A tale as old as time. Brand storytelling isn’t exactly a new concept – but with the explosive growth of social media channels and online marketing, telling compelling brand stories should always be an integral part of your content marketing strategy.
The facts speak for themselves. With stories being 22 times more memorable than facts and figures alone, many industry leaders are now beginning to realise that storytelling is the new strategic imperative of business. Don’t worry, customers are not asking you to reinvent the wheel, but they are asking you to dig deeper when it comes to creating brand stories that resonate with audiences. In an overly-automated, digitally-driven industry, it’s humanity that is becoming the new premium, with brand stories that pull at the heart strings of your audiences being the most effective. Never underestimate the power of a good story.
Companies can no longer afford to be cold and faceless entities; they need to tell impactful stories that serve as proverbial bridges between brands and their consumers. Seek to consistently weave facts and emotions to reinforce your brand in a consistent manner across all communications.
Marketers have been telling brand stories for years through hard-selling advertising pushes, in-person brand experiences, and so on; but to master the art of writing those brand stories as effective pieces of online content is a challenge that few are trained to do – in step the copywriters. Follow Wordsmith as we take you through 3 secrets that brand storytellers use to engage, intrigue and connect with consumers, so that you can start creating compelling brand stories of your own.
1. Infuse personality into your brand stories.
A big mistake that some companies make is to treat brand stories as simply another arrow in their marketing arsenal to fire at whim. True and effective brand storytelling is neither a gimmicky advert nor a hard sales pitch – it’s something more. To successfully evoke emotions, build customer relationships and instil brand loyalty, brand stories need to bring the brand persona and copywriter’s personality centre stage. Sometimes, it’s up to the company itself to seek out customers to tell their story for them – which is exactly what Land Rover achieved to great effect.
To celebrate its 70th Anniversary, the luxury auto brand decided to bring to life the true story of “The Land of Land Rovers”, in a remote area nestled in the Indian Himalayas. Producing a captivating series of stories, Land Rover delved into the unique tales behind local drivers who rely on their fleet of meticulously maintained 1957 Land Rovers as a vital mode of transport along the treacherous mountain roads, with some making a daily 31km journey between the villages of Maneybhanjang and Sandakphu.
This remarkable campaign highlighted the brilliant story behind Land Rover’s most loyal fans – a community of people deep in the Himalayas who have relied on the vehicles for nearly 70 years to transport food and supplies over the mountains to the Nepalese-Indian border. Land Rover’s beautiful storytelling and cinematography not only highlight people’s love for the brand, but also shine a big spotlight on the incredible off-road capabilities and longevity of the vehicles.
2. Give audiences someone to root for.
You can’t deny that some of the best stories out there are when the underdog triumphs. Our brains are hardwired to react positively when someone triumphs against all odds in the face of huge adversity.
As part of a psychological study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, scientists asked 71 participants to imagine that two teams — one ranked remarkably higher than the other — were going to compete head to head in an Olympic swimming event. The findings showed that participants preferred to see the lower-ranked team beat the higher-ranked one.
This doesn’t mean that a company should create fictional undog mascots to tell their brand stories. But it does imply that a brand’s honest rags to riches story may be much more effective than an approach that constantly toots their own horn, claiming that their company’s history was always successful and smooth sailing – because let’s face it, no one likes a show off.
Shinola, a high-end watch brand, knows this all too well, and plays the underdog theory to its strengths, especially when it comes to showcasing their brand’s success in the face of macro-economic adversity.
Shinola was originally founded in Detroit, at a time when the city was moving thousands of manufacturing jobs overseas. Wealthy and middle-class residents were also leaving, turning parts of the city into complete ghost towns. Crime rates were extremely high with buildings left abandoned, and the infrastructure was crumbling – not the best time or place to launch a business.
Shinola, however, saw this as a challenge to bring manufacturing jobs back to Detroit by retraining former auto workers and factory employees to make bicycles and watches. Hatching the business in Detroit – a city synonymous with American hardship, resilience, and sheer craftsmanship demonstrated that the company was selling more than just its watches – it was selling a Detroit comeback. Every time customers buy a chic power strip or a clock with a vintage industrial design, (reminiscent of the GE clocks that used to populate American factories and classrooms in the 1950s), they too can feel like they're doing their part in the fight for Detroit’s survival.
