Brand Storytelling; You’ve Got It, Tell It.
Presently, there are many testimonies on social media about people graduating from College amidst terrible and challenging conditions.
“I got pregnant when I was in the first year, doctors said I should drop out of school, but I Knew education is key for my daughter and I. I continued, and today, I took the oath. I am a doctor,” Ebele said.
Great testimonies like this show different stories underlying the same certificate that everyone wields.
People tend to relate more with your achievement, when you tell the story behind your achievement. If Ebele, however, tweeted, “today, I am a graduate, and I am grateful,” a lot of people would be bland to the tweet. After all, she is not the only graduate on the timeline.
However, telling the story behind her success singles her out in a good way.
- Every 60 seconds, 700,000 Google searches are performed.
- 5.3 trillion ads are shown online each year.
- The average consumer processes 100,500 digital words daily
- A typical consumer sees more than 5000 ads in a day.
Sometimes, they do not know those are ads. Most times, they see the ads but go on to other things because the ads have not appealed to them, or simply because of digital saturation. How then do you single yourself out?
Brand Storytelling is an emerging aspect of advertising, which creates a unique opportunity of emotional attachment to the brand due to the history, experience or impact of that brand. Remember that brands are not only companies or organizations. You are a brand, I am too.
Forbes’ Celinne Da Costa states
“In today’s fast-paced, overly-automated, and digitally-driven society, humanity is becoming the new premium. The internet constantly rewards us with convenience and instant gratification, making the human touch increasingly more scarce and coveted.”
Celinne further summarized three reasons why brand storytelling is the future of marketing as:
“in the sea of sameness, be unforgettable”
“more than customers, build a tribe”
“be profitable and human”
On Britain and American’s Got Talent, contestants are often asked questions like, “tell us about yourself, why are you here, what will you be performing, and why?”
Judges understand that to appreciate an art/brand, the people/audience need to connect on a deeper level with the art/brand. In appreciating a work of art, you need at least, the history and experience of the artist, for more profound insight. Right?
See your brand as a work of art. How are you telling your story, and how are you monetizing your experiences? The story of a school drop-out founding Microsoft did a lot for the brand.
Facebook did not waste a minute in adopting the same story to market itself. There are a lot of experiences and history behind your brand, and there are a lot of creative ways to tell it. What are you waiting for?
We quickly connected with Kechi Okwuchi, the 2017 finalist of AGT, because we saw her beyond her music, as a survivor, a winner. Same applies to Kodi Lee, whose AGT video has grossed more than 40m views on Youtube in a matter of months.
So, when they sing, we read the deeper meaning and connect tremendously with them and go on to become advocates, sharing their videos and telling people how good they are.
Your brand is a Kechi. Your brand is a Kodi. Would you want people to connect emotionally to the extent of advocating your product everywhere they go?
If you do, there will be a follow up article on how to go about this.
However, follow this account, so you get notified when I post the ‘ways you can connect deeply with your customers through brand storytelling’.
You can also comment why you think brand storytelling is the future of marketing or not.
