If you’re a busy CMO, chances are that lack of data isn’t one of your problems today. On the contrary, you probably have more data than you know what to do with. More importantly, you may feel challenged when it comes to using information in a way that effectively tells your story. While big data is a popular topic right now, it’s at least as important to know what to do with your data. Let’s look at some ways to leverage data for storytelling and some examples of companies that excel at this.
Select and Interpret Data to tell Your Story
Data itself is neutral. It’s only people that give it meaning. That’s why it’s never enough to simply cite statistics. You need to select the numbers that are relevant to your audience and interpret them and give them meaning. It’s also helpful to gather data from as many diverse sources as possible and to consider less traditional approaches to data such as qualitative co-creation, in which you work with your customers to find the best solutions. When talking about data, a good place to start is Google which possibly has more data than anyone else on the planet.
Google’s Year In Search
Google uses its data for many purposes, such as ranking websites, providing information to advertisers, and showing searchers the most relevant results. However, the search engine giant also tells its own stories to build its reputation. That’s why, at the end of each year, Google has released a short video on the theme The Year in Search. In The Year In Search 2018, the main theme is how people are searching for positive and uplifting content. The two-minute video showcased topics such as people helping each other, rescues, inspiring sporting events, and other positive themes.
Google’s compilation videos are an ideal example of how data can be put together to tell a certain type of story. Someone could just as easily have made a video showing that people are mostly interested in food, celebrities, cats, or just about anything else. However, the company understandably wanted to show the world how its massive search engine helps people look at the world in a more positive light. If you watch the video, you might also notice that Google is taking a certain amount of creative license in interpreting “good.” For example, it shows someone searching for “How to be a good singer,” which is not quite the same as doing good in the traditional sense.
Google is in control of its data and can choose to create its own unified themes. Google’s annual Year In Search videos help make sense of the world by distilling millions of events into an understandable theme. Most companies don’t have a fraction of Google’s data, of course. However, you can still look at these videos (there are several, going back a few years) as a good example of how data covering every conceivable topic can be put together to tell a particular type of story.
Use Data to Mine User-Generated Content
Customers are at the core of any business so it makes sense that they can often provide you with the best storytelling materials. Nothing is better than having customers tell and show you how they’re making use of your products. This is easier with certain types of brands, such as hospitality, lifestyle, and fitness for example. However, the principle applies across the board. Even though UGC comes from followers and customers, it isn’t random. You need to ask for the right kind of content so it will inspire people to share it and get more interested in your products. Collecting data helps you do this.
Airbnb: User-Generated Content From Travelers
Airbnb has mastered the art of featuring appealing content from its customers. With destinations ranging from city apartments to mountain cabins, Airbnb’s users, both property owners and renters, are able to showcase the excitement of travel and the opportunities for personal growth it can provide. Airbnb differentiates itself from hotels and other traditional accommodations by emphasizing the personal element. Thus, stories often focus on new friendships that emerge during stays. Airbnb encourages users to post their own photos as well as write reviews. Of course, Airbnb collects plenty of data from its users which it incorporates into its stories. A good example of this is a New Year’s Eve video Airbnb put together that used lots of information about users into a story about how people are changing their traveling habits.
Not long ago, Airbnb started listing Experiences as well as Stays, giving users an even broader range of stories to generate. Now, the site collects countless photos of city bike tours, wine tastings, hikes, cooking classes, and countless other experiences. Airbnb uses its data and market research to promote its features, including Experiences. For example, they released a poll that shows that 96% of travelers prefer an authentic, local experience.
It’s also worth noting that Airbnb is a platform and marketplace but doesn’t directly provide services such as Stays and Experiences. This means that the members who offer these services are entrepreneurs in their own right. Those who offer accommodations or Experiences can mine their own data to tell compelling stories when they promote their listings. There are now many serious investors who do market research to find the most profitable properties for Airbnb rentals.
Tap Into Your Audience’s Culture
The best brands learn as much as they can about their customers’ habits, preferences, and cultural norms. This enables them to promote products that blend in naturally with people’s lifestyles. The fashion brand Burberry illustrates this nicely with its campaign in China.
