Marina Khidekel

More brands are using back-to-basics storytelling to drive results. Why you should too.

- 

If your company markets itself online, chances are you're finding it harder to stand out these days. The competition is fierce, and getting your message out at scale has gotten harder and more expensive. At Hugimals World, my two-and-a-half-year-old company that makes anxietyrelieving weighted plushies for adults and kids, we’ve seen our greatest success from content—both paid and organic—that highlights real reactions from people experiencing the hug-like feeling of our products for the first time. These moments resonate with our audience because they see authentic emotion in a profusion of bland ads—and feel connected to the people in the videos and our brand.

In this crowded landscape, it’s the brands that strike an emotional chord with their audiences that are best poised to win—not just the next sale, but long-term customer loyalty, says Emily Hickey, cofounder of Chief Detective, a marketing agency that has helped scale brands such as Rag & Bone, Toms, and Goop. I spoke with Hickey and a few other startups that are experimenting with storytelling to find out what is working for them.

Build an Emotional Connection

Performance marketing has traditionally been about pushing for conversions—immediate sales through ads that highlight product features and benefits. While this worked well for many brands in the past, Hickey says it’s no longer enough.

“The barrier to entry to create a new consumer product company is the lowest it's ever been,” she says. “Marketing has become so easy because of Meta, YouTube, and TikTok.” With this ease of entry, competition in every product sector has exploded. “One of the results of that is commoditization of product,” Hickey explains.

“How different is one wrinkle cream versus another? Consumers’ eyes glaze over when they see too many similar products, especially when ads aren’t differentiated enough.”