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Given the rising popularity of rare and aged whiskies in Singapore, The Whisky Corporation has brought their Glenfarclas Pagoda Reserve Series (the Trilogy and Ruby Reserve) of bespoke single malt whiskies from Speyside to Singapore.
Glenfarclas Pagoda Reserve Series
Since 1865, the Grants of Glenfarclas have carefully adhered to time-honored traditions of whiskey making. They explored their finest reserves and found valuable casks predating 1972 – the year their famous Pagoda kiln was decommissioned....
You can primp and polish almost anything to make it gleam and glimmer, but making something beautiful doesn’t make it unique and doesn’t make it effective.
The same can be said with advertising and PR. You can devise the most astounding campaign that implements every creative tool in the book and then some, but if your message doesn’t resonate with people, you have lost.
This summer I had the privilege of attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where I absorbed the knowledge and advice advertising and PR professionals had to give about the ever-changing field in which they work. In the seminar “Nailing Jelly to a Tree & Other Wild Goose Chases” Dr. Itiel Dror joined Nir Wegrzyn to discuss how to make your advertising messages stick with your audience and have the effect that you desire.
Dr. Dror, a cognitive neuroscientist, stressed three points: making your messages into memories, encode those messages in the appropriate parts of the brain, tell a relevant story and tell it well. All of these components combined make it possible for us as advertisers (or aspiring advertisers) to divulge into human insight and to connect with our audience in a transparent and effective way....
Since decades, it has been a powerful state-of-the-heart method of communication that strikes the right emotional balance. Instead of relying on a block of text, visual storytelling follows ‘show, don’t tell’ approach which results in greater engagement, traffic, and sales.
Check out these statistics:
1. Photos and images are the most important element in optimizing social media posts.
2. 93 percent of the most engaging Facebook posts include images
3. Videos on Facebook are shared 12 times more than text posts and links combined.
As a result, integrating story-depicting visuals into the content you post on Facebook will increase consumer interactions, even if your target audience are short on time....
The chemical and psychological makeup of our minds affects how we consume content: Our brains are wired to connect with compelling stories.
Brand storytelling tactics focus on different functions of the brain related to understanding and perception. The brain processes images 60 times faster than text, and 92 percent of consumers want brands to create stories around ads. Because of this, marketers should be delivering linear content with clear narratives and using images to tell their stories.
OneSpot has put together the following infographic to demonstrate how storytelling affects the brain and how brands can cut through the noise to offer stories that resonate with readers....
Oren Jacob grew up in a family of storytellers. His parents were teachers who were constantly hosting family, friends, colleagues, passersby from around the world — each with their own story to tell.
After spending 20 years at Pixar working on films that revolutionized visual media, he is now the co-founder and CEO of ToyTalk, an interactive entertainment company that enables kids to converse with and learn from animated characters. In fact, the company just released its second season of The Winston Show today.
All of this work required continuous and creative pitching. At Pixar, it was about developing movie pitches for $100 million stamps of approval. And now, at ToyTalk, Jacob has helped raise over $16 million to make their groundbreaking vision a reality.
In all of these situations, storytelling has been a crucial part of making pitches memorable and resonant. Whether you’re talking about your product or your company, Jacob recommends several specific storytelling tactics to both appeal to your audience for the first time, and to forge successful long-term relationships....
Yesterday we saw a lot of attempts at humor from tech companies, with varying degrees of success..... It’s something that’s been pretty darn successful. So far, Vooza’s clients have included email newsletter startup MailChimp, app analytics platform Tapstream, branding firm Eat My Words and others. The companies pay to have their brand worked into a segment written by Vooza’s writers and featuring its cast of characters — the video then goes out to Vooza’s own audience, and can also be used by the company in any way they wish. It’s a business model that can be classified as branded content or sponsored product placement, but Ruby says that he thinks of it more as “a throwback to the old school TV advertising model when the stars of a show would do the ads, like Johnny and Ed schilling for Alpo.”...
As content takes its rightful place at the forefront of marketing, I'm seeing many marketers fail at basic storytelling. Marketers are ineffective when they use the classic "customer testimonial" format and pop that onto their blog or make it into a video. "Here’s our product. It is great. Here are customers who say it is great. Now buy some of our product." This just doesn't hold people's attention. How interesting would a book or movie be were it to have this plot?:
Boy meets girl.
