 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Every great marketing campaign relies on being able to communicate your story, whether that be the story of your brand or the products or services that sit at the center of your company. However, brand storytelling is becoming the foundation of many content marketing campaigns and for a good reason. A powerful, creative and insightful way of providing that coveted personal connection between company and customer, if incorporated correctly, storytelling offers a progressive strategy that has the potential to strengthen your brand, drive sales, enhance customer loyalty and in turn improve retention. At first glance the science of storytelling may appear to be fairly straightforward but as is the case with all marketing tactics, ensuring this natural love every human is hardwired to have a good story concisely communicates your brand message isn’t as easy as many marketing professionals make out. The power of storytelling, however, is right there for the taking, and by following these golden rules, you can transform your marketing plan or your client’s for the better....
Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell,” said entrepreneur and marketing guru Seth Godin. On his blog he explained what makes a story great, “A great story is true. Not necessarily because it’s factual, but because it’s consistent and authentic. Consumers are too good at sniffing out inconsistencies for a marketer to get away with a story that’s just slapped on.”
Storytelling has become a skill that business owners can no longer ignore because of its ability to transform how a brand is perceived by potential customers. A brand that is able to tell a great story is more trusted and favored than a brand that doesn’t.
Today, brands can’t afford to be boring and overbearing with the promotion of their products. It turns a lot of consumers off; especially Millennials because they have gained the ability to filter out content that doesn’t benefit or entertain them. Businesses needed to learn how to integrate storytelling into their marketing and communication efforts to make their brands seem more appealing....
Content is the core of any strong digital marketing strategy, and a strong narrative is the foundation of all good content.
When the iconic high-fashion house Chanel sought to revolutionize the way it engaged with customers, content and technology was at the forefront of its approach.
The 105-year-old brand has a clear advantage when it comes to storytelling – a rich history. The legacy of the company’s late founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel is so compelling, that the brand’s insignia – two interlocking C’s – is one of the most recognized and respected in the world.
Not only has the company managed to ramp up engagement with the development of their highly interactive, commerce-driven website, it has astutely leveraged the modernist philosophy of its creator, Ms. Chanel, best exemplified in the following quote...
Lippincott, a brand strategy and design firm, and Hill Holliday, a full-service advertising and marketing agency, released “Welcome to the Human Era,” a report that examines the fundamental decline of consumer trust and the subsequent shift in how brands need to act to garner lasting connections with their customers. The report highlights key characteristics of Human Era brands and defines the behaviors of companies both big and small that are able to break through in this new environment. The full report can be accessed here.
The report asserts that brand-building today can no longer be led by messaging and advertising alone, but rather requires both “story” and “experience” to work together to drive brand favorability. Key characteristics among Human Era brand leaders are that they: have a deep cultural trait of customer empathy; talk and act like people; are open, real, and even flawed; aren’t boring; care intensely about the little things; and empower individuals to be the brand....
Many brands jumped into the real-time marketing fray with the Royals’ latest addition to the family on Monday. This effort wasn’t as effective as what took place during the Super Bowl blackout for a reason I’ll get into in a minute.
Still, I don’t think the Mashable headline, “Brands, Try, Fail to Capitalize on Royal Baby Hype” quite captures the situation. After all, the Oreo Cookie tweet triggered more than 800 retweets and more than 300 favorites, not exactly chopped liver (no charge Nabisco for the cookie filling idea).
Drinking From the Content Marketing Fire Hose As we launched the site, the iQ team started to work with a team of journalists and editorial partners, conducted editorial meetings and worked closely with the Intel social media team to amplify and extend iQ content. Before we knew it, we were beginning to operate a newsroom, managing a robust content machine and starting to see our goals for iQ come to fruition. By end of 2012, iQ was emerging as an essential asset to Intel’s marketing and social media strategy. Although satisfied with the early success of iQ, we knew there were many improvements to be made. In January 2013, iQ version 1 (the current site) was released. Several new changes and strategies were implemented from our learnings since the BETA launch. So what have I learned about content marketing in the last 11 months? I’ve distilled the 12 core lessons for brand publishers organized by the tenets of the iQ content marketing approach; production, process and promotion....
Brand journalism is journalism produced on behalf of a brand But it’s not used just by brands. It can be used by any kind of organisation, or for any cause.
It is as relevant to Amnesty International or the Red Cross as it is to McDonald’s or Coca-Cola. It can be used by everything from a major food manufacturer to a local restaurant; from an educational charity to a particular university or school.
