Storytelling is nothing new, perhaps as old as humanity. Even printed storytelling dates back around 30,000 years with the existence of the earliest known cave drawings in Europe. When it comes to advertising, you have to be a storyteller. Your advertisement has to appeal to someone in an emotional way, just like a story. And of course, the better your story, the more likely it is that your reader will take action.
Every marketer has a story to tell. Maybe it’s about a breakthrough drug that will alleviate the suffering of many people. Pharmaceutical companies are great at telling stories. They show real people with real problems and present a real solution. Automotive companies tell good stories too. No, I am not talking about the local car dealers that love to put their family members in their television ads; “my dad will get you the car you want at a price you can afford”! In fact, I never really noticed how good the automotive stories were until I had a baby and really started paying attention to the ads. The Toyota Sienna spots (and YouTube videos) are brilliant. They speak directly to someone like my wife who is terrified at the prospect of owning a minivan.
Equally as important as the story is your delivery. Just like your message, the direct mail piece needs to be interesting and engaging. That’s a job for dimensional print.
Tyson Foods wanted an engaging way to tell the story of how their brand has evolved. They used the four selling panels of The Flapper® to do it. They talked about the history of the company, the quality of their foods and finally, on the last panel, introduced a new pizza product. The Flapper was the perfect way to tell the story of Tyson Foods in an interesting and engaging way. Check out the Tyson Foods Flapper, as well as a video on how it works. Tyson Foods had success with this type of storytelling. In fact, they came back to Structural Graphics to tell their story in a new way.
Sometimes a story needs more than just words and graphics to be
told. How about sound? When Victoria’s Secret needed a way to introduce their new cosmetic line “Sexy Little Things”, they knew something standard would not suffice. We produced a beautiful full-color presentation kit that included something unexpected, a whistle when you opened it. This was similar to the package we designed for one of their new fragrances. The package included a light-activated sound chip that whistled when someone opened it.
This is why we, at Structural Graphics, don’t just consider ourselves a direct mail company, or an advertising agency. We are storytellers. We have told a lot of stories in the past 30 years. Does your business have a story to be told?
