The Brave B2B Gallery was an evening of both challenge and inspiration. Where we saw fantastic examples of B2B campaigns that challenged the status quo, bucked boring and decided to embrace their bravery with a new way of doing things . We came together to prove that cautious marketing really is the riskiest move, and being brave is the safest strategic bet.
Campaigns that generated real commercial impact by daring to be different.
One of the most-talked-about B2B Super Bowl ads, lauded for its humour and perfect use of celebrities (like Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, and Joan Jett). Workday spent their Super Bowl budget challenging corporate jargon. By having real rock legends humorously complain about office workers being called "rockstars," they cleverly positioned their software as the tool that creates real business rockstars.
Credits: Workday (brand). Ogilvy (creative agency).
The campaign was widely recognised for its bravery in bringing B2C-style star power to the B2B world. Instead of a dry, feature-led explanation of its new services, ServiceNow used a global-level celebrity (Idris Elba) to personify its platform. This was a brave, high-budget bet on brand-level storytelling, to make a complex enterprise platform (AI agents) feel accessible and mainstream.
Credits: ServiceNow (brand). BBDO New York (creative agency).
A massive critical success, winning a Cyber Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions festival. It generated huge online curiosity. This "Did You Mean Mailchimp?" campaign was brave for its extreme subtlety. Bizarrely, it never mentioned Mailchimp directly, instead creating absurd executions for invented brands - all a play on the brand name Mailchimp (like MailShrimp, JailBlimp, etc.). The campaign was designed to make people Google the misheard names, redirecting them to Mailchimp.
Credits: Mailchimp (brand) with Droga5 (creative agency).
The campaign was brave because it named real people and companies (like Elon Musk, NASA, and Game of Thrones). This "Hey World" campaign playfully inserted Upwork's freelance talent into major pop culture and business conversations, positioning them as the solution to well-known, high-stakes problems.
Credits: Upwork (brand) with Duncan Channon (creative agency)
Its bravery came from its transparent "meta" message. The billboard, "Our CEO wanted us to use this money for online ads," speaks directly to its exact customer (B2B marketers) in their own language. Not only did the ad receive the reach from the physical OOH asset but was widely shared on LinkedIn as a prime example of meta marketing.
Credits: Dreamdata (brand)
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It was brave because it sold an emotion (the dream of independence) instead of a product. It bypassed technical features to focus on the human, and often daunting, journey of its target audience - the entrepreneur. Talk about climbing the emotional benefits ladder!
Credits: Shopify (brand) with R/GA (creative agency)
Campaigns that generated real commercial impact by daring to be different.
The campaign was a massive commercial success, driving one of the brand's best fiscal quarters. It earned over a billion impressions and millions of organic views, with the remixed "I've got no strings" song becoming a cultural soundtrack. The bravery was in refusing to sell a tech product. Instead of focusing on features (like battery life or pairing speed), it sold a pure, abstract feeling (wireless freedom). It positioned itself as a "culture brand first, tech brand second," a high-risk move that cut through the spec-driven space.
Credits: Beats by Dre (brand) with creative agency Anomaly LA, and media agencies PMG and Hayworth Media.
This campaign is powerful precisely because it dares to peel back the corporate veneer and address the fragile human reality of B2B decision-making. Boldyn leans into the paralysis, insecurity, and indecision that plague today’s overwhelmed tech buyers. It is a beautifully landed, playful confrontation of the myth that B2B purchasing is purely rational or robotic. It cuts through the noise to tell buyers what they're desperate to hear: "You're safe with us."
Credits: Boldyn Networks (brand) with CHS (Agency)
The campaign was exceptionally efficient and successful, delivering a 1.28% CTR (double the B2B average). Its bravery can be seen in its bold choice to avoid AI jargon and instead tap into human familiarity with the feeling of mastering a skill. To unify 60+ acquired software brands, Access ignored technical overload and instead focused on the simple, human feeling of "instant mastery", for its non-expert, frontline worker audience.
Credits: The Access Group (brand). Rooster Punk (creative agency) developed the positioning, with White Spider Media managing the paid media execution.
Campaigns that generated real commercial impact by daring to be different.
The Brave B2B Gallery showed us that there are marketers amongst us that are ready to start the journey and embrace change. But they need a space to share real-world challenges, test ideas, and build bravery into their strategies. That’s why we created The Brave Collective - a new, private community for likeminded senior marketers - like you. All underpinned by Babel’s unwavering commitment to delivering the data, experience and insight you need to make bravery your strategy, not just a flash in the pan tactic.
In today’s B2B landscape, "safe" can be a dangerous choice. Safe is invisible. Safe is forgotten. Safe means zero growth. But stepping out of the shadows to challenge the status quo is lonely work. It requires fighting risk-averse stakeholders, cutting through saturated markets, and finding the human story behind complex tech.
The Brave Collective is your confidential "cabinet of colleagues." It’s the backing you need to make braver marketing choices in 2026.
Our Manifesto
The goal of the Collective is to disrupt what has always been, because it no longer serves us (if it ever did). We've been complicit for too long in stoking the fires of "same" - mirroring our neighbours because it felt like safety in numbers. But we've ended up as an indistinguishable herd of sheep, all bleating the same industry jargon to bored buyers. We’ve fixated on MQLs because of demand, because of fear, and because through them we can demonstrate our value, but this fixation has killed pipeline and passion alike. So, we say:
- Step away from the herd: Understood “best practice” is no longer our blueprint. Mirroring our competition isn’t a strategy, it’s camouflage. We choose to be braver in our decision making and step into it with confidence and backing.
- Put an end to jargon: We understand and acknowledge that B2B tech buyers are people, bored of hearing the same corporate speak. We’re committed to humanising our approach, talking to the people behind the screen and climbing the emotional ladder.
- Stop confusing activity with impact: Obsession with lead generation has killed creativity and brand. We’re here to revive it - to harness the power of brand and performance marketing, working as one.
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