BtoB Magazine Best of 2010 Awards

Yesterday I attended BtoB Magazine’s “Best of 2010” awards luncheon in NYC, honoring the top creative talent in business to business marketing this year. The awards highlighted some of 2010’s top creative in print, video and online, as well as twelve of the top marketers who forged ahead in a particularly challenging economy. The list of marketers recognized at the event included Marcy Schinder of American Express OPEN, Tom Haas of Siemens, Ted Gilvar of Monster Worldwide, Cynthia Green of DuPont, and John Kennedy of IBM Corp who won top honors as Marketer of the Year.

As part of the awards ceremony, BtoB Magazine assembled all of the top marketers into a panel for some Q&A, asking them what worked in 2010, what strategies would carry over into 2011 and what budgeting changes might be in store for the coming year.

The common thread among the panelists’ answers was that these marketers had shifted resources into the digital space and would continue to do so. This shift is consistent with a report released by SEMPO earlier this year showing respondents planning to spend 43% more on search engine optimization, 50% expecting to spend more on paid search, and 59% increasing budgets for social media.

The rationale behind this shift seemed to be a mix of actionable metrics, lower out-of-pocket costs, ease of integration, and overall ongoing, measurable successes. This is also what we’ve been hearing from our clients as they’ve come to rely more on search and social media marketing as a cost-effective way to continue growing in a down economy.

DBE congratulates all of the winners of BtoB Magazine’s Best of 2010 Awards.