By Brandon Whalen, Social Media Strategist, Room 214

We’ve all heard the talk about marketing and content. Content is the currency of the web. Marketing is content. Content is king. While we all agree that content is important, very few marketers take a deep look at their consumers’ needs before they start producing content. The result for the consumer is frustration and confusion, which can result in a costly loss of business.

Someone ready to make a purchase will be frustrated by wading through product information on their way to a shopping cart, while alternatively, someone browsing your tweets will be turned-off by constant salesmanship.

Your goal, as a marketer and content creator, is to create content that will get people talking about your company. The best way to do this is to truly relate to your customers, but therein lies the problem. From the point customers first learn about you, their content needs will change and shift as they move closer to making a purchase.

Therefore, content needs to change with the consumer as their mindset shifts from being someone who has just become aware of your company to someone who is considering a purchase.

Organizing all of that content can be very tricky, but a great way to get started with organizing your content marketing efforts is to look at the typical sales funnel process from the consumer’s perspective and ask yourself what kind of content you are producing during each phase of the customer journey.

To get started, take a look at the outline below. You will quickly see points where your content is lacking and hopefully get some new ideas to improve the content you are missing.

Awareness:

Consumers are just dipping their toes into the pool. They’ll be looking to inform themselves and learn more about the industry/products/subject.

● Consumer mindset: “I’m looking to be informed on a subject before I even consider buying anything.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Become a credible resource for consumers as they are in this learning stage.

● Types of Content: SEO, Social Media, Paid Advertising, Blog Posts.

● Great Example: GE’s Ecomagination

Consideration:

The consumer is starting to gain interest, and wants to know more about his/her options, become more educated on the subject, and alleviate their fears.

● Consumer mindset: “I’m trying to understand my options and be able to ask the right questions as I prepare to talk with more knowledgeable people.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Help your visitors be more informed of their options.

● Types of Content: Forums, eBooks/whitepapers, demos, calculators, tools, videos, infographics.

● Great Example: Ford Social Hub

Preference:

Consumers are more knowledgeable at this stage, and they can jump into conversation to ask questions about their potential purchase. At this point, they want to hear from people who have already experienced the product.

● Consumer mindset: “I’ve done my research and I’m narrowing down my options by reading reviews and talking to people who have experience with the product.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Provide content from users, influencers and other trustworthy sources which will put you at the top of the list during decision time.

● Types of Content: Product trials, reviews, recommendations, case studies, user generated content (message boards, review systems etc).

● Great Example: American Express Open Forum for small business

Purchase:

At the purchase point it is all about customer experience. The consumer wants this process to go smoothly and easily. Any hassle or impedance will be bad for business.

● Consumer mindset: “I’ve done the research and now I want to make my well informed decision, and I don’t want any hassles in the process.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Make the purchase process easy and enjoyable.

● Types of Content: UI/UX in the purchase process, promotions, sign-up tools, shopping carts, easy instructions.

● Great Example: Mint.com Community

Loyalty:

Often overlooked, but the most valuable stage of the customer experience. Starting from the moment someone makes a purchase, you want to encourage them to become advocates for your company. It’s easier to generate word of mouth from people who love your product than folks who barely know who you are.

● Consumer mindset: “I’ve made my purchase and I had a good experience. Now I want to tell people about the good experience and help others in their decision process.”

● Content Goal: Continue the good experience, create a community of existing users, and reward people for their loyalty.

● Types of Content: Private advocate communities (FB Groups, private login sites), community of current users (email newsletter, message boards), free goodies, rewards for being awesome.

● Great Example: The Food Family (Resteraunt.com Private Facebook Group)

By Ian Greenleigh, Manager of Content and Social Strategy, Bazaarvoice

A SXSWi Session Recap

Question: What is simultaneously definitive, iterative, different and consistent?

Answer: A pattern.

“Brands are no longer definitive. They are temporal. Brands are informed by multiple voices, and they exist in multiple mediums and through multiple contexts. The media that a brand inhabits is no longer fixed or linear, it is iterative, with no beginning, no end, and little permanency.”

