Beauty, B2B, and neuroaesthetics: Why content strategy should be better looking

Here’s one that’s filling up mine: neuroaesthetics. This (admittedly grandiose) word comes from the world of neuroscience – frankly, that’s where any self-respecting B2B buzzword originates.

While it isn’t new, neuroaesthetics has been gaining attention of late, to help communicate thinking more creatively, memorably, and emotionally-engagingly. That, in turn, is changing the kind of conversations and relationships we’re having with clients.

What is neuroaesthetics?

Neuroaesthetics is an area of neuroscience interested in how our brains respond to aesthetic beauty. That might involve a work of art, a favorite piece of music, a sigh-inducing sunset, or even a mathematical formula.

By placing subjects in Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners and showing them various stimuli, researchers have found that certain parts of the brain light up – including the ‘rational’ prefrontal cortex and ‘emotional’ limbic systems. Essentially, we can thus observe and measure the subjective ‘feelings’ of wonder and awe that we all experience.

Turning complex strategies into visual stories

Skeptics might wonder, ‘What has the perception of artistic beauty got to do with a B2B strategy deck?’

Well, it’s perhaps easiest to imagine how neuroaesthetics can be applied at the level of creative execution – to help make a beautifully designed logo, website, or campaign, using visually arresting imagery to elicit an emotional response in the audience.

But what about strategy? This is arguably where neuroaesthetics has huge untapped potential. This is where clients have gut reactions and form early opinions about the work to come. There’s an emotional context at play that sets the tone for everything else that follows.

As strategists, it’s an opportunity to bring our thinking to life by telling more compelling visual stories. This includes how we showcase our market research, audience personas, suggested deliverables, and campaign narrative.

If we tell these stories in the right way (consistently, in an ‘always-on’ manner), we can articulate our ideas with greater clarity and imagination. That, in turn, leads to more fruitful conversations with clients who feel genuinely inspired.

Stepping inside the ‘content universe’

No doubt you’ve seen the exact opposite of what I’ve just described – multi-page strategy decks stuffed to the gills with bullet points, acronyms, confusing flowcharts, and uninspiring images intended purely to fill white space.

It’s not pretty or helpful.

A better approach (beyond avoiding these kinds of soul-destroying presentations) uses neuroaesthetics to create what we call a ‘content universe’ (credit to Lisa Skinner at GE Vernova who came up with an earlier version of this idea).

It’s a visual representation of where different types of content (represented as planets) sit within the customer journey (or universe). Different pieces of content occupy different ‘zones’, which helps our clients to understand our overarching strategy and how everything fits together.

Now, is it a work of artistic beauty? That’s perhaps a stretch. But it does serve as a helpful narrative device that articulates the potentially confusing or abstract with a relatable visual metaphor.

Start with beauty in mind

The wild success of platforms like Instagram and TikTok proves the power of the aesthetic. We’re all visual creatures, and it’s a mistake to think this evolutionary trait is somehow abandoned when in B2B. It just isn’t.

As marketers, having the intention of creating more beautiful work is never a bad place to start. It’s a gateway to sharper thinking and simplicity, a device that forces you to chip away at the unnecessarily complex and distracting.

If you’re looking for inspiration, check out the website Information is Beautiful. It shows how even the most esoteric topics can be sumptuously visualized.

So, next time you’re mapping out a strategic vision, before getting lost in the details, why not start with beauty in mind?