Judge of the Day: Fiona Couper makes the case for memorability in B2B – The Drum

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January 30, 2026 | 6 min read
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The VCCP CMO and ESG lead explains why emotional impact, not optimisation, is what earns attention and sustains growth.
As a B2B juror at The Drum Awards Festival, Fiona Couper approaches B2B marketing with a belief that feels increasingly urgent: brands have to be remembered before they can be chosen. As chief marketing officer and ESG lead at VCCP, she oversees business development and marketing across the group’s specialist agencies, spanning B2B, financial services and technology. Her career path, from Ogilvy & Mather to Y&R, Burson-Marsteller and later management consultancy roles, has given her a long view of how brands earn attention and how easily they lose it.
That perspective shapes how Couper thinks about AI’s growing role in B2B. While the technology has raised expectations for personalisation, she warns that scale without intent can quickly slide into what she calls “useful mediocrity.” “AI has fundamentally changed the game by raising audience expectations for personalisation, set by brands like Netflix,” she says. But true personalisation, in her view, goes far beyond messaging. “It’s not just about content, it’s about the product or service offered, which demands total experience design across the whole business.” AI, she argues, should serve strategy, not become one. “It should be elevated to strategic use against overall objectives, never treated as an objective in itself.”
That emphasis on imagination carries into how Couper thinks about brand and demand. With only a small portion of B2B audiences actively buying at any one time, she believes the real work happens earlier. “Only about 5% of the B2B audience is ever in active buying mode,” she says. “The other 95% is horizon scanning.” That reality, combined with the rise of generative engine optimisation, puts a premium on brand recognition long before conversion is on the table. As a result, she advocates an 80/20 split in favour of brand building. “Great brand building makes demand activity a shoo in,” she says, particularly in a landscape where being known increasingly determines whether you’re found at all.
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In a category that still defaults to rational selling, Couper’s advice is simple and unapologetic. “Zag,” she says. Playing it safe may feel commercially sensible, but she sees it as actively damaging. “If a brand has created a memorable, emotional impression, the selling part is much easier.” Proof points still matter, but she places them later in the journey. “Rational messaging is for the final few meters,” she says. “It’s not the main race.”
When it comes to channels, Couper points to influencers as one of B2B’s most underused levers. Whether the audience is institutional investors or self-employed builders, trusted voices can provide an always-on presence that carries credibility across paid, earned and owned media. “Influencers have a ripple effect,” she says, particularly when brands invest in longer-term expert collaborators with highly specific audiences.
Internally, the challenge she sees most often is not attribution or optimisation, but memorability. “Most B2B brands fail to recognise the need to be known for what you stand for and to be liked,” she says. Even businesses built around performance are hitting demand ceilings. Product awareness alone is no longer enough. “Brand is what secures the sale.” Consistency, she adds, is what makes that possible. Constantly changing direction undermines the very memory brands are trying to build.
Looking ahead, Couper believes the next generation of B2B marketers will need adaptability and confidence in equal measure. Adaptability to navigate rapid technological change and coordinate across product, sales, finance and governance. Confidence to know what to test, and just as importantly, what to protect. “Marketers have to be confident talking about brand value in the language of the sales and finance teams,” she says.
That tension plays out in her own day-to-day work. With performance channels peaking, Couper spends much of her time making the business case for long-term brand investment. As generative search reshapes how brands are discovered, memorability becomes non-negotiable. “Every piece of communication must reinforce consistent brand pillars,” she says. Effective B2B work, in her view, is increasingly short-form but high-impact, designed to secure long-term stature rather than fleeting activation.
The Drum Awards Festival celebrates the people and thinking shaping the future of B2B marketing. Follow jurors like Fiona Couper as they spotlight work that earns attention, builds memory and drives growth over time.
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VCCP
VCCP is the global challenger network for challenger brands. We create enduring brand platforms that deliver value for our client’s businesses and enable diverse…
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