As brands struggle to break through with their ads and commercials, many strive to tell a story. Storytelling can lure people into an ad, and a well-constructed story can result in the viewer learning something new about, or feeling differently towards the brand. Advertisers who create ad stories that engage and persuade should feel justifiably proud of their accomplishments. That said, for the brand to thrive, and for the advertising and agency to succeed on a deeper and far more powerful level, the brand should have a story that transcends individual ad content and lives across communications platforms and over the years.
Brands that tell stories in their ads win at awards shows and in Super Bowl competitions. But in the real world, where the rubber hits the road and the marketing mix results tell the sales story, many commercials that tell stories lose focus on the brand. The common result is a commercial that is highly engaging but isn’t well-linked to the brand, and thus does not produce the attitudinal or behavior changes intended by the advertiser. This shortcoming can be addressed by developing a campaign in which the brand tells similar stories across ads and platforms, and over some period of time, these particular stories become connected to the brand.
This is all good, and a fine set of stories that is engaging and connected to the brand can clearly enable the brand to achieve strong marketplace results. However, there’s even more benefit to be achieved if the brand – rather than just telling stories – itself has a story, and the entire body of communications is tasked with telling this story.
Here’s the difference: brands that tell stories need to keep coming up with new stories. Brands that have stories speak from a particular position, and every story told about the brand validates and deepens the authenticity of that story. Brands with stories develop connections with consumers that are based on familiarity and trust, not just on the entertainment value of the current commercial or campaign pool.
Often, a story about a brand will come from a particular creative concept developed by the ad agency. But once the campaign has run its course, the series of stories is over and a new story is created. It’s fresh, it’s new, and it might sell product. And if it’s consistent with what the consumer already believes about the brand, it builds the brand’s story. If not, it takes more time to build marketplace momentum (‘wear in’), and probably in the course of wearing in, destroys some of what the consumer came to believe about the brand based on the last set of stories.
What’s needed is a brand story that’s carefully crafted, formalizedand has a strong advocate on the brand team – ideally the CMO or other leading figure. This brand advocate makes sure that everything done by the brand is consistent with and builds the brand story. Not just the ads, but the sponsorships, the promotions, the packaging, the point of sale, the sales force, the line extensions – everything reinforces and tells the brand’s story. And this brand story might evolve over time, just as people evolve and evolve and grow, but the foundational aspects of the brand story are maintained – ensuring authenticity and trust.
As Susan Credle, Global Chief Creative Officer for ad agency FCB explains it, “The most successful brands are purpose-driven and don’t get bored with their story, because it is authentic to them. They retell it over and over again, in new, surprising and creative ways”.
Brand stories, more than ad stories or even campaign stories, are what build brands, and where the real value of advertising can be realized. Does your brand have a story?
