CHAPTER 11
Digital Brand Storytelling
Mohanbir Sawhney
In the digital world, consumers are inundated with brand content. With so many brands competing for attention, content that consumers don’t find useful or timely is dismissed immediately as noise and easily tuned out. Cutting through the clutter to capture mind and heart share is a very real and pressing challenge for brand marketers today.
And yet, some brand voices are rising above the crowd. Consider the “#LikeAGirl” campaign from Always, the feminine hygiene personal care brand owned by Procter & Gamble (P&G). Instead of talking about its product, Always focused on the negative perceptions associated with what it means to run, throw, or do anything “like a girl.” By challenging this stereotype in a multichannel campaign, Always struck a powerful emotional chord with girls and parents worldwide.
The inspiration for this campaign came from research conducted by Always, which found that when girls reach puberty they typically experience a significant drop in self-confidence.1 Always’s response was a cause-related ad campaign that sought to “rewrite the rules” of puberty and bolster the self-confidence of teenage girls. The Always campaign video was one of the top viral ads of 2014, with 54 million views on YouTube alone—and that was before it was shown to the Super Bowl audience.2
The success of the Always campaign illustrates the power of digital media to create a conversation between brands and consumers, as well as among communities of consumers. The campaign is also a study in digital brand storytelling best practices. In “#LikeAGirl,” Always products are never mentioned. The entire story revolves around addressing the decline in self-esteem among young girls as they mature and providing a narrative that helps make that transition a positive experience rather than a negative one. Always connected its brand to a cause that is very relevant to its brand promise and product category: feminine hygiene products are strongly associated with puberty and the social stigma that comes with transitioning from childhood to womanhood. Always positioned itself as more than a product that offers physical protection—it was able to position itself as a brand that stands for self-confidence and self-esteem. The campaign also associated itself with a cause that consumers care deeply about at an emotional level.
Great brands have always told great stories—think of Starbucks or Harley- Davidson; even when we don’t buy the products, we know the stories. These are the timeless truths in branding: success takes great consumer insight, a strong brand promise, and a creative storytelling approach. What has changed is the powerful digital media toolkit that marketers now have at their disposal.
Consider an analogy: Telling a brand story is like painting a landscape. The landscape is the same as before, and so is our judgment of what makes a great painting. However, brand marketers now have the equivalent of a thousand brushes and a million colors to paint a richer landscape. Digital media allows brand stories to be more pervasive, more persistent, and more personalized. But while digital media is a powerful tool, it needs to be used intelligently. A fool with a tool is still a fool, and perhaps even a more dangerous one! In transitioning to new media, we also need to transition to new ways of thinking about content strategy, media strategy, and the role of consumers in brand engagement.
This chapter provides a road map for brand marketers to harness the power of digital media to tell stories that will engage and inspire their customers to drive business results. The chapter begins by making the case for why stories matter and why storytelling is a powerful approach to engage with customers. Next, we discuss what a story looks like and how stories are structured. We then discuss how brands can tell stories by connecting their brand promise and purpose to customer pain and passion points. We present a set of best practices to tell great brand stories. Finally, we discuss digital brand storytelling by presenting the concept of transmedia storytelling—a digital storytelling approach that creates a coordinated story experience that unfolds over multiple media channels.
The Power of Stories
From the beginning of time, humans have been hard-wired for stories. As Joseph Campbell, the late scholar and writer, observed in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, “Throughout the inhabited world, in all times and under every circumstances, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind. It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.”3 Brand storytelling draws from this old and venerable tradition.
Stories Are Universal
Indeed, stories are universal. They are a way for people in every culture, religion, and society to talk about themselves, their beliefs, and how they view the world. All the stories that have been written (and will ever be written) can be categorized into basic archetypes. In his voluminous book The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, journalist and author Christopher Booker identifies seven archetypical stories that apply equally to ancient mythology, classical literature, and modern fiction. These seven stories are Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth.4
These story archetypes are found in digital brand storytelling as well; indeed, in order to resonate, a brand’s message must transcend a mere advertisement and become a story that matters to people.
