We often refer to and define businesses as ‘B2B’ or ‘B2C’. While these terms help us to differentiate between respective product and services offerings, they have also siloed marketers’ approaches to communicate with consumers. B2C brands tend to be more willing to be playful and provocative in their communication, while B2B marketers often find it difficult to strike a balance between being informative, innovative, and all the while inspiring. The truth is, regardless of the category a business falls under, their target audiences all share a collective, fundamental truth: they’re all human.  One of the most primitive and conspicuous ways we interact with one another to collectively create culture and make sense of reality is through stories. By definition, connecting with consumers means capitalizing on the most human of common threads - storytelling.  While there has been a slow but steady increase in B2B investments in storytelling over the past few years, it is seldom wide-spread. But why? Many marketers still feel push back from executive-level decision makers when trying to make the case for using more ‘emotional’ forms of communicating with consumers. Working with top brands in the Financial Services, Technology, and Software industries has given us tremendous insights into the barriers, bottlenecks, and misconceptions that stall the adoption of such storytelling practices at B2B organizations. This playbook addresses the qualitative and quantitative data behind the reasons your brand should be telling stories by specifically redefining and demystifying: - What is brand storytelling?  - What role do emotions play in B2B decision making?  - How are successful brands sourcing and sharing these stories effectively?  - How can you make the case for emotional storytelling at your company?

1. The Benefits of Emotional
Storytelling in B2B Communications
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2. What is brand storytelling?
facts and emotions narrative
stories.
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3. Keep it short but keep it real. Deliver content that is linear and
expresses a clear narrative.
Of consumers want brands to
make ads that feel like a story
92%
Rate at which the brain processes
images in comparison to words
60x faster
Show, don’t tell. Use images and video
for more compelling content.
100,500
Digital words are consumed by
the average US citizen every day
Our brains are built for stories...
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4. B2B
Buyer / Investor
B2C
Consumer
Human
“B2B purchases, everyone thinks,
are mainly a rational decision. But
very often, they are millions of
dollars, even multimillion-dollar
purchases, they take months of
due diligence, they take multiple
stakeholders... and that decision
can literally make or break your
career. [So], it is highly emotive.”
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5. Two Emotionally Driven Categories in B2B Decision Making
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We are driven by our subconscious
that’s fueled by our emotions.
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1. Ease of Doing Business 2. Individual Value
Neuroscience shows us that 70% - 80% of our
purchasing decisions fall subconsciously
The remaining 20% - 30% are still playing in an
emotional program

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In B2B buying, emotions matter even
more than logic and reason.

7. “When we look at emotional B2B campaigns compared to rational campaigns, we
see it’s about a seven-to-one impact.”
Appealing to Emotion FIRST, Logic SECOND
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EMOTION IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN
LOGIC IN ADVERTISING

8. ✓ WIN
✓ driven by their emotions
✓ emotional impact
affinity investment
Key Takeaways
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9. How to get in
touch with us

10. Our Clients
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11. We are a strategic studio
and we believe using
storytelling + data is the best
way to drive business results.
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