Increasingly, it’s used by any organisation that has contact with the public, including the police and other emergency services, local authorities and government agencies, transport authorities, bus and rail companies and airlines. It’s also used by organisations that work in B2B sectors. So businesses that sell to other organisations use brand journalism to establish themselves as trusted authorities in their field. Any of those organisations can employ journalists and/or journalistic techniques to create compelling content - content that uses all the skills and techniques of traditional journalism to craft a memorable story, and present information that a particular audience needs, wants, values or is entertained by.... [Good look at brand journalism by @AndyBull - JD]
|
As digital video and streaming services continue to recast the viewing landscape, a handful of digital executives and Sundance Film Festival attendees pushed to have the burgeoning videosphere represented during one of filmmaking's highest-profile events—and Rick Parkhill, CEO of VMA Media, made it happen.
After securing support from sponsors Twitter, Fullscreen, Maker, Zefr, Above Average, Hulu and Naritiv, he persuaded festival organizers that this was, in fact, a viable extension, and Digital Storytelling was born. The event kicks off Thursday, Jan. 21, on the eve of the film festival, with additional sponsors including CNN's Courageous content studio, Fox Network Group's True(x) and The Huffington Post signing on....
“Storytelling.” It’s the flavor of the day, whether you’re talking about content marketing, visual communications or public relations, and for good reason. Stories are how humans communicate – with each other individually, across populations and over centuries.
In fact, many organizations are pretty good at identifying and defining their key story lines. The key to success in brand storytelling is in the next step – the strategic deployment of the story. Telling the brand story effectively requires a plan.
And to be clear, we’re not talking about hanging a touchy-feely post up on the blog and then calling it a day. No. Brand storytelling, in this context, means developing a sustained plan to create and execute a strategic approach to telling the brand story, in a way that supports company’s objectives. Personally, I don’t give a hoot about impressions. Let’s gun for something a bit more meaningful....
...But while brand storytelling may be dominating the trade conference stages, it’s not enough on its own for brands aiming to add meaningful value to their customers over the long term.
Strategies for Retention: Own Every Consumer Touch Point
Most content marketers know this particular statistic: 70 percent of consumers prefer getting to know a company via content over ads. To deliver this type of lasting, comprehensive value to their audiences, brands must build their content strategy around three core areas of focus: Foundational content Engagement content Social content...
Businesses are getting better at telling stories through content - either video or text -- and that helps with branding. View these examples to get started.
Brands. Stories. Profits.
Story telling is powerful. Stories help with branding, i.e., making an impression that stands out and sticks in our minds.And businesses are getting better at telling stories through content – whether through video or in text form.
Stories that follow a brand’s theme can be told over and over.Let’s look at some of the best stories in the business and unravel how some brands do storytelling in style...
Why does interruptive marketing and selling make our blood boil? If you answered “Because it wastes our time,” you’d be wrong. While that is definitely true, it’s not what makes us angry, because wasting time isn’t something that intrinsically upsets us. I’ll be the first to admit that at times I get lost down black holes filled with listicles, cat-befriending-dog stories (read without a tissue at your own risk) and “what we should call me” GIFs, and the only redeeming quality of that content is that it makes me happy.
Telemarketers and the like drive us crazy because of one thing: their agenda.
There is no story. They just want our money, and that’s not something we are generally eager to part with in exchange for what we didn’t go looking for in the first place (we’ll happily part with it if we’re just “browsing” in the aisles of Target). Inherently, we don’t want to be “sold.” We feel we’re being tricked. That’s why we avoid the people with clipboards standing in the street and the kiosk people who stare us down in the mall....
“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.” (Marilyn Monroe) Ask a woman about the most aspirational brand of shoes, and chances are you will hear “Louboutin” as an answer. Why? Parisian Christian Louboutin had shoe-making in his vains from early on. A remarkable character that wrote his own story and is now an “icon” in the shoe-world. Louboutin was expelled from school three times and ran away from home at the age of 12, ended up in Egypt and India later on, and then capitalised his interest in cultures into making shoes. At the age of 14 he was already a familiar face at the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère. He’d set his heart on designing shoes for showgirls, and so at 16, pitched up at the Folies Bergère. The rest as they say, is history. Now, Louboutin owns the words “red shoe”, “premium”, “luxury”, “sexy”, and walks amongst the great (LV, YSL, DIOR, CHANEL, Viktor & Rolf, JEAN PAUL GAULTIER) Here are some learnings I take from Louboutin’s strategy... [Great marketing and storytelling lessons ~ Jeff]
|
Discover storytelling tips for your business. Brand storytelling is becoming the foundation of many content marketing campaigns and for a good reason.