Welcome to Cindy’s world.
Hi!
This is Cindy, a visual artist and designer who is also currently a masters student at NYU’s Integrated Marketing program. I will be blogging about my thoughts and explorations in the marketing world in the next few weeks. Feel free to tag along and enjoy the ride with me~
You might wonder how I feel about blogging about marketing in the age of digital media. The straight answer is I don’t know.
In the age of social media, there are so many things happening everywhere all at once and everyone is trying to fight for my attention over the noisy crowd. Instead of being able to open a webpage and read about exactly what I searched for, now I have to dodge around 10 pop-up ads and 5 banner ads to find the almost invisible “x” button that closes the tabs, almost like an aim trainer on a FPS game (if you know what I’m referring to).
Anyhow, my point is: marketing in the age of digital is all about finding a way to standout in a sea of speakers broadcasting the same message over and over again, “look at me, Look At Me, LOOK AT ME!”
It is up to marketers now to use whatever means possible to capture the audience’s attention, and more importantly, to retain them. If you look at TikTok and fast-media culture, it is not hard to make someone laugh from a reel or a meme. However, how many of you can remember the next day or even an hour later what you saw on social media?
This is where storytelling can become effective as it allows the audience to build a deeper emotional connection from the message and hence tap into their long-term memory. Stories make people feel. And people recall emotions that they have sincerely felt way more than facts and surface level information.
This is why I believe strong storytelling is the future of marketing. Much like how filmmakers and visual artists tell stories and convey emotions through their art, marketer now also need to push their creative boundaries to make ‘art’ that emotionally impacts viewers and make them feel something real inside.
As a visual artist myself, I very much understand the importance of storytelling within the realm of illustration and animations. Therefore, I look forward to learning how I can transfer my visual storytelling skills to the digital marketing world to evoke emotion and create meaning in the world.
I am exciting to embark on this journey, so are you?
