How Bombora made data scientists its secret weapon

The category creator was facing a crowded field

Bombora pioneered B2B intent data, with a one-of-a-kind Data Co-op and more than a decade of expertise behind it. But the category had become crowded with providers making similar claims.

Bombora knew it had something competitors didn't. The challenge was turning that difference into a competitive advantage buyers could see.

Bombora brought BOL in to find the white space, starting with a focused FinServ ABM test. Through workshops, interviews, and competitive analysis, our teams uncovered an opportunity hiding in plain sight: Bombora's best way to was through the buyers who understood its data best. That insight ultimately sparked a full rebrand.

Finding the beauty in "ugly" data

Bombora's biggest strength has always been its data. Its differentiation comes from its proprietary Data Co-op, how the data is sourced, where it can be deployed, and the value Bombora's own experts bring to customers on top of it.

Workshops with Bombora's sales and marketing teams surfaced why that strength wasn't always translating into wins. Competitors offered neatly boxed solutions that are appealing to CMOs without a data science background. Think microwave dinner: everything is packaged, prepared, and ready to serve. That's convenient, but you're stuck with the ingredients and the way it was prepared.

Bombora's data, in contrast, isn't pre-packaged. The data isn't locked inside a black box or siloed within a single platform. Customers have greater visibility into where it comes from and how it works, plus the freedom to integrate it into their own models and deploy it across their existing stack. To a data scientist, that means greater control.

Turn data scientists into Bombora champions

Bombora knew that when data scientists were part of the buying committee, they could become powerful advocates for its data. So rather than treating them as another audience, we put them at the center of the strategy: win over the people most equipped to recognize Bombora's difference, then give them the story to champion it with marketing and sales.

Our competitive analysis made the opportunity even clearer. Across four close competitors, we found a category largely telling the same story:

• Three of four led with business growth, revenue, or pipeline messaging
• Two of four positioned themselves as all-in-one solutions
• All four promoted the sheer size of their data
• Three of four had dedicated trust or transparency pages covering areas like privacy, security, and AI
• None were focusing on data scientists.

That gave Bombora an opportunity to differentiate on two fronts at once: talk to a buyer competitors were overlooking and lead with the data story that buyer was uniquely equipped to appreciate.

Not just big data. Data that lets you do big things.

BOL turned the strategy into an idea big enough to unite the entire brand. The data advantage. The new audience. The white space. We distilled it all into one tagline and brought it to life in a manifesto:

Today, businesses can tap into a virtually endless stream of B2B data. But can it all be trusted?

There's misleading data that diverts focus from the real opportunities. Data from unconsented sources that raises privacy concerns. Data shrouded in black-box solutions that undermines transparency. And data trapped in siloed platforms that makes executing cohesive campaigns impossible.

Bombora does things differently. Its Data Co-op brings together trusted and influential players from across B2B, then uses proprietary methods to transform that collective knowledge into actionable insights. The data integrates across systems, expanding how and where it can be used. And Bombora's experts are there to help customers realize its full potential.

No sketchy sources. No secrets. No silos.

Not just big data. Data that lets you do big things.

The idea became a rallying cry inside Bombora, giving teams across the organization a shared way to articulate what made the company different. It became the new brand tagline and ultimately the foundation for a broader rebrand.

With the positioning platform and the data scientist audience defined, BOL translated the strategy into a content refresh, mapped stage by stage so every persona had a path from first exposure to sales-ready, including:

• Brand launch videos: Rallied Bombora's own teams around the new story before it went external, then shared the messaging with the wider external audience on the homepage.
• Blog program: an ongoing series written for data scientists, covering sourcing methodology and deployment mechanics
• Talking-head videos: Bombora's own data science experts on camera, the kind of unpolished, substantive proof a skeptical technical buyer responds to far more than a slick brand spot
• Targeted ads: persona-specific creative, giving data scientists their own message and hook for the first time instead of folding them into marketing and sales creative

BOL was the obvious choice for a number of reasons. Their expertise in B2B. But also I know how they work and I knew they'd be able to come in, connect with myself and my colleagues quickly and then be able to get work done very quickly.

— Putney Cloos, Chief Marketing Officer, Bombora

It's built on a real difference, not a shared claim. Quality at Scale, Deployable Everywhere, and Trusted Partnership all trace back to what's genuinely unique about the Data Co-op. None of it leans on the generic business growth language every competitor already owns.

It goes after a buyer no one else is fighting for. Data scientists were open ground. Winning them doesn't just add a persona. It plants an internal champion who can validate Bombora's credibility to the rest of the buying committee.

It gave the brand one line that travels everywhere. "Not just big data. Data that lets you do big things." works as a manifesto, an ad headline, a persona-specific variant, and a website hero. One platform, applied consistently.

It matched the proof to the persona. Talking-head videos and technical content went to data scientists. ROI tools and brand video went to marketing and sales. Each audience got the kind of proof that actually moves them.

Are you ready to do big things? The strongest positioning comes from what's uniquely yours. Find it. Own it. Build your marketing around it. Let's find it together.