Why B2B Content Needs Its Champagne Moments

I was staring at my ever-expanding collection of books the other night, looking for my next re-read, when I had a sudden realisation. I haven’t read a book in electronic format for months.

I picked up my device to double-check and, sure enough, my Kindle app had even been offloaded because I hadn’t touched it for so long.

That might not sound remarkable, except I’m a voracious reader. Fiction, non-fiction; you name it, I’ll read it. For years, the accessibility and affordability of the Kindle store meant I sometimes tore through five or ten books a week.

But lately, I’ve been in retreat. Fatigued by the sea of digital content I swim in every day, I’ve gone back to analogue. Back to the familiar comfort of pages I’ve collected (and hoarded) over the course of my adult life.

Which got me thinking. If someone who devours words both for a living and for personal enjoyment is fatigued by digital content, what does that say about the audiences we’re all trying to reach?

Hello old friends... turns out nothing digital can quite compete with the satisfaction of my colour-coded bookshelf.

Content as commodity

If I'm feeling this digital fatigue, imagine your poor customers. Their inboxes, feeds and search results are flooded with content at industrial scale.

AI has made it faster and cheaper than ever to produce. What used to be the hero asset, typically the white paper a team would labour over with an external specialist for weeks, can now be pumped out every week, or even every day if you really want to. It probably won't be amazing in terms of quality, but it will do its job. Not great, not terrible. Just utility.

And utility is fine. It feeds the engine and keeps you visible through a long sales cycle. But utility content is the equivalent of bread and water. It's necessary, but isn't particularly memorable. A commodity, if you will.

From commodity to gift

So what comes next?

Because here’s the thing: human beings don’t just want what feeds us. We crave what delights us. We want the moments that shimmer. We want the diamonds, the champagne, the rare night out at a fancy restaurant.

Marketing is no different. Scale keeps you visible, but it will not make you unforgettable. For that, you need to choose your moments to really shine.

That means looking at your annual calendar and deliberately building in opportunities to shine. Not just another AI-generated campaign asset, because everyone else is doing those, but something rare, crafted and unmistakably human. The kind of piece your customer pauses over and maybe even keeps.

It's the steak-and-lobster meal after months of Vegemite sandwiches. We look forward to it and remember it because it's scarce.

Why scarcity works

It comes back to basic human psychology. We're drawn to what's rare. We want what we can't easily have. It's the same instinct that makes people queue overnight for a limited sneaker drop or pay a premium to join members-only clubs. Scarcity signals value.

Content works the same way. When it's everywhere in our digital world, like it is right now, it fades into the background, no matter how useful and accurate it might be. But when something feels rare - when it carries the fingerprints of care, or when it feels like an invitation into a smaller circle - it stands out. It gets noticed and remembered.

It's the same reason I’ve found myself retreating to my bookshelf instead of my Kindle. The device gives me endless choice and infinite scale. I don't even really have to decide what to read next as the algorithm will suggest something for me. Yet it's the feel of paper and the memories bound up in those books that I value most right now.

That's the opportunity. Your everyday content is the staples, the bread and water that keeps the engine running. Your scarce, shimmering moments are the champagne and diamonds. They're the rare night out you will always remember.

Creating moments that shimmer

How do you create those rare, shimmering moments? Start by asking "what if" and assume nothing is out of reach or out of budget, then refine your list from there.

What if your CEO wrote a short book and you produced a limited-run print edition, hand-delivered to your top 50 prospects with a handwritten note?

What if instead of another white paper PDF, you sent (yes, in the mail) a beautifully designed fold-out map that charted the future of your industry?

What if you created a quarterly zine, hand-illustrated, unexpected, something your audience might actually want to keep on their desk?

What if your next case study was written like a storybook, designed to be read and shared rather than skimmed and filed away?

None of these are out of reach. In fact, they’re more than doable with the support of AI tools. However, the point is that they must come out looking and feeling uniquely human. Your customers will sit up and pay attention when they see the fingerprints of care. As humans, we're hard-wired to respond when we sense that someone has dreamed something up, just for us.

The human rule

At scale, AI can feed the engine, however it can't create the shimmer. That uniquely human moment that is both rare and valuable. That comes from human creativity and care.

So unleash the creative beast. Think big, but stay within budget. The one rule is that whatever you create, there must be no doubt that a human dreamed it up.

Your customers will feel the difference and notice the care. In a world drowning in content, they will remember the one piece that shimmered.

Want to brainstorm your own shimmering moments? Get in touch, because I’d love to explore it with you.

📞 Book a quick discovery call