This past week marked the busiest U.S. M&A activity since 2021, with bankers canceling vacations to chase a wave of deals.

Major deals included Union Pacific’s $71.5 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern in the rail sector, Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion purchase of cybersecurity firm CyberArk, and Baker Hughes’ $13 billion deal for energy infrastructure provider Chart Industries. IPO activity also showed signs of life, with Figma’s public debut making headlines as its stock price tripled on day one.

In this wave of dealmaking, differentiation just became mission-critical.

Large-scale consolidation is back on the table, reshaping industries and giving enterprise buyers new urgency around scale, tech integration, and competitive positioning.

Historically, NiCE (formerly NICE Systems), has been a “Contact Center as a Service” stalwart. Solid tech. Deep integrations. But also, buried in a sea of sameness.

That changed this year with a new CEO, a renamed platform, and a rebrand built to stand out.

NiCE introduced Kristen Bell as “The Nicest Person in the World” in a global brand campaign.

Not because she’s famous. Because she’s familiar, and notably, nice.

In a category that tech has made feel cold and technical, she humanizes what the company is trying to build: AI that feels helpful. This is a lesson many B2B tech companies just can't seem to internalize: it's not about your tech, it's about how you make the customer feel.

The campaign doesn’t push features. It makes a point: this is what smart, kind customer service feels like.

This is a textbook example of using brand to:

The storytelling, visual identity, and go-to-market are tightly aligned. Perfect for reintroduction.

NiCE didn’t scramble to explain itself mid-pivot. It rebuilt the story first, so when the new platform launched, the perception landed.

This is how B2B messaging connects.

NiCE’s transformation underscores once again how B2B brands can (and should!) borrow from B2C playbooks, using storytelling, emotional clarity, and visual cohesion to create a brand that’s not just functional, but memorable.

We help B2B teams build sharper narratives, clearer positioning, and brand systems that signal leadership.

The headline trend is easy to miss: QR codes are becoming one of the most effective lead gen tools in B2B. For real.

And the real unlock isn’t the booth design or the branded swag. It’s how fast you capture and act on intent.

For companies burned out on slow-form-fill workflows and post-event lead lag, this is a playbook worth copying.

QR codes shorten the time to conversation.

Speed-to-lead is pipeline leverage, and QR-driven capture flows are turning physical events into high-conversion demand engines.

Figma’s public debut was a reveal of what the market is starving for: High growth tech companies.

The spike had less to do with Figma’s fundamentals and more to do with the vacuum left by three quiet years of tech IPOs. Investors are over-indexing on anything with growth, brand, and clarity.

Critics say underwriters misread demand and left billions on the table. Still, the outcome is clear: High-performing private companies are back in play.

And this wasn’t hype alone.

It’s not just a design tool; it’s a platform for how modern product teams work together. That clarity of purpose showed up everywhere—from brand to user base to valuation multiple.

Expect more SaaS IPOs to follow and more B2B teams to realize that when growth, design, and story align with opportunity, valuation gets loud.

AI search. Zero-click journeys. Algorithmic feeds.

The rules of digital discovery have changed and most funnels haven’t kept up.

We help B2B teams recalibrate: sharpening narrative, aligning brand and demand, and building content that actually gets seen.

In markets like this, speed matters. But clarity compounds.

The companies getting bought, backed, or noticed all share one thing:
Their story is already working.

—Jay