Today’s online marketers now understand the importance of creating stories, not just campaigns, that not only weave a tale of history and purpose about their brands, but that stand out and connect with consumers via a more personal social media marketplace. This emerging strategy is visible in just about every industry and resets the bar for online consumer engagement.
With so many examples of the phenomenal success of this new strategy, we are forced to wonder why more organizations aren’t structuring their own strategies and issues as stories versus continuing to pursue the dying art of campaign and old-school commercial marketing?
A Case of a Viral Success Story
Where did you come from and what do you stand for have always been essential elements of a brand’s history, but the story a brand tells is more about the message, context and emotional triggers it uses to connect with its target audience. If you want to see a successful case of a story that connects, just spend a few minutes watching the videos of Nash Grier, a Vine.com sensation who has created a cult following on a global scale.
Wait – a teenager posting online videos is our case study? Yeah! What Nash did was simple – he cracked the code of online social media and created a viral story, which he tells through quirky short videos. His ongoing story and his message are authentic and entertaining, continually forming an emotional connection with teens through personal excerpts from his daily life.
Through his story, Nash turned himself into a brand – a brand that many companies now believe in enough that they sponsor his YouTube channel and provide him with products and apparel to pitch on their behalf. Even more ingenious is how Nash turned one very highly watched and shared video into his own commercial success. His “You Gotta Bae or Nah?” video has now become his signature calling card and is a slogan available for purchase on everything from t-shirts to iPhone covers on his website.
What Nash did was to be authentic – telling his story instead of pitching a commercial. His followers believed in what he was saying and connected to it emotionally enough that they did the work of expanding his social reach for him. This is a true success story in how a story should work online.
You Got a Story or Nah?
A brand story that is true, authentic and engaging will make the paradigm shift from traditional marketing to consumer engagement successfully. When a story connects with its audience, it becomes sharable. Statistics prove that brands with sharable content are seen by others as being more trusted. Brands with a sharable story become more trusted, with a message and following that are more organically created through brand advocates and become brands with stronger sales and growth.
Haley Brand Intelligence is a leader in crafting unique, entertaining and authentic stories that enable brands to stand out among the pack and create an organic following of true brand advocates and supporters.