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]]>And then I’m standing on a beach as the soft, red sun surrenders into the sea casting flattering shadows and a warm glow over my face. I can see myself on a large monitor, the sunset and shadow playing over my skin as I turn.
And then I see some canapes. On the baize-covered table, just back from the 12m x 4m curved LED wall. And I’m a guest of Film Soho’s V Studio and my client Centtrip, deep in the heart of Soho.
That was about seven weeks ago and I had just spent the previous months talking with producers, financiers and others for Centtrip’s new, long-form, expert report, When Capital Contracts: Navigating the New Economics of Film Finance. It was a delight to see the technology that’s transforming film-making and to chat more socially to the producers and other professionals who were there.
The report launched at Screen Summit 2026 a few weeks later where the theme was Financing the Future of UK Film – very much in line with the report itself. It was very well received at the event and served as a useful conversation-starter for the sales team there. Its content also found its way into the CEO’s talk-track for the panel discussion and into Screen Daily’s review article.
The report was shared by contributors to their networks on LinkedIn and has been at the heart of email and social campaigns generating downloads and sales leads.
In due course, the full report (8,500 words across 48 pages) will be broken down into shorter assets for additional campaigns but, for now, it’s working hard as a complete report:
In general, there are eight reasons to invest in expert reports and seven direct uses. With this project we’re ticking most of the boxes.
This has been a fantastic, fascinating project to be involved in. It’s always rewarding to hear enthusiastic feedback from people reading the report and even more so to see that it’s also doing its commercial job of generating downloads, sales leads, discussions and meetings.
If you’d like to discuss how an expert report can help build your business, please get in touch.
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]]>The post It may be long, but is it good? appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>In Word, =lorem(35,5) will give you a thousand words in tight, punchy paragraphs … but, obviously, meaningless.
AI can give you a thousand, more meaningful, words, but often succeeds in being both flat and over-wrought. Analyst Ben Evans often refers to generative AI as infinite interns. It’s a useful comparison – an intern can produce a useful report but you’d never put that in front of your board without reading it first. But AI’s like a waggy-dog intern in another way, too – its lack of subtlety, its cliched phrasing and anxious need to over-engineer with big words and extreme, declarative statements.
So, how do you really create effective, persuasive content?
It has to begin with a deep understanding of your audience and your offering.
That’s true whether you’re trying to change government opinion, raise investment or sell widgets.
The deep understanding begins with brand values, buyer personas and especially the value proposition and messaging framework.
Then, armed with a clear business objective – are you building awareness, changing attitudes, driving sales? – and an understanding of the gap you need to close, you can create your strategy … and the effective, persuasive content to fill it.
At its simplest, this is a matrix of buyer journey (AIDA + R for retention and advocacy) against decision role (for B2B: BDM, TDM, economic decision maker, end-user, influencer, champion and gatekeeper). What do you need to move each role through each stage?
There are other factors to consider – such as the role, routing and architecture of each piece of content – but the overarching goal is simply to move the buyer into Awareness, through to Action and then Advocacy, whether you’re selling a product, an investment or a point of view.
Some of that will be best achieved by short, punchy content that dives Awareness.
Some of it will be the dry-but-essential, factual content that enables Action (price lists, product specs, T&Cs etc.)
And some of the content you create will be the rich, persuasive and insightful, long-form content that builds credibility and authority, carries your audience through Interest and Desire and helps underpin ongoing Advocacy.
The longest of long-form content is often best considered as the cornerstone around which a campaign is built and from which other derivative content (blog and social posts, articles etc.) can be created.
Long copy sells, but only when it’s earned the right to be long.
That means putting in the work before the words get written: understanding your audience deeply enough to know what moves them, mapping the journey they need to take and building a strategy that holds everything together.
When the foundation is solid, long-form content can then build trust, authority and conviction that delivers against business objectives.
