We’re thrilled to welcome Yoav Vilner, CEO of the startup Walnut.io, to our Judging Academy. Vilner is part of a new cohort of Webby Jurors joining us as foundational judges for our new B2B Marketing Categories, launched in partnership with LinkedIn.
Vilner is an expert in leading start-ups to leave a mark in the industry. Walnut.io launched with a bang, carving out a new landscape in tech for SaaS sales. Vilner spearheaded their acclaimed 2022 campaign #WeAreProspects, hilariously playing on the tedium of buying software as an enterprise. The campaign made waves across LinkedIn for illustrating a better and more streamlined software buying process.
We spoke with Vilner about what it takes to make excellent B2B work and what he has on his rubric for our inaugural B2B entrants in the 28th Annual Webby Awards!
For those who don’t know, tell us a little about your background.
CEO of Walnut.io, the buzzy startup behind the viral movement #WeAreProspects and named a #1 Top Startup by LinkedIn, Yoav is an angel investor and advisory board member for leading data and AI startups, having previously founded two other companies and served as a mentor in leading accelerators and a writer for the biggest tech publications.
What particular expertise are you bringing to the Academy?
Building tech companies and products, marketing, videos, content, viral movements, social media
What are you most looking forward to about reviewing the inaugural Webby Award entries in B2B Marketing?
Webby Awards are the highest achievements possible in B2B Marketing, that’s exciting on its own!
What does it take to make best-in-class B2B work, from your experience? What key factors should marketers consider to take their work to the next level?
Our movement’s videos went madly viral because they were published at the right time, with the right message that touched the right emotions on the right platform. It takes careful planning, moving quickly, and being highly creative.
What are some unique ways B2B marketers can harness creativity to connect with their audience?
The more you can handle internally, the better. Only you and your internal team can come up with the right vision, messaging, and even the content and design itself, if possible.
Too many companies rely on ad agencies or marketing freelancers to make their creative content successful.
How can teams push the boundaries of B2B work with creative, “out of the box” ideas while maintaining a professional tone that can speak effectively to businesses? How do you strike that balance?
You should identify what your target audience is looking for. At Walnut, our humorous and brave tone has gone a long way among revenue teams in B2B companies, but a cybersecurity company, for example, would not be able to operate in the same way.
What emerging technology or trend do you believe will have the greatest impact on the B2B sector?
In B2B overall, the interactive demo category that we created has been making waves. In B2B marketing specifically, AI that generates videos is such an impressive technology.
What are you expecting to see in the future of B2B marketing? What do the next steps of this space look like, and where will they lead the industry?
Some consolidation of tools to create and manage different marketing processes. Gen AI initiatives, too.
If you had one tip, or a piece of advice for this year’s entrants, what would it be?
Go wild. Have no boundaries. The B2B world has gone crazy, and you should too.
Enter to Gain Exposure From the Internet’s Best Digital Pioneers and Experts
If you’re crafting B2B work, from software to campaigns, products and more, enter in our new dedicated suite of B2B Marketing categories across Advertising, Media & PR and Social—plus new Business categories in Video and Podcasts!
Enter before the Final Entry Deadline on Friday, December 15th.
