “relaunching” themselves — which is basically what every rebrand is. Worth a post on what B2B brands can learn from character reinvention done well.
• Restraint as a differentiator. Born Again wins by doing less (less action, more atmosphere) in a genre built on excess. Same lesson applies to marketing that resists the urge to shout louder than everyone else.
• Stakes build trust. Nobody stays invested in a story where nothing can ever go wrong. Brands that admit real risk or limitation are more believable than ones that act invincible.
• The long-game content strategy. Slowly introducing other characters instead of dumping them all at once mirrors how good B2B content builds an audience — plant seeds early, pay them off later.
• Sound and mood as brand identity. The score isn't decoration, it's doing storytelling work. Good B2B brands do the same thing with tone of voice — it's easy to overlook, but it's doing more than people think.

So yeah — expect the occasional Daredevil tangent around here. Marketing and Hell's Kitchen have more in common than you'd think.

I was at Web Summit and one of the talks that really stuck with me was about TikTok — I don't remember every detail of who gave it or which stage, but the core idea has been rattling around in my head ever since: TikTok isn't just a B2C thing anymore. It's actually working for B2B, and the data backs it up.

Here's the part that surprised me most. B2B marketers worldwide are increasingly meeting the demand for video content driven by platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where audiences now simply expect it. That's not a hunch — a 2024 survey found that among B2B marketers looking to expand content distribution, 46% planned to increase social media content and 41% planned to increase video specifically.

And it's not just about posting more video — it's about the right kind of video. According to a March 2024 LinkedIn survey, short-form social videos actually produce the highest ROI, with shorter formats mattering most for grabbing initial attention. On top of that, B2B marketers need short-form content just to stay visible in the algorithms of platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

There's also a people angle here that I think gets overlooked. 75% of B2B marketers already use influencers, and 93% of them plan to increase that spending because it's working. And Gen Z, who are now showing up on B2B buying committees, tend to trust peers and influencers over traditional brand messaging — and while they'll watch long-form content, they clearly prefer short-form video.

So what does this actually mean if you're doing B2B marketing? It means the “TikTok is just for teenagers dancing” mindset is outdated. The platform — and short-form video in general — is becoming a real channel for building trust with buyers, not just brand awareness with consumers. If your ICP includes anyone under 40, there's a decent chance they're forming opinions about your category on a For You page before they ever hit your website.

I walked out of that Web Summit session thinking B2B marketers who write off TikTok are leaving trust — and pipeline — on the table.

Most marketing managers make the same mistake in board meetings: they talk about clicks and views, while the CEO and CFO only care about one thing: “Where is the money?”. In the B2B world, standard marketing metrics mean nothing to upper management. If you want to be treated as a business partner rather than an expense, you need to change your language immediately.

The Wall Marketing Hits

Why does the board look at marketing reports with a smile and a sigh? Because they live in a completely different reality. The CFO (Chief Financial Officer) cares about cash flow, profit margins, and revenue. When they hear that “blog traffic is up by 40%,” they don't see a success. They see a warning light: “We spent the budget, but what did we actually get?”.

Showing vanity metrics to the C-level is a trap. It makes marketing look like the “department of pretty pictures” that just burns money. You should immediately remove these from your board presentations:

• Likes and impressions: The fact that someone liked a LinkedIn post does not bring the company closer to a million-dollar deal.
• Total number of raw leads: Getting 500 email addresses means nothing if the sales team calls them and finds out they are just students looking for free materials. Quality matters, not quantity.

How to Speak the Language of Business

Instead of trying to teach the board marketing theory, translate your results into financial terms.

• Instead of clicks and cost-per-click, talk about CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)—exactly how much money it takes to win one paying customer.
• Instead of ebook downloads, show Pipeline Value—the total dollar amount of sales opportunities marketing has put into the CRM.
• The board also wants to see LTV (Lifetime Value)—how much money a customer spends with the company over time—and a clear Marketing ROI to show the return on every dollar spent.

Connect the Dots

To get a seat at the big table, you must connect your marketing tools with the sales CRM. The game changes completely the moment you can point to the data and say: “The client who signed a $200k contract yesterday originally came from this specific LinkedIn campaign six months ago.”

When you stop talking about the creative process and start talking about shortening the sales cycle and growing the pipeline, the board stops questioning why they pay for marketing. Instead, they start asking how much more budget you need to scale those results.

