Once upon a time there was a very wise man who had to write an article about storytelling in marketing. He was a highly respected man in the sector thanks to his excellent training, his years of experience and constant learning, so his opinions were always read with interest, taken into account and even analyzed in public debates. This man was so, so happy to be able to write about the art of talking about a product or a brand by telling a story (that and nothing else is storytelling in marketing) that he decided, before starting to write, that he was going to treat himself to a Galician stew, which is one of those holiday delicacies that can now be enjoyed quietly at home without having to cook thanks to Conservas Orilla.
So our seasoned columnist decided to go to the neighborhood supermarket, because he, like Orilla, always liked what was closest, what was most ours. As he walked down the street he imagined the aromas of the chorizo, the chickpeas and the different meats and vegetables at just the right point of cooking for him. He was enjoying that moment so much that, when crossing an avenue, he did not realize that a special transport truck carrying a blade from a windmill had lost its brakes and was heading directly to a point located between the two eyes. of the. There was nothing the unfortunate sage could do to prevent the 32 axles of the truck and its trailer from passing over him one by one, leaving him reduced to a bloody and notoriously two-dimensional pulp from which an eyeball rolled out. Only one shoe survived without flattening, because in these cases one shoe always survives, don’t ask me why.
So, after the irremediable loss of the most authoritative voice, Marketing4eCommerce has had no choice but to entrust me with the joy of writing this article on storytelling in marketing. But you should know that the main ideas of this article are from this wise and deceased man, because that is what ideas have, that they outlive their creators.
what is storytelling
The idea behind the use of storytelling in marketing is as old as marketing itself: tell a story that connects with the emotions of the audience to which it is directed. Obviously, for that you have to be clear about it and know what you are going for. From there, there are many ways to tell stories, but everything must be consistent with the values and attributes of your brand and/or the product in question.
There are people who believe that storytelling is modern just because they have given it a name in English. As I said before, it is very old. Let’s see some examples that already have their years:
A) Musical storytelling in the 80s to promote a colony. Although there are brands that promote their perfumes as if instead of taking a few drops you had to drink them and give you an attack of hallucinations, the good stories are the ones that remain in the memory. And if we think about a colony campaign, who (even if they weren’t born yet) hasn’t heard this song?:
In 20 seconds, with carding and aerobic heaters included, they tell us a story that, situated in the context in which women were still in the process of emancipation and incorporation into the labor market, portrays an entire era. An arrow aimed precisely at women who were joining jobs in male environments and had (in many cases and unfortunately still have) to prove that they were stepping strong.
b) Sell a car without showing the car. It’s about selling how you feel driving that car. And in that case, there is another mythical campaign. Surely you know which one I’m talking about if I ask you a question: Do you like to drive?
30 seconds of pure magic in a true masterpiece that, for me, is the best car ad in recent history. And also a serious risk of amputation of the arm if at that moment a trailer passes on the opposite side, but we are not going to look at those minutiae. This story shows that many times less is more and that when an idea is good all the decorations are superfluous. And of course it tells a story, that of any driver who enjoys the road.
c) The dialectical pirouettes to sell compresses. There has been everything here, from absolutely lysergic campaigns in which it seemed that the pads were smoked instead of used, to others in which it seemed that having a period was the best thing in the world. I keep this one because of how well directed it is at a very specific target: the one about teenage girls getting their period for the first time:
So when someone tells you that marketing storytelling is hip, you can smash the box in their face. Or tell him that you are his menstruation.
Keys to storytelling in marketing
It is not about telling stories without more, but that they are well told. And for that, they need some basic ingredients.
Emotions
A good story connects with the target audience and makes them feel things. Either because he identifies with those who are the protagonists of the story (Christmas lottery campaigns are a mythical example of this), or because he aspires to be like them, like Coca-Cola and the happy people who drink it. Be careful, Coca-Cola is not stupid and does not tell you that drinking it will make you happier, but that happy people drink it. And who does not want to be counted among the happy people? Of course, not everything has to be either tearful or happy, don’t forget that humor, making people laugh, is one of the most powerful emotionsno matter how much the executives of the big brands (with a few honorable exceptions) are genuinely terrified of a campaign based on humor.
