The Evolution Of Strategic Brand Storytelling

Good marketing is good storytelling and for a product to be successful in this competitive era it must have an engaging story.  It may educate, inspire or entertain, but ultimately it must be memorable and it must extend across numerous media platforms.

As agencies, we must therefore figure out how to strategically craft the story structure of the brand using all the tools at our disposal.  Today’s marketer must think about story first before selling, because the way to the audience’s heart (and loyalty) is through compelling and memorable storytelling. In short, the foreseeable future of advertising may be less like David Ogilvy and more like Syd Field  and Joseph Campbell.

Field's most notable contribution is his articulation of the ideal storytelling paradigm "three-act structure".  Leveraging Field’s screenwriting devices such as the inciting incident, the controlling idea and genre, allows a brand story structure to be developed that motivates target customers, provides strategic clarity, builds emotional connection and most importantly, identifies the unique and authentic company characteristics that drive all brand story execution.

Joseph Campbell extends the modern storyteller an exploration of the classic hero cycle, including consistent and enduring hero patterns in literature, films, and real life.  Campbell essentially demonstrates how to apply the power of myth and symbolism with his 17 steps.

Ultimately, this power resides in the marketers' ability to cloak their product in the universal dreams, fantasies, and values of the masses.  We are therefore creating and selling modern myths that leverage the collective pool of cultural, psychological and mythical elements to create a "brand mythology."

Developing a compelling story for your brand is not an exercise in copywriting, instead strategic brand storytelling expresses the universal and differentiating truths behind your marketing.  If done effectively, brand storytelling captures engagement, defines and extends a winning narrative, responds to competitive threats, builds an emotional connection, shapes perceptions, and anchors the brand culture with an ‘ownable’ story that resonates with consumers.

The story itself is more important than the product or service.  As American Demographics put it, new media consumers will “be more tolerant of advertising because it will be more appropriate and customized.” In the new media, the goal of the marketing message is not the “purchase,” but “further interaction.” 

As life becomes a “perpetual marketing event” we will no longer be able to discern where advertising begins and where it ends. In a realm that could have been designed by Kafka, we shall all awake not as giant insects but as “productive reach” targets of an integrated brand story where we are the hero.

Need some help crafting an ‘ownable’ brand story that resonates with consumers?  We're here to help.

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Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada. We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future - and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or if you have any questions contact us directly. 

Asking The Right Questions

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” ― Albert Einstein

I had an old, grizzled Creative Director at an agency I used to work at that frequently said to clients, “if we could all agree on what the question is we could probably find an answer to it.”  He was right in many ways.   

The right questions are the foundation of any solid work. The quality of a solution rests on the right understanding of the problem. This is no less true when it comes to digital marketing and design. The first step therefore in any project should be to ask questions and listen.

Digital marketing and design never have a one size fits all solution. Each business has different markets and people that they serve, different products they sell, and different ways they communicate. For example, a tech company, a dentist, and a restaurant are all going to use digital marketing in different ways.

One may want to reach a nationwide audience but really only serve particular types of people and occupations. Another might serve almost anyone but only in a local geographical area. The bottom line is that cookie cutter solutions, whether they come from a blogger, an e-book, or by observing other brands, aren’t always going to work. It’s important to ask the right questions (and many of them) before you start trying to provide the right answers.

So, you’re probably asking - what are some of the right questions to begin with?  Let’s start here.

Who are you as a company?  If you don’t know who you are, it will be hard to define any of the other questions. What is your area of focus? Do you make a particular product? Provide a unique service?

Who is my ideal customer?  Once you’ve answered the first question, it will be easier to answer this question. Who are you targeting? Are you using analysis to define your ideal customer or your gut?

How am I uniquely suited to serving my ideal customer?  What can you do that others in your space can’t?  There must be something.  What separates you from the competition? What will allow you to stand out from your competitors in your space?

Where does my ideal customer live, work, shop, etc?  Once you know who you are, who you’re looking for, and what unique value you bring to them, you need to figure out how you reach them? Will you need a website? Online advertising? Social media marketing? Maybe a Billboard?

Where do I want my business to be in six months?  How about a year?  Knowing how much money you want (and need) to bring in over the next six months will help you focus on the key areas you need to invest in to get there?  This focus will help you find the key levers that will allow you to grow and begin moving those levers.

What triggers my ideal customer to think of me? Is there a particular problem that causes your ideal customer to think of you? What brings you to the top-of-mind for them? Is it an email? A social media post? A physical loyalty punch-card in their wallet?