They fall in love.
They get married. That's what most people do with their business writing. Effective storytelling
The best stories drip with conflict. They have a hero and sometimes a villain. There is a story arc. As a writing teacher once told me: "Writing without conflict is propaganda."
Coming to an ad space near you: Entertainment moguls Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are looking for new ways to tell stories through marketing.
I've rescooped this article from fellow curator John Kratz because I thought it was so good. It is a great example of how a company ramped up business once it started sharing stories of its customers -- with customers as the heros. Take notes folks! And thanks John for finding and sharing this article. The year is 2008 and you are in the Financial Services Business. "How do you turn a quiet, sales-driven organization into a B2B marketing powerhouse?" "Consider the story of Lincoln Financial Group, a traditionally sales-centric organization... The 106-year-old financial services, insurance, and annuities company..." "Lincoln Financial had previously conducted research showing that the more people take charge of their lives, including their finances, the better they feel about the direction of their lives." "While others in the category seemed to be drawn to using fear in their advertising, we felt the time was right to try a new, more optimistic approach." "...the campaign showcased a video of women of all ages showing how they take charge of their lives and provided educational content to help women do just that. The PR focused on the research results. The Chief Life Officer ads continued the "take charge, optimistic theme," which was reinforced in social media. "And how has the integrated campaign done?" Read the success story here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3002425/creating-winning-b2b-integrated-marketing-campaign [Excellent case study ~ Jeff]
Via Ken Jondahl
"As the buzz about content marketing, social media and all things digital continues to rise, one of the catch phrases that gets a lot of attention is storytelling in marketing. We afford it incredible lip service but do we actually practice it?"
Hmmmm -- good question. Here the author, Drew McLellan asks if in previous decades business was better at storytelling in its marketing and advertising.
Makes you think. Drew includes 3 videos to make his point. The first is a 1980s video from Dunkin Donuts as an example of effective storytelling. Well -- it is definitely not storytelling but instead an add that is all features and benefits. The other two advertising videos however, are great examples from the past of really good stories. I don't know if our biz storytelling is not as good these days as in previous decades. But I do like the questions Drew poses at the end of the post to help us decide. What do you think? Is our biz storytelling better or worse than before? This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;
[Valuable read for content, PR pros ~ Jeff]
Videos celebrating the use of locally sourced food for the creation of burritos, a woman’s first day of retirement after having recently lost her husband and the story of a young man who uses Sharpie markers to draw on disposable coffee cups are among the third group of 10 “Ads Worth Spreading” from TED Initiatives. An initiative designed to “recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising,” TED’s Ads Worth Spreading looks to showcase ads that married content with technology. “TED began Ads Worth Spreading to provide a platform for conversations about creating not just effective advertising, but great content,” according to the report. “It was an opportunity for the advertising industry to step outside of itself and see how it fits in the zeitgeist.” For the first time, TED employed ACE Metrix to test each of the 10 advertisements with consumers to see how they performed for a U.S. audience. The point, says Ace Metrix CEO Peter Daboll, was to show the videos were more than just creative exercises.... [Study shows more creativity, marketing ROI with stories in ads ~ Jeff]
Credible stories are rooted in data, and your opinions add perspective. Develop more credible stories with these 6 steps for data-driven brand storytelling. How much more compelling would your brand storytelling be if data were the focus of your content strategy? In a recent article published here on CMI, Colleen Jones asked the question, “Can digital branded content ever be taken seriously — even as seriously as journalism?” Without a doubt journalism has had a huge head start when it comes to creating stories that capture hearts and minds. Part of that success comes from using research data (polls, surveys and feedback) to understand what readers find valuable, particularly as it relates to the issues and problems they face. Do content marketers have the same research opportunities? Of course they do. In fact, if more content marketers were to use publicly available data the way journalists do then branded content would offer new angles, insights, and more value to stories that affect people’s lives. But the good news, as Colleen explains, is that, “Americans are quite open to brands being credible sources of web content.” One way for brands to increase content credibility is to introduce trustworthy third-party data as part of their stories. Credible stories are rooted in something that’s real, not just your ideas. So for example data, research and numbers can be the foundation of the story, while your ideas and opinions add perspective to the story.... [These content marketing and storytelling tips were valuable ~Jeff]
It seems everywhere you look established brands are in the midst of radical and ambitious re-inventions. Beyond just new logos and taglines, brands are struggling to maintain relevance in the eyes of more sophisticated and savvy consumers. Brands often need to re-address the value proposition and create a more responsive and meaningful customer experience. Regardless of circumstances, a brand always has a story – a past, present, and future where its coming from and where its going. The key is to keep that story fresh without confusing or alienating your core audience. Our job as leaders and marketers is to tell a story that people can identify with, and locate themselves into. It may be helpful to walk you through a few examples and teach you about four basic genres of brand re-invention that may guide the path forward.... [Good reminder of four storytelling genres: - romance - tragedy - comedy - irony Go forth and tell stories ~ Jeff]
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As digital video and streaming services continue to recast the viewing landscape, a handful of digital executives and Sundance Film Festival attendees pushed to have the burgeoning videosphere represented during one of filmmaking's highest-profile events—and Rick Parkhill, CEO of VMA Media, made it happen.