When brands echo one of the story archetypes, they can evoke a visceral reaction. For instance, Nike connects its brand story to Overcoming the Monster. Nike, through its iconic tag line of “Just Do It,” urges its customers to overcome their internal limitations (the “monster inside”) through fitness and sports. The emotional resonance of the tagline was so strong, though, that people began to adopt it as a “private mantra.” Adweek observed, “They just did all sorts of things as they strove toward personal goals. These ranged from starting businesses to popping the question, and in some cases extricating themselves from bad relationships.”5 None of these things may have anything to do with athletic wear or running shoes, but by becoming part of people’s personal stories, Nike built one of the most powerful brands in the world.
Johnny Walker’s “Keep on Walking” campaign, which featured a spoken-word rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” set to a montage of the American experience, is the archetypal hero’s Quest. It inspired people by showcasing the cultural diversity that can best be experienced by traveling across America. When done effectively, stories can affect brand perceptions and brand preferences because of how a story makes people feel. When people connect emotionally, their guard is down, which allows the message to penetrate more deeply than if only the intellect is engaged. As Maya Angelou famously observed: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Stories Inspire
Stories create an emotional connection as opposed to giving a sales pitch or dumping information on customers. General Electric, in its award-winning “Childlike Imagination” campaign, evoked a childlike sense of wonder for its technologies that may otherwise seem unsuited for consumer advertising.6 This strategy worked because GE wasn’t selling its technology; it was selling its story with that all-important emotional connection. “You can’t sell if you can’t tell,” explained Beth Comstock, a former vice chair of GE who also served as its chief marketing and commercial officer. “People don’t want to be sold to. They want to be inspired.”7
By following these principles, GE has been able to employ corporate storytelling to increase its brand awareness across the all its business divisions (from medical equipment to engine turbines) and to create positive associations with its brand. In addition, its story line supported a pipeline of young engineering and business talent that might be otherwise attracted to Google, Facebook, or Apple instead of finding a creative and innovative home at GE. The company was also able to use its story to attract the next generation of shareholders.
Stories Are Sticky
People tend to remember well-crafted stories for a long time; in fact, all great religions and philosophies teach through stories because we remember them. Consider the retailer L.L. Bean, a company with a reputation for standing behind the quality of its products and the ultimate satisfaction of its customers. The company has been making that brand promise and telling that story throughout its entire history. An embodiment of the brand promise was its unlimited, no-questions-asked return policy, which allowed items to be returned regardless of purchase date. This strategy created brand loyalty, but it also opened the door for some to take advantage of the company. (For example, stories have emerged of people buying secondhand L.L. Bean goods at yard sales and returning them years later for a full refund.) When L.L. Bean recently changed its return policy (up to one year, with proof of purchase), customers responded with stories of making returns years later, with the vast majority of them saying the company’s new policy was long overdue. The policy may have changed, but the stickiness of the story remains: L.L. Bean stands by the quality of its products and the satisfaction of its customers.8
Stories Are Simple
Stories are a wonderful tool for taking complicated concepts and boiling them down to their essence. Timeless storytelling such as the parable is a simplified form. Cisco used its “Circle Story” campaign to show how the Internet of Things, a very complicated idea, could be explained very simply with the content and cadence of a children’s story: “This is the cat that drank the milk, that let in the dog, that jumped on the woman, who brewed the coffee, that woke the man, who was late for work . . .” That nursery rhyme-like story continues through the man driving to work, entering the control room, and securing the data, which then directs the turbines that power sprinklers that water the grass, that feed the cows, that make the milk, which is purchased by the man at the grocery store, and finally, to close the circle, is poured by a little girl who loved the cat. Cisco’s message about what it called “the Internet of everything” becomes memorable through the simplicity of the story.9
Brand Storytelling
So how can brands use stories to engage with stakeholders—customers, employees, analysts, and influencers? The key to effective brand storytelling is to find an intersection between the brand promise or brand purpose and a customer pain point or passion. To be effective storytellers, brand marketers must understand deeply who their customers are and the motivations that drive their behavior.
