B2 Awards Top Jury

KIM MCNEIL-DOWNS

Brand, Marketing and Communications Leader
Deloitte

BIO

Kim McNeil-Downs is a Managing Director, Deloitte Services LP, serving as the US Deputy Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), where she helps lead brand, marketing, and communications to deliver insight-led, data-driven, omnichannel work that drives business outcomes. Known as a change-agent leader, Kim focuses on improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of in-house brand, marketing, communications, and creative teams through agile ways of working, talent development, and marketing technology enablement. Prior to Deloitte, she held senior leadership roles at Fidelity Investments, overseeing operations, workforce planning, and vendor governance for large-scale in-house marketing and advertising organizations. She is based in Boston, Massachusetts and enjoys spending time with her family and in her garden. 

Q&A with Kim McNeil-Downs

Please provide one word that defines great B2B brand leadership today. 

Trust 

Please share one trend you are watching closely. 

I’m watching generative AI evolve from a productivity layer into a true operating model for marketing—connecting insight, strategy, creative, personalization, and measurement with the right governance and human judgment. 

In one sentence – What will it take to make an entry worthy of a B2 Award? 

A B2 Award–worthy entry pairs a distinctive idea with excellent execution across channels and technology, and backs it up with clear, credible outcomes. 

What advice would you offer to teams preparing submissions for the B2 Awards? 

Lead with the problem and the insight, articulate the bold idea in plain language, show the orchestration (including where technology like AI meaningfully helped), and finish with results, learnings, and what you’d replicate or do differently. 

Why do awards programs like the B2 Awards matter to the health and progress of the marketing industry? 

They help the industry calibrate what great looks like, reward teams who push the craft forward, and share examples that raise capability—especially as new technology reshapes how we build brands and drive growth. 

What distinguishes exceptional B2B marketing from work that is simply “good”? 

“Good” B2B marketing communicates value; exceptional B2B marketing changes behavior—creating preference, momentum, and measurable growth. 

When reviewing submissions, what signals tell you that a program is driving real, sustainable business growth? 

I look for proof of incremental impact—clear objectives, credible measurement, and downstream movement (pipeline quality, conversion, deal velocity, retention/expansion) sustained over time. Bonus points when the program scales beyond a single moment or channel. 

When you review the “breakthrough insight” or “aha moment” behind a campaign, what tells you that a team has uncovered something truly meaningful?  What do you most want to understand about their thinking in this section? 

The best breakthroughs don’t just summarize the campaign or audience—they change what the team does next. I’m looking for thinking that connects a sharp human truth to a clear commercial implication: what they noticed, what surprised them, and the specific decision it drove (message, proof, channel, or motion). If the insight is real, you can draw a straight line from it to the work—and explain it in one sentence without buzzwords. 

How do you balance creative ambition with commercial accountability when assessing great B2B work? 

Creative ambition answers “why would anyone care?”; commercial accountability answers “so what changed?” The best B2B work earns attention with a distinct point of view—and can tie that attention to a real business outcome with clear, credible evidence. 

What lessons from your own leadership journey most influence how you assess excellence? 

I’ve learned that excellence is rarely an adrenaline sport—it’s a discipline. The work that truly stands out is grounded in clarity (a sharp point of view and a real customer truth), built with rigor (strong craft and thoughtful decisions), and delivered with integrity (teams that collaborate well and elevate each other under pressure). It’s why I often sign off with “go slow, and be kind”: take the time to get to the right answer, and treat people well while you do it—because sustainable excellence shows up in both the outcome and the way it was made. 

Get to know the 2026 B2 Top Jurors.