The 2025 B2B Marketing Innovation Award Winners

It’s time to celebrate the campaigns that redefined what’s possible in B2B marketing, with the 2025 B2B Marketing Innovation Awards.

B2B has never been more creative, human, or impactful. Across industries, brands are activating employee voices, collaborating with influencers, and harnessing AI to tell stories that truly connect.

And it’s about time this work got the spotlight it deserves. Because in B2B, we don’t celebrate great marketing nearly enough.

That’s why Oktopost sponsored the B2B Marketing Innovation Awards, to honor the brands and teams who pushed boundaries, inspired their audiences, and proved that creativity and measurable impact can go hand in hand.

After hundreds of nominations, our panel of expert judges, including CMOs and VPs from some of the world’s leading B2B organizations, selected seven winning campaigns, alongside a remarkable group of finalists and honorable mentions. Together, they set the benchmark for the future of B2B marketing.

What makes a standout B2B marketing campaign?

• Meaningful innovation: Fresh, creative ideas that made B2B feel bold, human, and unforgettable.
• Social-first strategy: Social wasn’t an afterthought; it was the engine driving awareness, engagement, and measurable results.
• Activated advocates: These campaigns turned employees and executives into trusted storytellers and brand ambassadors.
• Measurement of success: Every winner showed clear, quantifiable impact, from engagement and reach to pipeline, brand lift, and community growth.
• Brand leadership: Each campaign raised the bar for how B2B brands show up authentically and creatively.
• Creative excellence: Behind every standout campaign is a team of bold thinkers turning strategy into stories that move audiences.

These awards are proof that B2B is anything but boring. So, without further ado…

Get inspired by the 2025 B2B Marketing Innovation Award-winning campaigns

Akamai Technologies: Surf Report & Influencer Activation at Black Hat

Akamai Technologies transformed its presence at Black Hat 2025 into a social-first storytelling engine. The campaign was built around two pillars: the Surf Report video series, a daily series delivering real-time insights from the show floor, and a creator partnership with cybersecurity leader Confidence Staveley and her mentee. This dual approach blended expert credibility with creator authenticity, turning a technical conference into an engaging social experience.

A teaser featuring a father-daughter security duo built early buzz, while Surf Report episodes and creator collaborations kept the conversation going throughout the event. Akamai’s employees and subject matter experts joined in, appearing on camera and amplifying content across LinkedIn, YouTube, and beyond, ensuring the story felt both expert-led and human.

By treating people, not products, as the core of the story, Akamai proved that cybersecurity can inspire connection. The campaign set a new benchmark for event storytelling in B2B, merging education, community, and creativity into one cohesive social narrative.

Finastra: Innovating Finance Together at Sibos 2025

At Sibos 2025, Finastra showcased how a global brand can combine creative storytelling with business impact. Centered on its positioning “Innovating Finance Together,” the campaign used social media, video storytelling, and colleague advocacy to drive awareness, engagement, and high-value meetings with key decision-makers.

Two video series, 60 Seconds at Sibos and Sibos Shorts, turned complex topics into short, engaging stories told by experts, partners, and clients. Meanwhile, Fritz, an AI-animated mascot, became the face of the campaign, appearing in social videos, on-site activations, and interactive LinkedIn competitions that drew attendees into the brand’s narrative. Employee advocacy tied it all together, with gamified challenges and ready-to-share content empowering colleagues and executives to amplify the campaign’s reach and credibility.

This fuelled impressive results, including: 1.66M potential advocacy reach, 164K impressions, nearly 19K engagements, and a 50% increase in meetings booked in comparison to Sibos 2024. Finastra’s approach blended playfulness with precision, making financial software feel human, collaborative, and forward-thinking. It’s a blueprint for how storytelling and advocacy can turn even the most formal industry into a creative force on social.

Island: Work{space} of Art

At the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Barcelona, Island reimagined what a booth experience could be with their Work{space} of Art campaign. Instead of another product booth, Island built a full creative experience, turning attendees into the artwork themselves. Using AI-generated sculpture portraits, each visitor’s image became part of a living gallery, telling the story of how Island is transforming the browser, just as Picasso transformed art.

Each visitor received their sculpture as a printed postcard and could share it instantly via the Island Enterprise Browser, a clever product integration that made participation seamless. The campaign’s modern aesthetic, combined with storytelling rooted in creativity and technology, turned the booth into one of the event’s most photographed and discussed spaces. Employees and executives amplified the experience on social, extending its impact well beyond the show floor.

By merging art, AI, and audience participation, Island created a marketing moment that was both experiential and strategic. It proved that when you make your audience part of the story, your brand becomes unforgettable.

