Storytelling in marketing may go back to the earliest days of commerce. There was probably a spear maker in the prehistoric era who could move stacks of spears by regaling audiences with tales of how his spears were used to take down the biggest mastodons and fiercest saber-toothed tigers in all the land. The trend has continued ever since. Even if we’re loathe to admit it, many of us have shed tears during a television ad involving a story about a family we’ve known all of 20 seconds. Storytelling works. Make people laugh, cry, remember a character or a story within an image or a short advertisement, and they remember it.
In the article, “Why Storytelling Wins In Marketing,” Forbes reports that the average person sees thousands of ads a day, and storytelling is one of the best ways to stand out among the marketing onslaught. You can use statistics to sell a service or product, but people don’t remember data the same way they remember a story.
Storytelling doesn’t have to involve a written narrative; a story may not need words at all. The Coca Cola polar bears have been the centerpiece of numerous stories, from watching the northern lights, to soaring off a ski jump during the winter Olympics. Whether one takes to the stories of the polar bears or not, the stories make people remember those polar bears and associate them with having a Coke.
As Mail Chimp writes in their blog, storytelling increases engagement, makes a brand much more relatable to its audience, showcases a brand’s personality, and helps that brand stand out. And each story needs to fit the medium, whether that’s a particular social media platform, radio, television, or print.
The stories we tell for marketing purposes will vary from client to client. As marketers, we want to think about the emotion we’re trying to evoke, and how it ties to a service, product and its brand. A program about a chiropractor who specializes in racehorses will tell a different story than a chiropractor who treats elderly patients. It’s up to us as marketers to work with the client to find the best way to tell the most effective stories for them.
What are some of the most effective stories you’ve seen in marketing campaigns? Why did those stories grab you? Think about how those stories relate to the brand next time you’re working on a storytelling campaign.