After securing support from sponsors Twitter, Fullscreen, Maker, Zefr, Above Average, Hulu and Naritiv, he persuaded festival organizers that this was, in fact, a viable extension, and Digital Storytelling was born. The event kicks off Thursday, Jan. 21, on the eve of the film festival, with additional sponsors including CNN's Courageous content studio, Fox Network Group's True(x) and The Huffington Post signing on....
Great storytelling is a great differentiator.
Imagine you're walking down the snack aisle at a grocery store. How do you make sense of the hundreds of choices on either side of you? What's going to be on your mind when you decide what to buy? Perhaps you choose one product over another because that company donates a percentage of their proceeds to a great cause. Or maybe you choose it because it has more protein -- and you were just reading this article about how protein helps boost concentration, and you've been having trouble concentrating at work recently.
People like making decisions quickly, and it'll be easier for them to choose your stuff if your message resonates with them. After all, content helps people travel through the inbound marketing methodology so that, someday, they might buy something from your company and spread your company's story with others.
But, as you may have noticed, a lot of people are trying to tell stories these days. How are you going to set yours part from the pack? And where on earth do you begin creating compelling stories for your brand?...
Social media managers pride themselves on coming up with fresh ideas and interesting content. Likewise, business owners and entrepreneurs active in social media need to stay compelling and helpful. It’s how ibusinesses maintain relevance and add value to our social streams.
One of the best places to find inspiration is from other creatives. Reading online marketing quotes from some of the top social media marketers around the globe inspires me to want to work harder, and better. So hopefully these online marketing quotes can have the same effect on you....
The plumber, the roofer and the electrician sell us a cure. They come to our house, fix the problem, and leave.
The consultant, the doctor (often) and the politician sell us the narrative. They don't always change things, but...
A great multi-screen strategy can ensure advertisers reach consumers wherever they are, no matter what they are doing. By using multiple platforms, advertisers can also build consistent and cohesive experiences from the ground up, giving companies the ability to reach incredibly targeted audiences. Still, we must always remember to keep coming back to the consumer: listening to their needs and desires, their dislikes and concerns, and always putting them first. Through native advertising experiences on mobile devices, gaming consoles, smartphone apps, Skype and web browsing, advertisers can deliver the most relevant message to the right audience, but we must keep striving to tell brand stories in the most unique, personal and interesting ways. At its core, great advertising is great storytelling. It surprises and delights audiences while remaining relevant, memorable and unobtrusive....
The importance of content marketing in a world inundated with data is becoming increasing apparent. In fact, if you aren't doing it, the money and time spent on what you are producing is frankly a waste. Content is now a vital part of search as marketers move away from thinking only in an overabundance of keywords. But what about story and the future of narrative? We looked back at a couple of the videos from our recent JUMP conference that highlighted the importance of story and looking at new ways to create it. Story should supersede platform Christy Amador is the Global Interactive Marketing Strategist at Coca-Cola, and she spoke at JUMP about how there has to be one ‘north star’ idea that links a campaign together. At Coca-Cola, it has been building its brand around telling great stories that make people happy. By being able to tell a good story you can roll that into any type of campaign....
