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Why Tell Stories in the First Place?

Since the dawn of time, humans have conveyed messages through storytelling. And this isn’t a fad on a 2016 trends list; it’s a timeless concept that will never lose its power to build recall with an audience.

I Can Write Pretty Well, But I’m Not the Third Duffer Brother!

Well, the good news is you don’t have to be, or an Amazon bestseller. You just need a good story and a simple trick.

Three-Act Structure

Now, film and ads work quite differently. Film and box sets are longer format, so you get to play with character development, sub plots and lots of fancy twist and turns. With ads you need to get in and out quickly. Let’s have a look at what that actually means in practice.

Build it and They Will Consume

Act I
So, always start your story with the setup, the problem that's going to be solved in the end. Don't spend too much time setting the scene here. Get in and out to the action.

Act II
This is the longest part of your story. How does the protagonist go about solving the problem in Act I? What confrontations or conflicts (internal or external) do they have to deal with?

Act III
The resolution. How did their actions solve the problem and what was the outcome?

Write, Then Distil

The hardest part of writing for advertising is getting in and out in of your story in the minutes — or even seconds — you have available. This bit can take some practice! As a rule of thumb, one minute of narrated content is between 100-150 words, so you can see how little you have to play with.

Setup a simple document with the headings; Act I, II, III, or problem, action, outcome, or setup, confrontation, resolution. Whichever descriptors work best for you.

Get all your ideas down under the relevant headers and then trim and distil and trim and distil until you have a succinct piece of writing that still retains the key information of the story. Basically, you want to start with a hi-res portrait photo and end up with a Picasso.

Don’t forget, your story can be told in visuals too, words aren’t always needed, but you still need to write the essence of the story to direct production through a storyboard.

Here’s a great example from UK-based retailer John Lewis, who worked with creative masters adam&eveDDB on this festive ad.

In terms of structure here, the setup is nailed in the first ten seconds when we see a middle-aged man trying to learn how to skate, but we’re not sure why. The conflict sees the man continually practicing — he really wants this — as he persists throughout his daily grind while the family prepare for Christmas. The resolution — we discover the family are adopting/fostering a young girl who skates, suddenly it becomes clear that the man’s desire to skate is really a desire to make their new family member feel welcomed.

Three-act structure, brilliant visuals, little dialogue, strong connection to brand values, utterly wholesome content — job done!

When it comes to creating a TV commercial, there’s a lot of moving parts. Ideation, planning, production, editing, testing. There’s a lot of strategy that goes into a brand getting it right — and that takes time.

But how much time? Say for a 30-second spot? Days? Weeks? Months?

How about just a few hours.

Well, that’s exactly what Bud Light managed back in 2019. And the concept didn’t come from weeks of ideation, it came from one cultural moment in time.

And the beloved beer brand was on the ball… fast.

Pain is Temporary, Glory is Forever

It’s the Major League Baseball World Series, 2019.

With a home run ball hurtling towards the outfield, a fan holding a Bud Light in each hand had a tough decision to make; drop the expensive ballpark beer and try the catch or sacrifice your body to preserve the liquid gold.

What ensued was a brand moment for the ages...

The fan held on tight to his beers and took the ball right to the chest. The epic moment captured on-screen.

Capitalizing on a Moment

Within the next hour, t-shirts featuring the moment were available for sale.

The real marketing moment came just 48 hours after the ball hit.

The moment garnered national attention and the exposure for Anheuser Busch (parent company of Bud Light) was estimated to be worth $8 Million.

So, How Did Bud Light Get it So Right?

Well, it started with recognition. Having your product appear during viral moments happens once in a blue moon, so when it does happen, you need to be alert.

This was followed by the sheer speed of the brand’s response. Had the brand gotten involved a week later, the moment would have passed.

And by using social media to identify their hero, the brand immediately inserted themselves into the conversation.

Finally, by commemorating the moment through merchandise, the digital cultural spectacle was pushed into a physical marvel.

Not all heroes wear capes? Not all brands are Bud Light.

Web3 is the next iteration of the internet. But with endless headlines screaming about NFTs, crypto and decentralization, what do you really need to know about Web3? Let us tell you in this three-minute guide.

Decentralization

We all know that nothing is fun when someone is gatekeeping. So the next version of the internet may be decentralized — which means reducing dependency on the large tech companies like Google, Apple and Amazon — and having a wider power base. These companies collectively are called FAANG.

The FAANG companies:

Meanwhile, decentralization doesn’t require “permission” which means there aren’t central authorities deciding who gets to access certain services. Applications are built on blockchains and networks of peer-to-peer servers rather than controlled by the large internet companies.

