What Screenwriting Taught Me About Brand Messaging

There’s a reason the most powerful ads for global brands don’t even mention their product. Nike, Starbucks, Apple. Their commercials often feel like microfilms rather than traditional advertisements, leaving a searing emotional impression instead of a sales pitch.

This is the exact approach I take to content marketing. In narrative structure, there is always conflict that spurs a journey, leading to transformation. So my work starts with finding out whose journey can be aided with what I have to offer. Effective brand messaging leverages the catharsis of seeing a narrative come full circle, enabling audiences to identify with the story and the brand.

A Screenwriting Principle Brands Can Use: Character as Customer Identity

All of the work that goes into researching and building customer personas can ultimately be translated into visual storytelling by photo and video based marketing media. A carousel post on Instagram, a 30 second video ad. These are opportunities to show the three-dimensional characters that you have sculpted using actual data.

Today, marketers are shaping audience identity in the same way screenwriters shape character: by understanding motivation, conflict, desire, and transformation.

Brands Doing This Well

I see this as the natural evolution of the classic marketing principle: sell the benefit, not the feature.

REI is a standout in this regard. Their online presence is defined by staggering nature photography rather than boastful posts about waterproof boots, wind resistant tents, or how long their backpacks last. All of these things are implied when you see a trio of friends marveling at the granite cliffs of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. We see three people amazed by their smallness in the universe, not the strength of a GORE-TEX jacket. The silence of the mountains, and the sense of peace it brings, will always be more compelling than the latest in outdoor technology.

Interested in how storytelling can strengthen brand identity and audience engagement? Explore more of my work or connect with me to discuss content strategy, digital storytelling, and creative marketing.