Behind the Scenes: Business to Business (Small and Medium)

Key Category Overview: The Business to Business (small and medium, budget under £15m) received an impressive number of submissions in 2024. 

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (SMALL & MEDIUM, BUDGET UNDER £15m): 50 Shades of Ginger (click the link to access the case study)

From: Fight or Flight for Roland DG

The judging criteria:

- Clear campaign outcomes

- Strong insights

- Creative execution

- Risk-taking approach

- Measurable results

The Winning Case: Roland D.G.'s "50 Shades of Ginger" Campaign

This campaign stood out for transforming a specific technical product truth into a culturally relevant campaign.

Key elements included:

- Product Focus: High-end printers (£20,000+ price point)

- Core Insight: Reds and oranges are the most challenging colours to print

- Creative Approach: Leveraged cultural relevance of redheads

- Execution: Included redhead celebrity involvement, research, and redhead festival participation

- Achieved significant PR impact

Tips for Future B2B Entrants:

1. Don't treat B2B marketing differently from B2C - apply the same high standards

2. Find specific product truths that can be expanded into broader creative concepts

3. Look for ways to connect technical products with cultural relevance

4. Focus on growth-driving initiatives

5. Demonstrate how your campaign exceeded typical category expectations

6. Show how you found unique levers to drive growth

7. Don't let technical or specialised categories limit creative thinking

Nina Bibby, Group CMO Barclays and judge’s enthusiasm was captured in this statement: "I literally jumped up from where I was... because I was so excited and again the word inspired by what I read. Successful marketing, whether B2B or B2C, should ultimately drive growth through creative approaches to finding and activating growth levers”.

Find out more about The Marketing Society Global 2025 Awards categories in our entry kit - access it here.