Storytelling for Brands Short Course
Course description
Course overview
Storytelling is an age-old, powerful way to capture and immerse an audience's attention, trigger emotions, and communicate meaning. In these days of ever-decreasing, short attention spans, brands more than ever need to harness the power of storytelling to capture their audiences' attention and engage their audience.
For brands, the benefits of impactful brand storytelling are numerous: fostering stronger emotional connection, more engaging communication, increased brand awareness, better customer retention, enhanced brand value perception, internal brand management alignment, and brand longevity.
This 6-week evening course aims to provide students with theoretical as well as practical knowledge about the role storytelling plays in successful strategic branding and brand communication. The course considers theories behind successful brand storytelling and introduces students to practical storytelling techniques.
For professionals working with brands, this learning should enhance the efficacy and impact of brand/marketing communication, for short-form as well as long-form content creation, promotion, marketing campaigns, advertising, social media, etc. The course would also be beneficial for students in creative or marketing/business courses.
During the course, students are given a personal project brief which they will present in the last session. Students will be expected to work outside of class (approx. 1 hour per week) to get the most out of the course.
Who this course is for
This course is aimed at professionals working with brands, either in the creative industries, or on the client/business side: creatives, designers, marketing professionals, brand managers, art directors, copywriters, strategists, entrepreneurs and start-ups interested in creating more connective and impactful brand communication.
It is also an excellent fit for students wanting to deepen their knowledge about branding and brand communication, as well as individuals who are new to the creative sector or who aspire to work in it and want to learn more about it. No previous experience is necessary.
Key information
Topics covered
- Basic aspects and principles of brand storytelling
- Brand positioning script: aligning stories to target audience characteristics, brand purpose, brand core values and vision
- Brand archetypes
- Different types of brand stories: origin stories, conflict/challenge stories, 'brand story' vs 'brand narrative', digital storytelling, social media storytelling, UGC and influencer storytelling
- Challenger brands
- Archetypal story plots
Learning outcomes
- Have an informed overview of the role of brand storytelling in forging successful branding and brand communications
- Understand the importance and business advantage of creating strategic, on-brand storytelling to engage their target audience
- Have the necessary knowledge to leverage all the many benefits of impactful brand storytelling in brand communication projects
- Feel more confident in initiating ideas for on-brand storytelling and brand communication to create a competitive edge and more connective communication
- Be able to utilise brand storytelling theory and practical brand storytelling techniques from the course in branding and brand communication projects
- Digital badge and certificate of attendance.
Materials
- Notebook and pen and/or a laptop
- If you use a laptop, you may use any writing software, e.g., MS Word, Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Docs, or any content-writing software (e.g., Wordtune)
Tutor
Marc Wood
After graduating in 1988 from Central Saint Martins, Marc Wood worked at the UK's top agencies and consultancies including: Gary Rowlands Associates, Lewis Moberly, Michael Peters Group, Coley Porter Bell, Peter Saville Associates, Pentagram, Conran Design, Luxon-Carra and Contra, where he was creative director of a 110 people-strong global integrated creative agency.
Since 2004, Marc Wood has been running a small boutique brand consultancy specialising in brand identity creation , implementation and brand management. In the course of his career, Marc Wood has designed and managed branding and design projects for a large variety of international clients, in various fields of industry-from commercial brands to cultural bodies and corporate institutions-including, to name just a few: Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Bosch-Siemens, Aer Lingus, EMI Classical, Marks & Spencers, Philips, Sega, Alessi, Bowers & Wilkins, Thermos, Smithkline-Beecham, Cummins, Wärtsilä, M-Real, Kone, Coopers & Lybrand, Pilcher Hershman, Strutt & Parker, Factory communications, (French) Ministère de la Culture, Storm Model Agency, Wagamama, Warner Chappell, Warner Music, Yohji Yamamoto, London Fashion Week, Jil Sander, SCP, London Designer Show, Native Design.
Marc Wood's approach centres around the creation of unique brand languages, original brand realms which convey the essence, express the personality and communicate the values and vision of the clients' brands, be they products or institutions. Marc Wood's practice strives to discover new ways to communicate identity, applying branding concepts on an array of media and touch-points to engage audiences, and exploring the new interactive possibilities of new technology to keep the conversation going.
Marc Wood has also been a senior Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martin's, University of the Arts London, since 1995. In his teaching, Marc's focus lies in re-appraising and questioning the nature and experience of visual identity and branding, and in pushing the boundaries of branding beyond its current remits of practice.
Book a course
Loading