Your Message isn’t fighting for attention. It’s fighting for survival.

The Myth of Captured Attention...

The story everyone loves to tell is that attention spans are shrinking.

But that’s not entirely true.

Humans haven’t lost their ability to focus. We’ve just lost the luxury of it.

Our brains are processing more inputs, faster, and in shorter bursts.

That’s adaptation.

Unfortunately, corporate communication didn't get the memo., still writing for the mythical “ideal reader”  sitting at a desk, reading every word.

Assuming our audience's attention is a given:

They opened your email; you have their attention.

They showed up to your town hall; you have their attention.

They downloaded your whitepaper; you definitely have their attention.

Except we don’t.

What we have at best is a fleeting glance to make an impression, which gets interrupted by the competing priorities, and our brain’s natural default to delete.

It's what I affectionately call your audience's Third Space, a landscape of transition moments:

• Checking messages while waiting for a meeting to start

• Reading a snippet of a report between calls

• Glancing at a slide in a group chat

• Listening to a recap in a corridor conversation

Sitting at the back of a taxi, giving directions

Skimming Slack while ordering a coffee.

And in the Third Space, attention isn’t the goal — survival is.

Does your message survive the scroll, the retelling over coffee?

Can someone remember the point of your white paper five days later — even if they forgot your exact words?

That's the new communication Queen.

You don't want to just aim for Attention

You have to aim for Message Survival

Why survival matters

B2B buying cycles are notoriously long. Depending on the industry, a purchase can take anywhere from 3 months to 18 months.

Now imagine every message you write (that strategy deck, campaign pitch, or internal update) gets passed, summarised, misquoted, and reinterpreted by at least 10 other people.

That means your words don’t just need to grab attention in the moment. They need to retain their clarity, meaning, and impact over time.

If your copy is too vague, too flashy, or too dependent on context, it won’t survive being re-read later. And that re-read is where most deals are won and lost.

I’ve spent years working with B2B communication teams and I kept seeing the same thing: brilliant ideas getting lost in the journey.

The Third Space framework holds communicators to higher standards:

• You have to know what truly matters.

• You have to write for clarity

Here are my first 2 steps to make your content survive the journey

Step 1. Design for the “Reteller”

Because the first person won’t be the last one pitching your message.

Most B2B communication dies in translation.

The first person who reads your deck might love it, but they’ll have to retell it to someone else — often without you in the room.

How to survive:

• Write “retellable” lines — short, repeatable phrases others can lift and reuse (e.g., “This helps us reduce decision fatigue across teams” is easier to quote than “Our platform optimises cross-functional workflow alignment”).

• Give your reader talking points, not just product points.

Test: Can your message be retold in 20 seconds by someone who didn’t create it?

Step 2. Anchor to Shared Frictions, Not Just Shared Goals

Committees don’t bond over visions — they bond over headaches.

Every stakeholder has their own KPIs, but what unites them is what’s blocking progress.

Most messaging appeals to a future state (“Imagine if…”). To survive the committee, you need to surface the current friction that multiple roles feel from different angles.

How to survive:

• Identify the “cross-functional pain” (e.g., slow approvals, decision delays, inconsistent data).

• Frame your solution as a bridge between silos, not just a product for one user group.

Test: Can at least 3 roles nod at the same line for different reasons?

So What Does This Mean for You?

Our messages now live in the Third Space.

They’re read while multitasking.

Recalled while distracted.

Repeated by someone who didn’t read the whole thing.

The skill of the modern B2B communicator is knowing how to make an idea survive its inevitable distortion.

If your messaging is getting stuck, I can help you build one that creates movement.

🎯 Hi, I'm Vivien,

I work with Heads of Communications, CMOs, and B2B internal and external comms teams who desperately need messaging that:

• Sticks

• Travels accurately

• Gets repeated and remembered

• Ticks internal alignment

• Creates momentum in buying committees

• And moves decisions forward

  
  

See how I can help you