So goes the first few lines of Brands as Patterns, by Marc Shillum, Principal at Method and central figure in my favorite SXSWi 2012 panel of the same name. The panel was certainly tweetable, but also cerebral; these two qualities don’t often commingle. Our world, Shillum and the other panelists argued, is increasingly dynamic. But the traditional notion of a brand is one of unwavering consistency, carefully-designed, gradual evolution or dramatic (but infrequent) re-brands. The question: What should a brand look like when everything around it is changing faster every day?

A pattern.

Greg Johnson, Global Creative Director at HP, called for more responsive brands. “Our experiences are liquid,” he argued. Eight-hundred page brand guidelines and putting creative handcuffs on agencies are artifacts of a less-dynamic era, when brands were rewarded by being static. But now, Johnson told the audience, “we have to be digital first.” Digital-first brands are designed to be distinctive, relevant and active. Brand equity comes from where we meet our customers—not what we say to them. And in the single most memorable quote of the session, Johnson turned the notion of the siloed digital brand on its head: “Digital isn’t a medium; it’s the age we’re in.”

“A story is a description of a series of events that conveys meaning,” said Microsoft’s Robin Lanahan. In other words, a pattern. That meaning—the why—is what many brands are missing today. The story they create from the elements of their brand is chaotic, and sometimes vacuous—it makes little sense, and conveys no larger meaning. Not so with patterns, which “connect unconnected things,” according to Shillum. One of the most powerful examples of this truth didn’t make it into the session, but appears in the Motive 10×10 that inspired the panel:

“Rseaerch icntidaes taht the oerdr of the ltteers in a wrod dnsoe’t relaly mettar. Waht relaly mtteras is the frist and lsat leettr in the wrod. If tehy are in the rhgit palce, you can raed the wdors.”

Branding and composing are similar, according to Walter Werzowa of Musikvergneugen. He should know, as the mind behind Intel’s famous mnemonic. Werzowa played a loop of the four-note motif from Beethoven’s Symphony Number 5, and explained to the audience that successful music, and successful brands, are “built through the right combination of what is expected and something new.”  In Symphony Number 5, there is repetition; you hear the motif 45 times in one minute. But there is also uniqueness; almost every instance carries with it a slight variation of rhythm and notes. In both brand and music, “we lose audiences with either the lack of the expected or lack or repetition.” And in both brand and music, “the reward is dopamine,” the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.

In this two-part series, PEMCO Insurance CMO Rod Brooks shares insights into how a regional insurance company sustains brand conversations with an unexpected strategy

Last week, I told you about important decisions all brands can make to engage with customers in meaningful ways.

Deciding to listen and deciding to be affected by what we heard were the first steps PEMCO Insurance, a regional mutual insurance company, took to shift the conversation from one that was centered on a product, to one that was centered on people.

The strategy behind that shift produced a multi-faceted advertising campaign that gave us the ability to connect with consumers on a local level.  Our message was simple: we’re different because we live, work, learn and play in the same communities as our customers, and understand their needs first-hand.

From there, we decided to act in ways that reflected our shared values and helped us develop true relationships with Northwest community members.

Decide to respond to what has affected you. In 2007, PEMCO rolled out the “We’re A Lot Like You. A Little Different.” campaign, and a series of unique Northwest Profiles, like the Sandals and Socks Guy, immediately resonated with local residents.  We weren’t talking about insurance, but we were connecting with a captive audience in new ways.

Continually developing the right Northwest Profiles that make people laugh and spark conversation challenges us to reflect on our local values and keep the campaign fresh with smart and funny content that mirrors the values the community tells us are important.

Decide to engage. A crucial component to PEMCO’s strategy is to prove our local edge through meaningful engagement with Northwest residents.

To show our local roots, we developed a year-round program of community event sponsorships, giving preference to events that reflect the values we share with our Northwest neighbors.  Teams of brand ambassadors represent PEMCO at fairs and festivals across the Northwest fostering meaningful engagement with word-of-mouth marketing tactics.

