During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses needed to figure out a way to get people to buy their product online, know they were open for curbside service or would allow a limited amount of people inside. Businesses also needed to find ways to keep their products and brand in the minds of their consumers while everyone was in lockdown.
Producer and Director Xavier Vazquez of the University of Mississippi’s Marketing and Communications Department said for marketing purposes, the “equalizer” was COVID-19 and it opened the floodgates for narrative storytelling in video marketing.
“If you wanted to be a business that was still alive for that year, you had to get into video,” Vazquez said.
Narrative storytelling is increasingly becoming popular among brands when it comes to their video marketing campaigns and advertisements. The main reason behind that increase comes from the element of entertainment that goes hand-in-hand with narrative storytelling.
“It forced you to become creative, and entertaining,” Vazquez said. “It forced you to make those hard choices of what is going to be the most worthwhile content and what is fluff.”
Vazquez said when it comes to video marketing, brands are working to find new ways to make audiences feel like they came up with the idea to purchase a particular product.
“People will stick around if they’re being entertained,” Vazquez said. “ We are all fighting for that attention.”
Another point Vazquez made about narrative storytelling was how people are more interested in the storylines and characters than the actual product at times. For example, when it comes to UFC fighting, there could be the most talented fighter in the ring, but since they don’t have the storyline like Conor McGregor no one is going to watch.
“You can have the most amazing product in the world, but if it’s not interesting, then no one is going to buy it,” Vazquez said.