Story-Centered Marketing defined
Back in my agency days, I could write a benefit statement that would curl your toes. I told people they should love my clients’ products, and they went for it.
Okay, two to six percent of them went for it.
But now their anti-ad radar has been perfected. They smell a benefit statement a mile off, and their mental shutters instantly slam down.
Tough problem for a marketing professional with a job to do.
The solution is NOT to continue inserting advertising between program segments, as we have done for decades. You’ve heard of TiVo, right? Wakey, wakey, 1940s-golden-age-of-advertising masterminds.
The solution is to wrap the message inside the content. Not just product placement; people are savvy to that (although product placement does still carry some weight, when well-executed). I’m talking about Story-Centered Marketing, where the viewer has to absorb your brand message in order to absorb the story content of a television or Internet show.
And the story content has to be good; the program you create–whether a kid’s science show or a piece of fictional narrative–has to stand alone as entertainment. Not the easiest thing to pull off, but it’s worth getting right.
Next time: Theater for the web, a short essay about the Internet’s only other remaining realm of conquest for creative advertising minds – viral entertainment.
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.
–D.H. Lawrence
