Something shifted in the last few years.
Open LinkedIn. Scroll through your feed. The posts that actually make you stop? They’re not coming from the brands with the biggest budgets or the slickest creative agencies.
They’re coming from actual humans talking like actual humans.
The corporate voice, you know the one I mean, is dying. And frankly, good riddance.
What even Is “corporate voice”?
You’ve seen it a thousand times:
“We’re thrilled to announce…” “Delighted to share…” “Proud to partner with industry-leading…” “Leveraging synergies to drive transformation…”
It’s the language of press releases that sound like they were written by a committee, approved by legal, sanitised by comms, and drained of anything resembling personality.
And for years, we all thought this was “professional.” That B2B marketing required removing any trace of humanity from our communications because otherwise we wouldn’t be taken seriously.
Turns out? The opposite is true.
The brands actually winning right now
Let’s talk about who’s doing this well in the UK market.
Ryanair’s social media is chaotic, self-aware, and absolutely shouldn’t work for an airline. They roast their own passengers. They make memes about their reputation for no-frills service. They respond to complaints with GIFs that basically say “yeah, what did you expect for £9.99?”
Corporate voice? Dead. Brand engagement? Through the roof.
Gymshark doesn’t talk about “leveraging fitness influencer partnerships to maximise brand reach.” They talk about the community they’ve built, the athletes they genuinely admire, and the stuff they’re figuring out as they go. Their founder Ben Francis sounds like Ben Francis, and he’s on YouTube, on LinkedIn, everywhere.
Even in B2B, you’re seeing it.
Monzo revolutionised banking by talking about money the way normal people talk about money. Their blog posts read like helpful mates explaining confusing financial stuff over coffee, not a bank trying to upsell you.
Octopus Energy explains energy tariffs and green technology without sounding like an energy company. Their customer service has personality. Their campaigns have opinions. Their CEO Greg Jackson posts on LinkedIn like a human who happens to run an energy company, not a corporate mouthpiece.
What do all these brands have in common?
They stopped trying to sound like brands. They started sounding like people.
The B2B resistance (and why it’s crumbling)
I get it. B2B is different, right?
We’re selling complex solutions to serious decision-makers. We need to sound credible, authoritative, professional. We can’t just… be casual about it.
Except.
Those serious decision-makers? They’re people. They scroll LinkedIn on their commute. They’re tired of corporate waffle. They want straight answers, not seven paragraphs of positioning before you get to the actual point.
I’ve spent 18 years in B2B marketing. I’ve written the corporate-voice content. I’ve workshopped the perfect “on-brand” messaging. I’ve sanitised perfectly good copy until it said nothing at all.
And you know what performed best? The stuff that sounded like me.
When we launched Research Exchange’s “Built by Wiley. Powered for you” campaign, the content that resonated wasn’t the polished corporate messaging. It was the webinar follow-up articles where we actually explained problems in plain language. The LinkedIn posts where I talked about real challenges editorial teams face without dressing it up in transformation-speak.
The emails that got responses? The ones that sounded like I was explaining something to a colleague, not pitching a product.
What killed the corporate voice
A few things converged to murder corporate speak:
1. Social media made everyone a publisher
Suddenly, individuals had as much reach as brands. And individuals sound like individuals. Brands trying to sound like corporate entities started looking ridiculous next to actual humans having actual conversations.
2. People got really, really good at spotting BS
We’ve been marketed at our entire lives. We can smell inauthenticity from a mile away. Corporate voice reeks of it.
3. LinkedIn changed the game
LinkedIn used to be CV repository. Now it’s where business gets done, where relationships are built, where reputations are made. And the algorithm rewards personality, not polish.
The most successful people on LinkedIn? They’re not posting corporate-approved thought leadership. They’re sharing honest takes, real experiences, actual opinions. Often about stuff their corporate comms team would never approve.
4. The pandemic broke something open
When everyone was working from home in their trackies, on Zoom calls with kids screaming in the background, the facade cracked. We couldn’t maintain the corporate pretence. We were just people, trying to get work done in weird circumstances.
And we realised… maybe we didn’t need to put the facade back up.
5. Buyers got tired
Decision-makers are drowning in sameness. Every supplier claims to be “innovative,” “transformational,” “industry-leading.” None of it means anything anymore.
The brand that just tells you straight what they do and why it matters? That stands out.
What this actually looks like in practice
Killing corporate voice doesn’t mean being unprofessional. It means being human.
Here’s the difference:
Corporate voice: “Our platform leverages cutting-edge AI to optimise editorial workflows and enhance operational efficiency.”
Human voice: “Our AI helps you screen manuscripts faster so you can spend more time on the research that actually matters. Less admin, more science.”
See the difference? Same information. Completely different feel. One sounds like it was written for a board meeting. The other sounds like it was written for the person who’ll actually use it.
The Innocent test
Here’s how I know if something’s slipped into corporate voice:
Could you say this out loud to a colleague without cringing?
If not, rewrite it.
Innocent Drinks has a famous test: if you wouldn’t say it to your mum, don’t put it on the carton.
Same principle applies.
But what about brand guidelines?
Look, I’m not saying throw out your brand guidelines. Consistency matters. Recognisability matters.
But ask yourself: are your brand guidelines helping you sound like you, or are they helping you sound like everyone else?
The best brand voices aren’t about rules for what you can’t say. They’re about clarity on what you stand for and how you talk about it.
Gymshark’s brand voice isn’t “don’t swear and always use title case.” It’s “talk like you’re part of the community, be honest about the journey, celebrate effort over perfection.”
What B2B marketers should do instead
If you’re reading this thinking “yeah but my industry is different / my boss would never approve / our customers expect professionalism”, I hear you.
Start small:
1. Write like you talk Before you write anything, say it out loud. If it sounds weird coming out of your mouth, it’ll sound weird to read.
2. Cut the filler Every time you write “we’re thrilled to announce” or “delighted to share,” delete it. Get to the point. Your audience will thank you.
3. Use “you” and “we,” not “the customer” and “the organisation” You’re talking to people, not entities. Talk like it.
4. Have an opinion Corporate voice is scared of opinions. But opinions are interesting. Positions are memorable. Bland agreement with everything is neither.
5. Let individuals be individuals The best B2B marketing right now? It’s coming from individuals at companies, not from corporate accounts. Empower your people to have voices. Yes, even on LinkedIn.
6. Test it Try one campaign, one email series, one social post with actual personality. See what happens. I bet it outperforms the corporate version.
This isn’t just about big brands
You don’t need a massive budget or a viral social team to sound human. You just need to stop hiding behind corporate language.
I work at Wiley. We’re a 200+ year old academic publisher. Not exactly a scrappy startup known for edgy marketing.
But when I write content for Research Exchange or Publishing Services, I don’t sound like a 200-year-old institution. I sound like someone who understands the problems our customers face and genuinely wants to help solve them.
That’s not revolutionary. That’s just… honest.
What happens next
Corporate voice isn’t completely dead yet. You’ll still see it in press releases, investor reports, and marketing from companies who haven’t figured it out yet.
But it’s dying. And the brands that thrive in the next decade won’t be the ones clinging to “professional” corporate speak.
They’ll be the ones brave enough to sound like themselves.
So here’s my challenge to you:
Look at the last email you sent. The last LinkedIn post you wrote. The last campaign you launched.
Read it out loud.
Does it sound like something a human would actually say?
Or does it sound like it was written by a committee trying not to offend anyone?
If it’s the latter, you know what to do.
Kill the corporate voice. Find your real one.
Your audience will actually listen.
The views expressed in this article are solely my own and do not represent the opinions or positions of my employer.
LAB Marketing 