Connecting with Customer Passions
When a brand intersects with people’s passions, it becomes part of their motivation to launch into activities they enjoy or aspire to. Red Bull, a lifestyle brand of beverages, has long been associated with extreme sports, including sponsoring numerous events such as skateboarding, rock climbing, and BASE (building, antenna, span, and earth) jumping. Recently, Red Bull collaborated with Samsung in a new extreme sports video featuring Brazilian celebrity skateboarder Pedro Barros, with the theme of “See the Big Picture.” By inviting viewers to experience skateboarding as Barros performs through a set modeled after iconic cityscapes, the video captures the passion of fellow skateboarders and would-be fans of the sport.10
Red Bull’s tagline, “Red Bull gives you wings,” perfectly encompasses the purpose of the brand: do extreme things. By attaching itself to the world of extreme sports, Red Bull is able to connect its brand with customers’ passion.
Addressing Customer Pain Points
Brands can also speak to a challenge or obstacle that customers face in achieving their personal or business goals. For example, a business pain point could be low productivity or customer defection, while a personal pain point could be stress or a chronic disease. Take the example of pharmaceutical company AbbVie, makers of the blockbuster Humira rheumatoid arthritis drug. The company began thinking about the drug not in terms of clinical benefits, but in terms of how it improves the quality of lives of arthritis patients. The marketing team took a storytelling approach that began with the pain point (the inciting incident) and unfolded to its conclusion thanks to Humira. The story line went something like this: “John” has been affected by rheumatoid arthritis for years, becoming increasingly debilitated until he is virtually bedridden. When his daughter becomes engaged, walking her down the aisle seems like an impossible dream in his current medical state. John consults with his doctors and begins a therapy regimen using Humira. Six months later, the wedding day arrives. The daughter looks beautiful in her wedding gown and takes her father’s arm as John walks her down the aisle.
The moral of the story is, “Don’t miss out on life.” The story involves a sympathetic protagonist with a very real and relatable pain point (especially for fellow sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis) who faced a “villain” in the story (the debilitating effects of the disease). The “knight in shining armor” that facilitated the rescue was Humira, allowing John to get past the obstacles that stood between him and his life.
Brand as Oxygen: Everywhere yet Invisible
In brand storytelling, the brand should be like oxygen: present everywhere, but invisible. It must be an integral part of the story, yet it cannot enter the story overtly. Typically, a brand enters a story by resolving a conflict or removing an obstacle that the protagonist faces. This concept is demonstrated in the Google brand story “Reunion,” which tells of two friends separated suddenly by the India-Pakistan partition of 1947. Seven decades later, a granddaughter searches (thanks to Google) for her grandfather’s childhood friend, now living in Pakistan. The search and the story culminate in an emotional reunion.11 (The YouTube version has 14.5 million views and counting.)
The emotional impact of the story is the heartfelt reunion of two long-separated former childhood friends. Yes, Google is used for Internet searches to locate the long-lost friend and to arrange travel, but it appears in the video seamlessly without any overt commerciality that detracts from the emotional content.
Becoming a Brand Storyteller
To become a brand storyteller, you must find the great stories to tell, have a process of telling them, and have the right people to tell the stories. The brand is never the protagonist in storytelling; rather, it plays the part of the solution or the vehicle through which the story is told. The story is instead focused on what people care about, which humanizes the story. The effect is often subtle, but impactful; the story is warp and the brand is weft, woven together in an intricate tapestry.
How to Find Brand Stories in Your Own Organization
Where do brand stories come from? The short answer: they come from just about anywhere. Stories can be about the company’s origin (e.g., Hewlett- Packard, which started in a garage, or Amazon, which has Jeff Bezos driving across the country to establish the company); the people (the faces of the company); the customers (e.g., Tesla customers sharing stories of their experiences with their cars12); a cause the company believes in (e.g., TOMS Shoes and its mission to provide shoes for the poor); or a behind-the-scenes look at the operations of the company.
