Why human stories beat polished product content

In B2B, people buy from people, even when it's a corporation selling through a corporation to another corporation. In this episode of Content Amplified, Richard Hutton, Associate Vice President of Demand Generation at Sharp, explains how his team shifted from slick, highly produced product content to human-led stories, and why engagement went up when they did. Richard shares the standout example: instead of the usual flying-through-a-galaxy corporate video at the NSCA business leadership conference, his team asked sellers across the country to film one-minute clips on their phones, stitched them together, and watched the room light up recognizing familiar faces. He also takes on the "marketing's not my job" objection with a simple reframe (everyone is in sales), makes the case for case studies built around human outcomes instead of specs, explains why 20 great conversations at a regional event beat 3,000 badge scans at a big trade show, and shares his brand-guardrail philosophy: skip the 16 pages of rules and just tell people to make good choices. If you want your whole team creating content that actually sounds like them, this episode shows you how.

About Richard

Richard Hutton is the Associate Vice President of Demand Generation at Sharp, where he leads a channel-oriented team marketing both through partners and to end clients in the audio visual industry. He joined NEC Display Solutions ten years ago and moved to Sharp when it purchased NEC through a joint venture, and before that he spent years running channel marketing at Samsung. His path into marketing was anything but typical: he started out as a psychiatric nurse and music promoter before landing in IT distribution, where he worked through purchasing, sales, and marketing roles. He still loves music.

Show Notes

• Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-hutton-1407915/