JUST BEFORE LOCKDOWN WE ATTENDED ANOTHER EVENT FROM SUPERBRANDS AND DYNATO. FOLLOWING A THOUGHT-PROVOKING PRESENTATION BY THE ALWAYS FASCINATING TOM SAVIGAR, WE HAD AN INTERESTING CHAT WITH THE ORGANISERS ABOUT THE SUBJECTS THEIR BRAND NETWORK MEMBERS ARE EAGER TO LEARN ABOUT. TOP OF THE LIST IS WHAT IT TAKES TO TELL A STORY THAT RESONATES WITH AUDIENCES.
the best brand stories have the audience as the pragmatist
She said that everyone knows that a campaign that pulls on the heart strings of a consumer are the most successful - cue John Lewis Christmas advert – but where does a brand start?
As I’ve talked about before, capturing your audience’s attention and building an enduring relationship has probably never been harder. Storytelling is primal, a tradition rooted in many cultures the world over. Our brains are hardwired to understand story structure so the emotive power of stories is what can capture the attention and elicit brand loyalty.
Of course, the best brand stories have the audience as the pragmatist, not the brand and can therefore only evolve from an insight into human values, motivation and perception. Something not found in the WHAT data we’ve previously talked about.
Music soundtracks every part of the human experience and as a basis for brand storytelling it is overflowing with creative content choices. As a brand, you just need to identify those unique emotive connections, those distinctive human beliefs that will be the foundation to your musical brand story. But great storytelling can be much more than simply synching an affecting tune to some emotive images like the John Lewis ads.
The thing is, music is so much more than just a song or an individual artist. Music is about a ‘scene or movement’; events and human experience; or a snapshot in time. Music is about everyday human stories or a collective fandom that is built around shared ideals and experiences. And yet, at the same time music can have disparate fandom borne out of individual human interpretation of the same ‘music’ origin.
Music is about everyday human stories or a collective fandom built around shared ideals and experiences.
So, despite arguably having unmatched emotive potential, uncovering the right partnership of music and brand is not straight forward.
At Sound Effects, we’ve developed a unique approach to this. We use our experience within the music business, working with audience all over the world to help brands ignite lasting audiences’ relationships through music. We believe passionately that great storytelling and enduring brand relationships come from robust human insight. Our ideas spark from a combination of primary insight and our own proprietary tools.