Screenplay
If you want to work on storytelling in marketing, you have to have good ideas and know how to create a story with them. A good story has an approach that hooks the viewer from the beginning and arouses their curiosity, a development and a final outcome. But, above all, has a powerful message behind, which is the sediment that we want to remain in the mind of those who see it, read it or listen to it. Good campaigns based on storytelling require a lot of previous script work until we are sure that we have a chance of hitting the nail on the head.
Coherence
Your brand has some values and attributes that you cannot skip the bullfighter just to strike a chord with someone. It would be great to create a story about how a high-end watch survives a heavy metal concert, but it wouldn’t (probably) be oriented to the right target and the brand’s clients wouldn’t understand that it was going off the deep end in that way. Each brand, especially if it is traditional, has a “tone” defined by its values that is difficult to change radically.
simplicity
Less is more. The more complicated the story, the less they will remember it. Good stories tell simple messages and are easy to remember and don’t need much visual fanfare. Many times the obsession with being visually innovative turns what was initially a good story into an unbelievable truño. I am not going to give specific examples of this because my civil liability insurance would not be enough to deal with the demands that would fall like churros, but campaigns that pretend to be storytelling and turn out to be as stupid as trucks, if there are any. Surely many examples come to mind.
Do not put the product with a shoehorn
This, I know, is not usually the responsibility of marketing professionals but of brand managers. You present them with a super cool storytelling campaign in which a powerful message is transmitted, adjusted to the target and to the values of the brand, but then a man or woman with a tie raises his little finger and says: «all that is fantastic, but our chorizos have to come out more. People don’t buy what they don’t see. And you can already have 2 careers, 7 master’s degrees and 30 years of experience, that the donkey is not going to get off. We see the result in the media and in every day: campaigns in which the product has been hammered. Sometimes the message is perfectly understood simply by having the brand logo appear at the end.
Modesty
don’t think you’re great. If the product is the undisputed protagonist of the story, you are going to have to spin very, very fine. A story usually has characters, and they bear the brunt of it. The product remains in the background. People already know what you sell, and they probably know what your products are like. You want to spark an impulse purchase in them by associating your brand with the values underlying the story’s message. If not, it’s not storytelling, it’s something else. And if you want to sell your product as the best, do yourself, your potential customers, and the world a favor and make sure it really is the best. Since the concept of “the best” is subjective 99% of the time, I would swallow my pride.
Clear and easy to remember message
It’s fundamental That message can be summed up in one sentence, call it claim, leitmotiv, hook or whatever you like. That phrase that summarizes the message is what we want to pierce people’s brains and record in their neurons. Yes, I know that today I am a bit gore.
Flip the sales pitch
Instead of trying to create the need by reciting the benefits of your product, your story revolves around that need, which has an emotional component for people, and the product you sell is simply the solution for them. The most intense needs are the emotional ones, don’t forget that.
Storytelling formats in marketing
As your keen minds may have guessed by now, the video format is the king of storytelling in marketing. Normally it is the one that consumes the most resources for its realization and insertion in the mix of online and/or offline media that we are going to use. Does that mean that since professional videos are expensive, small businesses can’t afford to use video? Absolutely not. Fortunately we have social networks and digital media in which the publication of the video is not so expensive (or it is free, if we do not promote it) and we can tell a good story with a home video. What’s more, no one would understand that El Rebollo Bakery spent fifty thousand napos on a video.
Think that a good story can be YOUR story
Throughout my professional life I have met small companies with absolutely fascinating stories… which they did not give the slightest importance to. Sometimes we squeeze our neurons to tell something when we have magnificent stories inside the house.
The story and the message that underlies it must always be the protagonists in all formats. Normally in a storytelling campaign there is usually a video as the central element, and from there the rest of the formats drink from that message, either to reinforce what people have already seen or to pique their curiosity and make them see it. Remember the leitmotif we discussed earlier. That phrase with the key message is the one that will serve to build other non-video formats (static images, social media posts, hashtags, landing pages,…
Facebook Comments
Disqus