Storytime 📚
In the last 3 years, I’ve taken over 40 flights. This isn’t a flex, this is the reality of living away from home. Most of those flights have been to go back to see family, friends and my prize-winning dogs (yes, I gave them those prizes, but just look at them!!)
Whenever I travel back home to Malta, I now only travel in Veld. Nowadays, when I’m getting on a plane, I just want to be comfortable yet understatedly chic. I’ve taken my role as a brand advocate very seriously. Based off all the compliments I receive, I think I’ve nailed it. When people approach me and ask me what I’m wearing I have an excuse to talk about Veld, the quality, the fit and the overall experience. But here’s the thing, I do it because I genuinely love the product, there’s no hidden agenda, no sales commission. Nada.
Since the launch of this Amsterdam-based line, I’ve loved the style, the branding and the team behind it. I was a cheerleader across their socials, and I was lucky enough to receive 2 sets of their bestsellers - organic cotton, sustainable and chic - all wrapped up in decomposable plastic with a handwritten note and instructions on how to dissolve the packaging.
See this Instagram video by @veld.amsterdam:
I was presented with a new way to interact with my package, there was a call-to-act as the consumer. This is the standard all brands should strive to achieve. You’re arming your customers with reasons to share their experiences online.
You feel special that a brand recognises your value, whether you have 100 or 1,000,000 followers
The packaging aligns with the brands’ values and also offers social currency by demonstrating to your followers that you are making conscious choices
Personalisation is a game-changer, and while pain-staking, places your brand a cut above the rest
When I shared the gift on social media, the story was one that demonstrated the brand values, quality products and eco-forward packaging. I posted a video of the wrapping disintegrating in how water. This short video carried all the information Veld needed to cement its sustainability pillar while taking my followers on the journey with me as I unboxed. I could have described it in my post, but instead, I showed it through a quick and engaging video.
So why are stories like this so effective and how can your brand create a story of its own?
Storytelling is impactful for 2 reasons;
They’re memorable.
Research shows that we’re 22x more likely to remember facts within a story than facts alone (this is the strategy religious texts have used to convey a message). People don’t think in terms of facts, they think in terms of stories.
Narratives are inherently more entertaining because they have an arc - a beginning, a middle and an end which ties the story together and keeps the audience engaged. This entertaining narrative organises facts and key pieces of information, making it easier to remember.
They provide credibility.
This comes in handy, as just 4% of consumers believe that advertisers and marketers practice integrity. In fact, compared to other sources of brand information. advertising has the least amount of consumer trust.
Only 33% of consumers trust ads, while 78% of people say they trust recommendations from family and friends. People are less likely to counter-argue against this source as there’s usually no hidden agenda (sales).
To create a brand story, remember that effective stories have 3 components:
🌰 1. Determine your kernel
have a clear takeaway. What is the key idea you want your customers to walk away with after consuming the story? Next time you’re creating your brand story, finish this sentence “When someone tells a story about their experience with my brand, I want them to mention _________” What is that blank?
It could be your point of differentiation, your value proposition or could even be connected to your brand’s vision. Veld’s story might revolve around sustainable premium essentials. They could tell a lot of other stories, but the brand recognised that the key kernel was sustainable luxury capsule collections.
Veld showcases customer stories on its website and social media, in a section “How #veldgirls are wearing it”. Each of those individual user-generated stories further reinforces Veld’s narrative of premium slow fashion. It’s not only the brand’s ads that preach sustainability, their customers do too! So start with the kernel, the key thing you want them to remember and make sure everything from the story ties back to that.
🌪️ 2. Create valuable virality
This means that not only is the story compelling but it’s inseparable from the brand. In other words, make sure that for someone to tell the story, they have to mention your brand. Sometimes brands put together a great piece of content, people love to share it and it goes viral but it has nothing to do with the product or brand it represents. In other cases, brands create content that is really valuable and tracks back to the brand it represents, but people aren’t very likely to share it.
Ads, for instance, tell you a lot about the brand, but don’t tend to be shared. The goal is to create both value and virality at the same time. Create a story that people want to share but track back to your brand. Think of your story as a Trojan Horse, a story that appears to be nothing more than an interesting story, but inside the story lies a valuable mention of your brand, that increases advocacy and adoption each time it’s told.
One great example comes from Caterpillar - the heavy machinery company. They make excavators and bulldozers and want to showcase how precise their machinery is. They could try telling people how precise it is, laying it on thick with numbers and data, but people probably wouldn’t listen.
They have a great video of a backhoe moving a piece of glassware across a table - a proverbial bull in a china shop - showing that it can precisely move in and out of places even though it’s a big machine. This video is a great example of valuable virality, the content is engaging and exciting. Using inner remarkability to create social currency and high-arousal emotions like anxiety, Caterpillar produced viral content, and the story is valuable to the brand because the Caterpillar backhoe is central to the story.
Your brand has a Trojan Horse story if you can answer yes to these two questions:
Does this story include elements that make things go viral?
If people tell this story, do they have to mention your brand?
If I were Veld - the packaging would be the hook, when I tell the story I have to mention Veld - the brand that provided me with the experience of watching the ‘plastic’ disintegrate.
📖 3. Leverage existing stories
One way to do this is to mine customer data for existing testimonials about your brand, product or services. Take Land Rover, they saw a video set in a small Himalayan village that showed old land rovers as the only vehicles allowed to drive up and access the mountain treks.
One of these videos has more than 1.5 million views to date. the amazing thing about this story is that this is something the brand wasn’t familiar with, Land Rover enthusiasts were sharing it across social media. But by listening to social media and these enthusiasts, the brand was able to discover this story and build a whole film series around it.
Land Rover elevated the story for its 70th birthday, celebrating the tale as a testament to the brand’s inner strength. Another way is to identify a social issue that impacts your customers and to take a strong social stance for the side that best protects the customer’s interests.
Take CVS Health in the US, who wanted to share their message that they care about people’s health. Most retailers talk the talk, but few walk the walk. So what did they do? CVS stopped selling cigarettes. This was a big deal and an expensive one. In fact, the company took a $2 billion hit when they decided to ditch the cigarettes and they were applauded for it.
By taking a bold stance against a relevant issue, in this case, health, CVS showed rather than told a story that highlights their commitment to the mission. The company put aside its self-interest and was willing to take a hit that big because they genuinely care about people’s health - it’s their north star.
There are a few key takeaways when discussing storytelling.
🔑 Great brand storytelling is like a Trojan Horse, it’s a vessel of information. They’re a great way to bridge brands, products and services on our customer journey.
🔑 Determine what the kernel of your story is and start from there. Think about the main idea you want your audience to walk away with and find a story that shows this kernel, rather than tells.
🔑 You don’t have to come up with that story yourself! Use customers’ social media and comments to source the best stories. This often helps you uncover real-life tales that are even better than you could have ever imagined!
Thank you for tuning in to my newsletter! Tomorrow we’ll look at a case study that cracked the storytelling code to become one of the most positively talked about brands.
Have a contentful day 🌞
Emma