The Art of Not Selling wins Silver and two Bronzes at The Drum B2B Awards 2026

The Art of Not Selling, the CFO-to-CFO content platform we created with Mashreq, won three awards at The Drum B2B Awards 2026: a Silver and two Bronzes. The awards were presented at B2B World Fest in Miami on 9 and 10 November 2026, and the work won in all three categories where it had been shortlisted.

The results

• Silver, Industry: Finance, Banking & Capital Markets (opens in a new tab)
• Bronze, Go To Market: Digital Content Programme (opens in a new tab)
• Bronze, Effectiveness: Thought Leadership (opens in a new tab)

The idea: CFOs trust other CFOs

CFOs and treasury leaders decide which banks their companies work with, and they are hard to reach. They are short on time, well informed and sceptical of advertising, and product-led content rarely holds their attention before a specific need comes up.

Mashreq's insight was simple. CFOs don't automatically trust brands, but they do trust other CFOs. So instead of marketing to them, Mashreq Masterclass made them the voices. The series brought in finance leaders from du, Galadari Brothers, Landmark Group and Técnicas Reunidas for unscripted conversations about strategy, transformation, resilience and leadership. No scripts, no product, no selling.

"The CFO is no longer a reporter of numbers, but a partner in strategy." Raúl Valtierra, Chief Financial Officer, Técnicas Reunidas, in Mashreq Masterclass

One conversation, many formats

Eighteen long-form CFO conversations became the source for everything else. Short edits ran on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, quote cards distilled one idea at a time, and LinkedIn polls asked finance professionals the same leadership questions the guests had answered. Each episode fed the next cycle of content, so every conversation had several ways in, whether a viewer had one minute or thirty.

What it delivered

Within six months of launch, the platform recorded:

• More than 12M video views across LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram
• A 98% view-through rate, three times the LinkedIn benchmark
• An 8.7% average engagement rate on LinkedIn, more than three times the industry benchmark
• 42% growth in Mashreq's C-suite audience on LinkedIn
• More than 11,000 poll interactions from finance professionals
• A 23% increase in inbound Corporate Banking enquiries

Over the same period, Mashreq CIBG recorded 29% revenue growth and 33% growth in closing assets compared with the previous year. Many business factors sit behind those figures. The platform's part was the executive relationships and inbound interest it created.

A strong year for the work

This is the platform's second major recognition in 2026. In September, Mashreq Masterclass won Gold in B2B at The Marketing Society GCC Awards 2026, and its three Drum B2B shortlists followed. Every result is listed on our awards page.

The Drum published the award-winning case study on 10 November 2026: Mashreq let CFOs lead the conversation and gained 23% more inbound inquiries (opens in a new tab). Our case study covers the work in full, with the episodes and the people behind them.