The underdog marketing channel ready to take on the big players is often considered to be influencer marketing on emerging social platforms, leveraging authentic engagement with niche audiences to create a highly targeted and effective promotional strategy.
IRL -> the best way to make authentic connections and get your message across in the early days.
If you are in the developer space - look at hackathons in collaboration with other teams.
Collabs - B2B collabs are very underutilized
Community-driven marketing seems like the underdog that's ready to make waves. It's less about flashy ads and more about building genuine relationships.
this is all for B2B: sms, ringless voicemail, cold call, astro turfing (surveys -> forums, online communities). channels is unique to each product. need to spend time thinking about where your target ICP/persona lives, sleeps, eats, breathes both online and offline. every offline version has a digital version.
ie. if you are targeting contractors, have someone stand outside of a home depot during the work week, and meet & greet
Small scale industry specific micro-influencers/affiliates. You already see influencer marketing shifting on most social platforms so I think it will shift much more heavily toward smaller scale - more engaged influencers.