Emotional Brand Storytelling

The most effective brands commuciate with stories that are emotional. They aim at the heart.

Five ways to aim at the heart are:

• Humor
• Engage
• Animals
• Reveal
• Tearjerker

HUMOR Cube Pillow uses humor to simultaneously entertain and inform in this commercial.

ENGAGE Google’s “Loretta” tells a bittersweet story as it shows how it works.

ANIMALS Budweiser effectively combines a puppy, Clydesdale horses, and storytelling in a series of ads. Another commercial, “Someone waits for you at home,” conveys a message through storytelling.

REVEAL Novelty and surprise can be very attractive to humans. See how Guinness combines a heart-warming message with surprise in this commercial.

TEARJERKERS Thai Life Insurance has mastered the art of heart wrenching storytelling. (see their channel for more examples)

Brand storytelling often targets positive emotions, but a bonus letter T can be for the negative emotion of TERRIFY, like in this commercial about the Real Cost of smoking.

Metro chooses a more humorous way to communicate a safety message in “Dumb Ways to Die.”

The Creative Commercials Youtube playlist includes these and more examples.

Additional reading: The relationship between emotion, marketing, and sales at tommy.ismy.name.

Storytelling is a powerful way to communicate. How can you aim at the heart in your stories?

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I seek to create order from the chaos of complex information. Join me at the Daily PlanIt to gain insights, inspiration, and information to increase skills for a better life. I unlock the power of teaching reading with phonics in the pursuit of literacy at www.phonicspow.com. In my spare time I explore books and movies, often choosing titles available on both screen and page.