Quick disclosure: I'm a big fan of Dziki Warszawa, so I might be a little biased here. But watching a local team grow with a shirt sponsor on their jersey got me thinking about why so many brands pour money into sports sponsorships in the first place — and why it doesn't always pay off.

Let's start with the upside.

First, sponsorship buys you instant emotional connection. Sports fans are loyal, loud, and emotionally invested in a way most other audiences just aren't. When your logo shows up on a jersey a fan wears every week, you're not interrupting their day like a normal ad would — you're part of something they already care about. That kind of goodwill is hard to manufacture any other way.

Second, it's genuinely great for visibility and reach, especially at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. A season-long shirt deal gets your name in front of fans at every match, every photo, every local news clip — for months, not just a 30-second spot.

But it's not all wins.

The biggest risk is reputation. You're tying your brand to real people, and people are unpredictable. A scandal, a bad season, a controversial player — suddenly your logo is stuck next to a story you never wanted to be part of. You can't fully control that once your name is on the shirt.

The second risk is simply picking the wrong team or league for your brand. Sponsoring a team your actual customers don't care about is just money down the drain — no emotional connection, no reach, just a logo nobody notices. Fit matters just as much here as it does in any other kind of marketing.

So sponsorship can absolutely be a smart move — heart and visibility on one side, reputation and fit risk on the other. Like most things in marketing, it comes down to knowing exactly who you're trying to reach, and whether this is really where they are.

Here's something a lot of marketers get wrong: they think outdoor advertising is a numbers game. More boards, more impressions, more reach. But one billboard in the right spot can beat ten scattered around town — because it's not about how many people see it, it's about who sees it, and where.

Think about a screen right outside a gym versus a protein brand's ad on it. Or a real estate ad near a new metro station that's about to open. That's not luck, that's placement doing the work for you. The location itself becomes part of the message. People don't just see the ad — they see it exactly where it makes sense, and that sticks.

This is why picking the right channel matters just as much as the creative on it. A great ad in the wrong place is wasted money. A decent ad in the perfect place still lands. Before you even think about the message, ask: where does my audience actually walk, drive, scroll, or wait? What are they doing when they see this? A tired commuter on a train platform is in a different headspace than someone walking past shop windows on a Saturday afternoon.

Same logic applies beyond outdoor. TV, social, print, in-store — every channel has its own context, and your product needs to fit that context, not just show up in it. A premium brand on a cheap, cluttered site looks cheap too. A playful, fun product on a stiff corporate channel feels out of place. The medium really is part of the message.

So next time you're planning media, don't start with “how many.” Start with “where” and “why there.” One well-placed billboard, screen, or spot that actually fits your brand will always beat a dozen that just happened to be available.

If another brand is talking to the same people you are, that's not competition. That's an opportunity.

Partner marketing is simple: you team up with a brand that shares your audience and you do something together — a campaign, an event, a piece of content, whatever fits. Split the work, split the cost, double the impact.

The money part is obvious. Two companies sharing a budget means you get more for less. But honestly, the bigger win is trust. When you show up next to a brand people already like, some of that goodwill rubs off on you. You also get in front of people who've never heard of you before, which normally takes months (and a lot of ad spend) to pull off on your own.

Here's the catch: none of this works if you pick the wrong partner. A bad match — wrong tone, wrong values, wrong crowd — can do more harm than good. So before anything else, ask yourself: does this brand actually fit? Would I be proud to be seen next to them?

This works just as well in B2B, maybe even better. B2B marketing can get pretty repetitive — same webinars, same whitepapers, same LinkedIn posts. An unexpected partnership stands out. People remember it exactly because they didn't see it coming.

So next time you're planning a campaign, don't just think about what you can do alone. Think about who's already talking to your audience — and whether it's worth reaching out to them.

Illusion — that might be one of the biggest threats facing marketing today.

You can build a beautiful campaign, rack up millions of impressions, put together a flawless report, and show off charts that look great. But none of that matters if there's no real value behind it for the customer or the business.

Marketing is only doing its job when it works not just on a slide, but in the real world.

It's not just about reach, clicks, or lead counts. It's about whether the customer actually understands the offer, whether the brand earns trust, whether sales has something to work with, and whether marketing activity translates into a real result.

It's easy to mistake activity for effectiveness. Publishing a lot doesn't always mean communicating well. A big budget doesn't guarantee a good outcome. And an elaborate strategy isn't worth much if it doesn't help people make better decisions.

The biggest illusion shows up when marketing only looks good inside its own department.

So it's worth regularly asking yourself some simple questions:

Does what we're doing actually help the customer? Does it support sales? Does it build the brand? Can we point to results beyond marketing metrics?

