Judge of the Day: Chris Blades on making B2B marketing more human – The Drum

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January 23, 2026 | 4 min read
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The Verizon senior director explains how AI, creativity and simplicity are reshaping how B2B brands earn attention and trust.
As a B2B juror at The Drum Awards Festival, Chris Blades brings an enterprise B2B perspective shaped by his role at Verizon. As senior director of B2B marketing, his focus is on turning data and creativity into commercial results, while keeping trust firmly in view as markets, channels and customer expectations continue to evolve.
For Blades, AI has already changed the fundamentals of lead generation and personalization. He describes a move away from what he calls a “largely volume-based, spray-and-play model” toward more predictive targeting that helps prioritize prospects who are actively in-market. The result is messaging that feels grounded in real context rather than guesswork. “An email can reference a prospect’s recent blog post or a specific industry challenge,” he says. “That ultimately allows us not only to customize content, but to show a deep understanding of customer needs.” Done well, that relevance “gains trust from the onset” and helps brands get to meaningful solutions faster, rather than relying on generic outreach.
That emphasis on trust also shapes how he thinks about brand and demand. There is no fixed formula, Blades says, only the reality that the two have to coexist. “Brand drives demand,” he explains, and a strong reputation makes short-term demand efforts far more effective. How brands allocate investment depends on growth stage and business goals, whether that means equal weighting or a slight tilt in one direction. What matters most is resisting the urge to treat brand as optional when pressure mounts.
In a category often dominated by rational messaging and functional selling, Blades encourages marketers to loosen the reins. “Be bold, be creative, aim to be constantly unexpected for the category,” he says. B2B conventions are not rules, in his view, but habits worth questioning. “At the end of the day, we’re talking to people,” he adds. “People like to be stimulated in new, highly engaging and unique ways. Make it fun.”
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Looking ahead, Blades points to creator marketing as the B2B channel he believes will matter most in 2025. He sees it as a way to keep conversations active and credible over time. “Creator marketing allows a brand to talk in an authentic, human way,” he says, particularly when those relationships are ongoing rather than campaign-based. Used well, it can “show the product in action” and behave like an always-on use case, bringing personality into a space that often struggles with sameness.
Internally, however, Blades sees a more familiar challenge holding many organizations back. Alignment between marketing and sales remains inconsistent, he says, from how pain points are defined to the narratives customers hear along the buying journey. “You’d be surprised at how many organizations have differing narratives across teams,” he notes. The answer, he argues, is not more complexity. “Be brutally simple,” Blades says, with single-minded approaches to messaging and delivery as markets and customer behavior become harder to navigate.
That same pragmatism guides his current focus at Verizon. AI can accelerate better outcomes, but it is not a substitute for imagination. “AI is not the holy grail,” Blades says. “You still need good people with great imaginations.” Without proper training and education, even the most advanced tools risk becoming underused. The strongest work, in his view, happens when technology and talent are developed together, each strengthening the other.
The Drum Awards Festival celebrates the work and thinking shaping the future of B2B marketing. Follow jurors like Chris Blades as they help spotlight ideas that push the category forward.
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