Tag: tell a story

Secrets Learned from Creative Examples of Nike Marketing

How do you learn creative ideas for building new advertisements?  How would you go about it? For us, the answer is pretty simple. We learn best by studying and analyzing awesome advertisement design examples and then applying the best of the best ideas we’ve found. In this blog, we will illustrate 13 important design examples of Nike marketing and advertising. And there are many creative advertisements to choose from aren’t there?

Your expectations are not guaranteed. Positive thinking doesn’t guarantee results, all it offers is something better than negative thinking. Did you win? A far better question to ask yourself is, “What did you learn?”

Learning compounds. Usually more reliable than winning. So learn from these Budweiser design examples and you will find them useful next time you need to design an advertisement.

Related: What Makes These Extraordinary Commercials So Captivating?

Here are 13 design elements we gleaned from the study of many, many Budweiser commercials. But don’t be fooled. They are not all equal in effectiveness, so we put them in order of importance.  Let’s get started:

Emotional influence and Persuasion

Budweiser puppy love was, by most accounts, the biggest winner from the 2014 Super Bowl. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. And Budweiser has been the master for a long time now. You will find the use of emotion in most of their commercials.

Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember. Check out this ad here.

There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences.

This puppy love commercial focuses on emotional appeal in a grand fashion. It is a great example of a successful advertisement design.

 Tell a story

A good story has a beginning where a sympathetic character encounters a complicated situation, a middle where the character confronts and attempts to resolve the situation, and an end where the outcome is revealed. It does not interpret or explain the action in the story to the audience.

You will see many stories in Budweiser commercials. Here is a remarkable one about a baby Clydesdale. They don’t get much better than this.

Coordinate identifiable music

A great ad design element is to match what viewers see with what they hear. Just like the use of emotion, Budweiser is a master of the use of music. Check out this recent Budweiser commercial for great coordinated music and video:

Another great example is shown here. 

This music selection in this commercial was so popular that Budweiser released a video of the group doing it. You can check it out here.

People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages because those messages are easier to process and understand. Audio and visual messages that are out-of-sync may gain attention, but customers usually find them uncomfortable.

Grab and hold viewers’ attention

Interesting information gets and holds attention. Keep in mind that people don’t read ads … they read what interests them. Be different and avoid normalcy at all costs. Stand out is the mantra. It’s OK to be controversial and to create conversation through the ‘buzz’. Headlines are the first place for attention.

I saw this commercial on the day that it aired. Since then I’ve not taken it for anything more than what I hope a corporation like Budweiser / Anheuser-Busch would have intended it to be. I couldn’t care less about accusations of financial intent & exploitation, Ad critics, or opinions on the product itself. It’s simply a meaningful tribute to those that lost their lives on September 11, 2001. 

Define a value proposition

A unique selling point that truly discriminates you from your competition is vital. It is essential that you give your customers reasons to select you. Paint the picture of value … make the value stand out. You won’t find many Budweiser commercials emphasizing value propositions though. Here is one that does … showing that their beer is brewed the hard way and is Beechwood aged.

Don’t need to say much as the video does the talking. Powerful.

Visual elements

Use pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation. Next time you go out, be sure to make a plan to get home safely. Your friends are counting on you. Enjoy Budweiser responsibly.

That’s why it said, “For some, the waiting never ended”. For some doggies, their owners never return due to driving drunk or being hit by someone driving drunk. That’s why it’s such a powerful commercial. They promote their beer and the “drink (and make decisions afterward) responsibly” message.

Consider the end-state values of customers

Focus on customer needs end state and not the means. The end state is the only priority. This is another of Budweiser’s great stories, in this case about the lost puppy. Grabs and holds your attention until the end, when you can know the ending.

Make your messages simple

Make the message as clean and simple as possible. You cannot overachieve the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly understand. Emotion and simplicity are keys to the Young Clysdale ad.

Superb visuals and visuals are so simple that you quickly grasp them and don’t lose interest. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. And the music has a way to keep you tied in.

Creating customer interest does not get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think? And the real message at the end is very soft not selling.

Be unique

Showing social responsibility as a business is an awesome way to be unique. Check out this commercial on Epic Lyfts home.

Be relevant to your target market

Keep in mind that one message does not fit all.

You should start your thinking by knowing your target market. Here the target market is millennials that love to socialize. Nothing better than a beer and a burger with friends is there? Notice the focus on the subtle emotion to deliver the persuasion. Certainly relevant to this target market, isn’t it?

