How Entrepreneurs can voice Impactful Brand Stories through AV storytelling? Leveraging this technology enables corporates to create and present legendary brand stories that marry their business strategy to the message that they convey in a memorable, emotionally engaging and profitable manner

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and while information can motivate action, an audio-visual brand story can create emotions that remain with the audience, long after.

So take for instance a tyre company, with a brand built around safety and durability. It could list out features describing the technology behind the threading, the power of the grip and the average mileage the tyres withstand. That would be impressive.

But let's say instead that it ran an audio-visual campaign depicting the same features through enduring visuals and music. The video may depict a car breaking an inch away from a little boy who suddenly chased his ball onto the street. Alternatively, a catchy refrain may suggest how the tyre takes you home, irrespective how far that may be, while the images show someone driving into the night to a warm welcome from family, on reaching home at dawn.

Now, Which do You Think Would Really Make an Impression?

Storytelling is not new. It's as old as human civilization. Being able to tell these stories through the powerful medium of audio-visuals simply enhances their potency. Leveraging this technology enables corporates to create and present legendary brand stories that marry their business strategy to the message that they convey in a memorable, emotionally engaging and profitable manner.

Benefits of Audio-Visual Storytelling in Marketing and Branding

Compared to textual content, audio-visual story-telling brand strategies enjoy three advantages:

• More Attractive and Appealing: While customers may choose textual content for their last mile in decision making, while they are still prospects, it's natural to be drawn to audio-visuals, especially if they are creatively presented in the form of brand stories.
• Easier to Understand: Viewing an audio-visual which tells a story is far more effortless than reading. A well-made audio-visual manages to direct information to a viewer at various levels, addressing different parts of the brain.
• Longer Retention: A study shows that people can retain 65% of visual information, but can only retain 10 to 20% of written information, after three days. Now add the additional beauty of a video in story form and one can only imagine how much its memory live would be augmented.

Getting it Right

While the weave of the story and its presentation in the AV format would depend on the brand, the audience and industry/sector of the product or service, there are three simple rules for storytelling audio-visual clinchers that are consistent across spectrums:

1. Balancing Emotion With Just the Right Amount of Information: Charming storytelling in AV form is bound to capture the attention of the audience. But without adequately imprinting the USP of the products and service and the brand purpose and mission on the minds of the target audience, it's a wasted opportunity.
2. Convey a Sense of Bigger Purpose That is Beyond the Product or Service – While the features of products and services must be revealed in the story, to make audiences think and feel and emote, a powerful brand story instils a sense of larger purpose that is beyond the product or service. It could stand for reform, a revolution, a first step, the creation of a legacy, etc.
3. Cohesiveness and Consistency Across Delivery Mediums: There is a proliferation of mediums through which an enterprise can communicate with its audience. Any brand building strategy must aim to derive synergies from its presence and message on these platforms. Everything from the vision and core values projected to the brand language, visuals and communication styles must be standardized across social media posts, blog or website copy. Now, this in no way suggests a duplication of ideas – the aim should rather be to replicate a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece of communication carrying a common texture and hues but fitting in to tell the larger brand story.