How Storytelling Influences Perspective Of Ads

Engaging, and relatable. A prime tactic for generating positive outlooks pertaining to certain products is the art of utilizing engaging and relatable stories to target a desired audience. The method of using a story to create awareness or interest in a product or service you are selling can sometimes be the most effective way for marketing for several reasons. Straightaway, the audience is sucked into the thrill and curious to see how the story will unfold. Not many people would deny the opportunity to sit in on a quick, compelling story for an advertisement, as opposed to the traditional informative structured ads which fail to hook the audience.

Generally, hooking a viewer is accomplished more through stories. Stories are suspenseful and memorable in nature. When someone sees or thinks about the product, immediately they recall the story and how they were influenced during the viewing of the ad.

One way of building a good fan base for your product is through the use of emotion, which is easily achieved through telling a story, of course. Here's what I mean… When someone sees an advertisement for a product on TV, in an online advertisement, or through Social Media marketing in a story telling approach which relates to their current circumstances or unique situation, that person is much more susceptible to doing more research on the product, inevitably resulting in a purchase. Since the person was able to relate to the advertisement, a connection was formed between the person and the service because the person realized their situation was considered and understood. Whether it be through positive stories with happy endings to negative stories with sad endings, once the customer develops a mental connection with the product or service being advertised, the job is nearly complete.

Storytelling uses different strategies to gain the attention from the consumer. For instance, there are positive and negative reinforcement approaches to enhancing the message. Through the use of a story, an advertisement has the potential of scaring their target audience into considering their service (negative reinforcement), or inspiring a person to consider their service (positive reinforcement). Both strategies successfully boost awareness from the desired audience, which is the goal of developing the ad in the first place. In addition to those strategies, many advertisements often use humoristic or sexual storylines depending on the product and target audience to increase attention, as well.

Although storytelling may have great impacts on advertisements, there can be negatives to the approach too. Many times an advertisement can make a story so good that the audience loses sight of the goal, which is the product. The point of the story is to sell the product. In other instances, the story may be incomprehensible, non-relatable, or have nothing to do with the product or service through the eye of the consumer. A complete misfire.