Re-igniting connections through the power of storytelling
2020 changed the way consumers purchased their products and services. Businesses navigated through ever-changing guidelines and limitations, elevated their shopping experience, and focussed on quality customer service to preserve their loyal customer base. As we head into the year 2021, businesses who want to thrive will need to go a step further and adopt a new digital way that solves the disconnect their consumer is feeling. Recent months have brought innovative strategies and effective tools, such as storytelling, to connect brands to customers. Storytelling can create trust and rewarding relationships between you and your audience when
it’s done with an authentic voice, across multiple platforms, and backed by your brand. These deeply crafted connections can give your audience a gripping reason to listen to your call-to-action.
Here are some examples of how businesses used Storytelling to engage their customers in a fragmented media world.
Google Year In Search:
Source: https://blog.google/products/search/2020-year-in-search/
Google is the world’s largest online search engine, with an endless amount of questions being asked every day. Each year Google’s Year In Search video campaign connects their audience to a world bigger than themselves. For “Year In Search 2020?, Google highlighted the historic year by remembering Kobe Bryant’s passing, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the overwhelming aid in Beirut after the blasts, and many more such heartfelt moments. They included a message of empathy and hope and drove the emotional campaign to the viewers’ hearts. The video concluded with a written message telling the viewers to reflect on the year and look forward to the next. This video is one to watch repeatedly to relive 2020 in a three-minute video by Google. Oh, and be ready for all the feels.
Patagonia: Worn Wear Initiative – “The Stories We Wear”
Source: http://www.fusionspark.com/patagonia-good-content/
Patagonia sells clothes full of life that can’t wait for their next adventure, shown through a documentary-style video called “The Stories We Wear.” This short film is a great watch, and also an advertisement without feeling like one. In this video, we follow adventurer Sean Villanueva Atrisco who has worn many of the same clothing items for years as he climbed mountains, swam in the arctic ocean, and explored the world. This film is about his explorations but features the lasting life of his coats and shirts that he’s worn through every trip, not without taking some rips and tears. This video hides an advertisement about long-lasting clothing through an amazing storytelling experience that keeps the viewer inspired and entertained from beginning to end.
New Orleans Tourism:
Source: https://insights.digitalmediasolutions.com/articles/best-pride-marketing-advertising-campaigns
Tourism videos are typically not political and focus on the most well-known places to visit in the city, but New Orleans had a different idea. In this New Orleans ‘Always Open’ video, we see the city of New Orleans’s inclusivity that centers around the LGBTQ+ community and their progression into the world. We watch a parade full of color and inclusivity walk back into the buildings and away from the public and then return to the streets to demonstrate NOLA’s celebration of love and differences. This video advertisement connects to a specific audience through representative content; it also shows the city’s openness, making everyone feel welcomed and celebrated. This unique video experience illustrates the importance of personal connection and spotlights the community for every person looking to travel to New Orleans. Wish you were eating Gumbo right about now, aren’t you?
Always: #LikeAGirl Campaign
Source: https://www.bananakick.com/2019/03/08/how-brand-campaigns-are-empowering-women/
The Always #LikeAGirl campaign begs the question of what does it mean when someone does something “like a girl?” Points in history and pop-culture have defined certain aspects of girlhood as being less than or displaying actions that aren’t as coordinated and as something to be made fun of. Always content starts the conversation on the invalidity of those out-dated ideas and stereotypes. As a women’s hygiene product business, Always educates their audience on the idea that doing anything “like a girl” means doing something with strength, poise, and determination, then calls to redefine that idea from here on out through this short video.
GILLETTE:
Source: https://ignitevisibility.com/6-examples-brands-using-social-media-storytelling-right-way/
Gillette is a well-known men’s shaving razor, and their commercial, ‘Shaquem Griffin: Your Best Never Comes Easy,’ shows why their videos connect with audiences so well. Shaquem Griffin is a first-year linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks who lost his hand at a young age. In the video, we see how he goes from a boy to a man, learning to play football and learning to shave despite a physical impairment. This display of boy-to-manhood is the perfect example of connecting to an audience through their personal experience while engaging them in the story of Griffin’s determined upbringing. This combination of celebrity recognition and heart-felt storytelling creates an experience that demonstrates how Gillette is the best razor a man can have.
Storytelling with the Southern California News Group
The Southern California News’s production house Skyline has contributed to this growing trend of storytelling strategies with many branding partners. Storytelling with Skyline allows your brand to create an influential series of articles or videos for your ideal audience. Our Branded and Custom Content articles allow marketers to deliver their content through differently-styled perspectives. Through a Custom Content campaign, the marketer writes their story for their intended audience to read. By choosing a Branded Content campaign, Skyline develops the message through different strategies such as interviews, webpages, or research to generate an article perfect for the marketer’s agenda. Whereas the articles provide all of the content to read, there are visual aspects to the storytelling strategy that enhances the content.
Our services also incorporate photography and videography that elevates how we share our client’s stories. These products combine to create a campaign connection that drives the call-to-action, promotions, and overall brand to the audience by finding the most effective routes to promote and distribute the content on any or all SCNG news webpages.