While potential customers may eventually want to know about the ins and outs of a new product or service, focusing too much on specific features is not necessarily the best storytelling practice when it comes to introducing people to it. To reach a wider audience about a new offering, tying eye-catching visuals into a narrative that resonates with your target audience is the best way to generate a buzz around your brand’s launch.
Here, the experts of Forbes Agency Council explore ways to create a story with visual elements that will build an emotional connection with potential customers and get them excited about your new product or service by showing what the offering is all about and why it was brought to the market.
Forbes Agency Council members share innovative ways to introduce a new offering through visual storytelling.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Equip Your Front Line People To Record Comments Or Questions
Equip your front line people to record a positive comment or reasonable question about the new product on their cell phones. This is akin to the old man-on-the-street TV interview married with the authenticity and engagement of your own people. Caution: Some training about what to focus on is important. Double caution: It has to be truly voluntary. – Merrie Spaeth, Spaeth Communications
2. Let Your Audience Tell The Story And Use Immersive Content
In today’s world, storytelling can be done better by the audience. Brands can find creative ways to let their target market tell the story of a new product or service in a way that is truly authentic. Brands should be using immersive content and utilizing artificial intelligence to help tell stories and provide experiences. – Thomas Morganelli, Centipede Digital
3. Target Users On Various Platforms With A Short, Sweet Video Story
Audience-specific stories are best. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Stories are popular with Millennials. You can target business owners through LinkedIn, journalists via Twitter and grandparents via Facebook. Then make a video story as you would a commercial. Keep it short and sweet. This will allow you to gain social capital and generate leads from your website. – Qamar Zaman, KISSPR.COM
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4. Create Hype Via TikTok By Showing How The Product Was Brought To Life
TikTok is great for introducing a new product line or service because you can visually show and explain how and why this new product or service came about. Start by first showing why this new product idea was implemented. Then, show how the brand was able to produce the new product or make the vision of the product come to life. Finally, utilize urgency and hype to create pre-launch excitement. – Melissa Litchfield, Litchfield Media
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5. Create A Video With Personality And Humor That Shows How The Product Works
Create a simple video of someone in your company introducing the product or service by interacting with it and talking about the best features. It shouldn’t be too polished or produced. Instead, it should show personality and even humor, if applicable. Talk about the product, show how it works and weave personality into the video to engage and inform viewers in a unique way. – Megan Devine, d.trio marketing group
6. Use Interactive Video To Let Viewers Explore New Offerings And Track Their Activity
Video is already a compelling form of visual storytelling—but the added power of interactivity can entice more customers. Interactive video is still an untapped medium, making it unique and appealing. Better yet, it allows viewers to explore new products/services in depth and tracks decisions with built-in analytics, giving brands a deeper look at the viewer’s interactions. – Matthew Lopes, The DVI Group
7. Make An Investment In Your Homepage Video
Use a subject matter expert to explain your company’s message in third-person format, animated visuals created with Adobe After Effects software. Introduce it with a lead-in such as, “Meet Bob. Bob is a store manager with a big challenge …. ” Data shows that this strategy commonly converts bigger, faster and better than talking in the first person about your brand. – Christopher Carr, Farotech
8. Use Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Videos To Evoke Emotion
VR and AR videos can be extraordinarily powerful when introducing a new product by telling a story that tugs on the heartstrings or that offers eye candy. This tactic is especially useful for events, travel destinations, luxury real estate offerings and visually stunning restaurant and retail locations. While the upfront cost isn’t negligible, the payoff can far surpass the initial investment. – April Margulies, Trust Relations
9. Focus On The Feeling Consumers Get From The New Product Or Service
When introducing a new product or service, it’s important for your story to focus on the feeling that the consumer gets from it, rather than the product/service itself. Consumers are attracted to products/services that they feel emotionally connected to, and new products/services need to capitalize on that connection. Connecting with hearts as well as minds will yield lasting brand advocates. – Katie Schibler Conn, KSA Marketing
10. Produce A Video That Shows Your Product Touring Beautiful Places Nearby
There’s a reason lifestyle images have been a part of magazines for so long. Take advantage of the complete video production capability that lives on your phone and take your product on a tour of beautiful places near you. Pairing great photography with relevant hashtags and messaging on Instagram makes it easy for people to imagine themselves as the delighted new owner of whatever you’re selling. – Samantha Reynolds, ECHO Storytelling Agency
11. Stimulate Viewers’ Interest By Creating An Interactive Graphic
Interactive graphics are a stimulating way to showcase features or components of a solution. The viewer can mouse over each element and read a brief description, and then perhaps click a link to access more details. – Wendy Covey, TREW Marketing
12. Marry Interactivity And Experiential Design In Your Visual Storytelling
Modern Web technologies are enabling brands to merge visual storytelling with interactive elements to create innovative and engaging product launches. From video-based build-your-own-adventures to exploratory VR experiences, there’s no end to the creative uplift that marrying interactivity and experiential visual design can offer. – Chris Martin, FlexMR
13. Stand Out From The Rest With Animated Video
Not everyone does animated videos, so it stands out more. One of the best examples I can think of is when UPS did commercials with someone animating their delivery processes in real time by hand on a whiteboard. Video is obviously king, but doing something different with animation will help you stand out even more. – Spencer Hadelman, Advantage Marketing
14. Create A Live Visual Activation To Promote Audience Participation
When most brands think of visual storytelling, they think of videos first. But there are other innovative ways to employ it. An example would be to create a visual activation, which involves an audience’s participation. This is not too dissimilar from street performers engaging with people walking by, or when the Grand Canyon was painted in 3D on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, courtesy of the Arizona Tourism Board. – Roger Hurni, Off Madison Ave
15. Have The Founder Step Forward And Become The Visual
In a day and age where people don’t always have the funds, nor care to be “sold to,” it is always nice to see the founder(s) step forward and be the visual. The founder can create a video to let consumers hear why people behind the company are doing what they are doing. While a customer may not care for a product, if they feel connected to the person behind the brand, they may buy just to give their support. – Zack Teperman, ZTPR
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
