Nowadays, brands can’t afford to create passive content that is strictly business. Brands need to dive into their emotions and interact with them at an extensive level like never before. And that’s where storytelling comes in — you need brand facts wrapped together with a thought-provoking tale to capture the audience’s attention. 

Gone are the days where brand storytelling was just a nice-to-have; now it’s a must have in order to improve brand engagement. 

And, who doesn’t like a good story anyway? 

We definitely do, and we are going to dissect points that will be beneficial for you in your next brand storytelling campaign. 

Here are three reasons why brand storytelling is the real deal in marketing: 

1. It makes your brand stand out 

Brand storytelling is a great way to make you stand out from the rest, because no brand or organisation was established the same way as their competitor. All brands have a unique story to tell, and using your story will establish your brand. 

Let’s take Coca-Cola for example. Their establishment didn’t have anything to do with selling soft drink beverages, but rather, the drink was a medicine meant to help soothe pain, cure morphine addiction and indigestion. 

How many years has it been? 154 years! And the story still strikes interest amongst Coca-Cola consumers. The brand’s marketers around the globe still use this story to sell the brand. While they might switch between the story angles every now and then, they always keep the main story line the same. 

In this clip, Coca-Cola’s anniversary campaign tells its story that began 125 years ago: 



Every brand has a story to tell. So why not share your brand’s story as part of your marketing strategy? It will add a unique element to your brand, for sure! 

2. It adds a human element 

When you use brand storytelling, you’re giving your brand a soul — a good ol’ dose of human characteristics. 

Humans tell effective stories that inspire and drive societal change. Essentially, it’s showing people that you care and that you’re aware of things happening around the world, other than the brand itself. 

Bridgestone South Africa, a tyre brand, created an ad that tells a story that has nothing to do with tyres. Instead, it tells a story about South African runner Caster Semenya’s journey.

In this regard, Bridgestone South Africa put aside all business elements, such as promotion and sales, and instead focused on telling a  touching human story. 

Watch the video clip below: 



It’s not always the case that a brand should tell its own stories; sometimes sharing others’ stories can build a more positive brand perception than your own would.

3. It helps you to find your brand’s narrative 

Your brand’s views on matters related to social, political and diversity can make it into a powerhouse brand. Nike recently ran a campaign in support of ‘#BlackLivesMatter’, which was endorsed by another big brand Adidas. This campaign received more than 1 400 comments, close to 80 000 retweets, just over 230 000 likes and nearly 80 million views on Twitter. 
This shows that some brands have chosen a narrative that they believe in, and show their support through content, by creating exemplary stories as part of their marketing campaigns. 

Furthermore, a narrative helps a brand distinguish its identity amongst other brands and consumers will choose it based on the brand’s openness on their beliefs, values and vision. 

What does this mean, though? 

This implies that a brand with a narrative strives to create brand content that is meaningful to its consumers before it refers to itself. As seen in the above Twitter post, this has the power to attract a bigger audience to your brand’s story and spark discussions and engagement. 

Storytelling content is easy for audiences to remember as it provides context and gives them something more than just facts. What other reasons do you think stories make great marketing tools? Let us know in the comments section below. 

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