B2 Awards Categories 

Please note that many campaigns fit into multiple categories. When preparing entries, please review all the categories to find the ones that best apply to your campaign.

You may enter as many campaigns in as many categories as you wish. Often, campaigns will involve multiple marketing techniques that could fit into more than one category that are worthy of individual recognition.

For example, an influencer campaign for a new product launch in the Banking and Financial Services sector - that would qualify for 3 categories. If you choose to enter the same campaign in multiple categories, you will be asked to explain how it specifically fits into each of those categories. Entering your campaign into more than one category will increase your chances of winning, but it is important to clearly explain why it is appropriate for each category to improve your chances with the judges.

Additionally, you may re-enter winning or previously submitted work should it meet the time frame eligibility period.

General Awards

A.I./Emerging Technologies

Celebrating brands that harness AI or other cutting-edge technologies (such as augmented reality, virtual reality, machine learning, voice recognition, and more) to reach audiences more effectively, personalize experiences, and scale marketing efforts. Entries should highlight how AI was used, measurable outcomes, creative application, and the real-world impact of technology-driven marketing innovation.

Account-Based Marketing

Exceptional use of ABM strategies that leverage technology, personalization, and sales alignment to engage high-value prospects or customers, delivering measurable ROI and business growth.

B2B Marketplace Marketing

Recognition of innovative marketing strategies that successfully promote and elevate B2B online cloud-based marketplaces. This may include initiatives that effectively engage target audiences, drive user acquisition, and enhance overall marketplace visibility. Nominees should showcase their creative approaches, strategic execution, and measurable outcomes, demonstrating how their marketing efforts have contributed to the marketplace’s growth, customer satisfaction, and industry impact.

Brand Purpose

Best use of brand purpose to drive an exceptionally positive impact on the market position of a brand, product, or service. This category recognizes excellence in B2B inclusive and sustainability campaigns that demonstrate innovative strategies and measurable impact for how a company’s commitment to inclusivity, sustainability, social, ethical, and/or ecological actions grew the business. 

Brand Re-Positioning or Brand Evolution Campaign NEW

This category is for organizations, teams, or brands that put brand positioning at the center of a comprehensive campaign to drive business growth and elevate its branding to reinforce or reinvent their role, voice, or market stance. U.S. and global efforts are eligible. Examples may include Communications and PR strategies that feature the creation of strategic messaging playbooks that demonstrate a brand's key value proposition, competitive differentiation, and creative storytelling are a fit for this category. 

Business to Government/Business to Public Sector Marketing

This award recognizes outstanding marketing initiatives that effectively engage in marketing and selling products or services to public sector entities. Examples of public sector entities include public schools, police departments, healthcare systems, regulatory agencies, and federal, state, and local government entities. Eligible campaigns should demonstrate innovative strategies for reaching these clients, showcasing a deep understanding of their unique needs and procurement processes. Successful entries will highlight collaboration, compliance, and creativity in navigating the complexities of business-to-government (B2G) and other public sector marketing.

Channel Partner/Ecosystem Program

Channel Marketing campaigns  that effectively engage and motivate ecosystem partners (alliance partners, agents, channel partners, distributors, wholesale buyers) to drive sales and brand awareness. Nominees will showcase innovative strategies that leverage various channels to build strong relationships, enhance partner performance to drive demand, and create meaningful customer experiences. Winning campaigns will demonstrate creativity in the execution of programs that support channel partners with the training, tools, and resources they need to positively affect sales, drive revenue, measurable impact on partner engagement, and a clear alignment with overall business goals. This award recognizes the importance of collaboration and strategic marketing in achieving mutual success in a competitive landscape.

Content Marketing

Branded content programs deployed across a wide variety of media channels that heighten creativity in B2B marketing campaigns.

Corporate Identity Program

Organizations that put design at the center of their business messaging to stand out from the competition and drive business growth. Work in this category may include brand standards/guidelines, corporate logos, and corporate taglines.

Corporate or Brand Website

Exceptional work in creating and executing corporate or brand websites that drive results. May include a microsite or landing page designed to support your marketing or advertising campaign.

Customer Experience

How did your brand transform to become more customer-centric? Tell us how you changed your approach, offered a more seamless experience, and reached key metrics that made a clear impact on your business by leveraging customer insights and data. From cross-selling to upselling, do you have CRM case studies that showed how you retained customers, increased revenue growth, and helped reduce churn?

