Advertising is all about telling your story

Last week we talked about how to make your headline work better for you, this week let’s look at some of the basics of making an advertisement – how to tell a story to that your client believes in and that will persuade him sufficiently to buy your product/service.

Advertising is all about telling a story, your story. However, many stories are written badly or told so poorly that the marketing message is hidden or even absent. You have to be able to tell the story in a way that connects with the people.

Think of some basic questions you customers might ask and answer them. Customers want to hear why you are giving the offer to them – everybody knows there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’ J.

Answer the question: “what’s in it for me?”.

Once they believe in your story, they will respond and buy from you.

We always heard of terms like “multimedia” or “transmedia”, and how the media is continually increasing and fast changing. To maximize the usage of this changeable media age, we need to make the story deep and wide. It has to work across multiple channels, networks and platforms.

Which means that at the same time, your story has to have depth and emotion, to resonate with your customers and compel them to act in the way you want.

For example, the visa card world currency TV commercial is making big use of social media such as YouTube. They use the idea of the video clip and the guy who is popular, with the result that they have attracted over 60,000 viewers on YouTube. So when it appears on TV, there is already a connection and an instant reminder of the story.

Another example is the “Expedition 206” campaign of Coca-Cola. Three young people are sent to 206 countries where coke products can be found. You can check their journey update on their website, facebook, flickr, YouTube and twitter. On twitter, fans can give ideas on how the journey should progress. A great example how to use integrated media to tell your story – as long as it is a good story!

If you can manage to tell your story, then move to next level and build your own environment, not just a story. Think about what kind of world you can build around your brand story. For example, a brand of male skin products could create a website or forum, encouraging male talk about experience of giving thoughtless gift choices for the women in their lives, forget special anniversary date etc. This creates a men’s world, also known as bonding – bonding discusses common problems and solutions i.e. your products.

You have a story and so does everyone else. But that’s not enough to make you successful. Aim for more active participation from your audience, they need to feel they are part of the ‘story’. If they remain passive there is no reason for them to act.

Tell a good story and they will participate and react to your communication in a wide range of forms, making it not just “your story” anymore – but an accepted fact.

As always, I welcome your comments and am available for further discussion on making your business grow - http://www.asiamarketing.biz/

ferdi@asiamarketing.biz