How much time and money am I prepared to invest into the solution? This is the key question that comes after all the previous questions. Once you know about yourself, your ideal customers, how to reach them, how to get their attention, and where you want to be in six months - you can then make sound decisions about how much you can wisely invest into your methods to ensure you still get a reasonable return on investment.

Certainly it’s an overused quote that is attributed to any number of people but it’s absolutely true - “the best way to predict your future is to create it.”  Need some help prototyping your future path?  We’re here to help.

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Goodbuzz is a digital agency based in Toronto, Canada. We help brands create and capture value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace. We prototype the future - and believe the best way to predict it - is to create it.  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or if you have any questions contact Goodbuzz directly.

 

The State of Digital Marketing In 2015 - Trends and Analysis

It’s clear that we live in a fast moving, hyper-transparent and digitized age. On all levels. Rapid change is the key defining reality of our era. Companies either drive it, adapt to it, or succumb to it. Some may feel threatened by this trend, but we see it as an excellent opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves.  You just need to know where it’s all going.

It also helps to understand that there are no real boundaries today between digital marketing, design, content, advertising, retail design and other disciplines. The distinctions are artificial. In fact, for the consumer, almost every moment in their day-to-day life involves an interaction with a brand, and all are equally important. Every touch point must therefore be carefully created to provide a rich and consistent experience.

If, as Marshall McLuhan espoused, “the media is the message” then the consumer is the medium today.  Positive endorsement from other consumers is the most powerful media available to brands. This is especially true in today’s content- saturated world.  Audiences are no longer swayed by messaging - it takes coherent, immersive experiences that create conversational capital. Brands must earn consumer attention by providing value in the form of entertainment, information, and utility.

That said, to assist in navigating through this rapidly changing competitive environment here are our predictions for 2015.

Mobile-optimization

Optimizing for mobile has been a significant priority for businesses in 2014, but 2015 will be the year that mobile strategies move beyond simply having a responsive site or mobile app, and focus on mobile-optimized content and social media marketing as well.

We know that Google has been placing additional emphasis on how mobile-friendly sites are; in fact, they’ve stated that mobile usability is now “relevant for optimal search results.” This emphasis is apparent in the recent launch of a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools called Mobile Usability.

2015 will see businesses finally incorporating mobile into all areas of their digital marketing: a fully responsive website, mobile ads, and separate content specifically for mobile website users. Businesses will also begin to realize the necessity of having a mobile social media strategy that considers how mobile users consume and interact with social media posts.

Social media spend will increase significantly

Brands will finally realize the importance of social media marketing.  As organic post reach continues to fall, and as platforms like Facebook further restrict what types of posts can be shown in users’ feeds, paid advertising is only going to increase as businesses struggle to maintain traffic and sales from social media channels.

Some businesses are seeing positive results from their investment in social media (some are not), including increased exposure and traffic, and are seeing paid social ads as the way to scale these results.  Twitter’s new advertising options (beta) for example has transactional payment triggered by specific actions like website clicks, app downloads and email opt-ins.  This will mean small to medium-sized businesses will be far more likely to invest in these objective-based campaigns.  Note also that Micro-sites will also be used far more in 2015 for promotional activities as they help direct traffic to the main site and thus facilitate or bolster it’s popularity.

Inbound + Content marketing will be (even) bigger than ever

According to the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks report, 93% of B2B marketers said they used content marketing in 2014, and 42% said they considered their strategy effective (up from 36% last year).

As marketers continue to see the benefits of their content strategies, a portion of the money previously earmarked for search engine PPC, SEO and social media reach will be re-allocated to content marketing efforts.  A major struggle, however, will be finding ways to stand out amidst the throngs of other content vying for attention. Case studies, video content, research-intensive content, and authoritative content will be what give businesses an advantage over their competitors.

Businesses will also increasingly be willing to invest in mobile-specific content, including creating short-form content that’s easily readable on mobile devices, understanding their audience’s mobile habits and putting more emphasis on video and visual content that’s easily consumed via mobile.

Email marketing will receive a renewed focus

With social networks reducing the amount of visibility brands and businesses receive and with search engines intimidating business owners and marketers with ever-increasing complexity of their ranking algorithms, businesses will return to the one marketing asset that they can control entirely; their email list. This renewed focus on email marketing will intertwine with content marketing to blur the lines between e-mail and content marketing.

