2/2/2011
Storytelling as a branding tool
Mary Lee Sjönell is the driving force behind Made by Copeland, a commercial production firm with a presence in New York, Sweden and Finland. Her mission is to inspire advertisers, agencies, small business owners and individuals to develop stories that have strong themes, that can move their brands forward. And that was exactly what she did in a two-hour AmCham seminar on “Storytelling in the Digital Age” on January 27.
If you’re in the business of combining drama and commercials, being able to make a dramatic entrance is definitely an advantage. This certainly is true of Mary Lee Sjönell, with a style and stage presence that reminds you of Whitney Houston and Oprah Winfrey. She grips the audience, engages hearts and minds, and won’t let go.
With her very first question to the audience, she cast us out on a mental journey: Where does creativity come from? Sjönell believes that we were probably most creative when we were 6-7 years old and had relatively unfettered minds.
Her second question sent us on an emotional quest into the past: try and remember something that made you very happy when you were 6-7 years old. Very often, it turns out, successful brands build on our longing for the past. And our personal brands should be rooted in our positive experiences that we have built our lives around. “Our brands go on emotional journeys that tell a story,” Sjönell explained.
Or as
Madmen character Don Draper explained in a video, “In Greek ‘nostalgia’ literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.”
What are the essentials of a “story” in this context? Dramatic circumstances is one component. The characters should be extreme. Someone has to want something very badly – and have a hard time getting it. There should be obstacles, which create story cycles. And there should be opinions – the characters must take a stand.
Mary Lee Sjönell, Copeland, Amy Laine, Hyperlaine/New York, Mira Olsson,
Lovely/Amsterdam, Mikael Flodell, Flodell Film/Roy Gala and Guy Aslan,
SF Media Phoenix
To our delight, Sjönell had also assembled an experienced panel of brand specialists and advertising producers to share their ideas on storytelling: Guy Aslan (SF Media), Mira Olsson (Lovely), Mikael Flodell (Roy & Producer) and Amy Laine (Hyperlaine).
Guy Aslan related modern commercial storytelling to earlier work on mythology by people like Joseph Campbell: “The hero undertakes a journey and ends up changing. There’s always a big change.”
According to Amy Laine, “You must find your voice, and then keep it the same throughout your storytelling.” In her commercial storytelling, she is the “sidekick” to her client’s “superheroes”.
Mikael Flodell offered the advice that you always need to know what kind of story you’re in.
Sjönell expanded on his advice: “Sometimes you are the storyteller; sometimes the main character; and sometimes you join the audience. It’s important to keep these roles separate.”
“In the digital world, not all PR is good PR. Other people can take over the storyteller role,” said Mira Olsson, and mentioned the social media storm around the recent Apotek/Apoliva commercial as an example. “But you’re at your most creative when you don’t care what others think.”
Tie-ins to storytelling and imagination have a good deal of influence on shaping brands. For example, Sjönell cited research on fantasies people have about which superpower they would choose. Fully 70% of MiniCooper owners choose “flying”; a majority of housewives choose “telepathy”; and teenage girls choose “being invisible”.
So there’s definitely something in a story that appeals to our basic beliefs about ourselves. And it relates to how we communicate about ourselves, our companies and our products. We just have to find it.
Written exclusively for AmCham by Robbin Battison & Salza Ting, Battison & Partners AB
Photos by Rob Nelson
