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How to Tell a Better Story

Marketers are always being told to tell more stories these days. The audience will remember a story, stories attract attention, etc., but if you're going to make a systematic use of stories, you need to have some criteria for which stories to tell and how to tell them.

Peter Gruber, founder of Mandaly Entertainment, recently spoke at the NACCM conference, and he shared some tips for creating stories that inspire people to become more involved with an enterprise. His first three tips were

1. Truth to yourself
2. Truth to your audience
3. Truth to the moment

And I've excerpted the final truth here. I highly recommend the entire article.

1to1 Weekly Inside Access: Reporter's Notebook. by Ginger Conlon 2007-Oct-29

Truth to your mission: A story is a call to action. It should capture the mission and everything about it should be subservient to that mission, he said. "Storytellers must render an experience to their audience," Gruber said, emphasizing that stories must be action oriented and have an ending that is unexpected as well as emotionally fulfilling. A good story well told, he said, will leave listeners saying, "Aha!"

For marketers, that "aha" moment should be: Now I know what to do next. When your audience says that to themselves, you've got them involved.

Brands Sidestepping Media to Audience?

Producing entertainment is expensive and risky. Worse than trying to cut through the clutter with a national advertisement? Probably not. A company with a large budget may as well try to bond directly with their audience. Maybe advertisements eventually will only be for companies that can't afford to produce entertainment?

NY Times: Brands Produce Their Own Shows. 2006-Nov-10, by Louise Story 

...Office Max recently created a show on the ABC Family channel. Anheuser-Busch plans to start a seven-channel TV network online, called BudTV. “It’s the exploration of sort of a new world,” said Doug Powell, chief integrator of Maiden Lane, an advertising agency. “Clients would love to have a way for customers to be able to participate with their brands more often and not have to rely on the traditional media world.”...

Choosy Scion leaves Network TV

Toyota would rather find life-long customers than sell more cars. They are strengthening their bonds with younger driver by making Scion into a cult brand. Everyone is thrilled except the car dealers.

WSJ: A Way Cool Strategy: Toyota's Scion Plans To Sell Fewer Cars. 2006-Nov-10, by Gina Chon

...To better position it as an "underground" brand, Scion over the past year has reduced its television advertising...Now it is re-evaluating that strategy and may completely get rid of television advertising so it can focus more on experiential marketing, including event marketing and branded entertainment. Scion already launched its own music label for emerging artists and its own clothing line called Scion Release....

Okay, Not THAT Close

To break through the clutter, Adidas has the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team demonstrating their fan commitment by donating their blood which is then added to the ink used for printing the posters and team shirts. The limited edition runs are almost all gone before the season starts.

WSJ.com: Adidas Draws Blood for Rugby Fans, 2006-Sep-15, by Geoffrey A. Fowler

"A signature is personal. But these guys do sign a lot of autographs," says Craig Waugh, the marketing manager for Adidas in New Zealand. "The DNA of the team is making it extremely personal."

Yes, CBS is Cracking Me Up

CBS has an exclusive contract to advertise on eggs. The provider of this new form of  advertising is EggFusion, with a very funny web site.

NY Times: For CBS’s Fall Lineup, Check Inside Your Refrigerator, 2006-Jul-17, by David S. Joachim

George Schweitzer, president of the CBS marketing group, said he was hoping to generate some laughter in American kitchens. “We’ve gone through every possible sad takeoff on shelling and scrambling and frying,” he said, adding, “It’s a great way to reach people in an unexpected form.”

Where to Find Stimulating New Ideas: Out to Launch

This week Amy Corr has an exceptionally good newsletter about new advertising campaigns and the innovative new tactics we can find there. Out To Launch is a weekly email newsletter from Mediapost and one of my most reliable sources for ideas and trends. Expect to fish it out of your spam filter because it's full of valuable links and pictures. Great news sources should not just be informative--they should also be stimulating, and Amy Corr does a great job joking and getting you to think.

MediaPost: Out to Launch - 06/14/2006, by Amy Corr (registration required)

Yao Ming saves an elephant. The Brawny Academy is open for business. United gets animated promoting international business travel. Let's launch!

Arresting Visuals Pull Audience In

How can we plan to create knock-out campaigns like this one? I think we have to start with clarity and courage. It takes confidence in the quality of our ideas. Don't miss NewsSpreads.com.

MediaPost: Out to Launch,  2006-June-1, by Amy Corr

Sometimes all you need is one animated .gif to spread the word. MSN has launched NewsSpreads.com, a site promoting MSN's Windows Live Messenger.

Marketing Australia with a Cheeky Beauty

This elegantly produced new campaign by Australia Tourism is descirbed in news stories as more shocking than it appears when you actually watch the spots. I suspect they want to produce some 'buzz' that will cause people to pay closer attention when these spots air. I find them very entertaining, and I hope this complex strategy pays off for them.

Reuters: Australia Swears by New Campaign.

The new campaign, which can be seen on Tourism Australia's Web site (www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com), features a series of Australian backdrops. It begins with characters saying: "We've poured you a beer and we've had the camels shampooed, we've saved you a spot on the beach ... and we've got the sharks out of the pool." A bikini-clad woman then asks: "So where the bloody hell are you?".

Anheuser-Busch May Ditch Media for Direct-to-Consumer

The beer companies have never been big direct marketers, but signs are surfacing that Anheuser-Busch may view the internet as its big opportunity to get one-to-one with its audience. As tv commercials become easier to avoid and audiences become more fragmented, more of advertisers' money is going into web-based advertising ventures where return on investment is easier to measure and control.

MediaPost: King Of Beers Becomes King Of Content, Uses Super Bowl To Launch Direct-To-Consumer Channel  by Joe Mandese

In a move that's sure to cause a stir at ABC, as well as the other major networks, long-time Super Bowl advertiser Anheuser-Busch will use its buy in ABC's coverage of the game on Sunday to launch its own direct-to-consumer network. Details of the strategy are still under wraps, but the new channel, code-named "The Bud Screen," will debut sometime during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XL, offering viewers the opportunity to download advertising, programming and branded entertainment content directly to their computers, iPods and other devices.

Quite a few major advertisers are now creating or distributing entertainment directly to their audiences, and we can expect some to get burned and some to get very, very good at it.

News Corp Plans Commerce Tools for MySpace

Ross Levinsohn is in charge of marketing the advertising space at all the News Corp. web sites. In an interview in the Wall Street Journal, he describes a very interesting idea to enable mulit-level marketing at Myspace. It's just an idea that's 'out there,' but one that could greatly increase the power and loyalty of their users. IF it works!

WSJ.com - Questions for … Ross Levinsohn by Julia Angwin (subscription required)

The home pages people are creating today on MySpace.com are really the center of their universes. They are very engaged with it and we should be able to give them the tools to do anything from those pages.

Maybe it's a cross between eBay and Amway. If somebody downloads a clip of "The Simpsons" and posts it and I go to that site and see that my friend has downloaded it, I should be able to buy it right from that page without going to the video store. In addition, if you want to sell me a bicycle, we should be able to transact that as well.

To do this, we need communications tools. We need a commerce engine. We need a credit-card processing engine. We need the ability to sell and serve targeted advertising. And we need a next-generation system that makes it easier for people to post items and slide things around. Those are all things we're working on.