Visual Storytelling is a cornerstone of modern day marketing. Instead of simply listing a product's capabilities, products are promoted through emotionally-charged narratives that engage consumers on a deeper level, and help them form emotional connections to the products. Let's consider Skype for a minute. Skype is a powerful, high functioning video chat application with many desirable features. Yet, when they market themselves, they don't simply list all the technical capabilities of the software; instead, they market themselves as a tool that connects people.
Their ads show how the platform allows long distance families, lovers, friends, colleagues to connect. This emotionally-charged approach to marketing is a perfect example of Skype telling its consumers a story.
Why is it Storytelling so important now? So, why the shift from black and white product explanations to flowery, emotional stories? The short answer is modern technology. We follow brands on social platforms, and because of this, brands' posts are a part of our every day. Whenever we refresh our Facebook newsfeed, we see a post from Coca Cola right above photos from grandma's 70th.
We see branded posts alongside posts from our family and friends, so we view and consider them similarly. Storytelling is about creating brand-to-consumer connections similarly to the way you connect person-to-person - through emotions, interactions, real time events, etc. We long to create emotional connections with products and brands - this is often why we choose name brands over cheaper generic brands. We like to know that the brands we use care about us as consumers and reflect our values. 2016: the year of visual storytelling While visual storytelling is not a technique hot off the presses, it is one that has rapidly expanded over the last twelve months, particularly thanks to social media technology facilitating storytelling.
By the end of 2014, photo messaging app Snapchat, released a feature called 'Snapchat Stories', a function that allowed users to upload a series of photos and videos that is available to all the users' friends for 24 hours. This feature facilitated a lot of storytelling amongst its users, with many posting photos cataloguing their day, or using the video feature to tell bitesize stories, and eventually brands hopped on too. In 2016, Instagram and Facebook both caught onto this trend and created their own functions that mirrored Snapchat's Stories, proving just how effective the storytelling function is. For example, let's look at how NASA uses the stories feature to market their content to viewers. They upload informational examples, snippets of interviews, and links to the full form content on Snapchat and Instagram. In this example below, they used a grand total of 10 images/videos to tell a story to users about control burns on spacecraft.
Another feature that has been on the rise in 2016 has been live video streams. Popular on Facebook, these real-time glimpses into the live goings on with a brand not only helps to connect users more intimately with the brand, but helps to tell real-time stories, as if you the consumer were speaking directly to them. A great example of a brand that uses live video is Australian brand Thankyou. They use live videos to give glimpses into their office dynamic, show them packaging orders, and the company dynamic. Thankyou
Visual techniques and trends have evolved to facilitate storytelling too. Infographics in particular are continually on the rise as they interweave a narrative with facts and figures to create a more connectable and relatable content. Plus, creating infographics is no sweat nowadays. Check out Canva's infographic templates, customise it to suit your story and data, and you're ready to go.
