The Next Engine: Beyond Campaign Thinking

My old friend Simon Kelly has a great article in this week’s Adweek about the power and imperative of brand storytelling. Simon and I have been advocates for this form of narrative marketing for more than a decade but as he notes in the article, the disruption caused by the internet provides a huge opportunity to tell brand stories in a new, engaging (multimedia) way.

The key according to Simon is ensuring that content falls within a brands’ “authority to publish”. In order to engage a consumer, content needs to be both authentic and credible. A bass fisherman in Texas telling the story of the Chevrolet Silverado whilst engaged in his life passion is authentic and credible (full disclosure: our work). Taco Bell telling its story using Sports Illustrated swimsuit models? Perhaps not so much.

I’d go one step further than Simon however. The fantastic promise of brand storytelling online is that it doesn’t have to be one-way. Once the story platform has been developed and is accepted by consumers as being credible and authentic, those consumers must be empowered to co-create the narrative - shape it, share it, live it, be part of it. Now that’s tasty.