Shortlisted: Best B2B Creativity at the Midlands Marketing Awards

Nominated for ‘Best B2B Creativity’ for the projects we have delivered for the global tech distributor, Arrow ECS, this recognition feels especially sweet as we’ve long been championing B2B branding that is both strategic and emotive. Award winning and internationally recognised, CRUSH works with global players like Fugro, Ordnance Survey, Ziemann Holvrieka and Briggs of Burton, in some of the most technologically demanding markets. 

Pushing back on playing it safe…

B2B has a reputation for playing it safe. From bland decks and overly technical content, to design that prioritises function over feeling. We’ve always pushed back on that.

The best B2B brands understand that behind every business decision is a human being – someone who wants to feel confident, inspired and aligned with the partners they choose. Great B2B creativity earns trust, and turns heads. It builds brands that people remember in a crowded market, and that sales teams are genuinely proud to put in front of prospects.

That’s the standard we hold ourselves to at CRUSH. Every project, every client, every brief.

At the end of the day, it’s not Business to Business, it’s Person to Person. We’ve been creating brands and campaigns for businesses that prioritise not just what is measurable, but what is meaningful. 

Throwing out the rule book 

Arrow ECS is a global technology distributor, connecting vendors such as Dell, IBM, Fortinet, Microsoft and Sophos with the channel partners who take their products to market. Its marketing faces a relentless B2B challenge: communicating sophisticated, fast-moving technology to time-poor, highly technical audiences, and making them want to engage. As Arrow’s brand and creative partner, CRUSH sets out to grab that audience’s attention by throwing out the industry rule book.

This approach has led us to create countless gamified sales campaigns, event designs and immersive collateral, all built with one aim in mind: to simplify complex products and pull out the benefits Arrow needs partners to understand. 

With industry research finding gamified campaigns can lift engagement by up to 47% and brand loyalty by around 22%, we bring that playfulness into a serious cybersecurity context to give Arrow distinctive, reusable assets that demonstrably outperform the conventional product talk.

“It’s one thing to be able to create a killer, one-off campaign with a visible and impressive ROI, but the reality is, creating B2B brands that have longevity isn’t always a measurable exercise. It’s about being creative when it feels like we’ve already exhausted all the best ideas. It’s about ‘always on’, impactful reinvention. We’re incredibly proud of our ability to keep clients, not just for the Q1campaign, but for all the campaigns that come afterwards.”

– Natalie Burkinshaw, Founder and Creative Director, CRUSH

When Natalie founded CRUSH in 2003, she did so with a core belief that B2B businesses like engineering, manufacturing and technology businesses could be just as engaging as B2C brands. 23 years on, CRUSH is one of few female-founded creative agencies in the UK, balancing what are often seen as masculine industries with the softer skills of jargon-free communication with a dash of emotional intelligence. It’s this fresh, (more feminine?) approach that prioritises not just what is measurable, but what is meaningful. 

Now time to look forward to the awards in September, we can’t wait to celebrate with the rest of the nominees!