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By Chris Butler
Most of the successful marketing campaigns that stand out in my memory all revolve around characters. Some of them are simply charismatic spokespeople, like Geico's gecko, Nationwide's "Greatest Spokesperson in the World, or, I suppose, Burger King's creepy king. Others keenly represent the intended customer—think way back to Wendy's "where's the beef?" lady, or more recently to Apple's mac and PC guys. In all of these cases, it was decided that a more compelling message could be created by using characters to tell a story, rather than putting the product itself front and center.
Relating to characters and their stories is essential in order for people to make an initial connection with brands. Sure, some brands eventually transcend the need for connection and become themselves defining characteristics of people. In fact, Apple's "I'm a mac/pc" was somewhat self-referential in that way. But in the beginning, people need to connect with a story in order to believe that a product or service matters to them.
Of course, this isn't news. This has been established marketing thinking for a very long time. But somehow, the concept of storytelling doesn't seem to have worked its way down from the worldwide mega-brands to the next tier of businesses in which you and I work. But why shouldn't it? After all, we're endeavoring to speak to the very same people they are!
This month I'd like to explore storytelling, dispel the myth that we can't tell stories on the web, and identify some ways we can hone our craft as web-based storytellers.
Telling Stories, Capturing Attention
We've heard quite a bit over the past few years about how the web has changed the way we read, even the way we think. In particular, the often publicized worry is that the change has been a negative one—that we no longer read deeply, and that we can no longer focus our thinking as we did before. There are plenty of voices in dissent on this opinion, though they don't tend to dispute the fact that the web has changed us rather than the judgement that said change is for the worse. As a result, those of us in the digital marketing space are caught up in a quite tumultuous time, seeking out any trick we can find to get people to pay attention to our messages online.
But I don't think there is any "trick" to be discovered. While I may personally worry about the effects of the web on our brains, the reality seems to be that we do not actually have an attention problem. The problem lies in our failure to imbue marketing with information worth paying attention to.
What We Pay Attention To
No matter what happens with the web, people still fervently seek out entertainment. Every year, more books, television shows, movies, music and the like are created and voraciously consumed. But if that is the case, why do we believe this idea that the web has killed our attention? Perhaps the volume of content is increasing but the demands it makes on our attention spans are less? (In other words, is it possible that the web is helping us to create and sell more books, for example, that people aren't actually reading?) I decided to take a closer look at the books, movies, and television we've consumed over the past twenty years to see if a clearer picture of what's happening might emerge.1
Read & see more:
http://www.newfangled.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/21681
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