For example, Microsoft Story Labs captures the behind-the-scenes faces and stories of people who are an integral part of the company and its products. They include gamers who are testing the new Xbox Adaptive Controller that makes gaming accessible to people with disabilities, a researcher who envisions new ways of producing food for urban populations, and a once-unknown salesperson who has become a top Microsoft presenter and now senior program manager in charge of DevOps (software development).13 By showcasing people, not products, Microsoft puts human faces on a huge corporation.
Similarly, the executive team at Jerónimo Martins, a Portuguese food distributor and specialty grocer, thought carefully about the brand story they wanted to convey. What did their customers and potential customers need to know about them? As the team discussed their strategy, a story emerged about the freshness of their products. This evolved into brand stories such as “A day in the life of a fish,” which told the story of the fish being caught, transported, and sold within a day; and “A day in the life of a baker,” with the baker entering the bakery at five every morning and producing, just a few hours later, the bread that Jerónimo Martins’s customers eagerly await.
Another rich vein to be tapped is customer stories—actual experiences that are shared by the company to highlight the loyalty of customers who use their products. An example is the Toyota “Auto-Biography,” a Facebook campaign that asked more than 160,000 people who “liked” the company to post videos and text about why they love their Toyotas. The stories were an invaluable testimony to the brand, which had been faced with a difficult product recall crisis the year before.14
A powerful example of stories from customers is Google’s Year in Search, a montage of images from the most popular searches. The 2017 list begins with the words: “This year more than ever we asked how . . .” with questions focusing on hurricanes (there were three that year: Harvey, Irma, and Maria), wildfires, North Korea’s missile range, helping refugees, the Las Vegas shooting, politics, the solar eclipse, and #MeToo. Through this panorama of storytelling writ large, Google put itself in the center of the biggest questions and events on people’s minds as the place to ask “how” and find an answer.15
Managing the Story Process
Stories must be well constructed to be told effectively. A classic plot structure, devised by Gustav Freytag, is Freytag’s pyramid, which progresses from exposition to inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. A more modern approach is the three-act structure, which is more commonly used today in many forms, including short stories, novels, movies, and even video games. The basic structure is Act 1: setup; Act 2: confrontation; Act 3: resolution. Within the structure, all the elements of a story are used: setting, characters, a problem (obstacle or challenge), engagement, escalation, loss, and turning point.
In order for an organization to tell brand stories in either the classic or modern structure, you need to have a story process: an editorial team, a content czar, a database, and a distribution process. The storytelling network needs to reach across the organization and beyond the chief marketing officer or corporate communications department to also include sales, customer service, operations—any and every touchpoint where there are opportunities to gather and to tell stories. The stories are out there, among executives, employees, and customers. What’s needed is a story dissemination process.
Brands today are like publishers—creating, curating, and disseminating stories. No single ad or story line can capture and convey the multiple aspects of a brand or the expanse of a transformative campaign. Brand journalism is an even greater imperative in the digital age, in which messages must be staged on multiple platforms and shared as part of the effort to spread the word.
Part of that journalism is determining who should tell the story. Leaving it to marketing or PR alone is a mistake. As Comstock notes, some of GE’s best storytellers turned out to be engineers, particularly those who were good at translating complex ideas (and huge industrial products) into a message—and who could let their passion for what they did show.16 Storytellers can be found throughout an organization. They needn’t be amazing writers; they just need to be able to tell a great story.
Storytelling begins at the top. It’s no surprise that great companies tend to be led by CEOs who could be called “chief evangelist officers.” Think of Amazon’s Bezos with his annual letter, which is considered by many to be a must read, as he opines not only on Amazon’s business, but also principles of business in general. Then, of course, there is the Oracle of Omaha— Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters are widely read for their wit and wisdom. Others leaders became synonymous with their brands, as visionaries and keepers of the story—none more powerfully than the late Steve Jobs of Apple. Increasingly, Elon Musk, whose diverse businesses include Tesla, SpaceX, and energy generation, is a spokesman for his brand and for his vision of the future (SpaceX has set plans to colonize Mars).
