Can you believe it is that time of year again already?

Well, believe it or not, the Product Marketing Awards are back for 2021! 🏆

Over the last few weeks and months, we've seen an unprecedented level of support and praise shown by those within our community. Across our 8 categories, we received 188 nominations compiled of more than 61,000 words outlining your product marketing excellence.

Thank you to all those who took the time to submit a nomination. 🙏

Now, for the truly exciting bit…

We are delighted to officially confirm the Product Marketing Awards 2021 Shortlist 🎉

From these fantastic finalists, we'll be selecting a worthy winner and announcing them across our socials and Slack channels from September 14. 👀

So, without further ado, here is the pick of the bunch:

Product Marketing Newcomer of the Year

We are delighted to see the product marketing community continuing to grow and we love to welcome new talent to PMA. This award is to highlight those newcomers who have proven they don’t need a lot of time to make a big impact.

Let’s dive in and see who made the shortlist:

  • Blanca Barthe Ramos, Product Marketing Specialist, ACI Worldwide
  • Amit Alagh, Senior Product Marketing Manager, LexisNexis
  • Joanne Zhang, Product Marketing Specialist, Quinyx
  • Iva Obrovac, Product Marketing Manager, Martian & Machine
  • Ashley Guerra, Product Marketing Manager, Accruent
  • Laura Curk, Product Marketing Manager, Achievers

The winner will be revealed on Tuesday, September 14.

Positioning & Messaging Maestro of the Year

Whether it’s nailing a USP, consistently leaving competitors in the shadows, or succinctly defining core product benefits, these Positioning & Messaging Maestros are masters of their craft.

Getting this right is no mean feat and that’s why we’re delighted to be recognizing these finalists and celebrating their excellence.

2021 shortlist:

  • Darcie Burek Gainer, Product Marketing Manager, Duo Security/Cisco
  • Elliott Rayner, CMO, ARION
  • James Doman-Pipe, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Remote
  • Arjun Desai, Product Marketing Manager, LinkedIn

The winner will be revealed on Wednesday, September 15.

Above & Beyond Award

It's true what they say, not all heroes wear capes. These PMMs have made the shortlist for a range of reasons, from not being afraid to innovate, collaborate, or put others first to launching non-profit initiatives or mentorship schemes; that's the kind of PMM rockstar that'll bag the Above & Beyond Award.

Reveal the greatness:

  • Tershone Phillips, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Comscore
  • Natalia Godyla, Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft
  • Madison Silver, Product Marketing Manager, Snap! Raise
  • Silvia Frucci, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Castor
  • Trevor Pyle, Director, Product Marketing, Quantum Metric
  • Div Manickam, Mentor, PMA
  • Cheryl Neoh, Group Manager, Product Marketing, Zendesk

The winner will be revealed on Thursday, September 16.

Top Companies to Work in Product Marketing

This award recognizes companies who are creating a great environment for product marketers to work.

Whether they made it onto the shortlist through exciting launch projects, impressive growth, or unrivaled personal development and support, here is our pick of the bunch:

  • Avalara
  • UiPath
  • Unbounce
  • Zuora
  • Squadcast

The winner will be revealed on Friday, September 17.

Rising Star - PMM MVP of the Year

One of the most hotly contested awards this year, the Rising Star - PMM MVP award seeks to recognize those PMMs who are taking the product marketing world by storm.

This shortlist is comprised of superstars who consistently crush their goals, are filled with passion, and positively impact their product, team, and company.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at the finalists:

  • Philine Cheng, Senior Global Product Marketing Manager, Peloton
  • Shreya Kothari Sawala, Product Marketing Lead, Finturi
  • Alex Virden, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, PatientPop
  • Rachael Tomaney, Director Product Marketing, ACI Worldwide
  • Yash Mahajani, Product Marketing Manager, Zuora
  • Alyce Erikson, Senior Product Marketing Manager APAC, LinkedIn
  • Ameeti Mishra, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Lead, Uber
  • Andrew Forbes, Director, Product Marketing, Zendesk
  • Bettina Jakobsen, Product Marketing Manager, Google
  • Marieke Rodenrijs, Head of Product Marketing, Quinyx

We'll be announcing the lucky winner for this category on Tuesday, September 21.

Product Launch of the Year

Here at PMA, we love having our heads turned by a product launch that really packs a punch.

We know the enormous time and effort that goes into nailing a product launch and we want to give a big congratulations (and a PMA award) to those with particular product launch prowess.

So, let’s check out our finalists:

  • Ryan Dillon-Curran, Sr. Director, Head of Cardio Product Marketing, Peloton
  • Yash Mahajani, Product Marketing Manager, Zuora
  • Gary Davis, Director, Product Marketing, Avalara
  • Cristine Kao, Chief Marketing Officer, ABC Fitness Solutions
  • Jodi Innerfield, Head of Product Marketing, Work.com, Salesforce
  • HARMAN Ignite Store, by Dvir Reznik, former Director, Product Marketing, HARMAN
  • Snorkel AI, by Devang Sachdev, VP of Marketing

The winner will be revealed on Wednesday, September 22.

Product Marketing Leader of the Year

Being a great PMM leader takes courage, commitment, and dedication to the core missions and values of product marketing.

It also takes someone special to find that sweet spot when it comes to team management and supporting their PMM function.

The contest in this category was red hot, but we have managed to whittle down the competition to this awesome shortlist:

  • Alicia Carney, Head of Product Marketing, Lune
  • Andrew Hatfield, Head of Cloud Strategy, Cloud Services Product Group, NetApp
  • Andy Reid, Director, International Product Marketing & Global Competitive Intelligence, Epicor
  • Jennifer Bunting, Head of Product Marketing EMEA & LATAM, LinkedIn
  • Jill Purse, Director, Product Marketing, RingCentral
  • Lisa Kant, VP, Product Marketing, Zendesk
  • Saba Mirza, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Automation Anywhere
  • Sonduren Fanarredha, Director of Product Marketing, Airbase
  • Holly Watson, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Giuseppe Delogu, Product Marketing Lead, Klarna
  • Thomas Brence, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Informatica

The winner will be revealed on Thursday, September 23.

Product Marketing Team of the Year

Ok people, now we know every category is big, but this one, well, it’s really, REALLY big.

We’re looking to celebrate the achievements of those product marketing teams who consistently knock it out of the park. Whether that is through unwavering commitment, superb relationships, or awesome results we’re delighted to be celebrating these superstars.

Let’s see those finalists:

  • GE
  • LinkedIn
  • MURAL
  • Mollie
  • RD Station
  • Introhive
  • Gong
  • The Predictive Index
  • UserTesting
  • Zendesk

The winner will be revealed on Friday, September 24.

What’s next?

Well, first of all, a huge congratulations to each and every one of our finalists! 🥳

The number of detailed nominations we received was staggering, so it’s truly a great achievement in itself to have made it this far!

But, we’re not done yet…

We are ramping up the excitement again from Tuesday, September 14, when we’ll begin announcing the winners from each category. One winner a day, every day, for 10 days all broadcast via LinkedIn Live.

The PMA team wishes you all the very best of luck! 🏆