
Winner
Harnessing Purpose: A Marketer's Guide to Inspiring Connection
Melissa Fors Shackelford
Harnessing Purpose is a guide for marketers and leaders who want their work to matter. It helps readers clarify both personal and professional purpose, then shows how to align the two. Rather than treating marketing as just a tool for growth, the book reframes it as a way to connect, build trust, and drive meaningful change. It offers practical strategies to uncover brand purpose, lead with integrity, and create campaigns that resonate beyond the bottom line. Readers also get tools to build resilient, values-driven teams and navigate challenges like burnout and misalignment. With a focus on inclusive, ethical marketing, the book challenges professionals to do better—for their organizations and their audiences. Rooted in real-world experience, Harnessing Purpose is for those ready to lead with intention, make a lasting impact, and grow their business with purpose at the core. It’s equal parts inspiration, strategy, and call to action.
Winner
The Strategic Business Influencer: Building a Brand with a Small Budget
Paige Velasquez Budde
The Strategic Business Influencer helps entrepreneurs and business leaders build powerful personal brands that accelerate trust and revenue without massive marketing budgets. In an era where trust in institutions is declining, this book empowers leaders to show up authentically and become the most credible on-ramp to their business. Paige Velasquez Budde demystifies “influencer” as a concept, repositioning it for everyday entrepreneurs looking to compete with larger brands. The book provides a step-by-step framework and real-world case studies to teach leaders how to build high-touch yet scalable relationships through visibility, storytelling, and micromedia. Readers walk away with practical tools to avoid costly marketing missteps, make smarter business decisions, and amplify their impact. Whether preparing for an exit, launching a new venture, or simply aiming to grow, leaders learn how to own their influence and future-proof their brand in the digital age.
Finalist
The Science of Brand Associations: Win Minds, Win Markets
Ulli Appelbaum
"The Science of Brand Associations: Win Minds, Win Markets" is the first comprehensive, evidence-based guide on how truly successful brands are built. Author and internationally recognized brand strategist Ulli Appelbaum distills decades of cutting-edge neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and evidence-based marketing research into: 10 data-backed reasons brand associations drive business results, 9 proven strategies and 14 evidence-based principles for building stronger brand networks, and offers diagnostic scorecards and practical frameworks to strengthen brand health. With insights from global thought leaders and real-world case studies, the book helps marketers, strategists, and agency leaders audit, build, and strengthen brand associations that win minds and win markets. At its core, the book helps marketers better understand how people remember and make decisions by laying the foundation for empathetic, coherent, and ultimately more effective marketing.
Finalist
Your B.R.A.N.D. Unleashed 9 Proven Strategies That Build Trust And Maintain Client Loyalty
Lisa A. Shorr
Author Lisa Shorr, a business coach whose company, Shorr Success, delivers just that has brought her B.R.A.N.D. Method to a wider audience.
This book is a rare blueprint for the how, what and why of delivering legendary client experiences and why this is foundational to success.
It helps readers learn that the “human side” is #1 and that this means taking “ownership” of their full self from how they speak to appearance to online presence to how they want to be perceived and more.
It helps entrepreneurs/leaders/owners have consistency and confidence (instead of self-doubt) in delivering empathetic (versus ego-driven) communication and to have this set the tone for business success (versus failure). Leading with empathy over ego means Trust is the business foundation.
Actual steps and examples help owners go from best-kept-secrets to brand-building rockstars who have memorable, emotionally intelligent brands.
Lots more than marketing/branding as logos and colors.