Most recently, a promotion with a local environmental trust challenged fans of the campaign to join the conversation online.  For every Facebook photo submitted in the spirit of PEMCO’s newest profile, the company pledged to plant a tree.

There are a boundless number of takeaways learned from building a successful campaign, but regardless of your industry and individual challenges, all brands have the ability to make four decisions that separate the ones that get it from those that may fall flat.

1. Decide to listen
2. Decide to be affected by what you hear
3. Decide to respond to what has affected you
4. Decide to engage

Having the courage to make unexpected decisions within each of these areas gave our regional, challenger-brand insurance company the power to shift the conversation and engage with customers in new and meaningful ways.

Imagine what a few simple decisions could do for you.

About PEMCO Insurance

PEMCO Insurance, established in 1949, is the Northwest’s largest locally based personal-lines insurer, providing auto, home, boat, life, and umbrella insurance to Northwest residents. The Seattle-based company sells personal-lines insurance through community agents throughout the region and through PEMCO offices. For more information, visit PEMCO.com.

Rod Brooks is vice president and chief marketing officer of PEMCO Insurance and is immediate past president of the WOMMA board of directors. Follow him on Twitter.

In this two-part series, PEMCO Insurance CMO Rod Brooks shares insights into how a regional insurance company sustains brand conversations with an unexpected strategy.

In the Northwest, everyone knows the guy who sports a pair of sandals with a pair of wool socks.  Around here, there are certain quirks that set the people of this corner of the country apart from other regions.

That’s the sentiment at the center of PEMCO Insurance’s award-winning “We’re A Lot Like You. A Little Different.” advertising campaign, which features more than 50 tongue-in-cheek descriptions of people frequently spotted around the Northwest, including the ever-popular Sandals and Socks Guy.

Just last week, PEMCO added five new Northwest Profiles to the mix, which were welcomed with fanfare from across the region.  And despite its nearly five-year run, the campaign continues to ring true for many of our friends and neighbors.  In fact, in December 2011, Seattle Magazine named it the “Best Local Ad Campaign We Never Tire Of.”

To get here, we developed a detailed branding strategy rooted in a series of decisions all brands can (and the smart ones do) make, which has helped pave the way for our campaign’s success.

Today, I’m going to tell you about two of those decisions.

Decide to listen. Long before any Northwest Profile came to life, we knew we needed to build a strong foundation of primary research to help inform our strategy.  We partnered with an independent researcher to conduct more than 100 in-home interviews to determine what resonates with Northwest residents. As we talked with our Northwest neighbors, we learned that local people like doing business with local companies.

Decide to be affected by what you hear. We developed a marketing strategy based on differentiating ourselves from national competitors on our ability to be hyper-local.  But it wasn’t enough just to say that we’re local, we needed to show our customers that we know them in ways that others don’t, proving our localness in credible ways.

For PEMCO, that meant using many of our engagement channels, including traditional advertising, to talk about the people who live here instead of insurance. That stance took a lot of courage: courage to take a smart risk, be bold and table the topic that’s central to our business operations.

These decisions are just half of the puzzle.  In my next post, I’ll share ways that smart brands can decide to act on what they hear to connect with their customers in meaningful ways.

About PEMCO Insurance

PEMCO Insurance, established in 1949, is the Northwest’s largest locally based personal-lines insurer, providing auto, home, boat, life, and umbrella insurance to Northwest residents. The Seattle-based company sells personal-lines insurance through community agents throughout the region and through PEMCO offices. For more information, visit www.pemco.com.

Rod Brooks is vice president and chief marketing officer of PEMCO Insurance and is immediate past president of the WOMMA board of directors. Follow him on Twitter.

By Allen Bonde, Co-Founder of Offerpop, and CMO of The Pulse Network

Originally posted on The Pulse Network

This is part one of a five part series between Tyler Pyburn, host at The Pulse Network, and Allen Bonde, Chief Marketing Officer at The Pulse Network, as they determine how storytelling drives social media marketing. Read parts 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Telling a good story is essential to reaching your target audience.

