Recruitment marketing practically invented “emotive branding.” Long before consumers were bonding with brands, we were serving up irresistible, emotional cues between candidates and prospective company cultures.
Now, with social media, the necessity to have people and brands engage in deeper, more lasting relationships keeps ratcheting up on a daily basis and shows little signs of abating.
I believe we have entered the next level of engagement: “Story as Brand.” Tom Peters, the man Fortune called “Ur-guru” of management (only to be challenged by the Economist who tagged him “Uber-guru”— let those guys fight it out), has taken a firm stand on brand storytelling, asserting that in the new paradigm, “the story is more powerful than the brand.” “Storytelling is in our genes,” says Peters, “we translate, without even knowing it, everything into a story…think story first, brand second.”
Let’s take a look at three brands that have captured powerful stories and successfully delivered them into the marketplace via highly emotional video:

L’Oreal: Athlete/model Aimee Mullins addresses our perceptions of beauty and what it means to be your own person in a world focused on appearance.



Sharpie: A young man finds his artistic soul and inspires us through coffee cups and a Sharpie Magic Marker.



Toyota: Engineers speak from the heart about pursuing their careers in a work environment that encourages them to open their minds, seek innovation and serve their communities.



I confess, we as an agency are duty bound to “tell your story.” The greater challenge is to tell that story more honestly, more vividly, more memorably than it has ever been told before. To quote Tom Peters: “(the) best story wins.”