ANA Winners Series: Lisa Lytton

How are top marketers pushing boundaries and rewriting the rules of engagement? 

In the rapidly evolving world of marketing, bold ideas and brave execution are what separate the memorable from the forgettable. As we gear up for the 2026 ANA B2 Awards, we're taking a moment to celebrate the campaigns that didn't just win trophies — they set the bar on what the best B2B marketing looks like — work that blends strategy, creativity, and results to drive meaningful impact.

This special Q&A series shines a light on select winners from the 2025 ANA Awards, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the creative risks, strategic pivots, and unexpected moments that made their work stand out.

In this segment, Denise McDevitt, SVP of award programs at ANA connects with Lisa Lytton, vice president of the Storytellers Collective at National Geographic, shares how the brand's legendary storytelling legacy was reimagined for the business world — and why emotional resonance, when paired with strategic utility, is reshaping how organisations communicate, align, and lead.

Q> What was the biggest challenge in introducing a new B2B offering from such a well-known B2C brand?

Lisa> The biggest challenge wasn't brand recognition; it was successfully re-anchoring our 137-year-honed storytelling superpower within a corporate context.

For over a century, National Geographic has been admired as a B2C media and storytelling authority. We needed to showcase our already distinct storytelling expertise as directly applicable and necessary for day-to-day business success.

Our campaign's focus became the pivot: sharing that the skills needed to influence a global audience are the exact skills required to align a matrixed team, persuade an investor, or build a resilient brand narrative. We positioned ourselves as a critical business partner dedicated to elevating storytelling from an art to a core, strategic competency.

Q> What inspired the idea to use storytelling tips as the creative anchor?

Lisa> The inspiration was the product itself and its core, unmatchable differentiator — the expertise of our award-winning National Geographic Explorers. National Geographic has defined the pinnacle of excellence for global impact through narrative. Our Explorers' stories have literally changed policy, driven scientific funding, and motivated mass action. We recognise that a high-profile decision-maker needs immediate, actionable value.

Therefore, the creative anchor was to demonstrate that the National Geographic superpower of storytelling is now available for organisations worldwide to solve their own critical business challenges. You can learn from the industry leader how to draft a compelling narrative that moves people to action. The tips were a rapid, tangible proof point of the premium, practical utility our storytelling experts deliver.

Q> What was the moment you knew this concept had the potential to break through?

Lisa> The defining moment came after our first tailored workshop with NASA. The breakthrough wasn't merely the inspiration they felt, but the immediate, practical application of the storytelling methodology.

Participants were taught human-centric storytelling. They didn't just learn a theory; they gained a framework to make factual stories undeniably compelling. The post-workshop feedback confirmed that the Storytellers Collective was delivering a high-leverage, specialised skillset that immediately empowered their team to turn technical knowledge into strategic influence through narrative.

Q> How did you tailor messaging for corporate vs. nonprofit audiences while maintaining brand consistency?

Lisa> The through line was the unwavering National Geographic standard of authentic, high-impact storytelling to spark action. The messaging was strategically tailored to each specific vertical and desired outcomes.

We shifted the conversation from general skill-building to addressing their most critical organisational priorities:

For Corporate: The focus is leveraging narrative to solve internal and external business challenges. This includes sustainability storytelling, humanising complex data for clarity, inspiring executive alignment for strategic change, and elevating the quality of communication for internal teams.

For Nonprofits and Academia: The focus tends to centre on mission-critical goals such as driving philanthropic action, influencing policy change, and empowering thought leaders (faculty and researchers) to engage stakeholders, attract talent, and secure essential funding.

Q> What feedback did you receive that validated the campaign's relevance?

Lisa> Transferability: A Google Sustainability participant noted they were "amazed how transferable the techniques were to their work." It's not just inspirational; it teaches you how to tell a business story with the rigour of a National Geographic Explorer and award-winning storyteller.

Immediate Business Utility: The content proved to be immediately actionable, moving beyond theory to re-architecting daily communications. Another participant stated that the content was "really beneficial to reframe our daily work and how we communicate this work internally and externally." The workshop delivers a specialised skill that sticks.

Team Cohesion: Beyond communication skills, the workshops delivered a critical, improved team dynamic. The experience served as an authentic way to foster trust and alignment as a participant shared "the workshop was a great bonding experience for the team because we learned a lot about each other, and it served as a great reminder of key aspects of storytelling."

This recurring feedback validated that the Storytellers Collective is positioned perfectly as a premium offering that delivers both high-impact communication skills and essential soft-skill benefits like team cohesion and internal alignment.

Q> What does this campaign teach us about the power of emotion in B2B marketing?

Lisa> The lesson is emotion opens the door, but the quality and uniqueness of the product closes the deal. The campaign succeeded because the inspiration it generated was immediately validated by substance with the proven storytelling legacy and methodology of the National Geographic Explorers who led the Storytellers Collective workshops. It's this superpower that transforms soft emotion into mastering a high-leverage, competitive skill like authentic storytelling for impact.

Q> Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently — or something you learned that will shape your next big idea?

Lisa> If we were to refine the campaign, we would have created video testimonials featuring the business and nonprofit leaders who praised the workshops. We captured their quotes, but a video is the ultimate form of social proof for a B2B product focused on storytelling. Moving forward, the lesson is that our clients' success stories, delivered in their own voices, are powerful collateral.

Q> What is your proudest achievement related to this campaign?

Lisa> Our proudest achievement is that this campaign effectively served as a proof of concept for the scalability and impact of the Storytellers Collective workshops. We successfully took a premium storytelling training and demonstrated its ability to drive profound, positive change within diverse corporate, nonprofit, and academic cultures, solidifying National Geographic as a market leader in professional development.

Q> What's next for the Storytellers Collective — and how will you build on this momentum?

Lisa> We are committed to continually building the Storytellers Collective as the definitive authority in organisational storytelling. Our momentum is focused on three areas that directly address the high-level demand we are seeing:

1. Expanding Specialised Workshops: We are deepening our training expertise based on demand, including sustainability storytelling, mapping for impact for academic institutions, filmmaking, and data visualisation.

2. Elevating the Experience and Reach: Not only are we scaling globally and traveling across the world to bring our workshops onsite, we are excited to invite clients to our headquarters in Washington, DC in 2026, offering exclusive, immersive workshops in tandem with the opening of the Museum of Exploration.

3. Premium Access: To serve the highest tier of demand, we are developing exclusive programs and collaborations, including luxury resort residencies, providing unparalleled access to our National Geographic Explorers for high-impact, private workshops.
This roadmap is centred on our commitment to continually tailor our workshops to our clients' needs to help organisations future-proof their communication and storytelling strategies in a way only National Geographic can.

As part of the ANA's mission to set the agenda for growth, the ANA B2 Awards celebrate the best of business-to-business marketing — work that demonstrates the power of strategy, creativity, and results to drive meaningful growth. Recognised as the industry's premier B2B marketing honour, the program spans categories including brand building, demand generation, account-based marketing, and digital transformation. Winners represent the highest standard of excellence, as judged by a distinguished panel of industry peers.

The final deadline to submit work into the 2026 B2 Awards is March 6, 2026.

The B2 Awards Gala and celebration of the best brand marketing will take place at a special evening dinner event on June 4, 2026, at the 2026 ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference, in Chicago, IL.. Awards will be presented to top brands and agencies for the top brand marketing campaigns of 2025 across 40 different categories. The event culminates with B2B Marketing Team of the Year, B2B Agencies of the Year, and the Best in Show Award announcement.

To view the full portfolio of ANA Awards, visit here.