B2B has never looked more creative. Once the overlooked corner of marketing, it’s now producing some of the sharpest and commercially effective work in the industry.
As part of The Drum’s B2B Month, we’re celebrating the thinkers and makers proving that business marketing can be as bold and emotional as any consumer campaign. And it all builds towards the Drum B2B Awards, taking place on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at The Drum Labs London.
If there’s one thing this year’s shortlist proves, it’s that business marketing has found its creative confidence. The best campaigns are driven by originality, empathy and a healthy dose of humour. They treat buyers as people, not job titles, and they show that fame in your category isn’t a vanity metric – it’s a commercial strategy.
Here are the five key trends shaping this year’s work:
The following 20 examples have been handpicked by The Drum’s editorial team to illustrate these trends in action. They are drawn from this year’s B2B Awards shortlist and show how the sector is evolving – becoming braver, funnier and more human than ever before.
These are not necessarily the winners. To find out who takes home the trophies, you’ll have to tune in to the show. But each of these campaigns proves one thing: in 2025, B2B stands for brilliant-to-brilliant.
Agency: LogicLogicMagic
Category: Financial Services & Demand Gen
Finance, freed. A masterclass in how to humanise spreadsheets. The line “Liberate finance” could sit on a T-shirt – and in a funnel.
Trends: Humour · Brand · Demand · Consistency
Find out more about the campaign here
Category: Professional Services
A law-firm campaign that swaps cold authority for warm ambition. Human stories, enduring codes – and smart use of partnerships like the Chelsea Flower Show to bring them to life.
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Trends: B2H · Brand Fame
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Code and Theory
Category: Technology & Innovation
Takes enterprise AI out of the lab and into life. Consistent design meets emotional clarity. By targeting developers — a true B2D play — Qualcomm proved that knowing your audience can transform performance.
Trends: Brand Fame · B2H · Consistency
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Manufacturing
Industrial storytelling with a wink. By co-opting the tale of the three little pigs to explain composite strength, Exel made a dry topic relatable — and delivered a fairytale ending in results.
Trends: Storytelling · Humour
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Professional Services
A people-to-people campaign in every sense. Weightmans put its leadership team — and their lived experiences — at the heart of its content.
Trends: Creativity · Brand Fame · B2H
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Food Service B2B
Chefs meet creators. Entertainment-first social storytelling for professional audiences, showing how B2B can borrow the influencer playbook to both entertain and inform.
Trends: Social First · Humour · Demand Performance
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Research & Insights
Academic rigour meets creative clarity – and humour used brilliantly to expose the waste of bad targeting.
Trends: Humour · B2H
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Marketing & AI
Canva’s State of Marketing & AI campaign turned data into empathy. Rather than amplifying hype, it met marketers where they are — curious but overwhelmed — and gave them the tools to act.
Trends: Brand + Demand Alignment · Human Insight
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Creative Craft / Purpose
In Brazil, “team of Indians” is usually an insult. For Gavião Kyikatêjê - the country’s first Indigenous professional football club - it was a commercial barrier. Area 23 flipped the slur into a selling point through animation rooted in Indigenous art and storytelling. The result: new sponsorships worth over R$500,000 and global fame for the team.
Trends: Creativity · Purpose · Brand Fame
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Automotive / Technology.
As the automotive world shifts from steel to software, Deloitte positioned itself not as consultant but co-pilot. Confident, human-centred storytelling made complexity inspiring and turned thought leadership into pipeline.
Trends: Category Fame · Demand Effectiveness
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Professional Services
In a world of disruption, EY reframed professional services around optimism and action - turning purpose into promise. Blending emotional narrative with full-funnel performance across 150 countries, it showed how purpose can drive profit.
Trends: Brand Longevity · Fame · Purpose-Driven Growth
Find out more about the campaign here.
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Agency: Bloomberg Media Studios
Category: Banking & Financial Services
UBS moved from cautious wealth manager to creative force. Craft Matters reimagined “Banking is our craft” through storytelling that linked precision and purpose, with three short films celebrating mastery in art, sport and finance.
Trends: Creativity · Storytelling · Brand Repositioning
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Stein
Category: Business & Professional Services
AI is rewriting the rules of business - so WNS rewrote its own. The campaign’s insight, that enterprises now compete with the pace of change itself, positioned WNS as the partner for an AI-powered future.
Trends: AI Leadership · Brand Courage · Demand Alignment
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Brandfuel
Category: Most Creative Experience or Event
When the King of Spain rides your stand’s tram, you’ve nailed it. Ericsson transformed its MWC space from demo floor to brand world - immersive, story-led and impossible to ignore.
Trends: Experiential Creativity · Brand Fame · B2H Connection
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Differentiated
Category: Energy & Utilities
Vodafone set out to prove it was more than a network - it was a strategic partner in powering Britain’s energy resilience. Empowering Energy reframed the brand’s role through thought leadership and emotion, generating leads with major utility players.
Trends: Brand Repositioning · Emotion · Brand + Demand Fusion
Find out more about the campaign here.
Category: Banking & Financial Services
Exiting a business is emotional. HSBC Private Bank leaned into that truth, turning advisory services into human partnership through practical, shareable insight. A 22 % rise in new client relationships proved empathy converts.
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Trends: B2H · Content as Utility · Trust-Building
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency:1000heads
Category: Most Creative Social Media
SAP reinvented its social presence with Useful Entertainment - content that educates, adds value and entertains. From meme-driven ERP jokes to viral AI sweaters, SAP found its human voice and doubled engagement.
Trends: B2H · Social Creativity · Brand Fame
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Mower
Category: Creative Innovation.
As zero-emission mandates hit waste management, McNeilus led the charge with immersive storytelling: a microsite, VR walk-throughs and holographic demos. It turned engineering into emotion and compliance into competitive advantage.
Trends: Creativity as Transformation · Education · Sustainability
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Transmission
Category: Banking & Financial Services
JCB cut through Europe’s crowded payments market by embracing its Japanese heritage. Omotenashi - the art of thoughtful hospitality - became its creative edge, blending cultural authenticity with modern design.
Trends: Cultural Distinctiveness · Emotion · Brand Trust
Find out more about the campaign here.
Agency: Monks
Category: Campaigns Powered by AI
At Cannes Lions and IBC, Monks didn’t pitch AI - it personified it. Sir Martian, a humanoid artist, turned networking into a one-to-one creative experience, proving that the best tech stories are still human ones.
Trends: AI + Humanity · Creative Spectacle · Demand Through Experience
Find out more about the campaign here.