Creativity is the beating heart of business growth, most marketers would agree. As creative thinking transforms B2B products and services, brands are responding with better, human-centered work. The Creative B2B Lions mark this progress, setting the benchmark and raising the bar.
So what does best-in-class B2B creativity look like in 2026 and what steps can marketers take?
Treat buyers as humans, not functions
The best B2B creative recognises decision-makers as humans with the same motivations and emotions. So B2B campaigns need emotional heft, not an endless list of features and benefits.
Think of it this way. If Coca-Cola were a traditional B2B brand, the ad might say: contains brown water, sugar, makes you feel more energetic. Functional and forgettable. What about leading with a ‘sticky’ strapline like ‘Share a Coke’ that captures imaginations?
Marketers can take cues from B2C here and build emotional resonance to fuel brand growth.
Begin with a crystal clear insight
Before jumping into execution, grounding the idea in a clear, simple, human insight is crucial. It sounds obvious, but it’s consistently neglected. Marketers jump straight to tactics without asking core questions first: who is the end market? How should we talk to them? What’s the insight that sits behind it all?
I mean, that’s just great marketing, isn’t it?
The changing face of B2B buyers
Adding urgency to all of this, B2B audiences are shifting generationally. Today, 71% of B2B decision-makers are Gen Z or millennials, and they’re key influencers within buying groups.
According to research and advisory firm Forrester, these younger business buyers rely on 10 or more external sources, including social media and peer networks, to make buying decisions.
They’re buyers shaped by culture, community and brand distinction. Younger decision-makers also expect the same quality of brand experience in B2B that they encounter in consumer marketing.
So to compete, marketers must deliver it.
A full funnel mix
The most effective B2B brand campaigns combine a full funnel mix, focusing on both brand building and performance marketing. Combining lead conversion with building your brand story balances short- and long-term impact.
Best in class doesn’t equal big budget
The B2B industry is worth around US$18–19tn, but it’s made up predominantly of SMEs. The question for smaller brands shouldn’t be whether they have the budget, but whether they have the creative thinking.
At LIONS, we’ve seen multiple B2B campaigns cut through and win Awards when the quality and clarity of the creative idea far outweighed the budget.
It’s where true breakthrough creativity lives.
Make a clear customer promise
Not every brand has a Salesforce budget. But making a clear, distinctive customer promise works, regardless of cost. WARC and LinkedIn’s Making a Promise to the Customer research found that campaigns that made a customer promise that was memorable, valuable and deliverable overindexed vs non-promise campaigns at every level of creative commitment.
That overindex was most pronounced for brands with fewer resources. This finding played out again when we analysed customer promise campaigns in B2B specifically.
So a simple brand promise can level the playing field between small and global brands.
AI productivity over quality
Of course, AI can’t be ignored. While it makes tasks faster, it doesn’t necessarily make them better. There\s a real risk of everything becoming average with the increase of ‘AI slop’. And that risk may be greater in B2B.
That said, the barriers that once held B2B back – cost and production complexity in video – have fallen away. Now, you can film and edit yourself with AI. The opportunity is there, but quality is key if you want to raise the creative bar.
Consistency matters most
Having a clear understanding of who you’re serving and what your brand stands for, and then executing that consistently over time, is critical.
System 1’s Compound Creativity research found that consistent brands deliver 27% more significant uplifts in metrics like brand awareness, favourability and action intent, driving higher levels of consumer engagement.
B2B often jumps from one idea to the next, leading to brand dilution. Brand building needs consistency. It strengthens how you’re seen in the market and builds the recognition that gets you in front of key buyers.
Building internal buy-in
For B2B marketing to shine, it needs internal buy-in. When budgets are tight, risk is feared rather than rewarded. But it’s precisely in this environment that creativity becomes more important, not less. The case needs to be made, clearly and consistently, for why creativity matters to B2B business growth.
The brands that understand this will be the ones leading in 2026 and beyond.
At this year’s Cannes Lions, the LIONS B2B Summit, in partnership with LinkedIn, is bringing the B2B community together to share insights, build connections, and showcase industry best practices. It’s setting the stage for best-in-class creativity to shine.
Cannes Lions takes place on 22–26 June 2026, in Cannes, France.
LIONS is part of Informa PLC.
