Chairman of the Jury B2B Marketing & Communication Award, Ment Kuiper, hopes to see gutsy, innovative and creative entries that are nudging towards this new way of doing marketing.

B2B marketers have an advantage over B2C marketers says Ment Kuiper from the Next Marketeer Academy but they are both not nearly where they should and could be. Kuiper will be judging entrees for the B2B Marketing Award that will be presented during B2B Marketing Forum. He can be described as critically positive towards B2B and B2C marketing.

Kuiper is excited about the upcoming B2B Marketing Forum and the B2B Marketing & Communication Award, hoping to see where the early adaptors are in the playing field. His experience as lecturer and founder of Next Marketeer have made him sceptical. He sees that companies are not focussing on the customer enough. And to him this will be crucial in the years to come.

“B2B is a step ahead in that sense since they already have customer managers but looking at the bigger picture there should not be a distinction between B2B and B2C. We’re all working with clients and a lot of B2B companies tend to forget to think about the customer behind the company”, said Kuiper.

He illustrates this with an example. “If I’ve had a fight in the morning with my wife. This will influence me. When I log on and see messages from B2B marketers my reaction will be coloured by this mornings fight. I am a human being and will not always react in the same business like manor. Same goes, if you provide me as a B2B company in the morning with interesting and fun facts, this too will colour my mood and will not be influenced by who has sent the message.”

Looking at the B2B Marketing & Communication Award Ment Kuiper is anticipating some tough discussions with the other jury members. He is interested to hear their view on the disappearing boundary between B2B and B2C. He is hoping to see gutsy, innovative and creative entries that are nudging towards this new way of doing marketing.

Want to compete for the B2B Marketing Award? Entrees can be posted here until 18 February. The B2B Marketing award will be presented during B2B Marketing Forum on 15 March.  The jury consists of Ment Kuiper from Next Marketeer (chairman), Elly Langeveld from Xerox and Ludo Voorn from Zwitserleven.