If you’re wondering why your marketing department is stomping around the floor above you, it’s probably because they’ve lately had to deal with unwelcome house guests who keep removing the family portrait and hanging up their English degrees. That’s right. Writers!
Building a successful brand requires companies extend the value of their IPs across multiple platforms using a cohesive theme. People stopped responding to typical marketing ploys long ago. Advertisements are a common staple of life, and when something becomes commonplace, it instinctively gets tuned out. So what can we count on in these uncertain times? Stories. And who writes stories? Writers! But having a story isn’t enough either, companies need an entire world it can weave across multiple platforms — a storyworld, if you will.
What’s the Difference?
The difference between a story and a storyworld is the difference between having a product and having a brand. If you have a story with one irreplaceable character, your entire brand is resting on that character being viable forever. Disney doesn’t just have Mickey Mouse, it has an entire world filled with colorful characters that it can use to sell it’s brand at any moment should Mickey stop being everyone’s favorite mouse. Disney started off in the animation business, but it smartly created a theme allowing for it to branch out into live-action movies, music, and theme parks, among other ventures. Disney isn’t just in the animation business, it’s in the family business.
Proof of its Power:
If you want to know the value of having a complete thematic storyworld and not just a character, look no further than Sony’s “Kevin Butler.” Butler, a character played by Jerry Lambert, acted as the VP of various PlayStation departments in Sony’s successful “It Only Does Everything” commercials. When Lambert appeared in a Bridgestone commercial playing a Nintendo Wii, Sony sued the actor, claiming the character is an “iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products.” The moment stands as a watermark for what it means to act as a brand icon and have your likeness owned by a corporation. If Sony didn’t have a storyworld to fall back on, the “Kevin Butler fiasco” could’ve spelled disaster for the brand. But it did, and now it has the “Long Live Play” commercials, using characters from its hit video game franchises in live-action commercials that don’t specifically sell anything, choosing instead to entertain.
The most important part of the storyworld is that it doesn’t try to sell, but instead seeks to create value in our lives by entertaining us. The storyworld becomes a part of our lives, and therefore so does the brand. When people see Long Live Play, they aren’t seeing a company pushing a product, they’re reminded of a world they grew up with, or a world they want to be a part of.
Market… by NOT selling?
Information is processed differently when presented this way. The more we invest in a storyworld, the more we are changed by it. Why is that? On the one hand, stories are trustworthy. We trust them to entertain us, and therefore our shields go down. Non-fiction, on the other hand, is approached with cynical skepticism. With stories, we suspend our disbelief, and even encourage deception. From a traditional marketing perspective, the idea of a storyworld seems absurd: marketing that doesn’t sell? Ha! The thing about good stories, though, is they’re working all the time by enriching our lives. Such stories are powerful enough to transform a company with a product that is sold, into a brand that is lived.
Better tell your marketing department to ready the guest house!
Source: Bridged Design
Suggested Reading: One 3 Productions
http://one3productions.tumblr.com/post/36160504900/how-brands-build-transmedia-storyworlds