A good emotional story in an advert or commercial should fall into one of three distinct areas, achieved through the careful interlacing of emotional and informational elements.
Interest (the hook)
Interest is the point at which the viewer goes from not having any interest about your content to becoming aware of it. This is also known as the hook and will usually (but not always) come at the very start of your film to establish your story and hold the viewer’s attention through the use of engaging imagery and/or dialogue. Attention spans are short so emotional storytelling adverts and commercials need to make an impact quickly.
Evaluation (the pitch)
Evaluation is the stage at which you subtly begin to introduce elements of information that promote your company offering or brand values. If the viewer is emotionally invested in your story by this point then they will be more open to the introduction of your brand or product into the narrative. Fusing this subtle sense of a marketing ‘pitch’ into an emotional story without coming across as salesy is somewhat of an art form (one that our creative teams in Bristol and London excel at).
Empathy (the personalisation)
Empathy is the point at which the ‘we’ becomes the ‘you’ and the idea of the customer is introduced to the storytelling. This goes a lot further than a simple call to action as the adoption phase of an emotional storytelling advert or commercial needs to somehow make the viewer relevant to the story. In this way, the empathy phase shouldn’t feel separate from the story but a natural conclusion to it.
Recipe for telling a great story on social
Read more about the six fundamental ingredients needed for social storytelling, as demonstrated by the likes of Turkish Airlines and Coca-Cola Life.
