• by Elisa Steele , October 8, 2010

Just for a moment, I'd like everyone to take off their advertising hat and become a consumer, with passions, needs and preferences. Think about a brand which you feel a particular connection with, one that helps you fill a need in your life. Not only that, it has to be one that has stood out from the competition because of the creative messaging used to promote it so that it connected with you emotionally. In fact, you feel so strongly about this brand that you rave about it to your friends and family, because you want to share that feeling with them.

These concepts are common to all consumers -- relevance, creativity, and a shared experience -- encompass core elements of storytelling. Now that consumers are living more of their lives online, the Web has the ability to engage with them in a way that no other medium can, and advertisers need to utilize the digital platform innovatively to develop stronger bonds between consumers and brands.

Today, online advertisers have the ability to give consumers precisely the kind of content that they want, allowing them to match their messages to consumers' personal world and passion points. With consumers acting as opted-in partners in this process, brands can responsibly capture and hold their attention by directly appealing to their specific attitudes and preferences.

No matter how relevant a brand message is on the Web, an advertiser can only build long-term brand loyalty by telling the story in a creative way, evoking a core emotion -- whether that is surprise, inspiration, laughter, nostalgia, or any other of a range of sentiments that touch consumers on deeper, more personal levels.

Today's innovative online ad formats enable advertisers to "wow" consumers on a whole new level. Whether it is through an ad that uses the entirety of the digital canvas, a branded entertainment series that wraps a compelling theme around the brand, or a rich media, interactive mobile ad, advertisers have a shiny new set of tools that allow them to tell better more connected stories.

The experience of any good story is always enhanced when you are able to share it with others. When consumers do so on the Web, they become "evangelists," tying them in on a deep level with the brand. The people involved with this shared experience are more likely to put their trust into the brand because of an established, personal connection.

Brands today are not only giving consumers the option to share these stories, but to do so creatively, through methods running the gamut from user-generated video to a personalized avatar displayed to friends to the more traditional status update. This creativity in sharing makes the brand message all the more powerful.

Advertisers that look to the Web to bring brands alive and ultimately, positively impact consumer behavior, realize that to be truly effective, they need to complement high-level storytelling with the equally necessary education about specific product features and benefits.

A smart advertiser will use the Web to present this kind of practical information in creative, easy-to-digest, on-demand fashion, enhancing the overall brand story and increasing the likelihood of purchase or usage. Buy-in on the emotional level is cemented when the consumer has confidence in the brand's products, and both elements need to work together to affect consumer behavior.

Advertisers have learned that they can evoke emotion from online campaigns by telling the right kind of stories about their brands. No other medium combines the customizability, creativity, interactivity and shareability to create a powerful brand story the way that online does. The online medium allows brands to "activate" consumers in a variety of engaging ways across the screens of their lives, influencing both consumer attitudes and behaviors.