Forrester Announces 2026 B2B Return On Integration Honorees And Programs Of The Year Awards Winners For North America
MWN-AI** Summary
Forrester has unveiled the 2026 B2B Return on Integration (ROI) Honors winners, recognizing Amazon Ads, Rockwell Automation, and ServiceNow for exemplary cross-functional alignment and innovative practices in driving business growth. These accolades will be presented at the B2B Summit North America, set to take place in Phoenix from April 26–29, 2026. The honorees will participate in panel discussions sharing their strategies for enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency.
Amazon Ads has redefined its approach to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with the “Matches Are Made” campaign, which focuses on improving accessibility and outcomes for service-based SMBs. This shift has significantly boosted awareness and revenue from Sponsored TV among these advertisers.
Rockwell Automation has implemented a groundbreaking CRM initiative, promoting collaboration across various functions, leading to improved account targeting, accelerated sales processes, and increased deal sizes. Their strategy emphasizes the importance of integrated systems for driving revenue growth in today’s rapidly changing market.
ServiceNow has transformed its partner marketing experience by introducing an AI-enabled platform that streamlines campaign execution and enhances performance visibility for partners, resulting in increased adoption and efficiency.
In addition to the ROI Honors, Forrester has announced its B2B Programs of the Year (POY) Awards winners, which include IBM, Autodesk, Verizon Business, Workiva, Nasdaq, ADP, and AppFolio. These companies will share insights on their strategies to modernize marketing and sales processes, driving better outcomes through innovative practices.
The B2B Summit, themed "GTM Singularity," aims to help leaders adapt to evolving buyer dynamics and leverage AI-driven technologies. This event represents a prime opportunity for B2B organizations to gain insights and share best practices in modernizing their go-to-market strategies.
MWN-AI** Analysis
The announcement of Forrester's 2026 B2B Return On Integration (ROI) Honors and Programs of the Year (POY) Awards sheds light on critical trends in the B2B landscape that investors and companies should closely monitor. Recognizing Amazon Ads, Rockwell Automation, and ServiceNow highlights the significance of cross-functional alignment, a key driver of business success in today’s competitive environment.
As companies increasingly embrace integrated strategies that synchronize marketing, sales, and customer success functions, this model demonstrates enhanced operational efficiency and improved customer experiences. For example, Amazon Ads’s initiative to address the needs of service-based SMBs exemplifies an adaptive approach to market challenges—repositioning its value proposition to enhance customer connection and drive substantial growth in a targeted segment. Given the ongoing pressure on SMBs, firms that can tailor solutions effectively will likely capture and retain more market share.
Similarly, Rockwell Automation's comprehensive CRM initiative demonstrates that leveraging technology and cooperation across departments can improve targeting, accelerate sales cycles, and increase deal sizes. Such integration is becoming essential for companies looking to sustain growth in a transforming market landscape.
For investors, these honorees not only reflect successful strategies but also signal potential investment opportunities in firms actively engaging with innovative practices and customer-centric approaches. Companies named in the POY Awards, such as IBM and Verizon, illustrate how a pivot toward data-driven, customer-focused strategies can lead to meaningful advances in revenue and efficiency.
Overall, as organizations navigate an era of change driven by evolving buyer behaviors and technological advancements, those integrating their marketing and sales efforts stand to gain competitive advantages. Investors should consider backing firms that prioritize innovation, cross-functional collaboration, and an adaptable go-to-market strategy to ensure long-term growth in an uncertain economic climate.
**MWN-AI Summary and Analysis is based on asking OpenAI to summarize and analyze this news release.
At B2B Summit North America, award winners will share how they fostered cross-functional alignment, prioritized customer needs, and implemented innovative best practices to deliver business success
Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) will recognize Amazon Ads , Rockwell Automation , and ServiceNow as the 2026 recipients of its B2B Return On Integration (ROI) Honors at B2B Summit North America , taking place in Phoenix, April 26–29, 2026. The B2B ROI honorees are recognized for achieving outstanding alignment across marketing, sales, customer success, and product functions — the B2B growth engine — to improve customer experience and drive growth. At the event, B2B ROI honorees will participate in a keynote panel discussion to share their success stories.
Forrester will also recognize this year’s B2B Programs Of The Year (POY) Awards winners. These awards recognize excellence within marketing, sales, and product functions in areas including demand and account-based marketing (ABM), portfolio marketing and product, revenue operations, revenue enablement, and customer engagement. Winners will share their success stories during a dedicated session block.
Forrester’s 2026 B2B ROI Honors winners:
- Amazon Ads , a leading provider of advertising solutions, identified a growth opportunity among service-based small and midsize businesses (SMB) who felt marketing initiatives were inaccessible and too time-consuming for their team. In response, the company repositioned its value proposition around customer connection and outcomes. The “Matches Are Made” campaign brought this shift to market. As a result, Amazon Ads increased unaided awareness, improved opportunity conversion, and drove significant growth in Sponsored TV revenue among service-based advertisers.
“Small and midsize businesses are facing unprecedented pressure with rising costs, tighter margins, and limited staff,” said Lucia Ying, head of Americas SMB marketing and global SMB brand at Amazon Ads. “Through a focused go-to-market strategy, we pivoted Amazon Ads to be seen as a ‘matchmaker’ between local service-based businesses and customers, helping our clients reach the right customers at the right moment.”
- Rockwell Automation , a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, set a new standard for cross-functional collaboration in support of revenue generation and operational efficiency. Across marketing, operations, IT, business units, regions, success enablement, inside sales, and more, the team rallied around a transformational CRM initiative with newly automated workflows and unified reporting. This has led to significantly improved match rates for account targeting, accelerated sales opportunity progression, and reduced cycle times while also growing average deal size.