Define your positioning

Your positioning is the current frame of reference. Make comparisons to your competitors if you can solidly substantiate the claim. Budweiser rarely has used positioning in its commercials. But they used it here with positioning the microbreweries. Created lots of controversies.

Here is the message:

Proudly a macro beer. It’s not brewed to be fussed over. It’s brewed for a crisp, smooth finish. This is the only beer Beechwood aged since 1876. There’s only one Budweiser. It’s brewed for drinking. Not dissecting. The people who drink our beer are people who like drinking beer. To drink beer brewed the hard way.

Let them sip their pumpkin peach ale. We’ll be brewing some golden suds. This is the famous Budweiser beer. This Bud’s for you.

Picture of value

Using a great visual to show the picture of value … food and a Bud. An awesome way to create persuasion.

Make your ad a component

Your ads should be integrated components of an integrated marketing campaign. Remember; to stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in.

Here is one of Budweiser’s best commercials use of customer engagement to make it connected to several campaigns using the Clydesdales. In this case, Budweiser is showing a young foal. Nothing like a contest to name a new member of the team is there?

The bottom line

 So remember this: 

You just can’t say it. You have to get people to say it to each other.

– James Farley, CMO of Ford

It is not what advertising does with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. So after looking over these enablers … how much have you learned?

Tell a Story … Increase Your Marketing Influence

Do you want to increase your marketing influence? What about your ability to effectively tell a story?

tell a story
Tell a story.

What exactly is influencer marketing?
According to Forbes, “Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that identifies and targets individuals with influence over potential buyers.”
Keep learning: 13 Remarkable Visual Content Marketing Examples
Influencer marketing is about providing product context and expertise through an inspirational person.

The importance of storytelling

Storytelling in presentations isn’t just a way to keep audience members entertained—although it does do that quite effectively.
However, storytelling is also a useful device for creating an empathetic audience that trusts you, a way to keep listeners engaged and absorbed by what you are saying and a motivating factor for action.
Check out these thoughts: Tips about creating a better story
Facts often can be boring and overwhelming, can’t they? Stories, though, not nearly as much. They are much easier to understand and much more entertaining.
Therefore they are much better at spreading ideas.

Change your life

Wonder if stories can change your life? They can if people believe they can. Facts are mostly non-relevant. What matters is what people think and believe.

how to tell a story book
How to tell a storybook.

Story/storytelling characteristics

Awesome stories and the storytelling used to tell them:
Are authentic, and people should never question this.
They make a promise that has some meaning to the community.
Are targeted to a particular community.
They make subtle points … and are not overwhelming.
They are a trusted marketing tool.
Stories and storytelling appeal to our senses and not to logic.
And most importantly they are told with a heart to appeal to emotions.

Storytelling skills matter

No matter what industry you work in, there’s a good chance you want your audience to leave understanding and supporting the ideas you just delivered.
Storytelling is a powerful way to grab attention, hold attention, and to change beliefs because it works in the same way that it does in our favorite books and movies:
  • Stories build suspense by introducing a hero, a challenge, a journey, and finally, a resolution that delivers the hero into an improved reality. (Didn’t we all read all seven books in the Harry Potter series because we had to see Harry and his cohorts overcome the evil of Voldemort?)
  • Stories cause chemical, physical, and emotional responses in listeners. When stories make people feel things like trust or kindness, the brain releases oxytocin, which motivates cooperation by enhancing empathy. This means that stories make people more likely to adopt new ideas and act based on those ideas.
First, tech giant Cisco Systems used to deliver fact-heavy presentations promoting their products. However, when they stopped listing features and started telling stories, they became much more effective and successful.
For instance, by telling the story of a small, struggling, local business owner who grew his company and managed it more effectively using Cisco, the company was able to humanize information about technology and make their benefits more relatable.
Next, Pastor John Ortberg of Menlo Park Presbyterian was masterfully able to move congregation members to believe in the message “people can bring the Kingdom of Heaven to this Earth by showing love.”
He did this by going beyond simply delivering relevant lines from Scripture, and telling a story about his little sister. She loved a ragged doll so wholeheartedly she was able to convince everyone in her life that the doll was beautiful and valuable.
While these two presenters were very different from one another, they had one thing in common:  they both used stories to make their presentation resonate with the audience.

tell a story game
Tell a story game.

How to use storytelling to influence

You might be wondering how to craft an inspiring story when your most important content consists of data, insights, and numbers.
If you want to build your storytelling presentation skills, you should keep the following rules in mind:

Gripping Stories Have a Hero

The most beloved stories in history tell the story of a hero and his journey: Odysseus in the Odyssey, Simba in The Lion King, Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, and Harry Potter in his series et cetera. The hero’s journey is a beloved storytelling device that has a recognizable and easily digestible structure.
As marketing and storytelling expert Robert Rose explains, “the hero’s journey is a ‘monomyth’ — which is a pattern that many believe can be found in almost every narrative around the world” and that “storytelling across time shares a fundamental structure and can be summarized into this journey.”

