STORYTELLING
Secondly , generating an emotional response helps to build positive emotional associations with the brand , which is one of the principal objectives for any brand that is advertising . Maya Angelou was right : People will forget what you said and did , but they will never forget how you made them feel .
What is a story ? Rehashing the basic structure
I ’ ll pause here to elaborate on the structure of stories . At the most basic level , a story is the journey of a central character / protagonist , on a quest to achieve an objective . The trick is that obstacles stand in the way of achieving the objective , so the protagonist must overcome these to reach their goal . This basic structure is true of every story , novel or movie and should also translate to advertising . For example , in my grandmother ’ s story the protagonist was the young boy , the obstacle was the threat of being eaten up by ogres , and the goal was to reach his father with the food .
In most cases there is also an antagonist , someone directly opposed to the protagonist reaching their goal and actively seeking to stop them - in this case , the ogres . This creates conflict and generates tension which is a good thing in storytelling .
Essential story-telling ingredients : Drama , Conflict and Tension
Kantar ’ s analysis shows that every event that unfolds in the story and each rising bit of tension generates more expressiveness , pulling in the audience even more . Understanding
“ An ad that tells a great story , but has weak brand linkage , in the end , is just an ad with weak branding . One of the easiest ways to create a weakly branded ad is to tell a good story but dump a brand product demonstration at the end - yikes !”
the structure of a story and how stories work can therefore help brands tell better and more expressive stories .
Who are the characters in your brand ’ s story ? Do they match your target audience ? What is the objective ? What obstacles are in their way ? Is there drama in your ad ? Where is the conflict ? A brand that can fully explore the richness that these questions can unlock will tell better stories , drawing more expressiveness and emotional engagement out of their advertising .
The big branding challenge of story ads
That said , story-based ads are not easy to execute . In fact , they are very easy to get wrong because for a story ad to work , it must not only have a good story , it must also fit the brand . Whatever story a brand chooses to tell must remain true to the brand vision and personality for it to be compelling . If there is no brand fit , the story will actually get in the way of the persuasiveness of the communication .
One of the most difficult parts of making story ads is therefore the branding . For a story ad to work , your brand must have a credible role in that story . The ad is lost if the story can be told without any mention of your brand . It does not matter how amazing , engaging or funny the ad is , as none of those associations will transfer to your brand . In addition , great storytelling has the ability not only to generate short-term sales , but also to support the brand ’ s longer-term equity .
So , an ad that tells a great story , but has weak brand linkage , in the end , is just an ad with weak branding . One of the easiest ways to create a weakly branded ad is to tell a good story but dump a brand product demonstration at the end - yikes ! One of the ads Kantar tested for this project was for a mosquito repellent . The opening part of the ad shares a slice of life featuring a mother and her children , however the brand entry , product demonstration and benefits were only shown at the end , with the ad narrated by a male voiceover - representing none of the characters in the ad .
The facial coding results of the ad showed a clear dip in positive response at the end of the ad . Recall of the product demo was also low . The weak performance of the last scene pulled down the branding of the ad and lead to only moderate cut through . The ad could have been greatly improved if the mother introduced the product demonstration and voice over . Ultimately , it is not about the number of times your brand appears , or when it appears - the secret is to ensure that there is good integration of your brand in the ad . You need to tell an appropriate story , in which your brand plays a credible role that flows naturally with the storyline .
Dettol is an example of a local brand that has historically done a good job at storytelling , eliciting positive
14
MAL 46 / 22 ISSUE