• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, May 1, 2019

Question: What do “Avengers: Endgame” and “Game of Thrones” have in common with great marketing?  Answer: a firm grasp on the art of storytelling.

First off, the movie and TV show feature intricately woven stories that have been entertaining their audiences for years.  They are based on existing material which many people are already familiar with, and yet they have each managed to surprise and shock people by taking unexpected twists and turns along the way.

They have both been part of the zeitgeist for extended periods of time and neither one has truly disappointed their fans at any turn (maybe a bump here or there, but nothing that couldn’t be overlooked). They have promised grand stories and overdelivered along the way.  

Great storytelling in marketing provides the same elements. In both B2C and B2B, you can have intricate stories that detail multiple benefits and convey complex messages to audiences.  You may have an old brand, but you can always find new ways to spice it up and excite your audience.  

One of my favorite examples is insurance.  I can’t think of a more boring or mundane category to market, yet some of the funniest ads on TV are for Progressive, Geico and Allstate.   Their success comes from the element of surprise matched with creativity and a delivery that breaks through the clutter.  They rotate in new stories (lots of parallel campaigns) and keep it fresh like the “Avengers” franchise, with all of them pointing toward a common endgame (pun intended).

It’s all about how you tap into and evoke emotion.  The audience has a sense of emotional investment in the characters or the brand, which  translates to the feeling that they are part of the journey with them.  

A show like “GoT” goes to extremes, killing off some of the most beloved characters to make space for new characters, while established characters continue to grow and evolve — all to further the story.  

In the case of marketers, it may be more subtle. To further the story, you can refresh  your look, your packaging, etc.  You tap into your customers to find out what resonates with them, then turn it around and use those insights to help find new people who might feel the same way.  Maybe you reward users for loyalty or give them unexpected new ways to engage and interact with your brand.  

Of course, it takes time to develop the bond with your customers or audience. I remember the first few episodes of “GoT” were slow, and I wasn’t entirely sure whether I was going to continue to watch the show.  It took me four episodes to feel as though I were hooked.  

The first of the Marvel movies was “Iron Man,” and although I was familiar with the character from years of reading comic books, I felt the larger Marvel Universe was the draw that would keep me engaged.  Now that we have come to the end, I can’t imagine the journey having started with any other character.  

A great brand has to deliver on its promise right away, which may mean the promise you make to your audience is simple and easy enough for you to deliver it.  It’s the “crawl, walk, run” theory of start out easy, deliver, then go to the next stage.  This aligns with Stephen Covey’s “Emotional Bank Account” idea: that you need to make positive deposits early and often to build up enough credit to earn the trust of your audience.

Be patient with your marketing and never forget the emotional tie you are trying to create.  You need time to build an emotional attachment with your brand. You can’t simply hammer an audience with a pure benefit message over and over, hoping that they will eventually give it a try.  

Frequency, by itself, is not a strategy.  Look at humor, helpfulness and other key ideas that can help you tell your story in different ways over time.  Patience is a virtue after all, and marketing benefits from it explicitly.