Matt Stokes.
Head of Creative
Here at Arke, as a creative digital marketing agency, we work with clients across a variety of industries – so we end up creating a lot of projects and campaigns with very specific objectives that require unique, effective and bespoke storytelling.
Our clients’ ads are all about getting potential customers to convert – to carry out an action – whether that’s hitting a button, making a purchase, recognising your brand or visiting somewhere in the physical world.
In this article, our Head of Creative, walks us through the way we think at Arke whenever any of our clients need us to bring to life a marketing campaign.
How do we approach each creative project at Arke?
From a discovery and ideation workshop to transforming initial thoughts into visual assets to then develop a story into the final product; there’s never a linear path and each project has its own requirements and complexities.
It all starts with research: understanding your product, your audience, your competitors, your value proposition.
From here, campaigns can take lots of different forms at Arke – IRL or online, for example – and they always have to communicate to our intended audiences. As an integrated agency, our teams work together right from the start to consider any implications for paid advertising, SEO, OOH, etc.
For them to work, we need to strike a balance between an emotional connection and the factual data they need to complete an action. This changes all the time depending on the client and the product or service they’re offering. That’s why the way we work at Arke is always tailored to each of our clients’ unique requirements.
We’re looking at the use of effective narrative and storytelling in marketing.
So when we think about coming up with new campaigns, we need to do more than just having a logo and a headline.
Let’s visualise this first with an example of what this means in practice and then a real-life award winning creative work we did for the British Film Institute.
Below we have a scamp with the most basic aspects we know: product & desired intent. We put together these really rough doodles as a starting point, as they’re really useful for getting an idea across quickly.
Then we have to dabble in telling a story – creating a situation.
What do we mean by storytelling?
Essentially – a narrative playing a role in your marketing. Suggestions. Instead of being factual with your ads, we tell a story to show what your offering or product does, or COULD do for your intended customer.
So here’s one iteration of what an ad could be…. This is the bog standard – excuse the pun. This is the Ronseal of ads. The lowest common denominator.
Next: here’s how we could take that storytelling element and apply it to this ad so it goes beyond its features and helps build trust. This headline helps to put the product or service in context, and helps a casual viewer that has come across your ad picture themselves using it.
Who actually enjoys cleaning the toilet? Let’s reference this!
What are some of the features of this product? Is it fast? Is that relevant? Throw it in!
Where can you get it? Is it only available at certain stores? Make it easy for people to find it!
Increase that stickiness factor – as mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point – classic early 2000s popular pseudo science drop there…
And here’s a third option – turned up to 11, telling a story about being a hero cleaning the toilet – framing it as an epic endeavour.
These are just rough ideas – starting points, and they’re a great way to test and pitch how you’re going to advertise something.
When it comes to your next campaign – will you dial up or dial down your storytelling? Scamps help us ideate quickly to start shaping that narrative.
So there’s a scale to storytelling in marketing, ranging from the bare minimum, to secondly giving context, and highlighting features – suggesting some personality. To thirdly: making a whole blockbuster film.
An arguably brilliant example of storytelling in marketing that many of us in the UK can relate to is when the season for John Lewis Christmas ads arrive. I’m sure you’ve all seen ads that you think are over the top! But we can relate to some. And it puts those services and products front of mind!
By ideating quickly, we help you identify just how much storytelling you want to dabble in before committing to artwork or photoshoots! And these rough scamps can be used as prompts when testing with potential audiences – for us, getting something visual in front of people can really help speed up the creative process.
How does this translate into a real-life creative strategy?
Glad you ask! Let’s have a look at an award-winning example of what an integrated marketing campaign looks like when you combine storytelling, branding and a full-funnel digital strategy.
When the British Film Institute approached Arke to help their BFI Player broaden its audience and stand out among streaming giants, our Head of Strategy and myself led a creative workshop to identify the opportunities available to evolve creative assets, whilst aligned with the eventual evolution of the BFI Player brand.
Among all the learnings, this enabled us to create eye-catching graphics with a clear CTA.
As part of the creative process, we quickly identified how replacing some of BFI’s creatives would also future-proof the BFI by providing them with innovative tools and templates for sustainable, in-house asset production.
Clear branding and consistent creatives enhanced brand recognition, whilst linkable and clickable CTAs allowed for trackable and reportable results for a hyper-targeted campaign looking to expand their audience.
When considering the storytelling narrative, we decided on framing BFI Player as a curator of select film titles, rather than a serve-all streamer as a key differentiating factor against competitors.
The partnership between Arke and BFI has resulted in multi award-winning campaigns, with our results obtaining the Most Effective Campaign at the European Agency Awards, and Best Integrated Campaign for two years in a row at the UK Agency Awards.
Have a read at the case study and learn how we achieved +700% YoY growth on trialists during their peak season.
Why should you work with a creative digital marketing agency?
At Arke we don’t have copy/paste strategies, each of our clients has unique needs and each industry has its own complexities and requirements.
From our Brighton HQ, our teams work closely together so there’s no cannibalisation between paid campaigns, SEO, creative flair and UX.
Contact us below for a no-compromise chat about the current state of your marketing needs and let’s build something great together.
