THE EXISTENTIAL CHALLENGE
Figuring out how to build a story in a way that aligns with the needs and priorities of the users. However, it’s not just building and sharing a story. It’s about making the story so compelling that it elevates perceptions of value and may be urgency resulting in the audience taking the required action.
In the world of advertising today, the burgeoning of messaging via various channels and in various formats may be at times too much information for someone to consume. Today, I intend to breakdown to simplify some learnings of this ecosystem into some key building blocks of the evolution of perception of – what is your audience buying into?
The good part, that may not be rocket science, however, the nature of complexity in our perceptions vs approach may be seen to clash many a times.
TRUST
Trust breeds Trust and forms the DNA here. The core attribute of a journey of consumer attention till the purchase is only this word -Trust. Today, if I buy a pair of Nike or if I share any ‘information’ with someone, it will only depend on how the trust is being projected inside out. It is a simple yet deep ‘relationship’ and ‘connect’ we form with our users, audience, customers, clients and the two pillars that act as building this important piece is – Empathy, Consistency and Transparency.
PURPOSE
Purpose of a Story is important. Most inspiring stories are those that are massively shared and find a place in our common unconsciousness to live on for ever. Can you achieve that same level of depth when “telling stories” for content marketing or other purposes? It all starts with understanding what makes people truly passionate, creating a great story and also understanding why people share content and stories to begin with.
Hence, spending some time on the ‘Purpose’ each time would only yield better clarity of thought to action.
CONTEXT AND NARRATIVE
Many a times we focus on the storytelling part for a quick branding activity, however, I see a need to have a channel which can set smaller contexts in pieces before the actual narrative. Messaging works best like the best of thriller movies where the audience keeps glued and craves for more. But yes, in real life may be every message can not be built in that way. The approach here requires focus on how soon we can anticipate initiating building on a messaging before the actual narrative is on.
This phase of ‘context setting’ is significant and requires to be a part of the broad vision and comes much before the content.
OPTIMAL SHADES OF EMOTION
Emotion does not necessarily mean to always touch the heart and make someone sentimental and it is not the simple in terms of recall value and impact. Let me share some words – fieriness, stimulus, softness, spirit, intensity, joy, sensation. These words imply deeper micro elements of the basic emotions that we need to scrutinize every time we plan a message. That is because -Emotion is a state of the mind and differs from one to the other and we do not see a scientific consensus in a definition for emotion. That is the only reason why content and messaging in the right context is so challenging till now.
May be not in every case, but, like campaigns are optimized, even for emotions there is a need to optimize a mix.
RELEVANCY AT ‘THAT’ TIME
Now, this one is tricky. Many a times, by the time a particular message is pushed out, it may not stay that relevant. Talk about the dynamic nature of this environment! That is the core reason I see why almost everyone waits for a Women’s Day or Mother’s Day, because they know that this is the day when people actually recognize that. However, does not it seem just one side of the coin?
Artificial Intelligence is seeming to build a path for this problem. Collecting various data around psychographics, behaviour and habits, predicting what a consumer will go for next. Though, isolating a user and looking at single touchpoints is posing a key question to evolve into perfection.
BRAND CREATING STORIES Vs STORIES CREATING BRANDS
Both! What about the stories your audiences are already telling? How do we listen to them and include them? Here is where a deeper focus on perception is required by marketers. Perception is more about personality, trust, openness, transparency, relevance and participation. Here is where it forms a full circle. This actually how carefully we listen in this clutter and then build upon that. And that can only happen if we as marketers are more with our audience, like literally. Next time I plan to visit the Kumbh Mela to learn more. The Kumbh is not only the largest pilgrimage but has evolved to be the hub of the nest marketing initiatives.
And yes, never leave the ability to enjoy during all this while being a part of various communities and help in building more communities. The good news – we all have this ability! If we think about any idea with joy and indulge or soul, it may not be measured by an ad server, but it will definitely create the footprint.
Written by Ankoor Dasguupta, Vice President- Brands, Marketing & Special Projects at SHEROES.