Photo by Jonathan Francisca on Unsplash
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]]>The post The psychology of long-form content appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>There are many overlapping effects at play, some even accidental or incidental to the creation of considered, value-add, long-form content. For example, in good-quality, printed form, a nice weighty report can be a powerful signal of your brand’s seriousness. It clicks so many buyer decision-making heuristics (as described in Robert Cialdini’s seminal book Influence): the social proofs of evident effort signalling credibility, expertise and authority; the evocation of commitment and consistency in the reader/customer; even a degree of reciprocity.
There’s also the effect of immersion, as described by Paul J. Zak, and related to narrative transportation (below).
But, let’s look at two core theories that relate to how the brain processes information.
In 1986, social psychologists Richard Petty and John Cacioppo published their Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion.
The ELM suggests that when someone encounters a message, they process it through one of two routes. The first is the central route, which is a careful, deliberate, analytical engagement with the actual substance of the argument. The second is the peripheral route – a superficial response that relies on surface cues (the heuristics described by Cialdini, Daniel Kahneman and others): Does this person seem credible? Is the design impressive? Is the brand familiar?
Both routes can produce attitude change. The critical difference is what happens next. Attitudes formed through the central route – through genuine engagement with a strong argument – are more durable, more resistant to counter-argument, and more likely to predict actual behaviour. Peripheral-route attitudes are shallower and less stable. They’re the ones that can evaporate when a competitor shows up with a shinier brochure or a slicker video.
What does that mean for content? Short-form content (social posts, 200-word blogs, banner ads and the like) almost inevitably work via the peripheral route. There simply isn’t enough time or cognitive processing power for anything else.
Long-form content, by contrast, creates the conditions for central-route processing. It gives you the space to make a real argument, to address objections, to demonstrate expertise through depth rather than assertion — and to persuade in a meaningful, lasting way.
This is particularly important where the purchase decision is large or complex. A CFO evaluating a six-figure SaaS contract, or a board approving a significant strategic investment need substance to evaluate the solution (and vendor) and reach a decision.
There’s another mechanism at work, too. It’s related to the immersion described by Zak and it’s the narrative transportation theory, proposed by psychologists Melanie Green and Timothy Brock in 2000.
Their research demonstrated that when a reader becomes truly absorbed in a narrative – cognitively, emotionally and imaginatively – they enter a distinct psychological state in which their receptiveness to the beliefs implicit in the story increases significantly. (Green and Brock, 2000)
Simply, a well-told story persuades in ways that a data sheet or snackable content can’t.
Green and Brock’s research showed that the immersive experience of the narrative is doing persuasive work that pure logic, delivered cold, simply can’t replicate.
This isn’t an argument for fiction in B2B content; it’s an argument for narrative structure. The case study that opens with a real challenge, builds through the detail of how it was addressed, and lands on a concrete, credible outcome (Aristotle’s Pity, Fear, Catharsis) is narrative transportation at work. So is the long-form thought leadership piece that begins with a vivid description of the problem your reader is living with right now, before offering a framework for thinking about it differently. The reader is drawn in, their natural resistance drops, and the argument lands more cleanly.
Short-form content can create awareness. It can spark curiosity. In the right hands, it can be memorable. But it can’t engage the central route to persuasion or create the conditions for narrative transportation. There isn’t the narrative space for the creator or the cognitive space for the reader to invoke either.
The peripheral cues that short-form content relies upon – brand recognition, visual design, the implied credibility of an expert, talking head – are real, and they matter. But they produce shallower, less durable attitude change. For high-consideration B2B decisions, that isn’t enough.
Daniel Kahneman’s classic Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) makes the same underlying point. The book describes thinking processes as being either System 1 (fast, intuitive thinking) or System 2 (slow, deliberate thinking). Most easy-to-consume, mostly short-form, content engages System 1. It’s processed quickly, automatically, with low cognitive effort. System 2 is where genuine evaluation, complex reasoning and durable conviction happen. Long-form content, at its best, is one of the few formats that reliably engages it.