Demand Generation: Small or Medium Business

Programs designed to build broad awareness and interest, and attract new people to your business, or drive growth among existing customers, targeting brands/enterprises with less than 999 employees. Demand generation is a long-term strategy that fills the top of the sales funnel by educating and engaging a target audience.

Demand Generation: Large Enterprise

Programs designed to build broad awareness and interest, and attract new people to your business, or drive growth among existing customers, targeting brands/enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. Demand generation is a long-term strategy that fills the top of the sales funnel by educating and engaging a target audience.

Digital Marketing Tools and Programs

Exceptional use of digital tools to offer the best possible user experience.

Direct Mail, Flat or Dimensional

Targeted communications, delivered by a physical delivery service, that used creativity and data strategy to deliver measurable results.

Email

Submit campaigns or programs that amplified business, met objectives, or grew revenue via outstanding email marketing initiatives that optimized the use of customer data, marketing strategy, or creativity to boost response. Include approaches such as automated journeys like lead nurture and content-marketing, or targeted/segmented sends.

Event Marketing Campaign

The B2B Event Marketing Award recognizes innovative and impactful strategies that elevate brand visibility and engagement through event marketing, including sponsorships and strategic partnerships. This award celebrates events that create meaningful connections between brands and their target audiences, driving lead generation and enhancing overall event experiences. Nominees will be evaluated on creativity, measurable results, and the ability to forge experiences that contribute to both brand and event success.

Field Marketing & Sales Enablement NEW

Recognizes B2B field marketing and sales enablement strategies and marketing initiatives that empower sales teams to be more successful in their selling efforts to potential buyers and/or retention of existing customers. These initiatives should demonstrate driving engagement and measurable results though innovative campaigns that effectively connect with target audiences, enhance brand visibility, and generate leads through localized efforts. Showcase efforts that have positively impacted their organization’s growth and customer relationships.

Industry Sector Spotlight Award: Business and Professional Services

This category recognizes outstanding marketing campaigns that effectively promote services within the business and professional sectors: celebrating innovative strategies, impactful messaging, and successful brand positioning that drives business growth, enhances client engagement, and differentiates service providers in a competitive marketplace. Eligible campaigns should demonstrate creativity, measurable results, and a deep understanding of client needs in industries such as consulting, legal, financial services, and more.

Industry Sector Spotlight Award: Banking and Financial Services

This category represents marketing efforts for Banking and Financial Services, that have creatively leveraged digital platforms, data analytics, and customer insights to enhance brand visibility, build trust, and foster customer loyalty. In an industry fraught with compliance, regulation, and high security standards, show us how you’ve effectively addressed a campaign with creativity, strategic insight, and measurable impact in promoting financial products or services.

Industry Sector Spotlight Award: Technology

The Excellence in Technology Marketing Campaign Award honors outstanding marketing efforts that have successfully captured audience attention and driven growth in the technology sector. This award recognizes organizations that have harnessed innovative strategies, cutting-edge digital tools, and data-driven insights to enhance brand visibility and engage customers. Submissions should highlight measurable outcomes, such as increased user adoption, engagement rates, and market share, while demonstrating a strong alignment with current industry trends and demands.

Influencer Marketing 

Influencer marketing reflects the rapid rise of this strategy and tactics within B2B. Did you leverage a global celebrity or a local expert in your industry? If your program or campaign utilized a group or individual(s) who had special credibility with your audience and that advocacy led to boost your business objectives and/or sales results, this is the category for you.

Integrated Marketing Program: Small to Midsize Business

A campaign with a strategy that coordinates various marketing efforts across multiple channels to deliver a single, consistent brand message to small to midsize businesses with up to 999 employees. This approach ensures that tactics like email, social media, content marketing, and events work together cohesively to support a unified goal, like building brand awareness, generating leads, and driving conversions. By breaking down silos between different marketing and sales activities, it creates a seamless and unified experience for the customer.

Integrated Marketing Program: Large Enterprise

A campaign with a strategy that coordinates various marketing efforts across multiple channels to deliver a single, consistent brand message to small to midsize businesses with more than 1,000 employees. This approach ensures that tactics like email, social media, content marketing, and events work together cohesively to support a unified goal, like building brand awareness, generating leads, and driving conversions. By breaking down silos between different marketing and sales activities, it creates a seamless and unified experience for the customer.

