CHICAGO: Medidata was named as "Corporate Marketer of the Year" at the 2017 B2 Awards, an annual competition which recognises excellence and strong performance in business-to-business marketing.

Held by the Business Marketing Association, a unit of the Association of National Advertisers, the B2 Awards received more than 500 entries from nearly 200 organisations this year.

Medidata, a company focused on creating cloud-based applications and analytics tools for clinical trials, scooped the top prize among large enterprises, which were categorised as generating $1bn or more.

One recent standout initiative from Medidata was called "The Architecture of Hope", which aimed to differentiate its brand by taking an emotion-led approach demonstrating how its technologies give people reasons to be upbeat.

Elsewhere, 1010data – a firm that provides tools for analytics, building applications and managing data – took the "Small Corporate Marketer of the Year" title, featuring businesses generating less than $1bn per year.

George P. Johnson Experience Marketing – which has recently worked with clients like IBM, Honda and Under Armour – was named "Large Agency of the Year", meaning it fell in the $25m and over bracket.

Stein IAS was the "Small Agency of the Year", marking the second successive year the company has taken the prize in the contest for shops under the $25m threshold.

"B-to-B marketing is one of the cornerstones of the marketing world, and these awards honor the best in the business," said Bob Liodice, the ANA's CEO. "The ANA is proud to congratulate the winners on their exceptional work."

All the judges for the B2 Awards were business-to-business marketers at director/VP level or above.

Data source from ANA; additional content by WARC staff