The Mighty Tales of Storytelling
In a far, far, away kingdom, brands started noticing that their usual sales strategy was not working as usual with regular advertising. Little did they know, times are a’changing and a new trend for sales was coming for the crown in order to protect the realm.
According to William Craig for Forbes, here are five essential elements of powerful brand storytelling:
Have a unique brand narrative.
Know your target audience.
Data plays a supporting role.
Campaigns serve roles in audience stories.
Make it personal
“Dreaming of incredible India”
Photo courtesy of David Hoffman (@davidsbeenhere)
Let us give you an example for you to be prepared to save the princess from the evil witch. A really good example of storytelling with brands is Airbnb. You know them, you’ve used them. But why?
First of all, they focus in one really powerful ally in storytelling – customer service. Airbnb allows hosts to add value and content in order for them to support their experiences, say for example, places nearby, exciting locations and more. They also allow us, the users and consumers, to share our experiences with the place, location, and host. Airbnb wants us all to know everything about everything both ways.
By doing this, Airbnb is letting us know that the hosts and users are the brand. Their strategy is not based on their “brand” itself, and that’s why they don’t try to tell a story focused on their brand. Instead, it allows their users to tell their testimonies about their experiences and all that it has to offer. It is such a priority for them that they even advertised it as Stories from the Airbnb Community.
We already know what you’re thinking, “asking for customer feedback is not storytelling, honey”, but here’s the thing. Airbnb compilates customer experiences and they use that feedback and apply it to their strategy as techniques to connect with their target audience on a personal level. By humanizing the brand, they can establish an affiliation with any new and core users because everyone is always paying attention to any past stories and experiences, rather than focusing on the brand itself.
“We remember information far better when it’s in the form of story rather than as a list of facts. People tell stories, art tells stories, TV tells stories, ads tell stories… so it seems straightforward enough when a marketer talks about ‘storytelling’, we know what they mean…”
— Christopher Ratcliff of #Econsultancy
Influencers can be a powerful ally in storytelling strategies. Using them to create value by sharing organic experiences with any brand is key. One of the members of our #GNBFAMILY, David Hoffmann (@davidsbeenhere) made storytelling his life by traveling all over the world and producing quality content about the places he’s been. Follow him and you’ll know about the culture, the places he’s been, and the must-see exotic aspects of any part of the world. The high level of quality and the value that David puts into the content he creates is exactly what your brand should be doing if you want to get it into the storytelling game.
So if what you’re looking for is someone to tell the story of your brand and to tell it right, don’t forget to check us out, we’ll make sure you find the gold pot at the end of the rainbow 😉