An Organizing Idea is a key step in creating a holistic, immersive, non-linear Story .... The Story System app will soon
OUR STORYSCAPING APPROACH DARREN “DAZ” MCCOLL
Our approach envisions content and experience as parts of a holistic, enveloping system rather than as components of a deterministic, linear journey.
Launched in 2014’s bestselling book Storyscaping, our strategic approach has continued to fuel powerful thinking about brands and experiences at the intersection of story and technology. Our Storyscaping approach is a way of looking at the world that we have refined into a powerful model for working with brands, people, and technology. Storyscaping’s principles guide how we create worlds, and we have had the opportunity to create some great ones in a huge range of sectors this past year. Born from our unique expertise in technology and storytelling, we are excited by the results that it has helped us, and our clients, achieve.
The Storyscaping approach’s two key components are the “Organizing Idea” and “Story Systems.” Inspired by the Organizing Idea (described on the next page), this approach transforms a great storyline into an immersive Story System, where people enjoy connecting with and participating in brand stories. It teaches us to delve deeper to understand consumers and, with that knowledge, craft opportunities for them to invite brands, products, and services into their worlds – thus creating Shared Stories and building brand loyalty.
The Organizing Idea An Organizing Idea does just what its name implies. It organizes (see Figure 2). It’s a strategic idea that guides and organizes the interactions between consumers and brands that transpire across all channels, to build emotional connections and inspire behavior. The very premise of what content you create, curate, or associate ought to be considered relative to your Organizing Idea. A good Organizing Idea gives purpose and tangibility to how a story is communicated, expressed, delivered, and experienced. It is built from the insight and knowledge gathered during research about brands and their desired consumers. Without a connection to the Brand Purpose, the Organizing Idea is just an idea – and probably a random idea at that.
An Organizing Idea is the statement of action that defines what the brand must do to change consumer behavior. Marketing has long been dependent on the power of a great idea. And while great ideas are critical, it’s more important than ever to create systems in which ideas can live. The proliferation of channels, the power of microaudience targeting, and the necessity of supporting multiple stories by and about every brand makes having a system essential to executing strategies. By establishing Organizing Ideas – not just big ideas – and thinking about systems that live in experiences and stories, brands can drive effectiveness on all levels of consumer engagement.
FIGURE01
The core elements of the Storyscaping approach The Storyscaping approach transforms a great story into an immersive Story System. Using this approach, brands start with their strategic pillars to develop Shared Stories that live at the intersection of the brands' and consumers' values and experiences. To create worlds, the Storyscaping approach uses Organizing Ideas, combined with a deep knowledge of the Experience Space, to ultimately create the final Storyscape: a flexible, holistic, and enveloping system of experience that brands use to make their stories real for customers.
Story Systems The second powerful aspect of the Storyscaping approach is the Story Systems emphasis, which enables the development of complete platforms for marketing, or as we like to say, “worlds of experience.” Organizing Ideas create great experiences when they are realized as part of a dynamic, multidimensional Story System that stretches across many channels and touchpoints, with well-tuned variations and adjustments. The systems approach envisions content and experience as parts of a holistic, enveloping system rather than as components of a deterministic, linear journey. This is perhaps best expressed in the idea of an Experience Space (see Figure 3). The Experience Space is a three-dimensional representation of the physical and virtual places where brands and consumers meet. It helps define the role of channels, the storyline connections, and the types of experiences that matter. Planning potential connection points across an Experience Space is key. It’s how marketers map all the possibilities to then narrow down the options by identifying the most effective brand-consumer connections. This canvas also helps them develop the technologies and platforms that connect the many points of the consumer experience. By understanding the whole space of possibility, you can build interactions that, as the saying goes, end with a comma rather than a period (or “full stop”). A system’s aim is to allow every interaction and connection to inspire connections to other useful pieces of content or great experiences.
FIGURE02
The six main characteristics of an Organizing Idea An Organizing Idea is a key step in creating a holistic, immersive, non-linear Story System. The Organizing Idea guides and organizes interactions between consumers and brands across all channels.
Exemplary Organizing Ideas X-GAMES “Activate Awesome” LYCRA “Lycra Moves You” REGIONS BANK “Live and Grow With Confidence”
FIGURE03
The Experience Space The Experience Space is a three-dimensional representation of the physical and virtual places where brands and consumers meet. By defining the potential Experience Space, you can then develop the actual Story System – the chosen points of interaction that make sense for the brand and customer.
Some exemplary cases At Regions Bank in North America, the Agency Integration Team (a small, multi-agency strategy team) has adopted the Storyscaping approach for all work across agencies, with a very positive response from Regions and the client teams. Having defined Organizing Ideas, the activities of each specialized agency are connecting more efficiently and effectively. Using the Storyscaping approach and working across agencies, Regions Bank launched a consumer campaign called “The Next Step Project.” The Next Step Project is a platform for Regions to tell these stories through the narratives of actual customers. These go beyond just the banking relationship. They show the impact that the right financial guidance can have on important life decisions and the ability of customers to achieve their goals.
