Emotion First, Product Second
The storytelling rule behind the ads that work.
Founder Marketing Lab goes under the hood of social media and marketing, providing weekly education for founders so they can market with confidence.
If someone forwarded this to you…
I was listening to the radio and an ad for Canva came on. Two people one-upping each other about what they’ve made on Canva. Building and building until someone goes alright, no need to brag. The ad worked so well because it placed Canva in the background behind two people trying to outdo each other in the office, just so happened they were using Canva as the tool.
Storytelling is probably one of the biggest differentiators in good vs bad marketing. And actually the further away from the product itself you can get the better. Like I don’t mean saying nothing about the product or else what is the point of the ad right? But I mean the more emotions you can pull the better and sometimes that means talking about something way off a feature list.
The Christmas special ads are another set to look at for inspiration on this topic. They’re so good that it’s actually turned into a thing that generates talk on the timeline every year. Whose Christmas ad is the best. John Lewis usually takes the top spot. But if you actually dissect their one from last year, they didn’t centre themselves in that ad at all. They centred a dad and his son with the perfect gift... oh and btw you can get the perfect gift in John Lewis. Let us help make you the hero.
Those are the right ways to storytell, but so many founders get this wrong. When they hear “storytelling”... they write an origin story.
We started this because we believed X should be accessible to everyone. Four paragraphs on the moment you decided to build it, a bit about the late nights, placing the product as the main character.
It doesn’t work as powerfully as the ads I spoke about above because, especially so with a new product, nobody can feel anything about a product they’ve never used. You’re asking for an emotion they have no material for.
The other version is the one that goes you need this in your life, we’re great because we do this and this and this… and everyone’s swiped past you because no one likes a bragger. Though the Canva lot were bragging too weren’t they, the difference is they were bragging about what they’d made and you’re bragging about yourself. People are inherently self centred and you can use that in your marketing. Put them in the centre. Make them feel something first and let the product walk in late, almost by accident, oh and by the way this is who that was. It ties back, but it never explains that it’s tying back.
Don’t take this as instruction to write short stories for all your marketing pieces. Most of what you post won’t be a story and it shouldn’t be. This matters more for the pieces where you’re trying to get someone to feel something about what you’ve built, for example, your launch post.
So next time the radio’s on in the background, or you’re half-watching the Christmas ads for the twentieth year running, don’t just let them wash over you. Pause. Dissect them. Notice where the product actually appears (or doesn’t). Notice who the story is really about. Notice what you’re feeling before you even realise you’re being sold to. That observation is one of the best marketing educations you can get… and it’s free.
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