Why storytelling is the most important part of building a brand.

What’s a brand story?

Humans like stories. Throughout history they’ve been used to pass on knowledge, develop social connections, and understand the world around us. Similarly, brand storytelling is a method of marketing a business by creating a narrative that builds connection with your customers. Although a brand story can in part be an origin story, try not to get caught up in the background of your business. A good brand story should be more conceptual. It should most importantly reflect the values and mission of your organisation. Moreover, it should do this in a creative and dynamic way.

What does good brand storytelling bring to your business?

When you succeed in creating a good brand story strategy, you’ll improve your connection with customers new and old. Well structured stories will increase trust and loyalty in your brand, enable you to stand out from competitors, become more memorable, and more likely to be recommended. It’s not hard to see why these things are desirable to a business. The tricky part is getting the story and delivery just right. 

Bursting through the noise

When you think about the evolution of advertising, messages and delivery used to be pretty straightforward. A product or service would be presented and applauded through spoken or printed media. As the scope of media out there has increased, so has advertising noise. There are more television, radio and streaming channels than you can count, plus social media platforms, and ads within any number of online sources. So, advertising space, wherever you look, is just extremely noisy with competition. As a result, consumers simply don’t trust any of it any more. Your aim, then, is to burst through this noise to get noticed and simultaneously offer a foundation of trust. It’s quite a task when you think about it! 

The story making process

Make no mistake, it’ll take a lot of background work and creative vision to progress your brand storytelling. These areas form a good framework to engage in that work:

• Define the values and vision of your brand. Do you work with strong eco principles, for example? Or perhaps your product is something that can forge links between generations. 
• Comprehensively profile your target audience. Market research, customer feedback, and demographic analysis will all help you to identify the type of narrative that might resonate. 
• Develop your narrative based on your research. You might follow customer experience stories, or choose something more whimsical. Base this decision on what your profiling has told you will be engaging. Not on what you personally prefer! 
• Include distinctive elements to rise above the noise. Animation really helps to achieve this. A distinctive visual effect or character builds visual links and creates a sense of community around your story.
• Spread your story across platforms. Different types of storytelling work better in different types of media. So create a common thread. Your audience will then link these stories together as they encounter your brand through different media. This all helps to embed your relationship and sense of trust.   
  
  

Getting it right

Yes, there’s lots of data and research to do. But beyond the process of building a brand story are some rather more conceptual principles. 

Be personal

The dominance of very specific, personalised advertising creates a version of the social media echo chamber. The danger here is that brand stories lose their impact. It’s important to understand your target audience without becoming so overfamiliar that you become part of the wallpaper. Try, therefore, to create a message that is tailored and personalised, but with strong visual impact.

Be authentic

To create a successful visual impact, you shouldn’t need to be controversial. Let’s face it, most of us will immediately think this is simply lazy! Don’t let your story become forced, or awkwardly cool or edgy. When the delivery of your story is authentic, the flow will be naturally appealing. 

Be consistent

This doesn’t mean to tell the same story again and again! It’s in no one’s interests to get repetitive. Instead, maintain a consistent thread within your narratives. This might be a certain style of CGI, for example. Or an animated character in various story scenarios. 

Be relatable

Your story should create pathways to emotional connection. It can’t be too abstract in terms of message. Delivery, of course, can be as abstract as you like. As long as the feelings that the story inspires are relatable and reflective of your audience’s experience.  

How animation fits in

Think about that most iconic brand storyteller: the John Lewis Christmas ad. These flights of fancy that capture the hearts of the nation would not be possible without animated elements. CGI animals, cute characters and whimsical backgrounds are all made possible using cutting edge animation technology. Similarly, more nostalgic styles of 2D animation have the ability to engage with whole generations in a single second. Animated stories are also:

Functional

Animated elements to brand storytelling are the perfect tool to create consistency in your branding. Use them not just for ads and explainer videos, but embedded into your website, too. Stylistically, animation can either be contained in or support your brand colours, fonts, and logos. 

Flexible

Since your stories never end, using animation offers more flexibility as your brand journey progresses. Your business may experience a change of focus or pivot in product. It’s both cost effective and more straightforward to reflect these changes within your animated campaign. So there’s no need to go back to the drawing board or start again with your existing customer community. 

We’ve helped to tell the stories of businesses and organisations large and small. We understand about engagement and visual appeal. We a have outstanding team of 2d animators in London as well as other animators. Contact us to explore how we can help to tell your story!