Jonathan Izzard, head of strategy at Wonder, believes the strongest B2B work begins with understanding people and designing experiences that actually mean something.
With a background in sports marketing advising BMW, Coca-Cola, Under Armour and Vitality on sponsorship and partnership strategy, Izzard has spent his career helping brands show up in ways that feel real. At Wonder he leads the agency’s audience-first strategic offering and champions experiences as the most powerful frontline connection point between brands and the people who matter to them. As a B2B juror for The Drum Awards Festival he brings a view shaped by objectivity, diversity of thinking and a belief in what audiences feel, not just what they see.
AI is one of the biggest forces reshaping the space, and he sees both opportunity and risk. “AI is having a dramatic impact on all these areas and more,” he says. The pace gets most of the attention but he argues the real story is its wide influence across ideation, product development, measurement and automation. His concern is how easily brands could fall into sameness. “Does hyperpersonalisation at scale make people feel more special or just a more specific number?” he asks. For him the goal is making work more meaningful, not more mechanical.
“Nail the fundamentals,” Izzard says, because the starting point is always the product or service itself. He believes businesses need a clear understanding of their audience and a clear understanding of what makes their offer truly distinct before they worry about anything else. Once that foundation is solid they can shape the conversation in a way that feels genuine and relevant. Brand and demand both have a role to play, but they only work when the core is right.
For B2B marketers trying to stand out in categories dominated by rational messaging he encourages a mindset shift toward emotion. “Think about not just what your audience wants to know, but how your audience wants to feel,” he says. He is not advocating shock value or forced disruption. The idea is to bring personality to the practical. “How does your brand differentiate you? How do you show up in real life? How can a more interesting tone complement a clear sell?” The answer is rarely in extremes but in craft.
If he had to pick one channel for 2025 he chooses experiences. “Getting in front of people as people is the most effective moment of truth,” he says. In an environment filled with hypertargeting and hyperfatigue, being physically present can create understanding and trust in a way software cannot. Great experiences do not guarantee connection, he notes, but they offer the best chance for it when done well.
The next generation of B2B marketers will need to look beyond the industry for insight. “Understanding the world outside of business and reflecting with purpose on what the cultural context really means to their audiences” will be the skill that separates those who connect from those who simply deliver content. He argues that customers should feel engaged as individuals, not processed by hyperpersonalised CRM.
His current business challenge speaks to a broader tension in B2B. As clients race to integrate AI into their products and operations they expect agencies to use the same tools to cut costs. “There is occasionally a disconnect between automation savings and material costs,” he says. Working in brand experiences means material costs continue to rise even as expectations for efficiency grow. That reality shapes how he evaluates effective B2B work: it must respect creativity, audience experience and the economic pressures clients face all at once.
The Drum Awards Festival celebrates the B2B strategists helping brands show up with clarity, originality and purpose. Follow jurors like Jonathan Izzard as they define what meaningful B2B work looks like in 2025.
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Under Armour, Inc. is an American company that manufactures footwear, sports and casual apparel.
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