Powerful Ways to Tell a Great Brand Story
As we’ve seen thus far, the standout examples of brand storytelling showcase the best practices that should be followed by brand marketers seeking to create a better following for their brands and products. Here are some powerful ways to tell a great brand story.
Be Yourself
If you want your customers to love your brand, you have to be authentic—you have to live your brand. You cannot pretend to be somebody else, and you cannot create brand stories that are simply not true. To do this, you have to start with knowing your brand’s purpose—a purpose that’s not only espoused, but enacted (See Chapter 2 for more on brand purpose). Brands are experienced from the outside in, but they’re created from the inside out. Starting within, if a company and its people don’t know the story and believe the story, then the customers never will. That’s why brand stories must be authentic.
In a recent campaign, Microsoft launched “#MakeWhatsNext,” a campaign to encourage young women to stay with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Mary Snapp, corporate vice president and head of Microsoft Philanthropies, wrote in a blog: “It’s no surprise . . . that because young girls do not see themselves reflected as scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technologists in the world around them, many do not believe they can pursue careers in these fields. Closing the gender gap requires us to challenge and shift these cultural norms.”17
As a company, Microsoft is very passionate about diversity and inclusion. Yes, it’s a good business decision, but for Microsoft, it goes further. Staying with STEM is very much a business imperative and passion point for many of the employees. Microsoft employees know that if they don’t have women as developers and coders, they will miss out on a large part of the consumer base. This is who they are. In their brand story, they are being themselves.
Be Human
When crafting brand stories, don’t think about what works for B2B or B2C. It’s always H2H (human to human). Regardless of how or what a company sells, or who uses its products and services, humans are always the decision-makers. That’s why stories need to be personalized and emotionally engaging. People don’t only think logically; they also want to be entertained.
An H2H approach to brand storytelling emphasizes the people without whom a company could not exist. Such is the case with FedEx’s “I Am FedEx,” which highlights personal stories of employees and gives customers a better understanding of the corporate culture.18 The stories are logically organized into categories that include “Who we are,” “How we think and work,” “What we do,” and “Why we matter.” These stories allow FedEx to offer a behind-the-scenes look at what makes the organization tick, as well as how the organization is driven by its mission and purpose.
Be Pervasive
The analogy I use here is “surround-sound storytelling.” In effective brand storytelling, you have to create the feeling of 360-degree projection. You can’t be active in only one channel, such as simply putting out a TV ad. Brand stories need to be pervasive, with multiple consumer touchpoints.
Dove’s “Real Beauty” and “Choose Beauty” brand stories are not just an advertising campaign. They are multifaceted initiatives that include education and a scholarship program for women and underprivileged girls. The Dove Self-Esteem Project, for example, focuses on self-esteem education to help young people grow up with greater confidence, overcome body image issues, and achieve their full potential.19 The lesson is to make sure that your story is told in many different ways across many different channels—physical as well as digital.
Be Persistent
Stories take time to seep into the consciousness. That takes persistence, which means staying with one message—or one theme—and presenting several variations around it. The analogy of variations in jazz music is a good way to think about this type of programmatic storytelling. The theme stays the same, providing a functional base to anchor the messaging, then variations are built around the theme to keep the story fresh and relevant.
A brand story also has to have legs—has to be an idea that will stand the test of time through various story line threads and variations. Brand storytelling is not just one night of Super Bowl ad exposure. It’s like a long-running soap opera, with multiple episodes and new characters that keep the interest alive and fresh. P&G began a messaging campaign in 2010 that coincided with its sponsorship of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. It was called the “Thank You, Mom” campaign. Typically, P&G stays in the background, while the message focuses on its brands, from Tide to Pampers. But this time the corporate parent was the storyteller, saluting the unheralded and underappreciated moms who have a tremendous interest in the success of their children (who may one day become Olympic athletes!). What’s particularly brilliant about this campaign is its longevity: it runs from one Olympics to the next, summer and winter games alike.