The good news is that visual storytelling isn't a high-cost strategy. Consumers aren't looking for the highest-quality visual content. Consumers want stories told in a visual way that encourage, engage, enlighten and entertain.
PR lesson from Auntie Anne's... A great deal of what I know about PR, I learned from Auntie Anne. The pretzel queen. A former Amish woman turned entrepreneur, who, in the 1990s retained my firm to promote her burgeoning franchise empire of hand-rolled soft pretzel stores. It wasn't an easy assignment, convincing someone who had been taught all of their life to avoid attention that she had to interview with Forbes magazine or do lunches with Inc. reporters. But if anything, Anne was a pragmatist who understood the value of her own story. And this was a great one. Born to an Amish family, she chose not to enter the faith, married early, and struggled financially. While running a food stall at a local farmer's market, her husband mixed up a flour order for her pretzel recipe. The screw up resulted in the best pretzel she had ever tasted. Lines formed around the corner, and soon prospective franchisees were beating down her door to buy in. She called it an act of God. Me? Well, I too know the value of a good story, regardless of whether the intervention is divine.... [A story about the value of storytelling toPR and marketing ~ Jeff]
“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.” (Marilyn Monroe) Ask a woman about the most aspirational brand of shoes, and chances are you will hear “Louboutin” as an answer. Why? Parisian Christian Louboutin had shoe-making in his vains from early on. A remarkable character that wrote his own story and is now an “icon” in the shoe-world. Louboutin was expelled from school three times and ran away from home at the age of 12, ended up in Egypt and India later on, and then capitalised his interest in cultures into making shoes. At the age of 14 he was already a familiar face at the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère. He’d set his heart on designing shoes for showgirls, and so at 16, pitched up at the Folies Bergère. The rest as they say, is history. Now, Louboutin owns the words “red shoe”, “premium”, “luxury”, “sexy”, and walks amongst the great (LV, YSL, DIOR, CHANEL, Viktor & Rolf, JEAN PAUL GAULTIER) Here are some learnings I take from Louboutin’s strategy... [Great marketing and storytelling lessons ~ Jeff]
While Burt’s Bees has been busily expanding its skincare products over the last several years, it knew it had a winner with its new Intense Hydration line. Formulated with Clary sage, an herb that thrives on windswept Mediterranean hills, the product’s early tests had women in their 30s and 40s enthusiastic about its effectiveness. “We felt really excited about the product experience, and wanted that to be the root of all the marketing,” Brian Berklich, the company’s senior marketing manager, tells Marketing Daily. “So we created an event that would flip the typical before-and-after images on their head.” Before dawn on a Saturday, the company set up a billboard at a busy Minneapolis farmers market, showing a woman with dry, flaky skin. Each flake was actually a $3 off coupon -- 1,300 in all -- to encourage trial of the product. By the end of the day, passersby had yanked off enough coupons to reveal the smooth skin of the billboard model, and the company had a compelling time-lapse video.... [Very creative marketing, multimedia ~ Jeff]
Connecting with your customers' highest aspirations will turn them into evangelists for your brand. Here's how to do it. It's a crowded marketplace out there. And you have a small advertising budget. How do you break through the clutter and capture customers' attention? By telling them the right story. That's the word from Jonah Sachs, a brilliant marketer who helped create The Meatrix and The Story of Stuff, which between them have been viewed more than 65 million times online. He's put some of his teachings into his new book Winning the Story Wars. Sachs says there's never been a better time to be a small company. "In the old broadcast model, you'd have to get access to expensive machines to get your message out, and there were gatekeepers," he says. "Now, there's a real chance to target the audience you want to reach and get evangelists to help you." The key, he says, is to target the right people with a message they'll want to pass along. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
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![A Visual Guide to Telling Compelling Stories for Your Brand [Infographic] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/bdgdY0H6lziC8cidQvoRtTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
First, there's wonderful design. Then, there's 59-year-old aged single malt whiskey. Finally, you have Glenfarclas Pagoda Reserve Series – the best of all worlds!