Short-form and long-form content serve different purposes at different stages of the buyer journey, and the smartest content strategies will use both deliberately. Short-form for reach; long-form for depth. Short-form to create the conditions for engagement; long-form to convert engagement into conviction.
But in a world seemingly biased towards short-form content, those organisations that invest in well-researched, well-written, long-form content are differentiating themselves in a way that psychology suggests will matter where it counts most: at the point of decision.
As Ogilvy, and the evidence of today’s long-form film and television storytelling, tell us: “Long copy sells.”
Photo by Gabriel Sollmann on Unsplash
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]]>The post Can long copy work in a world of short attention? appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>The danger is that we might be missing our audience.
We worry about the endless scroll, but we also live in a world of long, complex storytelling like Dune (2 films so far, 5 hours); Game of Thrones (8 seasons, 81 hours); Succession (4 seasons, 39 hours); the Lord of the Rings, recently re-released in extended format (over 11 hours, plus another 9 for the Hobbit films); and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall Trilogy (1,900 pages).
The problem isn’t attention, it’s engagement.
And audiences will engage where and when they see value.
Short content can boost vanity metrics like impressions and likes, but you need to ask whether it’s driving meaningful engagement with the ICPs you require?
Shorter content is better for reach, for top-of-funnel awareness and virality, but longer, more immersive content delivers depth of engagement, attitude change, trust, credibility and persuasion. The audience of those who commit to reading long-form content is smaller, of course, but they are much more engaged. They’re further down the funnel and more open to persuasion.
Well-executed, long-form content is also an evergreen asset because it’s built on strategic insight, long-term trends and deeper research, not just a tactical response to moment.
Well-structured, long-form content can:
In good-quality, printed form, a nice weighty report can also be a powerful signal of your brand’s seriousness. It clicks so many buyer decision-making heuristics: the social proofs of evident effort signalling credibility, expertise and authority; the evocation of commitment and consistency in the reader/customer; even a degree of reciprocity.
Well-researched, well-written, long-form content is particularly effective towards the middle and the bottom of the funnel., where prospects are seeking more, and deeper, information, but it can also be effective in generating awareness and interest further up the funnel.
Because it gives space for cogent, coherent argument that includes validation, data, proof points and perspective, long-form content is powerful where your proposition and/or market are complex.
For similar reasons, long-form content is important where the purchase decision is high-consideration or high-risk.
How do we know that longer content is effective in building credibility, authority and trust?
“… particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money.” So said advertising guru David Ogilvy.
There’s another post’s worth of the psychology behind why, but the key takeaway is not to be fooled by the misapplied attention span debate, long-form content helps you cut through complexity with the audience you need.
Photo by Alex Block on Unsplash
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]]>The post Michael Wade on writing appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>… a writer is a person who writes. Not someone who thinks about writing or dresses like a writer or talks about writing, but someone who actually writes.
I was in the very wonderful London Library yesterday and amongst the diligent writers and researchers, and the elegantly casual readers, there’s always someone who dresses like a writer.
Floppy hats, extravagant scarves and interesting boots aside, however,
Writing is more of a craft than a profession. You learn by doing.
Read the full essay on Substack.
Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash
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]]>The post Brand trust and clarity are essential – The Future of FinTech Marketing 2026 appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>One of the headline findings is “Brand is Back”, supported by Building Brand Differentiators being the second highest emerging trend in the survey (after AI).
As the report says,
“[Brand] rises in value because the market is louder, more automated, and more crowded. When many firms can generate “good enough” output quickly, trust and clarity become differentiators.”
But trust, as the old saying goes, can leave on horseback having arrived slowly and deliberately, step by step, on foot.
It takes time and consistency to build.
