I came across two moving short films this week. One came via Vicente Gutierrez, from a brand we both admire, Patagonia:
The other came from Bus Stop Films, via my client Sarah Wayland:
What do these videos have in common (other than bringing me to tears)? They tell powerful stories.
What is more compelling than a story? Stories are how humans make sense of the world. Our ancient history is rich with oral storytelling traditions. Sharing stories connects us with each other and helps us understand how much we share in our human condition. As Brené Brown puts it, “stories are just data with a soul.”
What do the stories in these videos make you feel and think?
Can you relate to them? Good marketing stories strike a chord, and these strike a deep chord in me.
Some people are uncomfortable talking about marketing, because marketing is associated with trying to sell a product and sales make people uncomfortable (as does money). But marketing is about delivering a message, whether the goal is for the recipient to buy a product, donate to a cause, volunteer for an organization, or vote for a candidate. Good marketing is telling a story.
Seth Godin writes that “people believe stories because they are compelling. … A great story is true. Not true because it’s factual, but true because it’s consistent and authentic” (All Marketers Are Liars, p 9-10). Nothing entices like a good story. Some stories resonate for centuries (Homer, Shakespeare, mythology) because of how true they are: they speak to enduring aspects of the human condition and remind us how much we have in common.
We are all connected
Alex Yoder concludes in Foothills that, “when I boil it all down, the feeling that resonates is the universal language of shared experiences.” Our emotional lives have many similarities. We struggle to make meaningful connections with each other, to make sense of our lives together. Stories remind us of our shared humanity.
These videos connect us. They make us reflect on experiences we’ve shared across languages and cultures, and prejudices we’ve learned to see beyond. Whether you call it marketing or storytelling, I am more excited about buying from Patagonia and supporting companies that employ people with intellectual disabilities than I was a week ago.
(Image by Dustin Lee)
