The real impact often lives one layer deeper

Customer stories are one of the most trusted forms of content in B2B. They bring authenticity, show proof, and help translate your offering into business value. But sometimes, the most compelling voice in the room isn't the buyer. It's the person they serve. The beneficiary. The one whose life, work, or creativity is directly affected. When you shift the lens from customer to customer's customer, the story doesn't just get stronger, it gets more human, more persuasive, and more memorable.

That's what makes the Performing Rights Society video such a compelling example. It tells a story not of data or cloud transformation, but of music, emotion, and financial livelihood. And it's told through the eyes of someone who lives it.

"When you show the benefit to the end user, you show the real value."

Seeing innovation through the customer's customer

The brief was to showcase how PRS uses Microsoft Azure to process royalties for its 125,000 members using cloud platforms to analyse trillions of music plays across the globe. Technically, it's a remarkable feat. What used to take 20 days now takes 11 minutes.

But that story alone risked sounding abstract. The true significance wasn't in the speed of the data pipeline. It was in what that transformation meant to the artists who rely on it. So the creative pivot was simple: don't just talk to PRS. Talk to one of the musicians.

By framing the story through the voice of recording artist Clive (aka Dr. Meaker), the video made something technical feel personal. Clive's royalties come from a huge variety of sources, from festival slots to TV syncs to gyms in Eastern Europe. For him, PRS's work isn't a data challenge. It's income. Independence. Career viability.

"We're not just seeing a platform's capability. We're seeing a human outcome."

From stats to soul — storytelling through performance

Clive's voice brings emotional weight to the narrative. He's articulate, expressive, and fluent, not just about his music, but about what it means to feel seen and supported in a fragmented global industry.

This wasn't accidental. Getting that kind of natural, compelling interview takes more than pressing record. It's about creating the conditions for someone to be themselves, relaxed, thoughtful, generous with their perspective. That starts with the right mindset. Not a formal Q&A, but a conversation. A chance to tell their story, not deliver a script.

And that's where psychology plays a quiet but crucial role. A good interviewer doesn't just ask questions. They listen closely, pick up emotional cues, follow the thread of the conversation, gently guiding but never disrupting the interviewee's thought process.

"The best interviews feel like conversations. Afterwards, people say: 'That didn't feel like an interview at all.'"

Connecting the dots between people, process and platform

By intercutting Clive's perspective with behind-the-scenes insights from PRS and Microsoft, the video strikes a rare balance: personal and technical, emotional and rational.

We learn how Azure enables real-time matching of music usage data. We hear how BI dashboards add visibility. And we see how cloud elasticity drives efficiency. But all of this is grounded in the artist's world. The result is not just a case study. It's a human proof point.

And that's what makes it effective. Because when your audience is a potential buyer of technology, whether in the music industry or beyond, what they really care about is impact. Not just how the system works, but what it makes possible.

"It's not about the cloud. It's about the crowd. The audience. The artists. The impact."

A template for persuasive storytelling

The PRS story is a powerful blueprint for any organisation looking to communicate complex transformation in a relatable way.

Instead of focusing on technology features, it leads with emotional truth. Instead of showing what's been built, it shows what it enables. And instead of making the brand the hero, it makes the beneficiary the centre of the story.

For B2B brands, especially those selling into highly technical or regulated industries, this approach is gold. It turns outcomes into advocacy. It turns data into meaning. And it turns good content into something people remember.

"Don't just show what you do. Show who it helps. That's where the real story begins."