Burberry’s WeChat Campaign
The UK-based fashion brand made inroads into the Chinese market by creating “mini-programs” on China’s largest social media site, WeChat. Mini Programs are interactive games and quizzes that have gotten very popular on WeChat. Burberry used the Chinese holiday QiXi, also known as the Chinese Valentine’s Day, to create a successful campaign that encouraged customers to buy romantic gifts. The games are cleverly tied in with Burberry products as users ask each other questions about relationships and are eventually led to product pages.
Burberry even created short films to support the campaign. They also chose items such as red bags and pin clutches made exclusively for China, that were of color and style appropriate for the holiday. Burberry went far beyond the usual practice of promoting holiday gifts. They studied their market, engaged users with interactive games and told compelling stories. In this manner, shopping seems like a natural part of the whole process.
Tell Stories That Are a Perfect Match For Your Audience
Companies that create and stream digital content are in a powerful position when it comes to data. In some cases, they have millions of viewers or listeners of varying tastes and preferences. The most astute businesses know exactly how to interpret data in order to deliver the most targeted products to their audiences. Let’s look at two companies that are especially skilled in this area.
Netflix: Using Data to Personalize Customer Experience
Netflix is a company whose entire existence is built on stories. In this case, we’re talking about literal stories in the form of TV programs, movies, and other streaming content. Netflix is also one of the most data-driven businesses in the world, collecting and analyzing everything about its customers. This is how they plan new programming as well as recommend shows and films to their existing customers. As an insightful article in Forbes points out, Netflix analyzes data in intricate and creative ways, aggregating all kinds of information about viewers’ preferences in order to plan future content.
Even if you aren’t creating stories for the media and don’t have the luxury of watching your customers’ viewing habits on a daily basis, you can still take several lessons from Netflix’s approach. As an article in Wired points out, Netflix believes in visualizing data. Aside from all its research on shows themselves, the company obsessively studies how customers react to colors, designs, and styles for thumbnails, ads, and program covers.
Netflix is masterful at personalizing its service. It recommends both specific programs and categories to customers based on past viewing behavior. You might even see a different thumbnail of the same program than your children, spouse, or neighbor. Director of Global Communications Joris Evers says, “There are 33 million different versions of Netflix.”
Spotify: Showing How Music Affects People’s Lives
Music has long played a central role in human cultures throughout the world. Until fairly recently, however, your musical tastes were largely determined by your location and culture. Now, everyone can draw upon a vast musical library that spans time and distance. Spotify is one of the top companies that curate music for people of all tastes. They’ve also learned to turn their data into compelling stories that make their listeners want to further expand their musical horizons. Spotify, like Netflix, knows how to make the most of personalization. They publish a personalized Discover Weekly playlist every Monday morning.
Spotify publishes data-based insights in For the Record (and, formerly, on its Insights blog), where you can read on the latest musical trends around the world. The digital music service doesn’t just the world what’s going on musically -it also provides personalized stories to its subscribers. At the end of 2018, for example, they sent everyone a customized version of 2018 Wrapped, reminding them of their own choices throughout the year along with recommendations. Spotify has succeeded at using its data in a way that helps users find the music that’s perfect for their lives.
Using Data in Storytelling: Major Takeaways
Businesses must get ever more creative about using their data to tell stories that are relevant to their customers. We’ve looked at some companies that are doing this in an exceptional way. Here are some of the key points that can be applied to any business.
- Curate data so that it tells a story relevant to your brand. Just as Google puts together various data to provide a certain view of the world, you can do this with your own data. Google, in fact, provides guidelines on how to tell stories using data found in Google Trends.
- Use data to personalize your message. Even if you lack the amount of data collected by Netflix or Spotify, you can follow their lead when it comes to personalization. You can segment your email list based on demographics and buying history, for example.
- Encourage customers to provide UGC. Just as Airbnb makes the most out of travelers’ photos and stories, every brand can request user-generated content. You can hold social media contests where you reward the top entries. While UGC lets customers and followers tell their own stories, you should use data to set the ground rules. For example, choose the platforms where your audience is most active. Request content that matches your customers’ lifestyle preferences.
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