Keyfactor: Now That’s What I Call Digital Trust!

Keyfactor brought music, humor, and AI together in one of the most delightfully unexpected cybersecurity campaigns of the year. Now That’s What I Call Digital Trust! was a 10-track tribute album dedicated to the unsung heroes of IT, the sysadmins and engineers who keep digital certificates alive (even when they expire at 3 AM). The campaign used humor and nostalgia to turn a niche, technical topic into a creative celebration of the people behind the screens.

Inspired by the iconic Now That’s What I Call Music series, the Keyfactor team wrote and produced original songs blending inside jokes, real pain points, and catchy hooks that every security professional could relate to. While AI helped generate lyrics and music, the creative direction and storytelling were purely human, complete with custom lyric videos, Spotify playlists, and social-first content that made cybersecurity feel unexpectedly fun.

By fusing entertainment and expertise, Keyfactor reimagined how B2B brands can connect emotionally with technical audiences. The campaign proved that creativity, humor, and even a little nostalgia can make cybersecurity not just understandable, but genuinely enjoyable.

Leapsome: Progress Starts with People, Not Paperwork

Leapsome’s Progress Starts with People, Not Paperwork campaign marked a major milestone in the company’s growth, introducing its evolution into a full people platform, including an HRIS. With a bold strategy, the campaign turned a product launch into a brand moment that blended human storytelling, data, and advocacy to challenge how HR tech marketing is done.

The campaign combined AI-generated Out-of-Home visuals, a virtual HR conference, and influencer collaborations to spark conversations across the HR and people leadership community. Partnering with Cassie Kozyrkov and launching the Workforce Trends Report added a strong layer of thought leadership, while Leapsome’s first structured employee advocacy program motivated staff through challenges and incentives to share the story on social and amplify its reach.

By pairing creative risk-taking with measurable business impact, Leapsome broke the mold of traditional HR tech campaigns. The result was a powerful showcase of how AI-driven design, bold messaging, and company-wide activation can drive awareness, engagement, and connection, all while keeping people at the heart of the story.

Slack: Brand Love Campaign

Slack’s Brand Love Campaign proved that sometimes the best B2B marketing doesn’t come from broadcasting, it comes from showing up. Rather than focusing solely on branded posts, the Slack social team embedded itself in the LinkedIn conversation, adding thoughtful, engaging comments to industry threads and customer posts. By contributing authentically, not just publishing, Slack became part of the community it serves.

The campaign’s standout moment came through its “Hype Machine” initiative, a creative program that turned customer appreciation into shareable storytelling. Slack surprised loyal users with personalized gifts, including a custom wedding cake for a CEO who had used the platform to plan her wedding. The result was viral, organic engagement that celebrated customers in a way that felt human, spontaneous, and refreshingly uncorporate.

By prioritizing relationships over reach, Slack showed how B2B brands can earn love instead of likes. The campaign redefined what authentic engagement looks like in enterprise marketing, proving that listening, interacting, and celebrating your users can be the most powerful form of storytelling.

Zapier: Zapier Outpost

Zapier’s Outpost campaign reimagined what a B2B event could be by replacing hotel ballrooms with the breathtaking backdrop of Zion National Park. The company invited 20 creators to a glamping retreat designed for collaboration, co-creation, and connection, where they built real automations, fake businesses, and lasting relationships. The result was a creator-led experience that blurred the lines between brand marketing, storytelling, and community building.

Throughout the retreat, Zapier turned hands-on challenges and hackathons into social storytelling moments. Influencers captured authentic content, not staged testimonials, generating 500K+ views, 374K in reach, $136K in earned media and social value, 190 shares, and 1.9K comments across LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. Every post, video, and story reinforced Zapier’s position at the heart of the AI automation conversation.

Outpost didn’t just showcase product capabilities; it celebrated creativity and collaboration. By focusing on human connection rather than scripted promotion, Zapier built a community of creators who became genuine advocates for the brand, proving that the future of B2B influence lies in real experiences, not campaigns.

Congratulations to the marketing teams redefining B2B marketing!

Each of these winning campaigns proves that B2B marketing isn’t just about business, it’s about connection, creativity, and courage. From AI-powered storytelling to community-driven engagement, these teams are leading the way forward.

At Oktopost, we believe standout marketing deserves more than applause, it deserves amplification. Congratulations to this year’s B2B Marketing Innovation Award winners. You’re not just part of the conversation, you’re shaping it.

We’re proud to celebrate your work, and can’t wait to see how you continue shaping the future of B2B marketing.

See you next year.