How should we use emotion in our B2B brand advertising?

Choose the human response your brand advertising should elicit before treating emotion as an addition to a functional sales message. The Frameworks argues that B2B businesses sell to people, not abstract organisations, and approaches creative challenges by focusing on the response it wants to provoke. Its practice includes turning complex, sometimes highly technical subjects into relatable human narratives.

For a campaign brief, the starting question is therefore not only what buyers should know, but what they should feel. A specialist proposition still needs to demonstrate its relevance to a particular business challenge or opportunity. But the person encountering the advertising has a busy life beyond that purchasing decision. Leading with emotion means recognising that person from the outset, rather than assuming a list of functional benefits will create a connection on its own.

The feeling in B2B brand advertising should come from what the business enables. For Genius Sports, The Frameworks created the Built on Genius campaign to capture the rush of a sports event and create a sense of immersion. The emotional experience was connected to the sports data company's offer: using data and AI to help sponsors, teams, broadcasters and betting companies create richer experiences and communities for a new generation of fans.

The practical principle is to connect the feeling with a capability and the customer experience it supports. The Frameworks argues that a brand's emotional promise should also be reflected in events, sales conversations, community-building and digital interactions. Buyers need substance behind the promise when advocating for a supplier internally. Forrester's 2025 findings on B2B buyers identify competence, consistency and dependability as priorities for trust, with domain, industry and technology expertise remaining important purchase drivers.