The story is as universal as they come: motherhood and apple pie values. Yet, the Olympics tie-in has allowed P&G to keep it fresh and relevant. In advance of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, P&G paid tribute to love over bias.20 Motherhood may be iconic, but it plays well, time and again, when the approach is fresh.
Be Visual
The advice given to budding fiction writers applies equally here: show, don’t tell. This is especially important given the capacity of digital media to convey images as well as information. One of the most potent and longstanding ads to use this approach is the “This is your brain on drugs” public service campaign, which presents the frying eggs image, complete with sizzle sounds. It is a clear warning to teens about the dangers of drug abuse. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And a video, as a constant stream of pictures, is worth a thousand times a thousand words. With such visual power, why would brand marketers want to do anything else other than show instead of tell information that’s too often lost in the overload?
By being authentic, human, pervasive, persistent, and visual, brand marketers go beyond messaging to become storytellers. With a deep understanding of the importance of emotional connection, they put their efforts into discovering and conveying what matters most to their consumers. This approach changes and elevates the story they tell, and takes courage to allow the brand to step back and not be the star of the show. It’s counterintuitive but highly effective. Consumers will still notice the brand; in fact, they will probably notice—and remember—it even more.
Transmedia Storytelling
Now we come to the new frontier in brand storytelling. In the world of digital, it’s not just about taking a story and repurposing the same content for different channels: that would be a cross-media approach.
Instead, each new medium requires new thinking. The idea is to create a coordinated story experience, or transmedia storytelling, in which each medium or channel plays a specialized role and does what it does best. This approach requires its own lenses and mental models. With transmedia, one overall story is orchestrated in multiple media, each telling a part of the story. This coordinated, unified story experience encourages customers to go deeper into the story as they are drawn into the experience over a multitude of channels used to create a holistic story world.
Henry Jenkins, the provost professor of communication, journalism, cinematic arts, and education at the University of Southern California, describes transmedia storytelling as a process in which integral elements are dispersed across multiple channels to create a coordinated entertainment experience. When first explaining the concept more than a decade ago, he cited The Matrix, which remains a quintessential example of a transmedia story told via three live-action films, a series of animated short features, comic books, and several video games. There is no single source; to grasp the entire Matrix universe, you need to experience them all.21
Storytelling as Immersive Experience
Transmedia storytelling allows a story to unfold across multiple media platforms. The “spreadability” of the narrative is an important consideration and is accomplished through viral marketing practices in social media channels. It begins with a core fan base that will share and disseminate the narrative, thus creating more interest in and buzz around the story.
Transmedia storytelling strives for continuity of the narrative as the story expands across multiple channels, thus giving fans an immersive experience. Transmedia storytelling as we know it today emerged in the entertainment industry with films such as The Blair Witch Project (1999), whose promotional campaign incorporated televised “documentaries” on the history of the (fictional) Blair Witch and on-the-street personnel who distributed missing- person flyers for the characters who disappear in the film. This technique was adopted by brand marketers across a wide range of industries. The rise of transmedia brand storytelling was fueled by the ability of digital and social media channels to connect with diverse audiences across the world.
A useful case study examines The Hunger Games film series, which began in 2012 with the launch of the first movie in the franchise. It was followed in 2013 by the second film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which set the record for the biggest opening weekend for any movie ever released in the month of November.
A traditional marketing campaign would have focused on creating brand awareness a few weeks prior to the release of the film, using established media channels such as TV, radio, magazines, and billboards, as well as partnerships, a dedicated web site, and YouTube teasers. Other traditional elements might have included in-person PR (interviews, red carpet), online PR (blogs and social media), and cross-marketing partnerships.