So in theory, an internet for the people by the people. But will consumers want to play that big a part? The FAANG tech companies have grown because they are convenient and easy to use.

Okay, But Isn’t Crypto Involved Somewhere?

Yes, cryptocurrencies have become tied into Web3. The idea is that cryptocurrencies use the same decentralized approach as the next stage of the internet. Banks and governments shouldn’t control all monetary systems. Instead, the distributed networks can do so using the Blockchain as an unchangeable digital ledger.

Blockchain, Did You Say?

Is Blockchain Also Behind NFTs?

NFTs are also digital items with some permanence. Non-fungible tokens are effectively digital tokens that are unique and can’t be replaced. You can imagine them like a digital trading card or a digital piece of art that can be embedded with various benefits.

If you want to go deeper then you can watch our AWExplains on NFTs, but NFTs can be used in multiple ways. They can be collectible like this Grimes video or this CryptoPunk image, which sold for $23.7m.

For those of us still attached to the physical world, the value of NFTs can be confusing as technically you can copy or download digital art. But the value lies in the NFTs authenticity and ownership. You can check out some of the world’s most expensive NFTs.

And that’s it! Now you know about decentralization, crypto, blockchain and NFTs. Web3 in just three minutes.

In response, Burger King looked to create a new logo as part of the rebrand that was both modern and classic — this was seen as pivotal to designing a timeless brand identity. Modern and classic? Sounds a bit like an oxymoron, you say. Well, it does, but you can have both, and the key is going back to the future. 

No need to fire up the DeLorean for this one. A look through the archives will do just fine. 

Brand Heritage

The first step is truly understanding your brand heritage. The BK team went back through the history of their visual identity and discovered that the classic and instantly recognizable burger logo, which was used for 30 years between 1969 and 1999, was BK at its best — timeless. In fact, it could be picked up and used there and then, without question. This classic concept would become the inspiration for the team’s work.

The original logo was tweaked slightly to give it a more modern flavor, and to allow a suite of digital and physical assets to be created around it. This included the favicon — an asset that received much love in the design world.

Fernando summed up how important understanding brand heritage was to the final result:

“The brand work is all new, but it seems familiar. It feels like the way Burger King should be.”

More Than Just Heritage

Of course, there are many more steps to undertaking a rebrand, but truly understanding your brand heritage is a great place to start. You can watch how Fernando and the team rebranded Burger King as the key stakeholders go step-by-step through the process from concept to global rollout in our course, Creative Branding with Fernando Machado.

Happy rebranding!

But does it really matter to their consumers? Did you even know that the mountain image on the distinctive packaging was the famous Swiss mountain, the Matterhorn? Or why that’s significant? Or where the mountain bear will live now? Will this affect your decision to buy a jumbo-sized bar next time you’re at the airport? Probably not.

And anyway…Toblerone is so much more than just mountains.

So, when Mondelez were looking to relaunch Toblerone to make it more relevant and resonant in the modern world, they looked into what sets the iconic chocolate brand apart.  And they found a heritage as unique as its shape.

Dare To Be Different…Be More Triangle

Theodor Tobler, the Swiss pioneer of the iconic chocolate brand, was a true progressive who, over 110 years ago, fought for women’s rights, advocating state-paid maternity leave in a country that didn’t give women the right to vote until the 1970s.

And outside of his social advocacy, when he was designing his chocolate product, he was just as progressive. He fought against the stuffy, status-driven Swiss chocolate industry, and came up with a new way to do things.

In a world of squares, he made triangles.

And it was this uniqueness that Mondelez and their partners, Media.Monks and Bulletproof, used as inspiration for their relaunch.

They devised a tagline that fed their strategy, Your quirk is a gift…be more triangle.

Like Tobler, this mantra celebrated difference, quirkiness, the unique values that make us who we are, and this was the inspiration for their end-to-end business transformation through product, brand and experience. Premium, quirk-filled and human-first…always.    


Digital-First Approach

Phase one was to create a fresh design expression, a new face of Toblerone, and disseminating it through a new DTC platform and strategy. The results were staggering. Compared to their old website, web transactions were up 377%, they saw 3x revenue and 53% uplift in engagement. You can watch the team talk through their approach here.

Tip Of The Mountain

This is just the beginning of the brand relaunch, and although the Matterhorn will be no more, Toblerone will continue to celebrate the traits that make it, and its consumers, unique, as the Mondelez team continue to make their brand as progressive as their founder.

Not a bad mantra to live by, Be More Triangle.