Brand Storytelling Unpacked!

One of my favorite sessions at Iconosphere was called "Brand Storytelling: No Shit - Now What?!"

We've all heard that your brand has to tell a story, but not too much about WHY and HOW and WHERE. What are the best practices? Who's doing it well?

This session laid out a great framework we can use to explore the various ways brands are telling their stories, and the things those stories have in common - so we can start to gather a list of best practices.

Since it was a great visual presentation, I translated my notes into some maps to lay out the landscape, as it were. I'm not claiming any artistry (and hopefully you can read my chicken scratch!) but it helps to see how everything kind of works together:

The bubbles represent the examples of brands who are doing it well - definitely Google those suckers to check them out. They're either engaging across multiple platforms, or just one, and they're either active (requiring consumers to engage and act) or passive (broadcasting to consumers). The words & phrases ending in "!" represent some of the elements that make these stories successful...and of course in the middle of everything is heart, an emotional connection. According to research cited by Iconoculture, emotional differentiation is the #1 loyalty driver for brands - if you're not making consumers feel something, you're not telling a successful story.

- Jane Schlech, Knowledge Manager for the SIG Group

“The Opposite of play isn’t work; it’s depression.”

Jane McGonigal, author of Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, spoke at Iconosphere 2013 this week. Iconosphere is a conference put on by Iconoculture, a consumers trends and research company. Jane spoke about the tremendously positive effect gaming has on gamers. Unlike at work, where 71% of Americans don’t feel engaged in what they’re doing, gaming is extremely captivating and brings out the following positive emotions in people: excitement, awe & wonder, joy, relief, love, pride, contentment, surprise, curiosity and creativity. Science and research has proven this to be true. Kids with ADHD and/or Autism see decreased symptoms when playing video games. People with mild anxiety or depression feel better after playing video games compared to when taking anti-anxiety or anti-depression medication. And the evidence goes on.

Overall what Jane was conveying was the opportunity gaming presents to all facets of life – to work, to learning, even to banking. Instead of being afraid of “play” or “games” and seeing them as only something to be done when there’s extra time, we need to think about ways to bring game play into more parts of our lives. We’ll benefit from doing so because we’ll be happier, more engaged and more productive.

Kelleen Peckham, Senior Brand Planner

Don’t be cheap. Don’t rely on gender stereotypes.

Advertising messages, movies, shows, stand up comedy…we all do it. Rely on gender stereotypes for making jokes that is. And there’s a reason we use it so much. It can be really funny. But there are better ways to connect with people that can still be humorous without coming off as cheap or like something that’s been done a million times before.

That was one of the points I took away from a presentation given on the use of gender stereotypes in advertising. In advertising, the root of this problem stems from asking ourselves the question, “How do I market to women?” or “How do I market to men?” We spend so much time focusing on the differences between the genders – of which they aren’t a ton – and too little time focusing on the commonalities. Even though men place more value on sexuality and women more on security, these are only a couple of the many values that both men and women share: success, happiness, honesty, family, etc.

Advertising that can speak to a value important to both men and women avoid the over-played gender stereotypes and they also open up more opportunity for the brand. Instead of saying to consumers, ‘We make a product for men specifically. See, we made a funny joke that is obviously more relevant to men,” brands can say, “We make something both men and women will find appealing. Our joke is funny for everyone.”

Let’s work harder to communicate with consumers in a way that is gender neutral – and if we want it to be, still humorous. A more intelligent solution exists.  

Kelleen Peckham, Senior Brand Planner

Arnold Creative Work Mentioned at Iconosphere

Over the two day conference, it was interesting to see some of Arnold’s own creative work called out as examples of brands that are doing a good job at addressing today’s consumer trends – or not.

The recently launched Volvo XC60 spot was shown as a good example of portraying “real” beauty. The Volvo driver is a real woman; she’s pretty but not unrealistically so and she has a sense of humor whereas the other luxury car driver is stiff and too consumed by her own looks.

The work Arnold Amsterdam did on Stuessy’s collaboration with Cotton and their specialty marijuana T-shirt was used as an example of a brand appealing to European Gen Y’s value of nonconformity as well as their interest in connecting with local culture. The Stuessy marijuana T-shirt brings out a unique quality of the city of Amsterdam, while also daring to do something nontraditional and a little risqué. It represents creativity, fun and freedom.

