Costing out a story without any details is a bit like asking a contractor to ballpark a kitchen renovation without revealing the scope of his work. Stories can come in many forms - from a polished 30 or 60-second TV spot, to a spontaneous feeling Facebook video. If you have a specific budget in mind, the creative and production approach can be tailored to suit.
But what are some rough guidelines? An engaging, branded profile of a local customer or employee that can be taped in several hours and edited in one to three days can start around $5,000. More polished videos that require pre-production research, a specialized crew, or additional shoot days, can range $20,000 and up. One thing is for sure, the larger your potential audience, the more worthwhile the investment.
If you think your story can be repurposed or shared publicly, (on your website, Facebook, or YouTube, for example) it makes sense to invest a bit more to ensure your brand (and your message) is communicated effectively.
Depending on your communication objectives, and the audiences you wish to target, you may wish to consider a series of thematic corporate stories that celebrate different employees and customers from various regions or business units. The stories can be distributed using existing communication channels, via social networks, or through video sharing utilities. This long term, strategic approach to marketing and corporate communications can be remarkably cost-effective when compared to traditional tactics – especially ones that involve media buys.
At first glance, video profiles of employees and customers sound expensive, but it’s all in how you measure value. Consider the cost of a themed three-day offsite for 100 employees, including AV staging, travel, meals and accommodation. Consider a recruitment ad campaign, including creative, production and media buy. For roughly the same amount, your company can build an entire library of videos to be shared with every level of your organization, from senior executives to new recruits, for months and years to come.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Corporate Storytelling: Maximizing Your Investment
Well-told stories have a remarkable ability to create common ground and “stick” in the minds of the audience. It’s common for executives to share a short story or anecdote just before they tuck into a serious speech. A two-minute video can achieve this with pictures, sound, and music – and do it consistently, everywhere and every time.
The strategic themes woven into a typical two-minute video make it perfect to share in all sorts of situations from recruiting, to training and development, to marketing - the more venues you can identify, the better the investment. Story content can also be repurposed for web banners, digital signage, or tradeshow applications. If we choose, for example, to dial up product and service features, we can turn an employee story into an effective marketing piece for the company homepage.
The great thing about authentic stories is that they enjoy a tremendously long shelf life. Employees and customers may come and go, but the themes contained in their stories remain timeless.
The strategic themes woven into a typical two-minute video make it perfect to share in all sorts of situations from recruiting, to training and development, to marketing - the more venues you can identify, the better the investment. Story content can also be repurposed for web banners, digital signage, or tradeshow applications. If we choose, for example, to dial up product and service features, we can turn an employee story into an effective marketing piece for the company homepage.
The great thing about authentic stories is that they enjoy a tremendously long shelf life. Employees and customers may come and go, but the themes contained in their stories remain timeless.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Understanding The Value of a Good Story.
To appreciate the power of a good story, you have to put on your marketing hat. Like advertising, storytelling is a persuasive form of communication that paints a picture of your organization, educates your target audience, and sells your product and services.
And, just like a marketing campaign, storytelling starts with a clearly articulated objective. You may need to move your audience from A to B, align them to your values and principles, or simply inform them of your products or services. Ad campaigns are well thought out, and stories are no different. Strategic stories can be easily crafted to elicit an emotional response in your target audience and achieve specific measurable outcomes.
Of course, there are many often-overlooked benefits, too. Simply looking for good corporate stories can significantly boost internal engagement within a large organization. The process of researching and identifying the people and stories that shape your brand is very powerful and often the most valuable part of the exercise. The resulting videos are like energizing souvenirs that can be shared with thousands of other potential brand ambassadors.
And, just like a marketing campaign, storytelling starts with a clearly articulated objective. You may need to move your audience from A to B, align them to your values and principles, or simply inform them of your products or services. Ad campaigns are well thought out, and stories are no different. Strategic stories can be easily crafted to elicit an emotional response in your target audience and achieve specific measurable outcomes.
Of course, there are many often-overlooked benefits, too. Simply looking for good corporate stories can significantly boost internal engagement within a large organization. The process of researching and identifying the people and stories that shape your brand is very powerful and often the most valuable part of the exercise. The resulting videos are like energizing souvenirs that can be shared with thousands of other potential brand ambassadors.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Stories: Leveraging The Engagement “Ripple-Effect”
It’s no surprise that asking employees for their favourite customer service stories will spark engaging conversations about customer service. Polling your business units for stories of teamwork and innovation will focus their efforts on teamwork and innovation. By understanding this phenomenon, you can design a storytelling initiative that touches specific stakeholder groups with razor-like precision.
