Telling Real Stories with Real Marketing

Every luxury brand craves knowing its customers, but to do so requires connecting in real time. Real-time marketing is all about event-driven marketing and social storytelling, but timing messages to be in-sync with consumers’ current interests. Sometimes, brands will try to ignite social media chatter around big events like the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards. Other times, they may create a live streamed event, such as Toyota’s Prius attempting to break as many world records as possible next month or Burberry live streaming its London runway shows.

This storytelling approach often drives the most frenzied reactions in social media. That’s where media, consumers and influencers connect, interact and share content the most. You can open doors for people to engage with your company on deeper levels than ever before. Just make your story the core of your product, instead of a message, celebrity or fancy logo. Consumers want an excuse to spend. This type of storytelling creates a heightened affinity and helps consumers feel more educated about your product.

It’s telling how Adweek, a trade journal for advertising and marketing, views its upcoming relaunch. After swallowing Mediaweek and Brandweek, the magazine announced its new approach will “be more Tolstoy than trade reporter,” said editor Michael Wolff. Also unconventional was the choice of Wolff himself, veteran story-telling Vanity Fair writer and author of the critical Rupert Murdoch biography, “The Man Who Owns the News.”

Hotels are among the most unlimited, yet unmined, veins for stories. But now social media offers the perfect platforms – and audiences – for sharing. Examples of good storytelling?

• The fantastical Faena Hotel + Universe in Buenos Aires presents itself in storybook format, taking this to a new level
• Story Hotel in Stockholm lets guests do the storytelling by posting their scanned, handwritten notes on its website

One of the best strategies is to gently coax consumers into sharing their luxury brand experiences. Coach provided a textbook example recently with its “Heartfelt” campaign. Mothers and daughters were invited to share their brand experiences for a “Mother’s Day Stories” campaign.