Putting human emotion at the heart of B2B: Alex Walters, Papaya Global

In this episode of The Changemakers, which was recorded as part of our virtual summit Bring Your Own Bold, Dave Corlett, Business Director at Shaped By sits down with Alex Walters from Papaya Global to tackle the "super meaty topic" of humanising B2B brands. Together they unpack:

• Why Alex believes 90% of the B2B world is failing to crack the human element, defaulting to "grey" because of a primal fear of people not liking their tone.
• The insidious "herd mentality" that causes B2B brands to blend and converge around safe, jargon-filled design and copy.
• The biggest internal challenge of brand building: winning hearts and minds by getting people to view their brand from the perspective of an outsider.
• The strategic reason for B2B FinTech to invest in a Super Bowl ad—and how they created a secondary content layer that generated 250 pieces of Tier 1 media coverage.

This is a very insightful conversation for any marketing or creative leader who is ready to make a difference with their brand.

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Timestamps:

00:34 - The primal fear and why 90% of the industry defaults to 'grey.'

03:17 - The herd mentality and B2B brands blending in.

05:19 - Papaya Global's story: How they became a globally recognised brand.

06:41 - Owning the narrative: Why the tagline is "How the world gets paid."

07:25 - The biggest internal battle: Winning hearts and minds inside the business.

08:35 - The "Air" thought exercise: Helping people see the brand as an outsider.

09:59 - The sliding scale of humanity: Humour fades closer to the customer.

11:41 - The strategic reason for a Super Bowl ad (and why a B2B FinTech did it).

13:41 - The PR angle: Generating 250 pieces of coverage because the ad became the story.

16:32 - The viral AI activation: Allowing users to put their face in the ad.

18:24 - Balancing emotional connection with rational confidence for multi-million dollar decisions.

21:48 - Alex's first pure B2B SaaS role: The challenges of scale, speed, and complexity.

23:14 - The job of a creative: Understanding the product at a deep level to communicate its value.

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