Product Marketing Awards 2022: introducing your finalists

The votes are in, and we’ve been thrilled to see the red-hot response to the Product Marketing Awards 2022.

There’s been a lot of love and appreciation banded around the community, with nominations submitted worldwide.

It’s time to delve into the bread and butter of the occasion and gear ourselves up to reveal each category's winner.

So, drum roll at the ready - it’s time to reveal the finalists of our first category… 🥁

Product Marketing Leader of the Year

Product marketing is awash with inspirational leaders - practitioners who galvanize their teams and provide a platform for sustained success.

This award recognizes product marketers who’ve demonstrated awesome leadership skills and applied their credentials to deliver sustained success.

Matt Skinner, Group Manager, Real-Time CDP & Audience Manager at Adobe
Nick Taylor, Director of Product Marketing at Brandwatch
Miles Buckley, Director of Product Marketing at ClickUp
Erik Mansur, Vice President of Product Marketing at Crayon
Jackie Palmer, Vice President of Product Marketing at Demandbase
Igor Kranjcec, Head of Marketing at Mediatoolkit
Christine Tran, Vice President of Product Marketing at Quantum Metric
Becky Trevino, EVP Product at Snow Software
Ignacio Ros de Zarobe, Director of Product Marketing at Spendesk
Thad Peterson, VP, Product Marketing at ZoomInfo

Product Marketing Team of the Year

In the State of Product Marketing Report 2022, we asked PMMs which skills they considered to be essential, and strong communication (82.2%) and collaboration (77.9%) were identified as being the most important amongst the respondents in the survey.

Without teamwork and collaboration, a team dynamic falls apart, and this category celebrates the companies that are continuing to set lofty standards when it comes to team dynamics:

Atlassian
Intel
Intercom
Red Hat
Spotify
Square
WalkMe
Workato
ZoomInfo

Newcomer of the Year Award

Each year, a newbie bursts onto the product marketing scene, leaving their colleagues open-mouthed with their immediate impact on their team - despite their relative inexperience.

The Newcomer of the Year Award earmarks the product marketers who are sending ripples of excitement through the industry:

Nora Matty, Product Marketing Manager at Brandwatch
Travis Breier, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Demandbase
Emily Winter, Product Marketing Manager at Everlaw
Zach Roberts, Product Marketing Manager at Dropbox
Laura Mavrias, Senior Product Marketing Specialist at Expedia Group
Chris Nachman, Product Marketing Manager at Fireblocks
Iva Anušić, Product Marketing Specialist at Mediatoolkit
Bingying Lyu, Product Marketing Manager at RELEX Solutions

Product Launch of the Year

Any product marketer will testify that for all the excitement that comes with launching a product, there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it.

81% of respondents who took part in the State of Go-to-Market Report 2022 said product marketing leads the Go-to-Market process - so we figured we’d tilt a hat to the PMMs with a specialist award paying homage to those who’ve poured their blood, sweat, and tears in product launches this year.

So, without further ado, the companies nominated are…

Madison Leonard, Head of PLG Product Marketing at Vanta
Cecelia Xu, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Comscore
Erik Mansur, Vice President of Product Marketing at Crayon
Crystal Allen, Executive Director of Customer Engagement at CSG
Amit Alagh, Senior Product Marketing Manager at LexisNexis
Sartaj Kaur, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Zendesk

Positioning & Messaging Maestro of the Year

We know it, you know it, heck, anyone associated with product marketing knows positioning and messaging form a vital part of the PMM function.

A well-positioned product will create the desired representation of your product in the minds of your target audience and highlight benefits and USPs, while compelling messaging is essential for how your market perceives your product/service - and your brand as a whole.

However, nailing the process is far from a stroll in the park, so the winner of this award will give recognition to a product marketer who has managed to excel where many fall short:

Manwendra Mishra, Product Marketing Manager at Cardstack
Ozzie Rodriguez, Director of Product Marketing at CBS Sports / Paramount
Roy Klein, Director of Product Marketing at Cloudify
Janani Nagarajan, Senior Director of Product Marketing at CrowdStrike
Michelle Picoto, Product Marketing Manager  at Deepstar Strategic
Emily Dumas, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Evernote
Bill Reed, Head of Product Marketing at Morphisec
Abhinav Joshi, Director of Product Marketing at Red Hat
Yaroslav Stepanenko, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Setapp

Product Marketing MVP of the Year

Product marketing is a blossoming industry, and with more people transitioning into PMM roles, this has inevitably led to even more professionals showcasing their talent and capabilities.

The Product Marketing MVP of the Year Award has been designed to celebrate the achievements of a lucky product marketer who surpasses expectations, epitomizes passion, and influences those around them.

Introducing your MVP hopefuls:

Rakhi Patel, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Real-Time CDP & Audience Manager at Adobe
Sarah Hoffman, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Akeneo
Katy Carter, Product Marketing Manager at Dext
Russell Martin, Director of Product Marketing at Demandbase
Bjorn Ingmansson, Product Marketing Director at Juni
Amit Alagh, Senior Product Marketing Manager at LexisNexis
Lisa Dziuba, Head of Product Marketing at LottieFiles
Sunny Dhami, Vice President of Product Marketing at Sinch
Hitendar Sethi, Senior Product Line Marketing Manager at VMware

Top 10 Companies to Work in Product Marketing

Once upon a time, the vast majority of product marketers faced an uphill battle in securing buy-in amongst key stakeholders at their company.

The tide has changed, with companies without a dedicated product marketing department few and far between. Sure, there’s work to be done before we can say it’s perfect, but there are plenty of companies out there giving product marketing the resources and devotion it needs be flourish.

The companies nominated in this category have been earmarked as those that have gone the extra mile to help their product marketers thrive, thank you for the role you’re playing in supporting the function!

Akeneo
Atlassian
Iterable
LinkedIn
Secure Code Warrior
Teachable
WalkMe
Walnut
Workato
ZoomInfo

What’s next?

Congratulations to our finalists!

Since opening the nominations, we’ve had an overwhelming response, so congratulations on being shortlisted in your respective categories!

Announcements dates:

Now, the million-dollar question: when will the lucky winners be announced?

We'll be announcing the winners via a LinkedIn Live broadcast - simply head over to the Product Marketing Alliance’s page at 9am PT | 12pm ET | 5pm BST to tune in.

Tuesday, September 20:

👋 Newcomer of the Year,

🚀 Product Launch of the Year, and

🤝 Team of the Year

Wednesday, September 21:

⭐️ MVP of the Year,

📩 Positioning & Messaging Maestro of the Year,

🎓 Product Marketing Leader of the Year, and

🏦 Top Companies to Work in Product Marketing

Good luck! 😃