We people have always been fascinated by stories. Stories play an important role in our personal development in early childhood – on one hand, we learn new words but on the other hand, we also take an example from the protagonists` experiences and apply them in our lives. Even in the adult life, we are still fascinated by stories.
And this has been also proofed by science: our brain is highly responsive to stories and stimulates the firing of neurons making us vicariously living the tale! So, therefore, storytelling is a powerful tool also in marketing, because it influences people and puts them in the middle of the action. The copy becomes more persuasive and the ads more memorable.
But how to use storytelling when creating your next ad?
1. Make a connection between the story and the audience
First of all, if a story should have an impact then you have to make sure that it is understandable to the audience.
Therefore you have to be clear about your target audience – define it before creating the story for it. This will help you to design the plot of the story with virtual features your viewers are familiar with like a specific jargon or buzzwords, which can be easily remembered.
2. Relate to emotions
Imagine you are an artist and start to paint a picture for your audience. You want to express something by appealing to universal human motivations and emotions.
The better you manage to put the readers into the protagonists` shoes, one’s desires, wishes, feelings, thoughts, the better your audience can relate to it even if it has no direct experiences of.
3. Take your audience together with you on a journey
What was so great when you started to read a book as a child? You were escaping daily life and totally absorbed by the virtual world and the characters` experiences described there. You forgot everything that surrounded you…
This kind of “transportation” guarantees great success in ads.
One simple method is to display persons in your ad, which are pretty similar to your target audience, with whom they empathize. People watching the ad identify with them because they are confronted with the same kind of problems and they know how it feels to be in this situation. By presenting your product you take them through a transformation by solving their problem.
4. Activate the neuronal activity of the brain
Try to make the story as vivid as possible. Therefore use a variety of different actions, movements, and dialogue to activate different brain areas.
How? By using expressive language to evidence the characters` feelings, thoughts, motivations so that your target audience can understand the ads`message clearly.
Result? Your ads will be easier to recognize in future.
5. Make the story become true
Do not promise what you cannot hold and open the possibility for your audience to express their experiences with your product. Everyone who buys your product continues your story and adds its own part.
Make sure your fairy tale has a happy ending!