As brands realize the value of content marketing, they’ll begin to discover ways to streamline their email content in order to avoid redundancy.  One way in which they’ll do this is to repurpose existing content into downloadable PDF’s (such as whitepapers or value-added content), which can be offered as opt-in incentives to build an email list.

Brands will also begin to realize the necessity of differentiating themselves from their competitors when it comes to email marketing. In HubSpot’s 2014 Science of Email report, respondents reported a significant decline in how often they bought a product or service from email messages they had received (35% said “never” in 2014 compared to 25% in 2011). This finding underlines the importance of businesses employing creative, relationship-based strategies to their email marketing rather than just attempting to make a quick sale.  Think “less shotgun, more sniper rifle.”

The lines between SEO, content marketing and social media will become even more blurred

SEO and content marketing will continue to co-exist as two separate but intertwined disciplines that rely on each other for success. That said, content marketing is now the primary influencer of search visibility. Businesses that don’t invest in a solid content strategy will discover that their SEO campaigns are ineffective, at best, and damaging to their search visibility, at worst.

SEO will come to be seen more as a subset of online marketing, dealing with technical aspects such as meta-tags, indexing issues, penalty recovery, and keyword research. Social media, on the other hand, will come to be seen as a necessary amplifier of any content strategy. While businesses have been focused on creating high-quality content, less focus has been given to promoting and distributing that content.

Businesses will also increasingly realize the other important benefit of social media, including increased brand recognition and brand authority, improved customer insights and higher conversion rates.

Brands will scramble to humanize

With the rise of social media, brands will realize that their customers are on social media channels to interact with other people, not with brands and corporate-sounding lingo. Brands that are able to connect with their audience on a human-level will enjoy higher conversion rates, better brand loyalty, faster audience growth, and happier customers.

A company’s ability to humanize their brand (and find their unique brand voice) will be the single most important success factor using social media in 2015. Brands who engage and develop authentic relationships with their fans, followers and email subscribers will see tremendous benefits, all of which will ultimately increase their bottom line and ROI.

Marketers will find new ways of making native advertising more relevant (and less promotional)

With steadily decreasing click-through rates (CTR) over the past few years, businesses are realizing the ineffectiveness of banner advertising for driving sales. While increased visibility is still a benefit of banner ads, small to medium-sized business looking for results will be less inclined to invest in channels that don’t offer a calculable ROI.

With the increase in popularity of native ads, marketers and publishers will constantly be looking for new ways to mimic editorial content while remaining transparent to website visitors. 2015 will see collaborations between publishers and brands whereby sponsored content is specifically created to be shown alongside the primary content; in this way, native ads will not be promotional in nature, but instead will offer relevant and engaging supplementary content.

More and more, marketing and communications must widen their horizons and embrace the fact that, for brands, speaking to “consumers” is just not enough. Yes, we all are consumers and most of us accept this reality. But a more meaningful way of engaging people is to recognize that they are also, if not primarily, humans, fans, users, visitors, or guests (depending on the context). Your ability to develop rich experiences is rooted in this understanding.  Ultimately, focus less on crafting moments and more on creating movements. 

Have questions?  We’re here to help.  Drop us a line at info@goodbuzz.ca or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

The Trials And Tribulations of Marketing Alcohol

The global alcoholic drinks industry is expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2014, according to MarketLine. Market volume is predicted to reach almost 210 billion liters in 2014, a 10% increase in five years and the industry is characterized by increasing fragmentation (with the three leading companies holding almost 40% of overall market volume.) Alcohol marketing ranges from mass media advertising to sponsorship of events, product placement, internet, merchandise, usage of other products connected with alcohol brands, social networks etc.

So you think it would be fun to work on an alcohol brand?  We have certainly had our share of experiences over the years with brands like Mikes Hard Lemonade, Molson Canadian, Molson Dry, Rickard’s, Creemore, Heineken, and Coors Light to name a few.  This experience has taught us a number of lessons chiefly that the alcohol industry is a crowded one. 

You're fighting for shelf space where people judge you by your label, it's highly regulated (especially in Ontario and Canada,) and while alcohol marketing might sound a lot more sexy than whatever you're selling, it's really, really hard work.  But that doesn't mean you have a Super Bowl commercial or buy a billboard to get attention or disrupt.  There are a number of great examples of clever creativity from alcohol brands - both big and small.  For example:

Disruption 101: Make a spectacle of yourself

To celebrate their "Anytime Ale," Austin Beerworks created a limited edition 99-pack of beer for $99. At seven-feet long, this thing takes two people to carry out of the store (if you can find it). Since they only released a limited amount of these 99-packs, Austin Beerworks gave clues as to which grocery stores and gas stations around town would have them in stock on their social media accounts. People were lining up outside of convenience stores for hours to be the first to get them.

