In today’s Information Age, old things become new again.
This week, with the launch of the CW Network on Sept. 20, television viewers can watch a new type of advertising called content wraps.
But according to Neal Mendelsohn, president of the Fourth Wall advertising agency in Los Angeles, content wraps are just a new incarnation of an old technique story-based marketing. With content wraps, an advertiser buys three entire commercial breaks of about two minutes each in a single evening. As the night progresses viewers see a beginning, a middle and an end in other words, a narrative.
“Every brand has its story, and if you tell it right, the story is the way to develop a deep, authentic emotional connection with the audience,” Mendelsohn said. “That’s how people love to take in information.”
Telling stories in TV spots has been around for decades, but recently story-based marketing has received new emphasis as advertisers look for strategies to deal with TiVos, satellite radio, Internet ad-blockers and other technologies that allow consumers to avoid commercials. “This is an experiment to do something different from the traditional 30-second spot,” said Paul McGuire, senior vice-president of communications at the CW. “Content wraps enjoyed a good reception at this year’s upfront presentation.”
Mendelsohn, a former theater director, believes story-based marketing differs from regular ads with a story line in that the brand is the story. In contrast, many ads use story elements as a hook to grab attention and then deliver a hard-sell message. “A lot of ads are formulaic and not inherent to the brand,” he explained.
Fourth Wall has worked on story campaigns in various media from its West L.A. offices. One project began when the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles presented the agency with research showing that the typical passionate pet owner was a middle-aged woman who talked to her animals and longed for stable relationships. “Animal welfare marketing is more like eHarmony than Kibbles ‘n Bits,” Mendelsohn said.
He conceived the campaign as an impossible love story. The first billboard carried the headline “Some L.A. Males Aren’t Afraid of Commitment,” accompanied by a photo of puppies and kittens.
When the campaign moved to radio and TV, the premise became a dating agency that matched people with their soul-mate pets. Well-known performers such as Betty White and David Carradine added their personalities to the story. During the campaign, donations to the society shot up several hundred percent.
In the last year, Mendelsohn put together another story campaign, this time in print for Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning at California State University, Northridge. The project targeted human resource directors by showing them as cultivators of a company’s success, just like farmers who plant and harvest a crop. The ads ran in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, a sister publication of the Los Angeles Business Journal.
The campaign generated so much phone traffic that the college re-printed them as a booklet for human resource directors. The college reached its enrollment goals, and Fourth Wall has won 60 awards. The shop’s other story-based clients include Countrywide Bank, KB Home Mortgage, St. Vincent Medical Center and North American Scientific Inc.
Because stories involve a sequence of events, the campaigns often require a series of ad buys. As a result, the budgets swell to several times that of a single ad, and the advertiser must commit to the entire series up front. The high price and production complications explain in part why the CW Network only plans 10 to 12 content wraps during its first season. “They are a real production in terms of cost,” said McGuire.
Story-based advertising affects the medium that transmits it almost as much as the specific brand it hypes. The CW wants content wraps to have a program-like sensibility, so the Burbank-based network actually produces the extended spots. Also, because the wraps present a story interspersed during a program, the context of the messages becomes paramount. The first content wrap on the network will feature Procter & Gamble Co.’s Herbal Essences shampoo during the debut episode of “America’s Next Top Model” an ideal match of product with context.
While Mendelsohn has executed story campaigns in broadcast, print and outdoor, he sees the format’s biggest potential on the Internet. The relatively low cost and flexible time-space resources of the Web allow brands more latitude in their story construction. Also, the Internet has accustomed users to frequent updates or extensions of information, making it a natural setting for sequential presentations. “The budget doesn’t always allow for it, but that’s the idea take the story in chapters and evolve the brand,” said Mendelsohn.
Small companies that lack million-dollar ad budgets can still use story-based marketing. Michael Margolis, chief executive of consultancy Thirsty-Fish Story Marketing, has found that stories work especially well for internal communications. Margolis is contributing author of the upcoming book “Wake Me Up When the Data is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results,” which documents how 70 organizations large and small have used stories to deal with turnover, corporate name changes and other strategic challenges. The book goes on sale Oct. 13.
On the marketing side, Margolis recommends companies develop and communicate their origin story to explain where they come from and what makes them special. Every iconic brand features such a story, whether it’s Dr. Pemberton inventing the secret recipe for Coca-Cola or Bill Hewlitt and David Packard tinkering in the garage. “Telling that founding story can be a great chit for authenticity, especially to differentiate your company from big-box competitors,” he said.
For Mendelsohn, the human interest in stories stretches back to pre-historic times and forward into the next phase of e-marketing. Fourth Wall tries to create what he calls “digital campfires” where customers sit at their computers and listen while a corporate shaman conjures up wonderful tales about new products. “It goes in waves, but right now a lot of clients are asking: How do I create word of mouth? How do I do viral marketing?” he reported. “Story is an old technique, but the Internet makes it possible to reach millions of people.”