Amy Purdy “Living Beyond Limits” Ted Talk

In her Ted Talk, pro snowboarder Amy Purdy talks about losing both of her legs to bacterial meningitis, re-learning to snowboard, then eventually medaling the Paralympics. It’s the quintessential example of the hero’s journey.
When you build your presentation’s story, position your audience as the hero. They are the ones who must cross the threshold and into an adventure; you are the one to dare and encourage them to slay the dragons that plague them and their business.
Finally, your ideas and the content of your presentation can guide them through their quest to reach a better resolution.

Tell a story … use contrast to build suspense

Effective use of contrast keeps people guessing at what’s next. Many of the most successful speeches have harnessed the power of contrast. For example:

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech

Dr. King starts his speech by explaining that America is racially divided and unjust. He then goes on to explain what the future could look like (his “dream”) if everyone were willing to devote themselves to the cause of Civil Rights alongside him.

Viola Davis’ 2015 Emmys Speech

When Viola Davis thanked the Television Academy for her 2015 Emmy, she did a masterful job delivering a powerful, short speech that leaned heavily on contrast.
This use of contrast was used to describe the lack of opportunities for women of Color in America versus what could happen.
The reason that contrast is such an effective method of storytelling in presentations is that it creates a dramatic dichotomy that holds attention and spurs action.
By pointing out the gap between what is and what could be, you create a sense of suspense, as listeners wait to hear how they will be able to bridge that gap.

Use Storytelling to Generate Empathy

So, while you’re not the hero of the story you are telling – you are the mentor to that hero – and thus, it’s important for you to incorporate personal stories or anecdotes about your own experience to create common ground with the people listening to you.
Common ground creates empathy, and this makes people more likely to listen to – and take action after – your presentation.
Storytelling expert and creative writing professor Robert McKee insist that empathy is the most important part of all stories.
He explains, “The irreducible step is to connect on an empathetic level… It can’t be just charming. It can’t just be sympathetic. It’s not a matter of likeability. The audience must connect on some subconscious level that this story is about me.”
This means that your stories should help listeners feel things about themselves –not about you.
Use your own stories to become relatable to your audience— you want them to empathize with you because they’ll trust you and be more likely to want to adopt your ideas.
To figure out what personal information you have in your arsenal that might be relevant to a presentation audience, it’s important to get to know them first.
There are several ways you can get to know your audience:
  • Split them into sub-segments: Split your audience into sub-segments (by profession, geographic location, age, etc.) then focus on speaking to the group who you are most likely to relate to and win over.
  • Send out audience surveys: You can send out surveys to audience members long before your presentation to get a better sense of who they are and what they care about.
  • Build personas: To get to the heart of your audience members, do some research. Ask yourself in-depth questions about them, like: What do they value? How do they spend their free time? What are they afraid of? What are their ultimate goals?
What to know: What Marketers Need to Know about Personalization Strategies 
Once you’ve collected helpful information from your audience, look at that information, and see where it overlaps with your experiences. Do you have a story about a similar fear, value or goal?
Weave that story into the narrative to show that you’re not just blowing smoke – that you can relate to where they’re coming from.
There are more great examples of storytelling in presentations and advertisements in the past that included personal, relatable stories to persuade audience members.

The bottom line

Remember to watch for your own biases. We often see what we are looking for so don’t let that happen to you. And keep an open mind.
As a storyteller, I know my audience is experiencing one of the above benefits as they listen to my serious or funny stories. I see their breathing change, their attention focus, and their foreheads wrinkle or relax. So much is happening in our shared experience.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to crafting a quality narrative. It takes a ton of creativity as well as time, patience, planning, and polishing to give your brand’s story sparkle and make it shine. We recommend you dive into using creative stories!
Next time you are building a marketing campaign, use a great story built from these lessons.

BUSINESS COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION
Business collaborative innovation.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
 
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
 

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. 

  
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
13 Remarkable Visual Content Marketing Examples
SEO Mistakes That Will Kill Your Content Marketing Performance
What Marketers Need to Know about Personalization Strategies 
Mike Schoultz likes to write about the topics that lead to small business success. He also likes to share his many business experiences. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Blog Writing Tips Helping Marketers Create Appropriate Content

Blogs are one of the best weapons of online marketers. They can use it effectively to bolster their marketing campaign that hinges around SEO. It will not be wrong to say that blogs give meaning to the SEO efforts by helping to create appropriate content for the target audience.