Let’s consider this example: You want to engage your frontline employees with a story about a specific product that is gaining traction with a narrow, but influential customer segment. Finding an authentic story that will do this is not as hard as you might think, but let’s not stop there.
Are your West Coast and Maritime regions feeling neglected? Choosing a story from Nanaimo or Charlottetown will earn additional brownie points from employees who live outside Toronto or Montreal. And what about your employment diversity program? Featuring a model employee who speaks several languages will say much of about your brand values and principles.
Finding and sharing employee and customer stories isn’t brain surgery. But, making the stories work on an emotional and strategic level relies on good journalistic sensibilities and a keen understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling.
Let’s consider this example: You want to engage your frontline employees with a story about a specific product that is gaining traction with a narrow, but influential customer segment. Finding an authentic story that will do this is not as hard as you might think, but let’s not stop there.
Are your West Coast and Maritime regions feeling neglected? Choosing a story from Nanaimo or Charlottetown will earn additional brownie points from employees who live outside Toronto or Montreal. And what about your employment diversity program? Featuring a model employee who speaks several languages will say much of about your brand values and principles.
Finding and sharing employee and customer stories isn’t brain surgery. But, making the stories work on an emotional and strategic level relies on good journalistic sensibilities and a keen understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
More Sticky Ideas
It takes a lot to cut through the clutter and connect with your audience. Whether you are promoting a product or service, communicating a brand, or outlining a business strategy, you need to make your message stick. If it doesn’t, you are wasting a lot more than time and money.
When considering a marketing or corporate communications initiative, follow this simple checklist. The more you incorporate from this list, the more effective your communication will be.
Dare to Be Clever
Human brains adapt quickly to consistent patterns then filter them out. Traffic noise, elevator music, and PowerPoint presentations are examples of events so commonplace they are rarely absorbed or recalled. To get the attention of your audience, your approach must be unexpected or mold breaking. To maintain their interest, you need to engage their intellect and satisfy their curiosity.
Keep it simple
Your audience won’t absorb more than one or two concepts so resist the notion to include extraneous details that clutter your message. Your goal is impact, not completeness – you want to ignite conversations that support your objectives.
Make it concrete
A statement like “maximizing shareholder value” is abstract, and not surprisingly, difficult to visualize. “Make a customer smile every day” however, is tangible, universal and understood by everyone. Being concrete allows your audience to focus on what you want them to. Everyone will feel comfortable that they’re on the same team and pursuing the same attainable goal.
Add the human touch
Weaving human elements into your message will help your audience find context and common ground. If you hope to connect at a deeper level, your characters must be real and believable. Models, actors, and professional announcers, satisfy practical challenges but rarely build trust in the minds of your audience. If you want to truly engage people around a topic, recruit a real customer, or frontline employee to deliver the message.
Stir in some emotion.
People follow their hearts. For your audience to take action, they have to care. Have comfort in knowing that you don’t have to trigger anger, laughter, fear, or sadness, just to get them to care. The emotional chord might be as simple as “What would I do in a case like this?”
Tell a good story.
People will emerge from a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation unable to recall the main points, but they’ll remember a 2-minute story they heard a week ago. Stories are part entertainment, part instruction, and help to simplify complex concepts. Couch your idea in a story and you’ll have a tool that provides your audience with the knowledge of how to act and the motivation to act - in one convenient package.
Don't forget about Delivery.
You would be surprised how many communicators overlook the importance of back-end distribution when designing their message. If the message isn’t effectively distributed, the opportunity is lost. Assuming you have at least one primary distribution vehicle, let’s look at other ways to maximize your communication effectiveness.
Make it visual. Incorporate a strong visual design. People absorb 85% of their information visually. If it looks boring at first glance, your audience may ignore it.
Make it digestible. Make your message short and concise, or break it up into bite-sized chunks. Let your audience decide how they want to process the information.
Spread it around: Have a plan. Take advantage of audience touch points that already exist including online channels, email lists, meetings, and live events.
Boost the frequency. Your audience is like grass - a frequent watering produces deep roots. For example, a small, memorable ad every week is far more effective than a full page every six months.
ROIdea.
If you want to ensure lengthy shelf life or leverage multiple distribution opportunities for your communication tactic, consider framing your message with a customer or employee story. A well-designed story that promotes your products or services will also communicate your brand in a memorable way. Stories like these can be easily repurposed for other audiences. Digital signage, town hall meetings, sales conferences, recruitment initiatives, internal training and development, are ideal venues to reinforce corporate culture and values. The universal themes your story communicates will remain relevant for years to come.