This is especially the case in social media marketing.  In fact, I’ve always thought that good marketing is good storytelling.  But in social media marketing, the trick is getting your customers to tell these stories for you!  We can break down the formula that makes this work on social channels into three parts: content, connections, and lastly participation (and influence of participants).

The goal for those of us in social media marketing is to package up the appropriate content and then translate it into the language of the specific channel.  For instance, on Twitter you need to keep your story very short, but can also use links and hashtags to make it easy to learn more and share your content.  The way you format your story to fit the language of each social media channel determines your audiences engagement and also how effectively you generate word of mouth and take your audience down a path where they’re expecting to hear the next story – and maybe even an offer or pitch!

I lay out some of these ideas in my conversation with Tyler, so check it out:

So, what do you think?  Which brands do the best job with storytelling?  Add your thoughts in the comments, and look for part two of this series, when we’ll explore how content can be used to build communities.

Allen Bonde is the CMO of The Pulse Network and can be found on Twitter or email, abonde@thepulsenetwork.com.

Tyler Pyburn is a host at The Pulse Network and can be reached on his twitter or e-mail, tpyburn@thepulsenetwork.com.

Monique Terrell

Tonya Garcia

We recently reached out to some thought leaders in the word of mouth and social media realm about topics that will be presented and discussed at School of WOM, May 9-11.

Today, two thought leaders answer our questions on storytelling, offline WOM, and brand culture. Monique Terrell is Director of Communications at Chicago AMA, Contributing Blogger at Talent Zoo Media, and Sr. Manager, Social Media at College of American Pathologists (CAP). Tonya Garcia is Editor of PRNewser.

“Storytelling” seems to be the latest buzz word in word-of-mouth and social media marketing today, do you see this as just a fad or a sustainable movement?

Monique: Storytelling is a sustainable movement and truly is the basis for successful word-of-mouth and social media marketing. It’s all about the story that creates a movement for people to relate and care about. It’s about the movement rather than the campaign that will generate positive brand influence and loyalty.

With such a heavy emphasis on online and digital tactics these days, what can marketers do to focus on their offline touch points?

Monique: Use offline touch points to share digital and online opportunities your customers can take to engage with your product and/or brand. Use offline touch points to make deeper connections with your audience, not just another letter sent to the customer but opportunities that bring the audience to the brand and allow them participate and interact.

Tonya: Offline events — from elaborate parties to a simple booth at a high-traffic location — can bring a personal touch to campaigns that focus heavily on digital and social media tactics. Nowadays, audiences learn about brands and campaigns online. Giving audiences an in-person experience adds the third dimension to a marketing initiative.

What are your thoughts on the future of word-of-mouth and social media marketing as it relates to brand culture within an organization?

Monique: Internal brand cultures are changing as organizations build increasing trust in their staff to serve as brand ambassadors externally. As we more forward with increasing use of WOM and social media it will be required that organizations embrace the “social culture” they will need to become if they are to be successful in their WOM and social media efforts.

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About the Authors

Tonya Garcia joined PRNewser in August 2010 as editor. Most recently, Tonya was a member of the media team at the PR firm MS&L. Prior to that, she spent three years as a reporter with PRWeek. She’s also written about other topics in outlets such as Fast Company and Essence.com. She has a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University.

Monique Terrell is Director of Communications at American Marketing Association, Chicago Chapter (Chicago AMA), Regular Contributing Blogger at Talent Zoo Media (Digital Pivot), and Sr. Manager, Social Media at College of American Pathologists (CAP). Check out her blog, Twitter feed, and Linkedin.

Scott Davila + cute baby

Damon Ragusa

We recently reached out to some thought leaders in the word of mouth and social media realm about topics that will be presented and discussed at School of WOM, May 9-11.

Today, two thought leaders answer our questions on storytelling, offline WOM, and brand culture. They are Scott Davila, VP & B2B Team Leader at CRT-Tanaka; and Damon Ragusa, President & CEO at ThinkVine Corporation.

“Storytelling” seems to be the latest buzz word in word-of-mouth and social media marketing today, do you see this as just a fad or a sustainable movement?

