Do you know the power of brand storytelling?

My Uncle Curtis was a great storyteller. He lived several hours from where I grew up, so I only saw him at Thanksgiving, Christmas, my grandparents’ birthdays and other family events. We always heard everyone laughing in the living room where he often sat and shared his most recent experiences on the dairy farm. His stories captivated us! They were memorable and easily re-shared with other friends and family.

The fact is, our brains are wired to remember stories. Early man learned to survive by sharing stories around a campfire. Stories grab and hold our attention. They invite us to visualize how events unfold. In fact, our brains fill in the visual details and enable us to become co-creators of the stories we hear.

That’s why great storytelling is such a powerful tool in branding. Stories drive social media, inspire people to act, create the foundation of great movements and more. Stories go far beyond spouting off hard facts in order to differentiate a brand. A good brand story is easily shared by its advocates.

So often brand managers believe you need to present all the facts about a product quickly in an ad. You may hear: “Keep the copy short. People don’t read long copy. Just use bullet points to lay out  the facts.”  A copywriter mentor of mine defended long copy as really good brand storytelling. “If the story is interesting, the reader will stay engaged to the very end,” he always told me. And he was right. He wrote an ad with long copy for Boker brand knives that included an offer for a product catalog at the end of the text. You could argue the offer was buried in the copy. It was not! The brochure had to be reprinted twice because of the number of requests the ad generated. Boker achieved record sales with that campaign and received a Steven Kelly Advertising Award for print creativity.

Great brand stories should emotionally engage us by revealing the passion behind an invention or why a brand is so meaningful to its customers. Videos can be a powerful way to deliver brand stories. The Bloodhound Group’s recent brand work for Pathbuilders and Freedom Electric Marine demonstrates how to effectively use storytelling to deliver a brand’s message in a memorable and compelling way.

Our team enjoyed creating these brand stories for our clients. We think they will help you appreciate the strong value of brand storytelling.

Credit to Jim Cobb (The Bloodhound Group)