Just Story It

Managing this combination artfully is the essence of marketing. Today, brands live in such a fluid digital ecosystem that these pixels are constantly being refreshed in real-time to keep the story of the brand alive and relevant. New platforms and technologies allow marketers to manage each of their "pixels" in sophisticated transmedia storytelling. Three growing trends that are improving multi-platform marketing include deeper storytelling, sophisticated curation, and using artificial intelligence to improve the contextual relevance of ambient marketing.

This is a thoughtful article that I enjoyed because it highlights the notion of 'subtlety' in marketing/branding activities. What does the author, Victoria Young, mean by subtlety?

She uses Kate Spade as an example -- where the company uses different platforms to post different content that in its entirety tells a story.

The activity is call curation and as the author says, "This is an effective, graceful, and non-intrusive way to continue to reinforce the Kate Spade story. Furthermore, this allows consumers to identify with aspects of the brand that are not so directly commercial, and therefore more relatable."

Curating content in a variety of ways across different social mediums (this is a take on transmedia storytelling) which can lead to deeper story sharing experiences between companies and their customers without hitting people over the head with repetitive messages. That is a good thing!

So how subtle are you in your marketing efforts and is this a quality you want to bring into your branding? Definitely food for thought!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

In the past year or so there has been a trend in web design towards the use of scrolling, which can help to engage visitors and provides a feeling of movement and animation.

Hah -- don't believe the title! What an amazing opportunity (scrolling websites) and what terrible storytelling. Because there was none.  OK -- there was a little. 

The site on Fracking site tells a story. The Bagigia and Apologie sites sort of do, but fall short.

Several other sites are totally slimy because once you get on them, you can't press the back-button to leave. That annoys me to no end!

So where does this leave us?  Please -- don't do what these companies did! If you are going to use a scrolling website, you have a HUGE opportunity to actually share your story using this very cool technique.  

You can share stories about how you got started, what happens with your customers, the future you are creating in the world, and back stories of your staff/product creation process.

Don't bore us with product features like these websites do! Haven't we learned that lesson yet???

Imagine how much money they spent, and wasted! You can do waaaaaayyyyy better than these folks.