My wife and I were sitting at he cricket the other day when we heard a resounding "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" ring out across the crowd. It was then that I knew the most recent Coke advertising campaign had permeated social culture as the cold drink vendor advertised his product (Coke) to the crowd and the crowd responded with appreciative Brrrrrrr's in return.

Research has shown that we make sense of our world through the use of narrative processing. Psychologically we process what happens in our world in sequential narrative segments – these structured sequences of imagery are the most natural way we know to describe and ascribe meaning to that which gets our attention.

Perhaps the key then to capturing attention lies in the extent to which our message or brand connects with a person’s understanding of themselves – their own narrative. In this age of abundance the key to capturing people’s attention and in engaging them with your brand, one needs to understand the role of narrative and how the role of narrative marketing creates self-brand connections.  read more »

A few months back I wrote a fairly scathing post on Debora Patta and the shoddy job she did in a 3rd Degree interview with a megalomaniac on eTv. Having returned from a PR Net event she hosted this evening I now write with a slightly different perspective on her. Besides the insight she provided on her show, it seems her in-person persona (excuse the possible redundancy) is a whole lot easier to digest than her on-screen presence.

Am I getting soft? Nah ... I still maintain that she did a shoddy job. Hearing her speak outside of the blood-thirsty investigative journalism mode is slightly refreshing and has done some work in shifting my perspective on her.

Before you write this post off as a pseudo-apology and quit reading, know that I'm going somewhere with this and that there is some backbone and relevance around narrative to be explored below.  read more »

I'm a real supporter of marketers using stories in their efforts to capture the attention of consumers. It is going to become more of a differentiator - but will be thwarted as long as there are some companies who miss the power, intent and value of using stories. One prime example is this one that Rich...! spotted:

Tut, Tut!

Rich...! also referred to a significant post from Seth Godin on the role of stories in marketing:

Great stories make a promise. They promise fun, safety or a shortcut. The promise needs to be bold and audacious. It’s either exceptional or it’s not worth listening to.

Great stories are trusted. Trust is the scarcest resource we’ve got left. No one trusts anyone. People don’t trust the beautiful women ordering vodka at the corner bar (they’re getting paid by the liquor company). People don’t trust the spokespeople on commercials (who exactly is Rula Lenska?). And they certainly don’t trust the companies that make pharmaceuticals (Vioxx, apparently, can kill you). As a result, no marketer succeeds in telling a story unless he has earned the credibility to tell that story.

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Emerging from the metro at the L’Enfant Plaza Station, he was pretty nondescript as he positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. He pulled a small violin from a case. Placing the open case at his feet, he threw in some small change as seed money, swivelled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Each passerby had a quick choice to make ...  read more »

It's a rare occasion that I'll attend a business breakfast. I'm not particularly good at the networking-vibe and well, until my third cup of coffee and a whole heap of scrambled eggs, I'm as talkative and interesting as our esteemed Minister of Transport, Jeff Radebe, at his best.

Nonetheless, I found myself at a Journal of Marketing breakfast yesterday that was addressing "Marketing in Crisis". It was a well-to-do event - the marketing garb is well-defined: Diesel spectacles, tweed jackets, bow-ties and business card in hand. Aiden walks in with his trusty 5-year old shoes, flapping cardigan and contact lenses ... clearly not of the Marketing fold.  read more »

You can insult a South African's home town. You might even be able to insult his mother and get away with as little as a ringing ear. You might even be lucky enough to escape death after whistling at his "chick". But insult his choice of beer and you'd be lucky if your forefathers didn't feel the beating you'd be in line for.

Maybe slightly overstated, but South African men are immensely passionate about their choice of beer. More so than the rugby team we support, the type of beer held in your hand seems typify what type of man you are. Such identification with a brand is testament, in my mind, of how powerful a self-brand connection can be. I'm fairly convinced that this identifcation has absolutley nothing to do with a beer's taste. Mike even reckons that most of us would fail to distinguish between the brands in a blind taste test.  read more »