Catchy slogans and colourful logos may not be enough to capture audience attention in a competitive market today. You cannot just be a brand with no emotion or narrative of your own. Visual storytelling is the key to communicate your brand message and creating a strong affinity towards it for brands. By the end of this session, you will be able to understand how powerful visual storytelling can change brand perception and real-life examples + practical strategies on what steps or action items to take next for your brand. The Logic Of Visual Storytelling
Storyboarding involves the creation of a timeline using images, graphics and design elements to help tell your story. It takes advantage of the fact that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. Graphics provide a way to distill complex messages into easily understood and relatable information. It is not about the aesthetics of visual storytelling; it aims to speak volumes with the values, mission and story of your brand. It involves:
Visual Story Format: The structuring of a storytelling approach into visuals that reflects the journey or ethos of your commerce brand. Arising Emotions: Employing graphics to create sentiments that support your brand. Engage the Audience: Share your story and engage them in so they become part of it. Brand Success Story Case Studies on Visual Storytelling
1. Airbnb: Belong Anywhere
AirbnbFigures Booked Sofar Today Home Discover Experiences Log in Airbnb > Live getawaysTell stories using beauty of people In the past, it was you. The visuals from their \”Belong Anywhere\” campaign epitomizes what it means to be emotionally connected through a visual path. When it comes to image, they make it very visual: Airbnb has neat high-resolution photos of real homes and hosts. It\’s connectivity goes beyond aesthetics and into the lives of Air BnB users. They emphasise all the many flavors of stay, creating a sense that viewers are part of something global. The Impact: when customers can see how the product works themselves. This makes it more than a vacation rental – visitors will feel like they belong, developing wanderlust that will tempt them into picking Airbnb over any traditional lodging options. This emotional appeal has resulted in Airbnb being among the most recognizable and loved hospitality tropes. 2. GoPro: Be a Hero
The core of GoPro \’s marketing strategy is user-generated content that displays awesome activities shot on their cameras. Visual: GoPro uses eye candy such surfer riding massive waves or skydiving off of skyscrapers, both captured on film from their users. They make all these amazing videos of how the camera is super awesome in real life catching people doing radical stuff and scratching that adrenaline itch. Effect: Not only do the results enure real content, but they also help to grow a network of fans who are willing to share their own stories. The brand of GoPro has now become one flagging the experience, a banner which small screen toting adrenalin junkies rally behind. This following is huge and dedicated. 3. Coca-Cola: Share a Coke
A good example of personalized visual storytelling is Coca-Cola with their \’Share a Coke\’ campaign. Visual Approach: bottles have common names on them, to get people to find their bottle or the name of a friend. One example is the personalized Coke bottles campaign that caused up a social media storm with people sharing their images of them and friends drinking cokes. Effect: As a result, the client felt unique and involved with more individuals from that very personalized response. By putting the customers front and center of the story, engagement across social media marketing soared as well as a spike in sales results improving brand affinity. 1. Tell an Engaging Brand Story
Your brand story is the bedrock of visual storytelling. This needs to be genuine, relevant and true to the values of your brand. Crafting the story:
Heritage: Tell the story of how it started with your brand and what caused its growth. ValuesTell about the values on which your brand is build upon. Vision: Clearly explain the mission and what you want your brand to become. Example: The \”One for One\” model of TOMS Shoes creates a compelling brand story Each time you buy a pair of TOMS shoes, just know that the company gives part of its profit to someone on earth in dire need for shoes, sight water and safe birth. Their visual elements often depict the direct effects of their products on communities, ad nauseum with sparse text and images that coincide directly with both those things but also tug at customer\’s heartstrings. 2. Leverage Visuals of High-Quality and Original
Visual authenticity breeds trust and relatability. Stay away from stock photos use real images that reflect your brand and its people as much you can. Techniques:
User-Generated Content – Ask customers to post pictures and videos of them using your product on social media. Opt for the Untamed: Share behind-the-scenes images or video of your staff, creating the product, company events. Warby Parker with real customer photos wearing the glasses they bought in their normal everyday life as opposed to other brand\’s polished, staged pictures (for example). 3. Create Visual Consistency
Consistency with visuals will lend itself to reinforcing your brand identity, and as a result your content really does become unmistakably yours. You must ensure that colors, fonts and style of images used across the design to have a consistent look. Techniques:
Add Color Palette Typography Image Style Etc Brand Guidelines: Implement visual brand guidelines for color palette, typography, images style and any other design element. Save social media posts in templates to maintain consistency across all visuals
For instance, Apple uniformity supports in maintaining their material look and feel same. This brand is well-known for their minimalistic designs and uncluttered appearance using lots of white space — values that carry over to a key theme in its branding. 4. Leverage Data Visualization
We know how cumbersome data can get but as they say, a picture is worth more than thousand words. Visual representations – infographics, graphs and charts. Techniques:
Visuals: Include infographics that provide an overview or snapshot of the data-points/findings in a visual context. Interactive Graphics : Embed interactive data visualizations on your website or in a presentation to make them more accessible. E.g., Spotify keeps Year in Review that shows users their own top listened songs, artists & genres via ludicrously fun data viz. As a result, these visuals were not only interactive but also social which when users share on their Social Media — help to increase Spotify\’s reach. 5. Incorporate Video Content
Video is such a strong medium for visual storytelling as emotions and stories can be conveyed well visually. Techniques:
Brand Stories: videos to tell the audience the story of your brand or how company culture is like. Product Demos – If you have a product that is hard to imagine in action or showcases specific features, videos are the way to go. Speaking from customers: Play video of satisfied clients\’s testimonials. Example: Just Do It (Nike Campaign) Inspirational videos by athletes by showcasing the results of Nike products while still delivering motivating messages — from stirring comebacks to inspired victories, these videos serve as an extension/reaffirmation of their brand pillars of perseverance and excellence. 6. Use Interactive Content to Entice
Interactive content adds a layer of depth to your visuals and invites users in, thus providing an immersive storytelling experience. Techniques:
Games – create some quizzes or polls related to your brand/industry that can entertain the users as well as help in getting good data. Develop infographics so that users can click on different parts to discover more information. National Geographic makes interactive features a regular part of their digital issue, utilizing maps and quizzes to get readers clicking around on some truly static-defying media. Quote to Inspire
Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about one little person telling another little person. — Seth Godin Bestselling Author & Marketing Genius
Visual Storytelling is not just a fad, it\’s the way brands communicate with their audiences. Utilizing visual storytelling enables you to reinvent a brands appearance, create stronger focuses and better engage an audience in ways traditional strategies do not. Begin activating these tactics now and see your brand story truly transcend. Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below — we want to know how visual storytelling is changing your brand around!
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