Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly blog series, Marketing Trends. Each week, we will identify a key trend in the world of marketing. We’ll discuss the trend, why it’s important, and suggest ways that you can take advantage of this trend in your company.

Last week’s trend was Marketing Specialists.

Today’s Trend = Storytelling

Traditional advertising went like this –

• We’re going to tell you about a problem you already have
• We’re going to tell you how our product solves that problem
• We might give you an added incentive to buy it right away
• And we’ll tell you how to buy it

For the most part, that was it. It was easy. It worked.

But today, it is not as effective as it used to be. People are tired of being “sold to”. They are consciously opting out of advertising, even when it might be something they are interested in.

Instead, they are looking for reviews from real people. They want to research products and companies on their own before they buy. And they definitely don’t want to feel like that ad they saw convinced them to buy something.

So what are marketers doing to combat this negative connotation that consumers have with traditional advertising? They are engaging in storytelling.

The best way to explain storytelling is by giving what I believe is the best example of it. The company is GoPro. GoPro has built their entire brand through storytelling. And it’s paying off in a huge way.

Think about the company. They make cameras. They are specialty cameras used in very specific ways. But that’s what they do, they sell cameras. They could have run ads telling you how great their cameras are, how much fun you’ll have with them, how they’re the only cameras that let you do the things you can do with them. So go buy them.

But you wouldn’t. Because you’ve heard it all before from other camera makers.

Instead, they put the power in the hands of their customers. They used the amazing things their customers were creating with their cameras as their marketing and promotion. They made it easy for people to share their work, and put their own marketing dollars behind it’s promotion. And we all know GoPro not through a bunch of commercials and in your face advertising. We all know GoPro because we’ve seen a video someone took that we had a connection with. It wowed us.

That’s storytelling in action. Companies like Red Bull, Apple, Google, and many others have all worked to master storytelling in their marketing. And you should too.

What marketing trend should we cover next? Now accepting submissions for marketing trends that we will cover in an upcoming installment of this series. Submit your ideas via our contact page or in the comments section below.