By contrast, the Catching Fire transmedia campaign was an elaborate effort that went beyond movie posters and web sites to attract attention and create intrigue in curious fans’ minds. Teaser billboards began appearing in April 2013, well in advance of the film’s November opening. The story world had many elements that played out over specialized channels. On Tumblr, the studio created an elaborate online fashion magazine called Capitol Couture. When curious fans googled Capitol Couture, they reached a Tumblr site about the Capitol, which in turn led to the Capitol’s links on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Fans could experience the strange world of fashion in the Capitol through these sites and links.
Fan engagement could be gauged from the huge amount of fan-created content on the film’s social media sites. On the Capitol Couture Tumblr, for example, a section called “Citizen Activity” encouraged “citizens” to post their pictures and videos showcasing their fashion creations, thus serving, whether knowingly or unknowingly, as brand ambassadors. Tumblr’s focus on images and videos made the site a go-to for fans who loved fashion, design, and creativity. The Tumblr videos were quickly devoured by fans of the film, which provided strong encouragement to other fans to share and participate with their own videos.
How successful was this transmedia storytelling approach? The numbers tell their own compelling story. The Capitol’s Facebook page had over 10 million likes and over 850,000 followers on Twitter. Catching Fire’s trailer was among YouTube’s most-watched videos, and the term “hunger games” was one of the most searched categories on Google. The film was also a top trending topic on Twitter. On its opening weekend the film took in $158.1 million at the box office on the way to a total of $864.9 million globally. Catching Fire became the highest-grossing film at the domestic box office for 2013.
Creating Effective Transmedia Campaigns
To create effective transmedia campaigns, brand marketers should understand the four Ps: pervasive, persistent, participatory, and personalized (not surprisingly, two of the four are foundational elements of brand storytelling).
- Pervasive As the story evolves and gains more depth, it must remain coherent and connected to the overall story line. In the case of The Hunger Games, the campaign was so pervasive in its communication to the target audience via online and offline channels that there was considerable excitement as the movie’s release approached.
- Persistent The campaign must persist through multiple channels—social, digital, and traditional—to foster round-the-clock brand awareness and to stimulate the social participation of the target audience. The Hunger Games’s persistence also helped blur the distinction between reality and science fiction, which helped immerse fans in a world that was highly accessible.
- Participatory The audience must be encouraged to participate actively in the campaign through challenges, content creation (e.g., photos and videos), and active sharing on social media. Active fan participation and real events contributed to shaping The Hunger Games story world and adding value to the fans’ experience. The interconnection among the media messages ensured that everyone was able to join the storytelling experience on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media.
- Personalized Story elements that allow viewers and fans to co-create their experience and help shape the story increase engagement. In The Hunger Games, YouTube served as the “official TV broadcast” of the story world. The audience was also given the opportunity to have a personalized experience through such tactics as identity cards, victors’ contests, and access to limited information.
Transmedia is the next frontier for digital brand storytelling. The first movers, following the lead of the entertainment industry, will be able to take their brand storytelling to the next level, with the creation of an entire world that’s presented holistically and synergistically.
Summary
Good brand storytelling is not easy, but those who do it well will be able to secure share of mind and share of heart in a world where consumer attention has become a very scarce commodity. Stories are powerful, as is the new digital era itself. This is a new frontier, and approaching it begins with the same methods that are foundational to all good storytelling and brand storytelling. But transmedia storytelling places a great deal of emphasis on participation and personalization, to engage the audience even more deeply with a fully immersive experience.
Keep in mind that we are not suffering from a lack of brand storytelling; we are suffering from bland storytelling—crude attempts at storytelling that attempt to sell rather than to tell a story. To become great digital storytellers, brand marketers need to start with customer insights, connect their brands with customer passions and pain points, use a systematic story process, and adopt a transmedia approach to storytelling. Brand marketers who do this well will live happily ever after.
Mohanbir Sawhney is the McCormick Foundation Professor of Technology, clinical professor of marketing, and director of the Center for Research in Technology and Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He has written seven management books as well as dozens of influential articles in leading academic journals and managerial publications. His most recent book, The Sentient Enterprise: The Evolution of Business Decision Making, was published in October 2017 and was on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list.