In today’s connected world, actions speak louder than words.
Consumers not only tend to have shorter attention spans, but they are also
more skeptical of messages coming from brands. They don’t want to be interrupted unless there
is a clear value exchange.
This means that it is getting harder for brands to get their
message across through paid media. TV, which is still the medium with the most
scale, has become fragmented and less impactful as people spend more time online.
Display advertising has become almost invisible. Direct mail’s response rate has
consistently decreased in the last decade. And let’s not even talk about print.
These trends have pushed brands to shift from storytelling
to storydoing to stay relevant. By storydoing, I mean looking at their audience’s
experience from the lense of the brand promise, figuring out where is the
value gap and trying to close it. Then, facilitating people to do the
storytelling on the brand’s behalf to create a more authentic, human and
sharable story.
The premise of storydoing is that the more people interact
with the brand in a meaningful way, the stronger the bond with the brand. To
quote the Chinese proverb; “Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I may remember. But
involve me, and I'll understand.” The downside of this approach is that
this is harder to do than to say. To thrive in storydoing, brands need to create enough
value for people to care about engaging and talking about it.
Below are a few cases from brands that are doing exceptional
storydoing to deliver on their promise.
The Coke “Happy ID” Campaign
Coke is on a quest to "open happiness" all over the world. To deliver on this promise in Peru, Coke created the “Happy ID” campaign. The concept was to make Peru a happier nation by encouraging people to smile when taking their photo ID picture. Peru is one of the lowest countries on the “happiness index” in the region despite having the fastest growing economy.
Coke decided to change this by installing free ID photo booths that are trigged by a smile. Since people need to take their photo for the ID, why not do it with a smile? The results: in the first month of the activation over 90% of the IDs issued by the Peruvian government were "happy" IDs. The campaign also generated over 1.3 million in likes, share and views.
The Nivea Protector Ad
Parents know that Nivea sun kids protects children’s delicate
skin, but there are other beach concerns on parents' minds such as kids running off by themselves.
To deliver on the brand promise of protection,
Nivea created the protector ad. This is
a print ad with a “protector strip” to help mom track her kids on a day at the
beach. The strip is synched with an app which monitors the distance from the device
and sends an alert when kids are out of the safe range.
The Melbourne Remote
Control Tourist
To help people experience Melbourne even before they arrive,
the city introduced the “Melbourne Remote Control Tourist”. They created a web experience that lets people
discover the city through the eyes and ears of a remote control tourist. Through Twitter and Facebook, users could
decide what they wanted to see and do. The results: people from 158 countries and
almost 4,000 cities participated around around the globe. The experience generated over 49
million in social media impressions, setting a global benchmark in tourist
advertising.
In summary, storydoing is about real creativity, real value
and real people. Storydoing focuses on what matters, the experience. It puts
people front and center by letting them co-create the story and do the
talking for the brand. That is what makes it so powerful and beautiful in
today’s connected world.
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