International B2B Marketing Campaign

Whether your marketing effort was focused on a single geographic region or global in scope, this is the category to have your international efforts celebrated. Submissions will need to share insights into the diverse geographic audience profiles, marketplace conditions, competitive landscapes, etc. To enter this category, your marketing effort/campaign must have run in at least two countries worldwide in calendar year 2025.

Lead Generation: Small to Midsize Business

Campaigns designed to target, attract and capture qualified leads, targeting brands/enterprises with less than 999 employees who are already considering a purchase and capture their contact information to convert them into sales-ready leads.

Lead Generation: Large Enterprise

Campaigns designed to target,  attract and capture qualified leads, targeting brands/enterprises with more than 1,000 employees who are already considering a purchase and capture their contact information to convert them into sales-ready leads.

Media Strategy

Campaign plans that include any mix of relevant media including digital, search optimization, pay-per-click, cross-device measurement, print, TV, radio, or out-of-home to reach the right audience at the right time with the right message and generate a desired response within a designated budget.

Out-of-Home Advertising

Best use of advertising that is seen or heard outside of the home. This may include a creative market take-over to increase brand exposure.

Podcast

Any recorded talk episode or series made available in digital audio format for on-demand listening.

Product Launch or Relaunch

Strategic marketing programs that introduced or repositioned a B2B product and/or service in the market.

Proprietary Company Event (Single/Series)

Virtual, in-person, or hybrid events that drive customer or employee engagement to a brand and strengthens relationships.

Social Media

Best use of social media in marketing strategies and campaigns to achieve marketing objectives.

Thought Leadership

Content marketing strategies and/or tactics that specifically leverage the talent, experience, and opinions of industry leaders or insight as a result of extensive research in a specific area of study.

Trade Show or Conference

Demonstrate how a specific event (e.g., trade show, corporate event – either virtual, in-person, or hybrid) reached a large-scale target audience and was maximized for the brand’s benefit enabling alignment of key messaging as well as resulting in related coverage and tie-in to the event itself, enabling a successful customer or prospect experience, that met objectives and drove positive results.

Video Marketing

Marketing that drove measurable results through video content (individual video or campaign) that exceeded expectations and had clear objectives such as brand awareness, engagement, or lead generation.

Top Awards 

B2B Agency of the Year

Open to agencies of all sizes driving growth for B2B brands and enterprises that have demonstrated a sustained high level of excellence, a diverse portfolio of expertise, and the effective implementation of business marketing solutions and thought leadership in B2B marketing.

Submissions need to showcase a comprehensive collection of B2B marketing, including exceptional creative campaigns. At least three areas of expertise need to be showcased, and you will need to submit three case submissions in the B2 Awards General Categories.

A sample form is provided so you can prepare all the needed information for this category:
B2B Agency Sample Submission Form Word Doc
B2B Agency Sample Submission Form PDF

• Small Agency: 50 or less full-time staff
• Midsize Agency: 50 – 100 full-time staff
• Large Agency: Over 100 full-time staff

B2B Data Excellence NEW

Exceptional use of B2B data and analytics in an innovative way to drive significant business results through Account Based Marketing or strategies to collect and use first-party data strategies, or third-party data strategies and execution.

Top-scoring submissions from the main round of B2 Awards judging will advance to a specialty jury composed of leading marketers and data experts from the ANA’s Data Practice, who will determine the final category winners.

B2B Marketing Team of the Year NEW

Whether you lead an in-house team or B2B in-house agency, this award is for you. This new award features client-side marketers working for brands of all sizes who are driving growth for their business while elevating B2B marketing. These teams should demonstrate a sustained high level of B2B marketing excellence, a diverse portfolio of expertise, and the effective implementation of B2B marketing solutions. Additional attributes include demonstrating excellence in marketing strategy, leadership in corporate culture and/or brand purpose, and thought leadership in their respective industry.
B2B Marketing Team Sample Submission Form Word Doc
B2B Marketing Team Sample Submission Form PDF

Multi-Year Impact 

This award will represent B2B champions of sustained growth — those companies that have experienced three or more years of positive results with their B2B communications efforts.

Submissions need to represent efforts that ran in the market between 2023 and 2025, and may have maintained select core elements like theme, spokesperson, and/or tagline, but ultimately achieved positive impact each year.

A sample form is provided so you can prepare all the needed information for this category:
Multi-Year Impact Award Sample Submission Form Word Doc
Multi-Year Impact Award Sample Submission Form PDF