With a deep-rooted affinity for hard-working Detroit citizens looking to put food on the table, Shinola had the perfect platform for sharing their brand story – through their employees. And throughout the years they’ve done this successfully with emotive video storytelling, social media campaigns and more.
Many may have seen Shinola as a fleeting publicity stunt, but president, Jaques Panis, begs to differ. "People forget that there are three big companies in the Detroit area that produce thousands of units a day," says Panis. "Manufacturing is alive and well in Detroit. We're just small-time, a small piece of the puzzle… but the things that are happening here are amazing, and we're proud to be part of that."
3. Don't give it all away.
Ah the cliff-hanger. The intriguing teaser that has us on the edge of our seats. That brilliant piece of episodic content that keeps you coming back for more each week. Why are they so addictive? It’s human instinct to crave resolution and answers. Psychologists call it “the Zeigarnik Effect”, after Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, who came to the conclusion in a series of experiments in Vienna that participants were 90% more likely to remember unfinished tasks (like puzzles or solving math equations) than they were after they finished it. The same applies for your company’s content.
Serialised dramas and soap operas have been using this psychological ploy to their advantage for decades – and recently it’s been making a comeback in marketing. Whether it’s generating curiosity from new audiences in a pre-launch campaign, or entertaining loyal customers with an exciting new twist on an episodic content series – successful marketers are the ones that master the art not giving it all away upfront when it comes to developing brand stories.
Perpetual marketing is in. Leave your audiences wanting more, and you’ll see them return again and again. "Watch This Space" hooks on your Facebook Page, teaser Instagram stories or short cliff-hanger video clips on YouTube have suddenly become all the rage – especially when it comes to the Super Bowl.
Successful Super Bowl campaigns start far before the evening of the first Sunday in February. Brands now see the Super Bowl spot as a foundation for a broader advertising strategy, utilising social media channels and supplementary TV leading up to, and even after the game.
Margaret Johnson, Chief creative officer for Goodby Silverstein & Partners advertising company comments on the effectiveness of the element of surprise, for the short pre-Super Bowl slot. “You tease, and pique their curiosity, you share the spot early so they can talk to their friends about it before the game and look forward to seeing it,” she said. “Then you create a second-screen experience to give the idea dimension and draw in a younger audience that may not care that much about the game. Then you follow up with some postgame content to keep the campaign going. It’s actually a lot more fun.”
It’s sad to say that one storied snack mascot – the 104-year-old spokeslegume, Mr Peanut, paid the ultimate price in one of the most memorable Super Bowl teaser campaigns this year. In a bid to hype its big game commercial and create a literal cliff hanger for the audience, Planters produced an ad featuring Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes in a car crash, where Mr Peanut saved his friends by letting go and falling off a cliff to his (rather-timely) death. But it paid off.
The "death" of the gentlemen legume from Planters was retweeted more than 25,000 times and earned more than 100,000 likes a couple of days after airing. The #RIP hashtag also took off across social media – with die-hard fans offering their condolences – and some doing so in a hugely satirical way. "Mr. Peanut is in Hell. He spent decades as the smiling face of a company that sold the boiled and roasted corpses of his people as a snack," tweeted comedian and writer Patrick Monahan (@pattymo).
A mere 10 days after the sudden death of Mr. Peanut aired, his "funeral," ad was released, with some familiar faces in the crowd, including Mr. Clean and the Kool-Aid Man. In a brilliant plot twist, the brand decided to resurrect their dapper, well-loved ambassador in the form of “Baby Nut,” Mr. Peanut reincarnated – and so the epic brand story continues.
Brand storytelling is no longer just nice to have – it’s become a must have. Not only does it elevate your brand’s visibility, but it also helps to attract new audiences, build customer relationships, instil brand loyalty and drive the bottom line of your business for years to come. Treat it as a compass that guides your content marketing strategy, and you will be rewarded with a brand that is as profitable as it is captivating.