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‘Everything the brand stands for is epitomised in that film’ – Spredfast’s Leo Ryan on The Tale of Thomas Burberry and storytelling

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By Ayesha Salim | Content Lead

December 5, 2016 | 5 min read

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Speaking ahead of The Drum’s upcoming webinar on brand storytelling in January, Leo Ryan, EMEA vice-president of customer solutions at Spredfast explains why Burberry’s Christmas campaign is a perfect example of storytelling and how Snapchat is fundamentally ‘shifting how the next generation think about media’.

Leo Ryan, EMEA vice-president of customer solutions at Spredfast

Leo Ryan, EMEA vice-president of customer solutions at Spredfast

Creating stories that linger in our minds long after the end is an art few brands have managed to master – which is why Ryan is so full of praise for Burberry who has managed to achieve this.

“It hits all the notes and from a client’s point of view, it’s a beautiful piece of communication”, says Ryan on Burberry’s Christmas campaign, The Tale of Thomas Burberry. “I think it's a fantastic example of a brand really committing to its heritage, quality of product, craftsmanship, innovation, and Britishness. It is one of the hardest-working pieces of content I've seen in a long time.”

The three and a half-minute film showcases Burberry’s real-life inventions such as a weatherproof fabric gabardine in a stunning visual with leading actors. But while this is an example of a brand getting storytelling right, Ryan says the content-creation process is far from simple.

“When working on the Land Rover account, the audience loved pictures of Defenders. But the Defender is a model that is being phased out and the whole [point of the] marketing campaign was to demonstrate how elegant and sophisticated Land Rover is.”

The lesson, says Ryan, is that even though the audience loved the Defenders, it didn’t suit Land Rover’s purpose. “And (conversely) just because it suits the brands purpose, doesn't mean the audience is going to be interested in it.”

Ryan previously headed up social at Ogilvy & Mather and says the brands that approach social media with a ‘broadcast’ mentality are the ones that ruin their storytelling. “One of the greatest challenges is convincing them not to be a boring dinner party guest, but to actually listen to what other people are saying and contribute in a way that's interesting to them.”

So how can brands listen? Spredfast has an ‘Intelligence platform’ that analyses social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out what type of content is resonating and whether a particular story will work. The BBC, British Airways, EDF and British Olympic Association are some of Spredfast’s customers – and Ryan says the platform “gives a real sense of what consumers are interested in”.

Ryan describes the platform as resonating with brands because it works as a “social process” which is how storytelling should be – a conversation not a speech. Social media platform Snapchat is not just a fun app for sharing photos and videos. It has built communities based on users sharing tips and feedback with each other.

For Ryan, Snapchat has tapped into something really special by focusing on the “audience’s life as a narrative”.

“The fact that the images are easily disposable is the antithesis of what you put on Instagram, because the story is not the one image. It is a dialogue which stitches all of it into a narrative.

“It ties into well-established human ways of telling a story and I think it's fundamentally shifting how the next generation think about media. It taps into something quite fundamental to humans,” Ryan concludes.

Ryan will be speaking at The Drum’s webinar with Spredfast: Experiments in Storytelling on 16 January.

A panel of experts from LinkedIn, Ogilvy & Mather, and the British Olympic Association will share insights on their own experiences in storytelling and what makes audiences engage with certain content and stories over others.

This will be a fully interactive webinar, giving you the chance to put your questions to all our expert speakers. If you want to make sure your question gets answered, send it to justin.pearse@thedrum.com.

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