Because good marketing shouldn't be a performance. It should be a working tool that connects customer needs with business goals.

Less illusion. More real value.

Working in marketing can really take it out of you. Algorithms, ROI, click-through rates, reports, strategies and the constant pressure to make the next campaign “work” — preferably straight away.

After a full day in front of screens, I sometimes feel like I’ve completely run out of creative energy. That’s when I use my most reliable reset button.

My dog.

He’s just a regular mutt, and spending time with him — whether we’re out for a walk or simply doing nothing together — is the best way for me to switch off.

Recently, while throwing his favourite ball, I realised that this little, furry expert in being man’s best friend teaches me something about marketing every single day.

And I mean real, human-to-human marketing — the kind we so often talk about at industry conferences.

Here are three things my dog has taught me.

1. Authenticity Beats Perfection

My dog doesn’t have a pedigree, perfect proportions or the kind of training you see in films. Sometimes he trips over his own paws. Other times, he barks at a plastic bag that clearly hasn’t done anything wrong.

And that’s exactly why I love him.

In marketing, we often try too hard to be perfect. We polish every message, write corporate-sounding posts and make sure everything looks flawless.

The problem is that there is often very little left behind the polished surface.

People don’t want to connect with a perfect robot. They want to connect with someone real.

Brands that show their human side, share behind-the-scenes moments, admit small mistakes or communicate genuine emotions have a much better chance of building a relationship with their audience.

This doesn’t mean doing everything carelessly. It means not pretending to be someone you’re not.

Be like a mutt.

Not perfect. Just real.

2. Loyalty Isn’t Built Through Discounts

My dog isn’t with me because I buy him the most expensive premium food. Although, of course, I do take good care of his stomach.

He’s with me because I give him time, make him feel safe and am consistent. He knows that when I promise a walk, there will be a walk. And when I throw the ball, I’ll probably do it another fifteen times.

In business, we often try to build customer loyalty through discounts, promotions and sales campaigns.

It can work. But usually only until someone else offers a lower price.

Real loyalty is built somewhere else — through good service, genuine value, keeping promises and making the customer feel that the brand actually understands their needs.

A customer who trusts you won’t necessarily leave just because a competitor is a few złoty cheaper.

3. Sometimes You Just Need to Leave Your Desk

When I’ve been sitting at my computer for too long, my dog comes over, puts his head on my knee and looks at me as if he’s saying:

“Right, that’s enough. Let’s go outside.”

At first, I’m slightly annoyed. I still have things to finish.

But I usually give in.

After a few minutes of walking, sniffing bushes and watching everything happening in the park, I suddenly come up with an idea I’ve been struggling with for days.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Or perhaps an overstimulated marketer simply isn’t able to think creatively.

Constantly analysing charts, reports and results can trap us in one way of thinking. Creativity needs space. Sometimes it also needs boredom, silence and a proper break from the screen.

A walk with your dog doesn’t have to be a waste of time.

It can be part of the creative process.

One Last Thought

Good marketing and a good relationship with a dog have something in common: emotion, attention and an interest in the other side.

So the next time you get stuck on a strategy or campaign, try stepping away from your screen for a moment.

Go for a walk. Take a break. Look at the world from a slightly different perspective.

Then ask yourself:

What can I do to make my customer feel as important, safe and cared for as my dog does when we’re playing together?

The answer might be simpler than you think.

I get the feeling that authenticity is becoming more and more important in marketing and brand building. And that’s a good thing — because it’s one of the few things that actually becomes more valuable over time.

In the past, authority was often built through distance, a “Western” style and very professional language. Anglicisms, industry jargon and words that hardly anyone used in everyday life were supposed to demonstrate expertise. Today, this kind of communication increasingly sounds artificial — and sometimes simply funny.

The same thing is happening on social media. A natural video recorded on a phone can get more views on TikTok than a highly polished production. This is especially true when someone is recommending a restaurant, hotel, place or product. People want to see a genuine opinion, not another advertisement pretending to be spontaneous content.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that quality no longer matters. It does. But good editing, beautiful visuals and perfect language are not enough if there is no credibility behind the message.

Authenticity doesn’t mean having no strategy or doing everything spontaneously. It’s more about a brand speaking in a normal, understandable way, having its own character and being consistent with how it actually operates.

Because people are getting better and better at recognising when someone is trying to be someone they’re not.

And brands that don’t need to pretend have a chance to build relationships not just for a moment, but for years.