Storytelling in Experiential Marketing
- Molly Phillips
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
To make your brand memorable, and to position it positively alongside its competition, you should employ a little bit of storytelling. Brand storytelling is the distinctive way in which you explain the purpose of your brand and gap in the market that it fills.
Storytelling is a key part of experiential marketing and brand events.
Here's why...
How Brand Storytelling Works: IKEA Case Study
There’s an adage in marketing: facts tell, stories sell.
That’s because the human brain processes stories 22x more effectively than facts alone. It’s why, when we teach children about huge moral questions, we often condense them into a story or a fairy tale.
Believe it or not, brand storytelling works in the same way. It’s all about harnessing prospective customers’ emotions (whether or not they realise that’s what you’re doing!)
Human decisions are built on emotion, and 95% of the decisions we make when it comes to buying new things are subconscious.
Sometimes, though, the process is very overt, as in the recent case of IKEA’s monkey toy, Djungelskog.
This adorable example of reactive marketing from IKEA goes to show just how powerful a story can be, especially when that story is tied to a powerful emotion.
IKEA recently got to make the best out of a sad situation. A baby monkey in Japan was given one of their soft toys as a companion after he was abandoned by his mother. The monkey, Punch, LOVED it.
The entire thing was completely incidental: no one set out to establish an IKEA campaign. But, after the companionship went viral, IKEA were able to make a formal paid ad campaign, which ran across their global social channels. The Djungelskog was rebranded as ‘Punch’s Comfort Orangutan’.
The result? Sales increased by 200% in a single week, and all because of a heart-warming, emotionally charged story.
Heading back to events and experiential marketing, we can learn a lot from this case study.
For example, brand storytelling creates that human connection with your product - people love to feel things, and to question things, and really immerse themselves in what your product intends to do.
Events marketing may not involve many cute monkeys (we assume), but it is an opportunity for some emotional connections in the same vein as Punch's emotional support plushie.
Talk with people about your brand, explaining how — and why! — you can soothe their pain points and answer their questions.
As with Punch, the monkey, you can also humanise your product or service. Use your event to establish your brand as a team of hard-working individuals who do this because they care deeply about the product and truly believe it can create good in the world. Passion is infectious, after all.
Why Brand Storytelling Matters
Differentiates You from Your Competitors
In a competitive market, people will want to know why your brand is special. Your story is what slots you into the market, telling people which gap you fill and why that matters.
Inspires Action
Whether it's making them laugh, making them curious, or making them nostalgic, a good story ignites that emotional response which is so important in inspiring a purchase.
Creates Connections
That emotion also positions you as the solution to problems your customers are facing, and the answer questions they have.
In that way, it creates a logical relationship between the two of you.
Storytelling in Experiential Marketing
The marketing landscape is in its experiential era. That means that your brand story needs to withstand the journey from the internet to real life.
The good news is that experiential lends itself very nicely to storytelling. A story is, after all, an experience. The process of interacting with your brand, swapping stories, tips, tricks, and ideas, in itself, creates a story.
All you have to do is focus on making it a memorable one.
Your event is a way to share your brand’s message with like-minded people. Exhibit what that message means to you, how it looks in action, and what customers can expect. Your exhibition stand should explain your story visually, so that people know where they stand when they come up to you.
Stands That Tell a Story
Here are some things to think about when you design an exhibition stand:
Think About your Audience
You might think your brand story is all about you and what you want to achieve, but the best way to summarise it is to think about your audience. Namely, what does your audience want? What will they be looking for when they attend the event? How can you best answer all their worries?
Taglines, Slogans, Summaries
At an event, attention is entirely voluntary. Your storytelling must serve the purpose of explaining why people should come and visit your stand as opposed to all the others available to them.
It must also do so quickly and efficiently, be it through a bright splash of colour, a prominently placed logo (especially if you’re already quite well-known!), or a tagline that explains, in a few words, exactly who you are, what you do, and why it matters.
A Takeaway/Immersivity
Your brand story would not exist without customers.
So, make them a part of your story!
Ask them their story, encourage them to take part in games and challenges which are relevant to your narrative. Make them feel involved; they are involved!
What’s Your Story?
Use your next event to share it with the world! Not only will it help your brand to thrive, but it will also help you to meet like-minded people, and create those all-important connections.
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Planning your next event or exhibition?
Tell your story with Image. We’d love to build your happy ever after.
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