Trust is essential in fintech markets but, where the market is complex – as in many B2B markets – it requires clarity and fluency (as well as time and consistency) to establish. It’s no surprise therefore that the top GTM strategy “believed to be crucial” for 2026 is Content Marketing (77% of those surveyed).
The necessary speed, reach and variety can be powerfully augmented with AI, but it needs to be grounded in core, cornerstone assets of rich, well-argued, well-grounded, value-add content. Such content takes time to create but has a shelf-life well beyond the ephemera of social posts and banners.
Building quality, evergreen content is an investment in building brand trust.
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash.
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]]>The post 3 simple steps to start measuring content ROI appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>Yes, it can be difficult to attribute the impact of a piece of content to closing a deal when B2B decision cycles are so long and have so many stakeholders. And, full-blown, revenue-attribution models can appear expensive and complicated – even if they deliver the insights you need.
You don’t need to go that far to begin to see which content CTAs, channels and platforms are driving meaningful engagement. But you do need to reach a little beyond simple page views and visitor counts
Here are three simple steps that can help you understand the return on your content investment:
With those basics in place, you’ll soon be able to see which content – and which routes to the content – are having the greatest effect. You can also begin some simple A/B testing to trial different headlines, different social media ad/posts or different email CTAs.
Understanding true ROI on content marketing is critically important, but notoriously difficult. With these three steps, you can begin to see what is playing best with your audience.
(I posted a shorter version of this post on LinkedIn.)
Image: rawpixel-com via https://www.lifeofpix.com/photos/307670
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]]>The post Release it Clean! – HunterGatherer21C.com appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>Today: line editing vs copy editing vs proofreading.
(I originally posted this on LinkedIn.)
Photo by Rey Seven on Unsplash
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]]>The post Evidencing advocacy and extending reach – a Burning Pine case study appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>“No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.”
Our client was a leading global provider of cloud services. Its UK marketing director and PR lead shared a belief in the power of customer evidence that delivered persuasive stories. They engaged Burning Pine to create a body of evidence that reached across geography, vertical, segment and use-case.
Initially, the programme was focused on UK customers but soon expanded, based on results, to include customers in Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. In each case, Burning Pine combined desk research, briefing interviews and end-customer interviews to create the case study.
The result was a rich library of stories where individuals described, in their own words, the challenges they resolved using our client’s technology – authentic, credible, persuasive.
In total, Burning Pine produced one third (32%) of the client’s globally published stories.
Those stories generated over ¾ (78%) of all social shares for the client’s global stories, demonstrating increased customer advocacy and greater reach.
In fact, the client’s six most shared stories were written by Burning Pine.
The sharing of stories by the end-customer and their teams helped drive mind-share and reach. But, the library of authentic and engaging stories also fed sales engagements and additional, more in-depth, content.
Sales teams shared and summarised relevant stories in their proposals.
Burning Pine also created ebooks, blog posts and other long-form content that focused on specific technologies or verticals. Leveraging the library of stories each article was underpinned and underlined by real-world examples, solid data points and end-customer quotes that helped demonstrate the breadth and depth of our client’s expertise.
In this way, the client’s investment in customer evidence not only increased customer advocacy but also improved its power to persuade across different content and channels.
“Burning Pine has a natural ability to glean strong stories from customers and can quickly get under the skin of a business.”
– Client PR Director
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]]>The post “Writing is a form of thinking on the page” – Kathleen Stock appeared first on Burning Pine.
]]>“Writing is a form of thinking on the page. As you write something down, then edit and rearrange it, you literally build a thought. When a machine spews out fully-formed paragraphs for the passive reader to repurpose and call his own, this crucial skill gets lost.”
It reminds me of Michael Gove’s watch-word, “Think in ink.”
If we are trying to communicate (rather than broadcast), especially on complex topics, there’s always merit in putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and working through the thought, the logic and the message . Otherwise, as Stock warns, we’ll be in a world where “there will still be lots of text but there won’t be much writing.”
Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash
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