It also helps to create engagement that drives traffic to the website. You need content not only to engage with viewers but also to improve search rankings because the quality of content determines the quality of your website. The content determines the worth of your website, and therein lies its importance.

Blogs are the most popular type of content that helps to earn the trust of the audience by building credibility and authority, which passes on to your website. Writing blogs on varied topics that cater to the interests of the audience is the best way to attract your target customers and stay in touch with your existing customers.

You can take help from some SEO company offering blog marketing services to can catapult your website to the upper ranks of the search result page.  

Creating content is challenging and a specialized job. Even if you outsource blog writing services, you must be aware of the traits of quality blogs and how these should be written so that you get content of the desired quality that can give results.  Moreover, there must be a proper marketing plan in place.

As Vladimir Nabokov put it, “writing is rewriting.” The greatness comes not from the initial spark of inspiration, but from the long hours spent honing it down to reveal its core. But before you do that, you need to dare to be crap and produce the first draft.

In other words, writing is work.  As in most things, talent is overrated.  You produce good work not from having a knack for a clever turn of phrase, but by putting in the effort to express your ideas clearly.

This article will help you understand what goes into blogs to make it the most effective ammunition in your marketing armory.

Blogs must tell a story

Engaging and authentic are the traits of any quality blog post, and the best way of doing it is to tell a story through the blog. Stories are powerful and attract humans. Stories attract our attention, generate interest, and make us curious to know what happens next, thereby creating engagement.

Stories can originate from your experience or from that of other people. Customers sharing their experiences could be another resource for generating stories.

When reading stories, in most cases, it creates an emotional connection with readers, which brings the community close to the brand. Stories can provoke readers and make them ask questions, leave comments, and share the content.

The story must be well-structured, have a beginning, middle, and end and assume a voice and personality that is typical of your brand that becomes an easily recognizable trait. It will help in instantly connecting with the brand, which then becomes part of the unique brand personality.

Add some human element to the story that touches upon the emotions of viewers, pack the right information that is useful for readers, and have a conclusion to hammer home the points while signaling a closure.

Write in the language of the audience

Knowing the audience in-depth is critical for developing appropriate content. Conduct audience research to identify the group/s that you want to target based on demographics like age, gender, location, education, etc. In the next step, ascertain their needs based on keyword research that revolves around the questions the audience is asking.

Determine the type of content they are engaging with that will reveal whether they like text content or prefer visuals and videos.  Know the kind of language, serious, formal, or casual that they like or prefer light-hearted writing.

The research will help you understand the best way to get closest to the audience and make them move. You will know how to create engaging marketing content that resonates with the audience and facilitates conversion.

Create original content

Even the best-written content will fail to elicit the response of the audience if it is not original. Creating blogs based on your own experiences will have the touches of originality that will also generate trust. You can create a more personalized online presence with original content.

The originality of content is an asset that pays back well in the long run. Providing case studies is one of the ways of creating unique content that helps to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. Publishing interviews is another way of creating original content.

Keep it simple

Since your target is to reach out to the largest section of the audience, the form and structure of content must be user-friendly so that it has a high level of acceptance among the audience. Write in a lucid language that everyone understands and explains difficult things most easily by avoiding the use of jargon.

Your approach should be to talk to the audience, like talking to a layperson and not an expert.  Technical terms and acronyms can confuse readers who may not have any understanding of it.

If it becomes unavoidable, you must explain the words most easily so that readers understand and sustain their interest to go through the entire content. This should help in audience engagement, which is most important for marketing.

Consider yourself to be in better command of the topic or subject than the audience and assume that they might not know as much as you. Although some may be knowledgeable, they would not mind refreshing their knowledge.

Avoid any hint about selling because it can turn-off the audience who expects useful information from the blog. Your blog should be an added resource that adds value to customer experience. Blogs are not advertisements but should address issues faced by the audience.

Be a problem solver

The best way to show that you care for your customers is to help them solve their problems. To give your audience what they are looking for, you must understand their perspective to identify their needs and create blogs accordingly. This should help you to answer the questions that the audience faces and solve their problems.

Find out how you can help your audience by providing information that your competitor could not provide. You can educate customers on how-to guides and even create FAQs that answer many more questions than they might ask. The more you can fill the gaps left by your competitors, the closer you can get to the audience.

Identify trends to stay tuned with the times and create blogs that will generate instant attraction.