The lesson: Austin Beerworks didn't change their product or spend a ton on advertising to spread the word. Instead, they relied on the exclusivity to build up excitement and the spectacle of a seven-foot-long box of beer to keep it going. Even better, a 99-pack of beer is a perfect excuse to have a party and tell even more people about Austin Beerworks.

Exclusivity 101: Send them a golden ticket

We've talked about Maker's Mark's amazing Ambassador program before. It's all about helping their biggest fans take ownership of the brand and take pride in talking about it. When you sign up, you get your name on a barrel plaque. Once the bourbon in that barrel matures, they send you a golden ticket for the opportunity to come pick up your personal bottle from the batch and hand dip it in their iconic red wax.

The lesson: It doesn't get much more personal than that for a distillery churning out mass quantities of bourbon every day. Your customers love feeling a personal connection to your stuff, and Maker's Mark proves you don't have to run a small shop to pull it off.

Gamification 101: Product as Conversation Starter

Did you know that Pabst Blue Ribbon's beer bottles have playing cards printed underneath their caps? Or that Lone Star bottle caps have riddles written on them? These aren't just fun little gimmicks. They're conversation-starters. You can make a game out of the PBR "cards" you collect or ask your friends to help you solve Lone Star's bottle cap riddle (because they're not always easy).

The lesson: The more excuses (aka opportunities) you give your customers to talk to other people, the more they'll talk about your product.

For more unique insights in the world of participatory brand marketing please follow Goodbuzz on Twitter or Facebook. 

A Brief History Of Social Media

For those of you living in a cave, SOCIAL MEDIA are Internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio. At these Web sites, individuals and groups create and exchange content and engage in person-to-person conversations. They appear in many forms including blogs and microblogs, forums and message boards, social networks, wikis, virtual worlds, social bookmarking, tagging and news, writing communities, digital storytelling and scrapbooking, and data, content, image and video sharing, podcast portals, and collective intelligence.  

From a marketing standpoint however, the history of Social Media probably looks more like this:

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V56.0]

The Mayo Clinic set up a video booth to record their patients, staff and volunteers' favourite moment, story, or memory of the center and published them as a three-part video series on YouTube - Mayo Clinic

In addition to "fan appreciation day" (where 1,000 fans were invited to attend a private screening) USA Network is engaging fans with a new meme and Tumblr blog to promote their comedy/drama "Psych." - ClickZ

Pedigree focuses on saving abandoned dogs from their 'Last Walk' by urging users (via website - http://bit.ly/nd1tz2) to take a dog for a virtual walk around the Internet (and Pedigree will donate £1 to the adoption drive.) -Brand Republic

If you use trending hashtag's to amplify your tweets - you'll appreciate this free tool. TRENDSMAP extends real-time twitter trends from anywhere in the world – www.trendsmap.com 

U.S. GOVERNMENT agencies National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Centers for Disease Control, Unites States Geological Survey, and NASA are now using YouTube to get their message across to the public - Mashable

Pepsi’s co-viewing (aka social TV) platform ‘Pulse’ is designed to get the most out of their "X-factor" sponsorship by extending viewers a way to interact with each other and the show – Overview  - A corresponding Pepsi 'Sound Off' platform (modeled after Twitter) is a place for fans to connect during shows and incorporates a gaming mechanism.

WALMART is using a new Facebook application that localizes marketing for each of their stores to give customers more relevant communications about deals, events, and products -Ad Age

We love campaigns that integrate real-world social (api) data to enhance the user experience (i.e. Intel's 'Museum of Me' and Toyota's "Your Other You"). ‘Take This Lollipop' is a PSA for internet privacy however that takes the concept to a whole new level – Website

VOLKSWAGEN (Canada) "Art Heist" UGC campaign has fans who participated and "stole" the paintings sharing their story on Facebook and Twitter under the #VWArtHeist hashtag - PSFK

Luxury brands BERGDORF GOODMAN, GUCCI, MERCEDES-BENZ, JIMMY CHOO, and more are connecting with fans in new ways on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and blogs -Luxury Daily

If weather is all one cares about, Virgin’s app lets you specify the exact type of weather you want on vacation and maximum budget – and the app serendipitously suggests your travel destination to ensure the perfect weather. Simple. Branded Utility courtesy of the ever impressive Miami Ad School – Case Study (embedded below).