When considering a marketing or corporate communications initiative, follow this simple checklist. The more you incorporate from this list, the more effective your communication will be.
Dare to Be Clever
Human brains adapt quickly to consistent patterns then filter them out. Traffic noise, elevator music, and PowerPoint presentations are examples of events so commonplace they are rarely absorbed or recalled. To get the attention of your audience, your approach must be unexpected or mold breaking. To maintain their interest, you need to engage their intellect and satisfy their curiosity.
Keep it simple
Your audience won’t absorb more than one or two concepts so resist the notion to include extraneous details that clutter your message. Your goal is impact, not completeness – you want to ignite conversations that support your objectives.
Make it concrete
A statement like “maximizing shareholder value” is abstract, and not surprisingly, difficult to visualize. “Make a customer smile every day” however, is tangible, universal and understood by everyone. Being concrete allows your audience to focus on what you want them to. Everyone will feel comfortable that they’re on the same team and pursuing the same attainable goal.
Add the human touch
Weaving human elements into your message will help your audience find context and common ground. If you hope to connect at a deeper level, your characters must be real and believable. Models, actors, and professional announcers, satisfy practical challenges but rarely build trust in the minds of your audience. If you want to truly engage people around a topic, recruit a real customer, or frontline employee to deliver the message.
Stir in some emotion.
People follow their hearts. For your audience to take action, they have to care. Have comfort in knowing that you don’t have to trigger anger, laughter, fear, or sadness, just to get them to care. The emotional chord might be as simple as “What would I do in a case like this?”
Tell a good story.
People will emerge from a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation unable to recall the main points, but they’ll remember a 2-minute story they heard a week ago. Stories are part entertainment, part instruction, and help to simplify complex concepts. Couch your idea in a story and you’ll have a tool that provides your audience with the knowledge of how to act and the motivation to act - in one convenient package.
Don't forget about Delivery.
You would be surprised how many communicators overlook the importance of back-end distribution when designing their message. If the message isn’t effectively distributed, the opportunity is lost. Assuming you have at least one primary distribution vehicle, let’s look at other ways to maximize your communication effectiveness.
Make it visual. Incorporate a strong visual design. People absorb 85% of their information visually. If it looks boring at first glance, your audience may ignore it.
Make it digestible. Make your message short and concise, or break it up into bite-sized chunks. Let your audience decide how they want to process the information.
Spread it around: Have a plan. Take advantage of audience touch points that already exist including online channels, email lists, meetings, and live events.
Boost the frequency. Your audience is like grass - a frequent watering produces deep roots. For example, a small, memorable ad every week is far more effective than a full page every six months.
ROIdea.
If you want to ensure lengthy shelf life or leverage multiple distribution opportunities for your communication tactic, consider framing your message with a customer or employee story. A well-designed story that promotes your products or services will also communicate your brand in a memorable way. Stories like these can be easily repurposed for other audiences. Digital signage, town hall meetings, sales conferences, recruitment initiatives, internal training and development, are ideal venues to reinforce corporate culture and values. The universal themes your story communicates will remain relevant for years to come.
Friday, January 23, 2009
FACE TIME - Success Stories Communicate “What Went Right”.
Hey, have your heard the one about the Trojan horse, that over-sized gift left by the ancient Greeks with 30 armed soldiers hidden inside?
Humans have been sharing success stories since the dawn of civilization, and the best ones often result from teamwork. They have been used strategically to inspire audiences around great leadership, loyalty, bravery, and innovative thinking.
The ingredients of a modern corporate success story often combine the best character traits of your brand (leadership, integrity, customer focus, for example) and show how these traits help a team of people reach a difficult goal.
Launching the new product, landing the big order, or completing the merger, are certainly success stories worth sharing inside your organization. Stories like these present opportunities to communicate the value of innovative thinking, teamwork, and collaboration, and to recognize the working groups who operate behind the front lines of your organization.
There are also a myriad of other stories that can be shared publicly and strategically to build your brand (and business reputation) in the minds of the consumer. Fixing a customer problem, donating to a charity, or cleaning up a stream, are stories that speak volumes about your corporate values and community commitment.
Success Stories are like flight simulators, they help your audience “feel” future success.