“Revenue growth today requires tight systems and process integration across technology, data, and teams,” said Brian Hovey, chief marketing officer at Rockwell Automation. “Our extensive cross-functional partnership between marketing and other key stakeholders in IT, business units, sales, and more has redefined how we work together, delivering faster execution, better data integrity, and meaningful gains in go-to-market efficiency and performance.”
- ServiceNow , a leading provider of solutions that orchestrate how work flows across enterprises, transformed partner-led growth through a strategic initiative focused on partner marketing experience. By launching a unified, AI-enabled platform as a single “front door” for marketing enablement, campaign execution, and performance visibility, the company eliminated fragmented tools and manual processes. As a result, partner self-service adoption increased, partner campaigns accelerated, and partner-generated demand scaled while strengthening cross-functional alignment, reducing operational costs, and enabling consistent, measurable global partner engagement.
“Our partners need speed, simplicity, and visibility — not another tool,” said Marc Monday, group vice president of Americas channels and partnerships at ServiceNow. “By reimagining partner marketing experience through AI-enabled self-service, we have empowered our partner ecosystem to launch campaigns faster, generate more demand, and co-sell more effectively at scale. We now have more efficient use of market development funds, with clearer attribution and ROI from opportunity to revenue.”
Forrester’s 2026 B2B POY Awards winners include the following companies:
- IBM — B2B Marketing Executives Winner . IBM will share how it pivoted marketing planning from activity-centric decision-making to an audience?centric go-to-market strategy, realigning investment and execution to drive stronger revenue contribution, improved ROI, and greater efficiency.
- Autodesk — Content Strategy and Operations Winner . Autodesk will share how it transformed fragmented content creation into a centralized, AI?powered content center of excellence that speeds production, optimizes reuse, and connects content impact to sales pipeline and revenue outcomes.
- Verizon Business — Customer Engagement Winner . Verizon Business will share how it replaced reactive, survey-based NPS with an AI-driven Customer Experience Index that anticipates customer needs, guides proactive outreach across teams, and drives measurable improvements in experience, retention, and growth.
- Workiva — Demand and ABM Winner . Workiva will showcase how it transformed its revenue process from a lead focus to buying groups and opportunities. This change has driven greater marketing and sales collaboration and improved pipeline efficiency and value.
- Nasdaq — Portfolio Marketing and Product Winner . Nasdaq will showcase how it unified product innovation and go?to?market execution through its Future of the Boardroom campaign, delivering product?market fit, accelerating AI adoption, and driving measurable pipeline and brand impact.
- ADP — Revenue Enablement Winner . ADP will share how it transformed sales leadership and coaching with AI?powered, deal?centric revenue enablement: driving measurable gains in win rates, deal size, and sales execution consistency at enterprise scale.
- AppFolio — Revenue Operations Winner . AppFolio will share how its Unified Customer Experience workstream aligned go-to-market teams and eliminated duplication while driving measurable gains in acquisition, growth performance, and execution predictability.
“This year’s winners are shining examples of organizations that understand the value of prioritizing buyer and customer needs to achieve successful business outcomes,” said Matthew Selheimer, VP and research director at Forrester. “These organizations have embraced change, challenged conventional approaches, and spearheaded transformation and go-to-market alignment to adapt to evolving buyer dynamics. We’re excited to celebrate their achievements at B2B Summit North America.”
B2B Summit North America is the premier event for B2B marketing, revenue, product, and customer leaders looking to modernize their go-to-market (GTM) strategies in an AI-driven era. This year’s theme, “GTM Singularity,” will explore how evolving buyer behaviors and advanced technologies are reshaping the B2B landscape. Through Forrester’s research, frameworks, and expert guidance, attendees will gain actionable insights to navigate today’s unpredictable market dynamics and adapt their approaches to meet buyer needs ahead of seller interactions.
Resources:
- Register to attend B2B Summit North America.
- Learn more about Forrester’s 2026 B2B Return On Integration Honors and B2B Programs Of The Year Awards winners.
- Visit here to discover previous Forrester B2B marketing, sales, and product awards winners.
- Follow @Forrester , @ForresterB2BEvents , and #ForrB2BSummit for updates.
About Forrester
Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We empower leaders in technology, customer experience, digital, marketing, revenue, and product functions to make confident decisions in an AI-driven world and accelerate growth through customer obsession. Our unique research and continuous guidance model helps executives and their teams achieve their initiatives and outcomes faster and with confidence. To learn more, visit Forrester.com .
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260402959550/en/
Amanda Chordas achordas@forrester.com
FAQ**
How do companies that Forrester Research Inc. FORR recognizes, such as Amazon Ads and Rockwell Automation, leverage cross-functional alignment to enhance customer experience and drive growth in a rapidly evolving market?
In what ways do the initiatives recognized by Forrester Research Inc. FORR, like ServiceNow’s AI-enabled platform, demonstrate the importance of integrating marketing and partner engagement strategies for improved operational efficiency?
What specific metrics or frameworks does Forrester Research Inc. FORR suggest are essential for measuring the success of organizations like IBM and Autodesk in pivoting their marketing strategies to better target audience needs?
How do the B2B strategies highlighted by Forrester Research Inc. FORR at the Summit address the challenges posed by changing buyer behaviors in an AI-driven marketplace?
**MWN-AI FAQ is based on asking OpenAI questions about Forrester Research Inc. (NASDAQ: FORR).
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