The best stories in universal literature or in cinema are the ones that tell themselves. Storytelling is the art of telling a story to connect with the audience and generate engagement; this can be through a video, an infographic, an image, or a spot commercial on radio or television.
This ability to tell stories, as well as the art associated with it, is very effective because it creates emotional bonds and empathy. That is why the most recognized brands globally have integrated stories into their positioning strategies.
5 Brands that Tell Stories that Impact
Today, we share our top 5 brands that tell stories that impact with storytelling and how they have executed it, based on a list published by Marketing Week.
- Nike
The advertising of this brand is always distinguished by telling a story and leaving a very clear message about the importance of reaching your goals. One of the most famous examples is shown in the commercial titled “I would run to you”, launched in 2012 in the United States. The premise of the story consists of a couple who agree to meet at a point and begin the journey singing; where the girl (who wears Nike shoes) travels a large part of the road with a relaxed attitude, while the boy (who wears different shoes) has different difficulties, so the girl ends up meeting him. This story lasts 2 minutes and 31 seconds, and it is enough time to show us the central characters, their context, and the conflict that each of them goes through.
- L`Oreal
https://youtu.be/XgE_jEoVsO4
The French firm needed to gain positioning and market share in India, a country led by emotions. To do this, it created a 360-degree storytelling campaign through digital platforms, after having analyzed its ideal potential consumer, finding a common behavior: searching for music videos on YouTube. Based on this, L`Oreal produced a video with national singers and a strategy, which it christened “Stay rooted”, which consisted of showing that true strength comes from personal roots, from those people who have contributed to forging a personality. Evidently, the objective was to make an analogy between the strength of the roots with the hair and thus send a consistent, emotional, and inspiring message that would allow the brand to position itself.
The story impacted with good results. The video obtained 4,578 shares in one week, 13 million impressions on websites, Instagram followers grew to 16,000, people shared their own stories, and traffic to the website grew 156% in one month.
- Coca-Cola
The Christmas ads of 2010 and 2011 to celebrate the 125 years of the beverage company have been among the most memorable, and what about those produced for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the happiness ATM, let’s go crazy, the elevator that changes the statistics, let’s break down prejudices, etc. All of them tell, in one way or another, a story that always brings a smile and connects with the public.
This brand is essential in this type of ranking, because most of its ads and videos have a story with emotional narratives that connect with the audience.
- Johnnie Walker
The campaign returns to the origins of the brand and tells the story of its creator. It stars a Scotsman, the same origin as the character who, with struggle and sacrifice, built his own company and which today is a great brand; “Keep Walking” is its slogan.
With a duration of 6 minutes and 31 seconds, the video narrates the real story of a character who, walking and with effort, achieved a dream. The protagonist in the video never stops, the story connects, excites, creates empathy.
Thanks to the success of this campaign, which tells the story of the walker, an icon of Johnnie Walker, other stories have been adapted, with other characters who are also examples of struggle and effort, such as the famous Mexican actress Ana de la Reguera, the dog whisperer César Millán, or the Guatemalan soccer player Marco Pablo Pappa.
- Starbucks
It tells the story of SUE and how the personalization of the drinks takes you through the entire process of cultivation, transportation, tasting of the coffee that is served in Starbucks. The campaign was titled “Everything just for you” and communicates in a very concrete way what happens behind the coffee production and of all the people who intervene in it to bring a cup of coffee to the hands of consumers; the result is emotional, but above all… real.
These are 5 brands that have dared to tell a story to their audience and have managed to connect and obtain good results. Do you dare to tell a story to your target audience?