Scott: Brands are created by stories over time. So storytelling isn’t a fad, but a much needed focus and emphasis on using social media to build a brand. Whereas pre-Internet, storytelling was in the hands of marketers, social networks have changed the game by putting the role in the consumers hands. The key for brands is to empower them by delivering an exceptional experience that inspires them to share their stories (i.e. Zappos).

Damon: Storytelling is a critical part of the marketing analytics function.  One could argue that good marketing research and analytics is about combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to a story.  For that reason I believe it’s not a fad but maybe a little hype.  It’s the marketers way of saying “stop giving me a bunch of numbers and statistics and tell me what to do with it.”

With such a heavy emphasis on online and digital tactics these days, what can marketers do to focus on their offline touch points?

Scott: Marketers should focus more on improving the customer experience. In this recent survey, it’s clear that word of mouth via social media, product review sites, etc. where consumer share their experiences is what drives business results.

Damon: Marketers should do nothing different.  Online, digital, traditional media…these are all just labels.  Eventually everything will be just “media” again and we can get back to what we do.  The focus should be on understanding the collective impact of every spend…not just the last click or things that can be easily counted.  Not just focusing on the individual silos or what the media and blogosphere happens to be blabbering about this week.

What are your thoughts on the future of word-of-mouth and social media marketing as it relates to brand culture within an organization?

Scott: Word of mouth and social media marketing requires organizations to create a culture that puts the customer first. A customer-centric culture empowers an organization and its employees to deliver an exceptional product/service, which in turn will inspire consumers to share their positive experiences with others.

Damon: Obviously the explosion of social media platforms and the adoption of social media by people has opened it up as a significant vehicle for communicating a brand to a community.  It cannot be understated how significant the change has been in a short period.  But social media is a part of the overall WOM strategy.  So tactically I see brands that take a similar course around activating WOM campaigns as they do with social media platforms as the ones that have the best success factor.  That, and, continuing to focus an integrated brand message across all vehicles.

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About the Authors

Scott is Vice President and leader of the agency’s business-to-business (B2B) marketing team. He has more than 12 years of public relations and marketing experience in the fields of B2B marketing, strategic planning, brand development, sales communications, social marketing and media relations.

As President & CEO of ThinkVine, Damon Ragusa shapes the company’s strategy, product direction and is responsible for overall performance. An accomplished entrepreneur and marketing technologist, Damon has successfully transitioned ThinkVine from a custom solutions consultancy into a software-as-a-service enterprise in the marketing optimization space.

Mark Rose

We recently reached out to some thought leaders in the word of mouth and social media realm about topics that will be presented and discussed at School of WOM, May 9-11.

Today, Mark Rose, Editor of PR Blog News and Partner at Influence Consulting Group, answers our questions on storytelling, offline WOM, and brand culture.

“Storytelling” seems to be the latest buzz word in word-of-mouth and social media marketing today, do you see this as just a fad or a sustainable movement?

Since the days of the cave man, through the time of Homer, perpetuated by Gypsys throughout the world, the oral tradition of storytelling has endured. This is not a fad. Witness the recent escapades of the BronxZoosCobra, the Twitter reptile sensation that regaled us with a fictitious tourist jaunt through New York City. It was like we lived a children’s book fantasy unfolding 140 characters at a time. The anonymous author of that Twitter feed knew how to tell a story, and adapt the narrative to real-time events. After the real snake was found the story became about escaping again, naming the snake, inking the movie deal, etc.

Our brains are wired to think in stories, appreciate stories, respond emotionally to stories, anticipate where the story might go. We’re also wired to reject hype as we develop an increasingly sophisticated noise filtration system. Telling stories and keeping it authentic will never go out of vogue. It means that adhering to dramatic dictates – story arc, rising action, three dimensional characters persevering against impossible odds – are valuable attributes in developing the story thread in any social context.

With such a heavy emphasis on online and digital tactics these days, what can marketers do to focus on their offline touch points?

Pick up the phone, meet face to face, send a personal letter. All three, common a decade ago, are a rarity now. If someone calls me I talk, if they want to meet I’m willing, if they send a personal letter, I’m impressed. Keep it personal, one to one.

