Here’s How Brand Video Storytelling Builds a Deeper Connection with Your Audience

“Storytelling” is a term many of us associate with novels or television shows… but did you know this term also applies to branding and video?

When people refer to “brand-driven storytelling” they aren’t necessarily referring to imagined scenarios with made-up characters. Branded video storytelling is still narrative, but it’s more about connection and finding ways to add the human-element back into your brand videos.

It takes story elements like setting, character, plot—then gives them a marketing twist. By setting scenes in which we meet people and watch them solve their problems (with the help of your brand’s services/products, of course), your audience engagement will flourish.

How? The cold hard facts aren’t enough to connect you with viewers. Brand storytelling in videos gains audience loyalty. It influences them to buy your product or participate in your service. And it makes your videos much more shareable on social media. So let’s unpack how to actually bring marketable storytelling to your brand’s videos.

Emotion-driven Content and Brand Storytelling in Videos

Did you know emotion impacts buying decisions far more than logic does? Emotional responses and decision-making processes are housed in the same part of your brain and there are a ton of revealing stats and studies to show the connection.

For starters, emotional responses and decision-making processes happen in similar parts of the brain and scientists believe there are links between the two (meaning you can improve the chances of the desired outcome in your audience if you make them feel something.)

Fast Company analyzed 1,400 case studies of successful advertising campaigns and found that “campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) as those with only rational content (and did a little better than those that mixed emotional and rational content).” What’s more, cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner suggests that when messages are delivered through the lens of a story, they are 22 times more memorable than simply dishing out fact after fact. Now I’m not saying to drop the statistics altogether, but obviously there’s something highly effective to a two-pronged approach that engages the head and the heart.

And there’s more! The Center for Neuroeconomics Studies found that showing people videos with character-driven stories (as opposed to face-to-face interactions) were much more effective in motivating people to react with cooperative behaviors, resulting in oxytocin synthesis. They also found that when viewers engaged with a storyline (in this case, movies), they would start mimicking the feelings and behaviors of the characters (even after the credits rolled).

You know that empowered feeling you get after a good action film? Or that charitable mindset you have after a drama about generosity? You can evoke those feelings through video branding! As I mentioned above, when I talk about “characters” for branding, I don’t mean made-up beings—I simply mean showing people in your videos (i.e. introducing yourself as the owner or sharing client testimonials, but I’ll go into this more in next week’s post.)

“Show Don’t Tell”

At one point or another, most authors have been told by their editors “Show don’t tell,” but this advice also applies to storytelling in marketing and will absolutely strengthen your brand message! Put simply, this phrase means that rather than telling us a situation or character has a certain emotion attached to it, show us what that emotion actually physically looks like. Rather than telling us your customers are “happy,” show an example of how your product or service has changed their life.

Which is more impactful? Having someone tell you that they care about their clients or having them show you how they live out that value by capturing an employee-client interaction? Words lose their meaning without concrete actions to back them up.

How about some brand examples? Disney doesn’t just tell us it’s the “happiest place on earth,” it shows us clips of starry-eyed kids interacting with the park’s actors, the fantastic rides, and the end-of-the-night fireworks show. Nike doesn’t just tell us to “Just do it,” it celebrates athletes who have lived out that moto by showing them out on the track or the basketball court.

That’s a Wrap

Learning to apply them to brand videos takes a lot of practice so if you’re looking for assistance, Tabrizi Productions would love to come alongside you and your brand and bring your story to life!

Next week, I’ll also break down a number of different strategies and techniques I use to storytell… so stay tuned!

If you like what you’ve heard and you want to learn more about how to create video for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Youtube, then don't leave without signing up for more "quickie" video tips, course content and exclusive video coaching offers that will give you the confidence to do it on camera.