Thanks to the Internet, the distribution opportunities for a well-crafted story are almost limitless, and the cost per “eyeball” drops dramatically when you appeal to larger audiences. Videos can be creative, impactful and engaging, and highly customizable. They can range from a 30 or 60-second television spot, a light-hearted animation, or an inspiring mini-documentary. The form the story will take (and the budget to produce it) depends on your audience and how you want to touch them.
Humans have been sharing success stories since the dawn of civilization, and the best ones often result from teamwork. They have been used strategically to inspire audiences around great leadership, loyalty, bravery, and innovative thinking.
The ingredients of a modern corporate success story often combine the best character traits of your brand (leadership, integrity, customer focus, for example) and show how these traits help a team of people reach a difficult goal.
Launching the new product, landing the big order, or completing the merger, are certainly success stories worth sharing inside your organization. Stories like these present opportunities to communicate the value of innovative thinking, teamwork, and collaboration, and to recognize the working groups who operate behind the front lines of your organization.
There are also a myriad of other stories that can be shared publicly and strategically to build your brand (and business reputation) in the minds of the consumer. Fixing a customer problem, donating to a charity, or cleaning up a stream, are stories that speak volumes about your corporate values and community commitment.
Success Stories are like flight simulators, they help your audience “feel” future success.
Thanks to the Internet, the distribution opportunities for a well-crafted story are almost limitless, and the cost per “eyeball” drops dramatically when you appeal to larger audiences. Videos can be creative, impactful and engaging, and highly customizable. They can range from a 30 or 60-second television spot, a light-hearted animation, or an inspiring mini-documentary. The form the story will take (and the budget to produce it) depends on your audience and how you want to touch them.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
FACE TIME - Customer Stories: Put a face on your best customers.
A recent study found that 80% of consumers believe that business is too concerned about profit and not enough about responsibilities to customers, workers, and the environment. Mix in the ability for everyday citizens to Google your company’s corporate responsibility or employment equity record, and a growing distrust of traditional marketing practices and you have a customer demographic that is hard to win over.
Brand relationships are just like personal relationships, if your character is shallow or inauthentic, your friends won’t stick around. These days, truth is the key to consumer brand loyalty.
So, how do you market truth to the masses? If price point is the key differentiator between you and your competitors, then low price guarantees and Saturday morning sales flyers may do the trick. If the freshness of your coffee and donuts will drive customer traffic to your door, mouth-watering photography and free samples may be a good marketing approach.
But in the world of hospitality, healthcare, education, and financial services, customer relationships are based much more on trust. Marketing promises made about caring staff and great customer service ring hollow until consumers experience it first hand – or hear it from a trusted source.
And that’s where customer testimonials come in. If you introduce someone that your audience can identify with, and share an authentic story about a great experience they had with company, you lay the foundation for a closer (and more profitable) relationship with your prospects.
The goal of a customer story is to leverage common ground and engage people in an emotional and relevant way. The story you choose to share will vary depending on your target demographic and your strategic objectives. If you want to appeal to a certain market segment, (female boomers, for example) you will feature a woman from that segment and share a story about her experiences with your company that her peers identify with.
Customer stories are like business referrals from friends and family. They provide personal insight and context that current and prospective customers will appreciate. When you combine model employees and loyal customers in the same story, you get the best of both worlds.
Watch for my article on Success Stories, coming soon!
Brand relationships are just like personal relationships, if your character is shallow or inauthentic, your friends won’t stick around. These days, truth is the key to consumer brand loyalty.
So, how do you market truth to the masses? If price point is the key differentiator between you and your competitors, then low price guarantees and Saturday morning sales flyers may do the trick. If the freshness of your coffee and donuts will drive customer traffic to your door, mouth-watering photography and free samples may be a good marketing approach.
But in the world of hospitality, healthcare, education, and financial services, customer relationships are based much more on trust. Marketing promises made about caring staff and great customer service ring hollow until consumers experience it first hand – or hear it from a trusted source.
And that’s where customer testimonials come in. If you introduce someone that your audience can identify with, and share an authentic story about a great experience they had with company, you lay the foundation for a closer (and more profitable) relationship with your prospects.
The goal of a customer story is to leverage common ground and engage people in an emotional and relevant way. The story you choose to share will vary depending on your target demographic and your strategic objectives. If you want to appeal to a certain market segment, (female boomers, for example) you will feature a woman from that segment and share a story about her experiences with your company that her peers identify with.
Customer stories are like business referrals from friends and family. They provide personal insight and context that current and prospective customers will appreciate. When you combine model employees and loyal customers in the same story, you get the best of both worlds.
Watch for my article on Success Stories, coming soon!
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