Should we use emotion in the awareness campaign?

Yes, use emotion in the awareness campaign when it helps a B2B audience recognise a real experience, need or ambition. Emotional storytelling can make a complex offer easier to remember and advocate for, but credibility depends on the feeling being relevant, specific and grounded in how the organisation genuinely behaves.

Emotion gives B2B awareness a human reason to matter

Emotional messaging can strengthen a B2B awareness campaign because people still make high-stakes business decisions, champion choices internally and live with the consequences. Brand awareness acts as a shortcut to trust: a known brand can feel safer, more credible and easier to recommend. Emotional storytelling gives that awareness a human perspective, moving beyond rational benefits alone to show what a brand enables people to feel, achieve or change. The emotion does not need to be dramatic. Confidence, relief, possibility, pride and belonging can all create emotional resonance when they fit the audience and the offer. In B2B advertising, inspiring emotion has been found to be seven times more effective than relying on rational benefits alone.

Sources: The Prompt: Being known is no longer enough in an AI world

Authenticity decides whether emotional storytelling builds credibility

Emotional storytelling builds brand authenticity when the campaign reflects a genuine audience experience rather than performing a feeling for effect. Over-emotional campaigns can fall flat when the emotion feels manufactured, because audiences can see the gap between a polished message and a believable human perspective. Start with empathy: understand the people behind the buying group, the pressures they face and the outcomes that matter to them. Then choose an appropriate emotional tone rather than treating emotion as a shortcut to attention. Technical storytelling can still be emotional without becoming sentimental. A complex B2B experience can create connection by helping an audience imagine what a new environment, capability or outcome feels like in practice. Relevance, consistency and customer-facing reality keep the story credible.

Sources: Designing an authentic emotional connection, Four ways designers can help save the world

The strongest awareness campaigns make emotion earned, not added

We believe emotion belongs in B2B awareness campaigns when it reveals something real about the audience, the organisation or the change it enables. A good partner should bring audience understanding, a clear point of view and the discipline to avoid performative authenticity. We have used that approach in technical settings, including an IBM Garage experience designed to help people feel what entering the environment was like, rather than simply describing its features. We also created Built on Genius for Genius Sports, capturing the rush and immersion of sport while showing what data and AI can enable. Our work starts with research and personas, then turns complexity into a story people can recognise and remember.

Sources: Designing an authentic emotional connection, A game plan for success: how B2B brands can tap into the spirit of sport

Stats

Only 26% of B2B buyers gave brands high marks for thought leadership in a 2024 study.

Dentsu

FAQs

Does emotional storytelling work for technical B2B products?

Yes, technical B2B storytelling can use emotion without losing clarity or substance. The emotional element can come from helping people understand the experience, confidence or possibility behind a technical offer, rather than trying to force a dramatic reaction. An IBM Garage project used an immersive experience to evoke what it felt like to enter the environment.

How do we stop emotional brand messaging feeling scripted?

Ground emotional brand messaging in a genuine audience experience and make the feeling relevant to the message. Empathy, audience understanding and a clear sense of what people care about help prevent a campaign from sounding performative. Over-emotional campaigns can fail when audiences see the emotion as manufactured.

Which emotions work best in a B2B awareness campaign?

The right emotion is the one that fits the audience, the organisation and the outcome being communicated. Emotion is broader than humour or sadness: a campaign may create confidence, affinity, excitement, optimism or a sense of belonging. The aim is not to target a feeling at random, but to communicate the experience in a way that is engaging and authentic.

How do I add credible emotion to a B2B awareness campaign?

Build the campaign around a real audience experience, then express the feeling with clarity and restraint.

  1. Find the human experience

    Identify the audience pressure, ambition or change behind the business decision. Use audience research and personas to make the message relevant to people rather than treating the buying group as a faceless organisation.

  2. Choose a fitting feeling

    Select an emotional tone that belongs to the story, such as confidence, hope, pride or connection. Keep the feeling proportionate to the subject, because emotion does not need to mean laughter or tears.

  3. Make the claim real

    Connect the emotional story to the outcomes the organisation enables for customers. Avoid adding emotion as a surface treatment, because audiences can recognise when a campaign's feeling is not genuine.

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