And lastly, the Rate Suckers Progressive Snapshot campaign made it into a presentation about gender stereotypes used in advertising. But this time the creative was being shown to demonstrate what not to do; don’t portray women negatively. The example, however, was not explained and I believe it was misinterpreted. The presenters were trying to make the point that portraying women as idiots was not a good marketing strategy. Fair enough. However, in the Rate Sucker campaign, both male and female “rate suckers” are used and therefore gender stereotypes don’t really apply.

Kelleen Peckham, Senior Brand Planner

Don't Underestimate the Power of the Desire to Fit In

Sasha Issenberg, journalist and political moneyballer, was the first speaker at Iconosphere. He shared with us some of the new studies that have been done to evaluate the effectiveness of various political campaign strategies and in doing so, reminded me of the power of the human desire to fit in.

One of the most interesting studies he shared with spoke to this truth about the desire to fit in. The objective of the study was to determine how to effectively get more people to vote. One strategy called out the horrific statistic of how many people in the United States currently do not vote. In fact, the number of people who vote for American Idol is probably larger. However appalling this fact was though, it didn’t have a great impact on getting more voters out to the polls. Another strategy sent people information on their voting history, as well as those around them. This report showed them how often their neighbors had voted in the past, and how many times they had voted - not many. This method was much more effective at getting the constituents out to vote. Why? Because the people felt left out/odd/like they weren't doing the right thing by not voting when all those around them were. The desire to fit in with others and not be the only one not doing something wins. This is also referred to as behavior economics.

I believe the desire to fit in is extremely powerful and one that we should not only consider when creating advertising campaigns, but also when devising social norm change communication. By demonstrating that a certain act or behavior is clearly what everyone else is doing, we’re playing into the impressionable part of consumers’ brains and chipping away at whatever confidence they have that what they’re currently doing is right or good enough. Although this sounds like quite an evil plot, when used for positive social norm change strategies, it’s not only effective but beneficial.

Kelleen Peckham, Senior Brand Planner

Speed Networking: A Chance to Burst Your Bubble

I've never been one to approach networking with zeal, but at least with the "speed networking" events popular at conferences today you have a definite end point. At the end of your seven minutes, a new person will be sitting across from you and you have another chance to connect on something (a less logistically fraught strategy than a tip I've heard: to always carry two glasses of wine so you'll always have an exit strategy ready - "Oh I have to bring this to my friend!" I could see that going badly, for me, personally!).

At Iconosphere the opening event was a speed networking session, and I came away with a few business cards and some interesting nuggets I hadn't been aware of before.

I met a few employees of Symrise, one of the biggest companies I had never heard of. As one of them told me, "We probably touch your life everyday, from your breakfast to your shower to your dinner and dessert." Symrise makes flavorings & scents which they sell to personal care brands, QSR brands, packaged food brands, alcoholic beverage brands...etc,etc,etc. They do tons of research on the global trends they're seeing around consumers and their senses, and I know I'll be digging through their press releases for statistics and insights I can take back to the brands we work with. The takeaway for me was that B2B companies can be a great source for B2C insight - because they need to show the companies they deal with how they're setting them up to win.

I also met an employee from QVC who works on their e-commerce strategy, and we had a great conversation about the opportunities in that area. We agreed that curation is a way to differentiate from giants like Amazon, who position themselves as "anything & everything." She told me to check out a site she's been keeping an eye on, called Joyus, that artfully curates products based on certain categories, like fitness or beauty, and presents them alongside valuable video content. I checked it out and found myself sucked into the videos and impressed with the site design - it's definitely something I'll be using in future presentations as an example of e-commerce evolution.

Those are just a couple of the interactions I had - not everyone you meet networking will be a home run, but there's always something to be learned from people of different disciplines and from different industries. Since Iconosphere isn't dominated by agencies, it's a good conference for people who want to break out of the advertising bubble a bit.

- Jane Schlech, Knowledge Manager for the SIG Group

Iconosphere 2013

Made it to Miami Beach for Iconosphere 2013! Iconoculture's IconoIQ is a valuable tool for us when we're trying to get inside consumers' heads & hearts. Over the next couple days, myself and Kelleen Peckham, a Senior Brand Planner in our Human Nature department, will be blogging about our key takeaways and the highlights of the conference. 

Right now I'm most looking forward to Sasha Issenberg's discussion of how political campaigns are evolving in their efforts to capture sentiment and persuade voters - selling a President is probably harder than selling a product, so I'm sure there'll be a lot to learn.

- Jane Schlech, Knowledge Manager for the SIG Group