Why Human Storytelling Is Beating Corporate Content

T Rey
Dec 29, 2025
3 min read

There’s a growing gap between the content companies produce and the content people actually trust.

You can feel it the moment you scroll.

With the rise of AI, organizations are publishing more content than ever — but much of it feels hollow. Polished. Technically correct. Emotionally empty. I can usually spot AI-generated content instantly, and I don’t think that’s just because I work in this space. It’s because the human fingerprints are missing.

And in a world saturated with content, those fingerprints matter more than ever.

Where Brands Lose the Plot

Most companies say they’re values-driven. They’ll tell you they support small businesses, equity, innovation, or community. But if that belief isn’t evident in their storytelling — if it’s not reflected in lived experience — it doesn’t feel real.

Take the Big Four consulting firms: Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG. They’re trusted institutions with enormous credibility. Their research is rigorous. Their insights are often excellent. But their content tends to stop short of emotional connection.

They win on authority but leave relatability on the table.

What’s missing is the human experience inside the work — the tension, the uncertainty, the judgment calls, the learning moments. Their content often focuses on outcomes rather than the messy, very human process of navigating complexity. And yet, that’s exactly what people relate to.

Why SMEs and Practitioners Win on Trust

People don’t connect with positioning statements — they connect with stories.

Advertising Week recently reported that storytelling is 22x more memorable than traditional corporate messaging. Add to that the fact that consumers trust SMEs 63% more than large corporations, and the pattern becomes clear.

Trust is built through proximity and perspective.

Small and mid-sized organizations — and the people within them — often outperform large brands in trust because they show their work. They share uncertainty. They talk about what surprised them. They speak in a human voice instead of a corporate one.

That emotional engagement is what makes content stick.

What “Good” Storytelling Actually Looks Like

Great storytelling doesn’t mean unprofessional. It means honest.

I’m seeing the most impact from:

Narrative case studies that show the full arc — challenges, trade-offs, failures, and outcomes.
First-person reflections like “what surprised me,” “what I got wrong,” or “what I’d do differently.”
Subject-matter experts writing in their own voice, not as brand mouthpieces.

This is where many organizations go wrong with employee advocacy. When everyone shares the same pre-approved caption and/or content, it doesn’t feel authentic — it feels automated. And people can tell. And it actually damages credibility and brand authority.

If you want employees to show up as humans, you have to let them be human. Their judgment, context, and perspective are the value.

A powerful framework I return to is this:

Show the decision. Explain the why. Share the outcome.

That’s storytelling rooted in judgment — and judgment is deeply human.

Who’s Doing This Well?

Two brands that consistently stand out to me are Tampa International Airport (TPA) and Wendy’s — for very different reasons.

TPA uses a genuinely human voice. Their content is often observational, sometimes funny, and almost always grounded in real-time experience. They engage directly, listen actively, and understand that travel is stressful — so they use humor and clarity to reduce friction. It’s not performative; it’s empathetic.

Wendy’s, on the other hand, has mastered brand-as-person storytelling. Their voice is culturally fluent, timely, and unmistakably human. It doesn’t feel scripted or automated. It feels like someone who actually understands the internet — and their audience — is at the wheel.

Both brands understand who should speak, what should be said, and where it belongs.