Every marketer understands the challenges of creating impactful content that resonates with their audience. It takes a lot of research and strategizing, including understanding your target audience, how to reach them, and putting the right content in front of them that accomplishes the marketing goal, whether it be generating brand awareness, sales or leads.
In today’s digital age, content is EVERYWHERE and people are constantly bombarded with advertisements. This makes it ever more difficult for marketers to sift through all the “noise” and to create a marketing piece that breaks through to their audience. So, how do we, as marketers, get around that? The answer is, great storytelling.
One of my all-time favorite marketing campaigns is the Subaru LOVE campaign. It is Father-Daughter storytelling at its best, but as a Mom with two boys, it still resonated with me immensely. The “Baby Driver” advertisement from the campaign shows a Dad going over safety driving precautions and handing over his car keys to his teenage daughter, who he still sees as his little five-year-old girl.
In this commercial, Subaru cleverly told a story filled with emotional elements that immediately struck a chord with me:
- Seeing our children grow up before our eyes, literally in a flash
- The desire to protect our children and make sure they are safe, always…especially once
they start driving - The tendency to view our children as children, even as they grow up and become adults.
My eyes welled up with tears by the end of the commercial and seven years later, I still remember it. Subaru’s campaign goal was to sell the safety of their cars but they found a creative way to tell a story, deliver that message, AND make an emotional connection with their audience without having to be literal about it.
When it comes to great storytelling, here are some key things to keep in mind. Every story should include:
- Character(s)
- Conflict/Lesson – makes a human connection
- Resolution – wrap up story, but should include a CTA
Storytelling Best Practices:
- Use content to create emotional appeal
- Be consistent and authentic
- Keep story clear and concise
Digital Marketers are tasked with having to create new content regularly and it can be daunting to come up with fresh ideas all the time. Once you are ready to start the content process, the constant to remember is great storytelling. Remember that once you come up with a new piece of content, you can find creative ways of repurposing that content by changing the format, or slightly altering it for different audiences.
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To learn more about how to incorporate storytelling into your marketing efforts and examples of great storytelling content, visit the below links: