Research from Horizon Business, formerly Green Thread, exposes critical gap in B2B marketing strategy as organizations fail to orchestrate paid, earned, owned, and shared media as a unified portfolio
NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — B2B organizations are significantly underperforming their potential by managing customer engagement channels as independent silos rather than as an orchestrated portfolio, according to groundbreaking research from Horizon Business, formerly Green Thread, the independent agency’s specialized B2B practice.
The study reveals that B2B marketers who integrate paid, earned, owned, and shared media as a connected strategy can increase the business impact of their media investments by more than 50 percent.
The findings come as Horizon Media announces the evolution of Green Thread, its specialized B2B practice launched three years ago, into Horizon Business, a dedicated unit designed to help business-focused brands thrive in an increasingly connected marketplace, where traditional marketing silos create measurable performance gaps.
“Siloed marketing is the single biggest obstacle to B2B growth, ” said Chris Hummel, President of Horizon Business. “Our research proves that orchestrating all media channels as one portfolio can boost business impact by over 50%, but most companies aren’t structured to do it. We launched Horizon Business to solve that problem. We’re moving beyond disconnected services to provide a single, unified growth engine for our clients, powered by data and focused solely on measurable results.”
The Connected Media Performance Gap
The research exposes a critical disconnect between B2B marketing execution and business impact. While 90 percent of ANA members now self-identify as having a B2B division or business component, most continue to operate marketing channels independently rather than as an integrated system designed to drive measurable business outcomes.
The study identifies several key practices that enable superior performance through connected media strategy:
- Unified measurement frameworks that track engagement and business impact across all customer touchpoints rather than channel-specific metrics
- Integrated planning processes that optimize resource allocation based on how channels interact and reinforce each other
- Cross-channel attribution models that identify the true drivers of business outcomes rather than last-touch conversions
- Coordinated content strategies that create consistent narratives across paid, earned, owned, and shared environments
Organizations that successfully implement these connected approaches demonstrate measurably superior performance across key business metrics including pipeline generation, customer acquisition costs, and lifetime value optimization.
“The evolution to Horizon Business perfectly captures the value they bring to the table,” says Amy Kingdon, VP of Marketing at Berkeley Research Group. “For the global launch of our refreshed ‘Intelligence that Works’ brand positioning, they provided the insight and strategic consulting to build the plan and the experience and efficiency in media execution to activate it. They demonstrate the power of moving beyond siloed paid media to a truly orchestrated model that drives real business impact. As we continue to evolve our brand and seek to support our ambitious growth plans with powerful marketing, their expertise is invaluable.”
From Validation to Scale: Horizon Business Evolves
The transformation of Green Thread into Horizon Business reflects the proven success of this connected media approach in driving client outcomes. Since its launch, the unit has more than doubled its billings annually and is on track to repeat that growth trajectory in 2025, with projections for continued growth in 2026.
“We started our B2B drive three years ago to prove our differentiated approach works,” said Bob Lord, President of Horizon Media Holdings. “The results prove it does. Horizon Business isn’t just about brand building — we help growth-minded organizations translate strategy into action, using advanced analytics, agile processes, and precision targeting to drive revenue, not just reach. We help clients modernize their marketing operations to achieve sales goals and maximize business impact.”
Horizon Business will continue to support a roster of industry leaders including TIAA, Berkeley Research Group, Spectrum Business, and Mack Trucks, while expanding capabilities to serve a broader range of B2B organizations seeking measurable business outcomes through connected media strategies.
Innovation and Outcomes Through Integrated Capabilities
Horizon Business differentiates itself by proactively combining consulting, data, creative, and media capabilities around Horizon’s intelligence suite, integrating this technology-forward foundation with deep B2B and vertical expertise to create tangible client outcomes.
This approach addresses a fundamental shift in how B2B marketers are evaluated. As noted above, 90 percent of ANA members now identify as having a B2B component to their business, reflecting a market-wide need for partners who can bridge creative, commercial, and operational excellence — capabilities that demand-generation agencies and even traditional “full-service” partners cannot provide.
The connected media strategy approach enables several critical capabilities that drive superior business performance:
- Strategic Orchestration: Rather than managing channels independently, Horizon Business creates unified strategies that optimize how paid, earned, owned, and shared media work together to move prospects through complex B2B buying cycles.
- Data-Driven Intelligence: Advanced analytics and AI-powered tools identify the specific channel combinations and content approaches that drive measurable business outcomes rather than just engagement metrics.
- Agile Execution: Integrated planning processes enable rapid optimization based on real-time performance data across all channels, rather than waiting for campaign completion to assess effectiveness.
- Precision Targeting: Deep vertical expertise combined with sophisticated data capabilities ensures messaging reaches the right decision-makers at the right moments in the buying process.
About the Research
The connected media strategy research combines quantitative analysis of B2B marketing performance across multiple industries with qualitative insights from marketing and sales leadership at organizations ranging from mid-market to enterprise scale. The research – which also includes best practices, benchmarks, and blueprints – was conducted by Horizon Business, comprising interviews with more than 100 industry-leading CMOs, brand stewards, and growth leaders.
An executive summary of the report is available here.
About Horizon Business
Horizon Business is the dedicated B2B arm of Horizon Media, focused on delivering measurable business outcomes through connected media strategies that orchestrate paid, earned, owned, and shared channels as unified portfolios. The practice combines consulting expertise, advanced data analytics, media planning and execution, and creative capabilities to help B2B organizations maximize the business impact of their marketing investments.
About Horizon Media
Horizon Media, the largest independent media agency globally, delivers data-driven business outcomes for some of the most innovative and ambitious brands. Founded in 1989, headquartered in New York, and with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto, the company employs 2,400+ people and has media investments of more than $8.5 billion. Horizon Media’s fundamental belief is that business is personal, which drives its approach to connecting brands with their customers and engaging with its own employees, resulting in industry-leading workplace satisfaction levels. The company is consistently recognized by independent media outlets for its client excellence and has earned several “Best Workplaces” awards reflecting its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and the life and well-being of everyone at Horizon Media.
SOURCE Horizon Media