By Paula Cowan, Managing Director, ImpactInstitute
It’s a confronting question, but one every organisation should ask. In a world bursting at the seams with content, being interesting isn’t optional.
With the right lens and a fresh perspective, even the most ‘ordinary’ brand can spark emotion, engagement and loyalty. The question isn’t if you’re interesting. It’s how you choose to show it.
Get to know your audience
You’ll have stakeholders, customers, members or your own workforce you’re seeking to engage. Do you know what they think and believe? Are you tuned into their needs and wants? And in today’s dynamic environment, have you considered the political, economic, and social factors that might impact your brand’s ability to connect with your audience?
Strong brands understand the importance of getting to know and listening to their audience. Identifying something to solve or offer can lead to opportunities that your brand is best placed to deliver.
Offer a new perspective
It can be hard to find something to say. We get it. Bringing a fresh and unique perspective can make all the difference to cutting through.
We love a good ‘aha’ moment, but where do new ideas come from? At ImpactInstitute we call it the anatomy of an insight. We think of an insight as a new or evolved understanding of human behaviour, belief, or need that informs and inspires ideas, decisions, and actions.
Insights are often borne out of an evidence base (research, customer intelligence, reports and data sets etc) that yields a new piece of information.
This is crucial to creating compelling brand stories. Offering new information, or new ways of looking at something, is a gift you’re giving to your audience. It marks you as informed, engaged and generous – transforming your brand from boring to belonging.
Build a big story
Once you know your audience and have a key insight, you can conceive of the Big Story your brand has to tell. This is a narrative designed to bring an audience along on an organisation’s journey, building trust and connection over time.
Our Beliefonomics™ Framework for brand storytelling helps organisations identify where they’re at on their Brand Journey, and home in on the story type that will connect most powerfully at this moment.
The framework includes:
Continual storytelling
Like any good conversation, keeping in touch with your audience with stories they’ll engage with is not only good manners, it’s best practice.
Our Head of Brand Storytelling, Niall Hughes, shared these tips and examples in our recent virtual event for how to achieve this:
- Make it interactive: Engage through shared experiences and calls to action (CTAs). For example, Katmai National Park’s “Fat Bear Week” engaged audiences by allowing them to vote on the fattest bear, creating a fun and interactive experience.
- Audience stories: Take a good look at your audience for stories. Understand what your audience finds interesting about your brand and leverage those insights.
- Make it current: Release new data or thinking on an existing issue. For instance, the National Growth Areas Alliance used new data to highlight ongoing infrastructure issues, making their campaign relevant and timely.
- Make it visual: Represent data or concepts differently. The “Meet Graham” campaign by the Transport Accident Commission visualised the human body’s vulnerability in car crashes, making the message impactful and memorable.
- Go novel: Go big, go weird, get attention. KFC’s fashion range at London Fashion Week is a great example of using novelty to capture attention.
- Tap into human behaviour: Understand and leverage how your audience acts. Schiphol Airport’s use of a fly sticker in urinals to improve aim and reduce cleaning costs is a simple yet effective example.
Putting it into action
So now you understand that no brand needs to be too boring for storytelling.
By looking for unique insights and perspectives, and by continually engaging your audience with compelling stories, you can make your brand stories captivating and engaging.
Remember, it’s about establishing an evidence base, finding creative angles and novel approaches to familiar topics that will drive the most success.
Ready to put impact at the centre of your business? Our integrated team can help you plan, deliver, evaluate and communicate your social impact. Get in touch and let’s have a chat.