[The] Storyscaping [approach] really helped us take a step back in the process and look at things in a consumer-centric way. We naturally have more cohesion in everything that we’ve done using the Storyscaping process. - J. Adams Regions Bank Senior Advertising Manager
FIGURE04 The Next Step Project tells people's real stories, highlighting life and financial planning goals by using the Organizing Idea of “Live and Grow With Confidence.” The print, OOH, TV, radio, and other promotions all direct customers to branches and interactive channels that present an array of self-service and guided financial tools as part of the Experience Space.
Regions was guided by the organizing idea of “Live and Grow With Confidence,” and used that as one input into creating the platform that utilized long-form videos, TV, radio, print, OOH, digital, and social media.
Vice President, Head of Marketing at Regions Financial Corporation. “Regions is committed to the financial well-being of our customers and offering education, tools, tips and calculators that they may use in making their life better.”
“Regions challenged all of its agencies to create more meaningful content to engage prospects and customers across a variety of channels to share the message that Regions can make a difference in their lives by providing an array of financial solutions, including expertise, education, products and self-service tools to make banking easier,” stated Michele Elrod, Executive
The Storyscaping approach has been rolled out around the world and in many other industries beyond banking. In Australia, for example, it gave a CPG firm, Dairylea, a new way of looking at the packaged goods environment with the “Mummy Hacks” project.
FIGURE05
Consumer Insight: Understanding the daily needs of a 2- to 5-year-old child Using ethnography, the Storyscaping approach places a strong emphasis on understanding the customer journey and customer behaviors. In this example of a customer journey, you can see how digital ebbs and flows through a single day.
MORNING ROUTINE
+
BREAKFAST
LUNCH
PARENTS BACK FROM WORK
NAPTIME
Digital play helps the parents get ready in the morning
END OF DAY
DINNER Outdoor play time (weather permitting)
DIGITAL USAGE
BEDTIME
Occasional special movie-nights, but otherwise no digital
Digital only if used collaboratively
“We start the story halfway through, so it’s shorter”
-
PLAYING WITH FRIENDS & SIBLINGS
PRE-K / KINDERGARTEN
No digital permitted at school
One parent bonds with girl while the other prepares dinner
Books & stories at bedtime
ACTIVITIES THE ROLE OF DIGITAL
SUPPORT EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL PLAY
INTRODUCE NEW PLACES AND ADVENTURES
PARENT BONDING
CHILD
END OF DAY RELAXATION
Looking forward In partnership with our clients, we continue to drive innovation around the Storyscaping approach. Soon we will be introducing an add-on to our approach: a Story System app that assists with driving business goals, prioritization, and collaboration through 3-D interactive visualization (see Figure 6). This new tool enables systematic business goal-setting and scoring of Story System components. Each and every touchpoint can be identified and scored for relative priority or value against desired business goals. This provides multiple dimensions for the application of Storyscaping principles.
The tool also renders a 3-D visual representation of a Story System with ways to adjust the images to stimulate new conversations around the values of different touchpoints. It enables marketers to more clearly visualize the spaces of opportunity. As you will see throughout Insights, there are many ways in which we continue to evolve our thinking across a wide range of markets, businesses, and technologies. The Storyscaping approach continues to grow and evolve by incorporating new insights, helping our teams create wonderful results for our clients’ brands, and making a meaningful impact on the world.
FIGURE06 The Story System app will soon be introduced to assist with business goals, prioritization, and collaboration. Shown below is a Story System with performance metrics for a major travel and hospitality business.
Darren “Daz” McColl Chief Brand Strategy Officer, SapientNitro Miami
[email protected] Darren (Daz) McColl is co-author of Storyscaping and Chief Brand Strategy Officer at SapientNitro. Through insight and strategic guidance, Daz helps create worlds of immersive stories and experiences for client brands.
INSIGHTS WHERE TECHNOLOGY & STORY MEET The Insights publication features the marketing intelligence, trend forecasts, and innovative recommendations of boundary-breaking thought leaders. The SapientNitro Insights app brings that provocative collection – now in its digital form – to your on-the-go fingertips. Download the full report at sapientnitro.com/insights and, for additional interactive and related content, download the SapientNitro Insights app.
SapientNitro®, part of Publicis.Sapient, is a new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world. We’re changing the way our clients engage today’s connected consumers by uniquely creating integrated, immersive stories across brand communications, digital engagement, and omnichannel commerce. We call it our Storyscaping® approach, where art and imagination meet the power and scale of systems thinking. SapientNitro’s unique combination of creative, brand, and technology expertise results in one global team collaborating across disciplines, perspectives, and continents to create game-changing success for our Global 1000 clients, such as Chrysler, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Lufthansa, Target, and Vodafone, in thirty-one cities across The Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit www.sapientnitro.com. SapientNitro and Storyscaping are registered service marks of Sapient Corporation.
COPYRIGHT 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
