How Storytelling and Extended Reality Can Captivate Customers

World Storytelling Day is on Friday, March 20, this year. While celebrating the art of storytelling, let’s also explore how to use extended reality (XR) for storytelling in marketing to influence customers, create memorable experiences, and drive engagement.

The best way to convince someone is to tell them a story.

I have a preschooler who now has a mind of her own that is hard to convince. Especially, when it comes to eating her greens. But, the story of a girl who often ate spinach had sharp eyes and became tall and strong to fly planes, works like a charm.

People’s love for stories makes storytelling in marketing, one of the most impactful strategies.

1.”People forget 40% of what you say after twenty minutes. If you tell stories, you are not only more memorable, you have a great chance at getting someone who heard your story to tell others the story too!”

There is no doubt that stories drive engagement, and a good story can inspire your customers to share them with others and promote your brand.

2.“When you tell a story of another client you helped and your potential client sees themselves in that story, they will want to hire you!”

Brand storytelling for marketing can help you craft your brand persona, demonstrate your unique selling proposition (USP), and differentiate you from your competitors.

3.“Storytelling offers a new closing technique. Instead of having to push someone to say yes, a story pulls people in. Your new closing after telling a “case story” sounds like this: “Does that sound like the kind of journey you would like to go on with us?”

Storytelling in marketing can help you create compelling experiences that are memorable and motivate more customers to experience your brand.

We now know that storytelling and marketing go together. But how would one go about using storytelling in content marketing? What does a good story look like? Or should I say, feel like?

Let’s find out.

Learn More: Storytelling, and RebrandingOpens a new window

Marketers have often combined traditional storytelling techniques of text, visuals, music, and technologyOpens a new window to woo customers. But, with customers’ attention spans lowering, it becomes imperative for marketers to not only use cutting edge techniques but also make storytelling experiences immersive and memorable.

Storytelling in content marketing might not be as easy as it seems. So, how is a marketer to activate customers’ senses, strike an emotional chord, and capture their attention all at the same time? The answer is to create – contextual and immersive storytelling experiences!

Extended Reality (XR) brings together computer-generated (and altered) reality with Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) to create immersive experiences. XR is expanding horizons for storytelling in marketing and creating opportunities to add more layers and depths to create experiences that are immersive, novel, and compelling.

How Extended Reality (XR) and Storytelling Can Enhance Marketing

Here are three storytelling in marketing examples that combined technology and narratives for exceptional storytelling experiences.

1. Emotional Connect for Better Engagement
 

To drive engagement, a good story should be able to stir up audience emotions. As Livesay puts it, “If you look at the Google Superbowl commercialOpens a new window , you will see that they told an emotional story about a man losing his memory and used Google to help him remember details about his dead wife. Google was woven into the story being told as part of a person’s life. When your marketing message integrates into the story being told, people will remember it!”

Example: South Korean broadcaster, MBC, recently aired a documentary where a grieving mother reunited with her deceased daughter for one last time to say good-bye with the help of virtual reality. This heart-wrenching story shows how the mother gets exasperated when she is not able to touch or hug her child and gradually starts enjoying the experience, and eventually puts her to sleep and sees her becoming a butterfly and floating away.

South Korean Broadcaster, MBC’s Emotional Documentary

This experience helped a grieving mother cope with her loss and gave her closure about the end of her daughter’s suffering, which made brought tears to audiences.

An emotional story that can help audiences relate, remember happy times, cope with loss, or help connect with their sensitive sides can drive engagement.

Pro Tip: For emotional storytelling in marketing, focus on emotions, and keep the marketing message minimalistic.

Learn More: Marketing Storytelling for 2020: Woo Customers With Age Old and Cutting Edge TechniquesOpens a new window

2. Brand Storytelling for Social Proof
 

If your brand story can inspire customers to feel and experience what others have experienced with your brand, you then know you have a delightful story.

Example: Google’s Year in Search 2019Opens a new window campaign compiled how people searched for heroes – the kinds of heroes, superheroes, real-life superheroes, unsung heroes, sheroes. And then connected the hero search queries and matched them to the theme that all kinds of people can be (s)heroes in real life. Thus, inspiring millions of search users with the story.

Google’s Data-Based Campaign

Apart from the latest trends (superheroes), this campaign gave ordinary search queries a meaning and helped audiences connect with the brand and the story.

While crafting a story for your brand, it’s important to be consistent with your brand values and create a story that resonates well with your audiences.

3. Crafting Compelling Customer Experiences with Stories
 

To be able to reach out to your audiences, you need to understand where your audiences are and accordingly craft experiences that create the magic that compels them to be associated with you.

Example: The New York Public LibraryOpens a new window did just that. NYPL uploaded Insta Novels of classics like A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, The Yellow Wallpaper, etc. to Instagram stories. These Insta stories had customized illustrations, animations, and simple user instructions for comfortable storytelling experiences.

The New York Public Library Insta Novels

NYPL knows where their audiences are, so by focusing on mobile and social media, they brought binge-able, readable experiences to social media.

To craft enticing storytelling experiences for users, reach out to the audiences on their favorite platforms, create an engaging, comfortable environment, and make the story accessible.

Learn More: The Convergence of Storytelling and Personalized Marketing AutomationOpens a new window

Moral of The Story

With innovative technology, there is no dearth of ideas to create fantastic storytelling and marketing opportunities. Here are a few tips for you to get started:

1. Combine traditional storytelling techniques and innovative technologies like XR to make storytelling in marketing impactful.
2. Connect with your customers on an emotional level with just a hint of a marketing message, to create authentic narratives.
3. Weave your brand values in your brand story to get your story heard.
4. Craft immersive experiences for your audiences to make your stories unforgettable.
5. For an enriching experience, deliver stories to your audiences on the platforms they spend most of their time on, and in the formats they enjoy.
    

We leave you with John Livesay’s words, “The best way to prioritize selling is to realize that people buy emotionally and then back it up with logic. Your marketing strategy should create stories that tug at people’s heartstrings, so they want to open their purse strings.”

How do you incorporate storytelling into your marketing activities? Tell us on TwitterOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window ; we’re always listening!