REI discuss how they utilize social media sites for each REI store to develop a better local connection with their customers - Vimeo

Through We Are Social (London) the HEINZ "Get Well Soup" campaign lets Facebook users select a flavour and enter the name of their sick friend. They can then send the can of soup, with the usual Heinz label altered with a message saying 'Get well soon Bob' (the service costs £1.99). Bob will receive his soup in three to four working days – Article + Simply Zesty

Increasingly consumers seem to be defining themselves by what and whom they associate with. Brands therefore represent an integral part of people’s identity by association. Scion ART is a successful foray into creating such a movement – Case Study

Toyota's 'Social Network Racer' (by agency Party, Tokyo) is touted as the first social racing game (that transforms Facebook into a 3D race course). The app pulls in info like Facebook photos and friend updates to create the surrounding environment, including billboards, tunnels and other signage – Facebook App

Walkers is using augmented reality (AR) (via Blippar) on its potato chip’s (‘crisps’) packets to give its customers access to real-time weather forecasts. One might argue that brands should look to extend branded utility that reinforces its brand attributes (as opposed to ‘soft’ association like whether consumers should eat their crisps indoors or risk going out.) – Article 

NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of (TTL) participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you. ;)  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

Email us  |  Follow us on Twitter  |  Become a fan on Facebook  

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V55.0]

Consumer-goods companies Mars, Kraft Foods, Anheuser-Busch, Unilever, and Procter and Gamble are using online ads to drive traffic to their Facebook fan pages - Ad Age

Tesco's latest uses Blippar's Image Recognition + Augmented Reality (AR) technology to focus greater attention on their print ads. Whether the execution itself is a real 'wow' or not - we applaud the attempt to enhance the print experience – Video

TV Networks Showtime, ABC, Syfy, and CBS are promoting their fall shows using online games on Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes - ClickZ

RNZAF 'Step Up' Challenge let you Navigate a NH90 helicopter over rural New Zealand. Airlift comms’ supplies to mobile outposts before a storm cell moves in. It's part advergame, part digital installation and part scale model controlled through the YouTube game – YouTube

And you thought the only way to have sex was in person. That's so 2010. Now with Durex's "Digital Love" website (www.digital-love.org) you can have as much sex as you’d like using you computer. That’s the premise behind this clever website (by BUZZMAN TV) with a number of personalization options (including the ability to prank your friends) – Website

Looking for a (free) real-time social media search and analysis tool? Check out http://www.socialmention.com/

This year's PR News Digital PR Awards winners included General Mills, Discovery Communications, AT&T, American Heart Association, and more for their fantastic work - PR News

IBM’s 2011 CMO Survey is out with some interesting results.  Everyone seems to agree that the worlds changed - Survey

Wells Fargo, IBM, and other banks are using social media to elevate their brand, build communities, conduct product research, and connect better with their customers - UBM TechWeb

Vodafone's "Buffer Busters" AR Mobile App is equal parts technology, brand, and engagement. There are creatures called Buffer-Monsters. They are known to cause traffic congestions, slow Internet connections, train delays… Buffer-Monsters hide in plain sight, but we haven’t been able to see them before – until now – Case Study

Clorox discuss how they are empowering their community of consumers to develop ideas and build buzz around upcoming launches - Vimeo

USA TODAY and Facebook are teaming up to give fans the ability to choose, rate, and share their favorite commercials during the Super Bowl - Lost Remote

MGM Resorts is releasing a social media game similar to Farmville, but with the players acting as casino moguls, in an effort to attract more online gamblers to their Vegas casinos - The Wall Street Journal

Oscar Mayer's ‘Delifresh’ brand has launched a new Hispanic Facebook app that lets fans build their own sandwich with a personality and share with friends online - Hispanic PR Blog

With the Olympics less than a year away, partners such as Samsung, 24 Hour Fitness, and British Airways are using location-based check-ins, Facebook apps, and blogs to get fans excited for the 2012 games - The Big Lead

Coca-Cola shares how they are counting on their fans to spread the love through "dynamic storytelling" and online sharing - ClickZ

NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter @goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of (TTL) participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you. ;)  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

Email us  |  Follow us on Twitter  |  Become a fan on Facebook