Engineering Emotion into Your B2B Video
Aug 19, 2025
Most B2B videos, despite being well-produced and informative, fail to achieve their primary objective: to compel action. They fail not because of what they contain, but because of what they lack. They present a flat world of features and benefits, but they are missing what narrative theorist Robert McKee identifies as the "gap": the space between a character's reasonable expectation and the harsh, uncooperative reality they face. This gap is the source of all conflict, and without conflict, there is no story, no tension, and therefore, no emotional investment from the audience.
Let's clarify what this "failure" looks like in practice. A typical B2B video might open by stating a problem, for example, "Managing sales commissions is complex and time-consuming." It then immediately presents its software as the solution. The viewer is given information, but they are not invited into a struggle. There is no gap because the problem is presented as a static, intellectual concept, not a felt experience.
The viewer is left emotionally inert. They might nod in agreement—"Yes, that is a complex problem"—but they have not been made to feel the anxiety of a payroll deadline, the frustration of a dispute with a top salesperson, or the dread of an audit. Without feeling the pain of the current reality, the "solution" is merely a piece of trivia. It is interesting, but not urgent. It is an answer to a question the viewer has not been emotionally primed to ask. This lack of engineered tension is why so many videos earn a passive nod instead of an active click. They successfully explain, but they fail to create the emotional momentum required for a decision.
To build a repeatable framework for this, we turn to Robert McKee. His book, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, is the operational manual for narrative. While written for screenwriters, its core concepts are directly applicable to building high-stakes, emotionally resonant B2B videos. McKee’s central argument is that story is born from a gap between expectation and result. This gap creates conflict, and conflict creates emotion.
The Three Core Components for Engineering a B2B "Story"
To move from a flat "explainer" to a dynamic "story," we need to engineer three key components from McKee's framework into our video structure.
1. The Inciting Incident: The Day the Old Way Breaks
McKee defines the Inciting Incident as the event that radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonist's life. In B2B video, our customer is the protagonist. The Inciting Incident is the specific, visceral moment their current workflow, process, or tool fails them, creating an undeniable problem.
Weak Inciting Incident (The "Explainer" approach): "Legacy systems are often inefficient." (This is a passive observation).
Strong Inciting Incident (The "Story" approach): Show a sales leader, moments before a critical board meeting, realizing her team's forecast data is wrong because it’s spread across three conflicting spreadsheets. The camera holds on her face as the look of confidence turns to controlled panic.
The second version creates an immediate, empathetic jolt. We feel the stakes. The balance of the protagonist's world has been upset, and now we are invested in seeing it restored.
2. Progressive Complications: Why This Problem is Harder Than It Looks
A common failure mode is to present the problem and immediately solve it. This is a missed opportunity to build tension and demonstrate a deeper understanding of the customer's world. McKee’s principle of Progressive Complications argues that as the protagonist tries to solve the problem, the obstacles should become more difficult, the stakes should rise, and the gap between expectation and reality should widen.
In our B2B context, this means showing why the easy fixes don’t work.
Example System: Let's continue with our sales leader.
Complication 1: She tries to manually fix the spreadsheet. It’s a mess of VLOOKUPs and #REF errors. (Tension increases).
Complication 2: She asks an analyst for help, but he’s using a different version of the report. (The problem is now a team-wide issue).
Complication 3: She realizes the meeting is in 10 minutes. The stakes are now personal and time-sensitive.
By layering these complications, we are not just showing a problem; we are building a case for why a fundamentally new approach is required. We are earning the right to introduce our solution.
3. The Climax: The Moment of Breakthrough
The Climax is the final, irreversible turning point. It’s not the demo of your entire feature set. It is the single, focused moment where the protagonist uses your product to overcome the story's central conflict. The emotional output of this moment is the entire point of the video.
Weak Climax: A montage of UI shots with upbeat music.
Strong Climax: Our sales leader, now using the new platform, clicks a single "unify" button. A clean, trustworthy dashboard appears instantly. She looks not at the screen, but out the window, taking her first calm breath. The feeling isn't "wow, look at that feature." The feeling is relief. It's control restored.
Turning Story Theory into an Operational Playbook
Knowing the theory is one thing; operationalizing it is what drives growth. Here’s how to build these narrative principles into your team's workflow.
Mandate the "Inciting Incident" in Every Brief.
Your creative brief must move from "Target Persona: Marketing Manager" to "Inciting Incident: A Marketing Manager sees her team's campaign launch delayed by a week because of slow creative approvals in email." This forces every project to start with a high-stakes, relatable conflict.
Stress-Test the "Progressive Complications".
During a script review, actively ask: "What happens next? What does she try that doesn't work?" Perhaps she tries a shared folder, but version control becomes a nightmare. Then she tries a messaging app, but feedback gets lost. These layers prove you understand the true depth of her problem.
Isolate and Measure the "Climax".
Define the one emotional beat you are engineering for. For a cybersecurity product, the climax isn't showing a dashboard; it's showing the CISO sleeping soundly through the night. When testing creative with a platform like Optimizing.AI, you can then measure if that specific feeling of "security" or "peace of mind" actually registered with the audience at that exact moment.
By applying McKee's principles, we move beyond feature-listing. We build a system for creating emotional stakes, making our solution feel not just useful, but necessary. We start telling stories that don't just get watched, but get remembered.