Corporate Storytelling should be as alluring as the Dance of 7 Veils (courtesy of rjg329)
One of the things which I have been wrestling with lately is this:
How can I keep my customers continually keen in my products and services beyond a short-lived campaign?
More importantly, can we sustain their interest over a longer time span and find different ways to build on it?
Transmedia in a diagram (courtesy of Seize the Media)
Crossing various media platforms (or Transmedia, a term which is well expounded by Kevin Lim) isn’t something new in the world of marketing communications. We have always done that in our ever desperate bid to attract eyeballs, visitors, and revenue in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Witness how quickly the emergence of communication technologies like the printing press, telephone, radio, television, websites, mobile phone, huge electronic billboards, bus stop shelters, and building facades are used for advertising purposes.
What was the greatest company or brand story you’ve ever heard? Why were you enchanted by it?
Since time immemorial, mankind has always relied on stories to transmit information, values and ideas from generation to generation.
I was recently attracted to news about the billionaire brothers Kwok brothers in Hong Kong has built a life-sized replica of Noah’s Ark, a project that has been christened as one with “biblical proportions”. While mega attraction projects are not uncommon in this part of the world, what caught my interest was how this project attempts to link entertainment with evangelism. The project also seems timely since the Ark is often seen as a beacon of hope in times of uncertainty and global turmoil, with project director Spencer Lu claiming that “the financial tsunami will be over”.
What’s interesting is that this discovery has also revived an age-old interest in the vessel which certain scholars claim may have been berthed on Mount Ararat in Turkey, an obsession which has grown so far and wide than it has led many researchers and explorers up that icy peak.
An example of an advertising analogy and metaphor
Have you wondered why certain speakers and writers can bring their ideas across so elegantly? How do they transform a complex (and sometimes obscure) concept into one which we can see in our heads with such clarity and definition?
The answer lies in their ability to to tell stories with rich and powerful analogies, allegories and metaphors.