What are your thoughts on the future of word-of-mouth and social media marketing as it relates to brand culture within an organization?

Ranking and reviewing organizations, products and services online has become commonplace. No place is exempt. Sites that offer anonymous comments on “inside” information are also proliferating. There is no such thing as “off duty” anymore and increasingly external and internal communications are intersecting. This is the age of transparency, and social media is speeding the crumbling of walls that divide and determining brand culture in a company. It’s a real dilemma – corporate culture demands adherence to code and fealty to the organization. Social media demands individuality and open access. We’re still grinding our way through this new world.

Debra Parcheta, CEO, Blue Marble Enterprises, Inc.

We recently reached out to some thought leaders in the word of mouth and social media realm about topics that will be presented and discussed at School of WOM, May 9-11.

Today, Debra Parcheta, CEO of Blue Marbel Enterprises, answers our questions on storytelling, offline WOM, and brand culture.

“Storytelling” seems to be the latest buzz word in word-of-mouth and social media marketing today, do you see this as just a fad or a sustainable movement?

Debra: We have measured programs where storytelling created the compelling message for a campaign.

Often used to solidify a concept that calls consumers to action, storytelling can also give social media participants a basis for sharing. A compelling story results in the spread of information at a higher rate of word-of-mouth.

However, storytelling backfires when it’s not authentic or if it’s false. Consumers seem to expect real life, true stories, not fiction. (Only advertisers get away with creating fictional characters and plots - and the consumer seems to know the difference.)

With such a heavy emphasis on online and digital tactics these days, what can marketers do to focus on their offline touch points?

Debra: Many of the marketers that we work with are experimenting with shopper marketing tactics.

Shopper marketing, like word-of-mouth, is a very localized sort of effort, that touches individual consumers where they shop and while they are in the decision-making process.

The concept in the offline space is pretty much the same as in the online/digital arena; companies will spend more to reach a more-targeted audience.

While the audience is smaller, they are more likely to care about or need the brand involved and more likely to influence their own circle of friends when they become active with the brand.

Shopper marketing has some of the same drawbacks as social media has when it comes to measurement.

For example, few companies are able to calculate a concrete ROI for word-of-mouth activities that reach these very targeted consumers and even when they can show a higher ROI than other kinds of tactics, the tiny audience involved does not result in major shifts in sales or market share trends.

What are your thoughts on the future of word-of-mouth and social media marketing as it relates to brand culture within an organization?

Debra: In the future, brands who have been experimenting this year with social media branding now have some data to use toward developing a more sophisticated word-of-mouth or social media strategy.

Listening was really our first task in this space. The consumer was speaking. Did you hear what they were most focused on? Did you measure when the sharing of messages accelerated?

It may not have been when you hoped it would, but there were clues there about what the consumer was willing to pass along and the reasons that your brand was important enough to them to talk about it at all.

From these first years of measurement brands can create strategies that grow their share of voice and the loyalty of their consumers.

We expect to see more concise brand strategies in this space in the coming years because some learning is already happening.

The brand culture within an organization may see some shifts because of this. The voice of the consumer is most evident in new social media outlets and in some cases, is providing brand organizations with new insights that could not be seen before. When consumer engagement results in new perceptions about a brand or its uses, those concepts might also ripple back to more traditional tactics as well, making even more of a brand culture shift internally. We’ve seen another internal brand culture shift at some companies; younger managers with higher technology skills are being tasked with managing the social side of branding and traditional managers are becoming more reliant on them to gain responsible insights from this new, more personal level of relations with the public.

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Over the next week, we will also publish responses from:

• Scott Davila, VP & B2B Team Leader, CRT-Tanaka
• Damon Ragusa, President & CEO, ThinkVine Corporation
• Mark Rose, Editor of PR Blog News & Partner at Influence Consulting Group

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About Debra:
Debra Parcheta is the founder and president of Blue Marble Enterprises, Inc. (1994), a corporation that designs data collection processes and database systems for its customers. Blue Marble evaluates each customer’s unique data needs to design and implement decision support systems, data warehouses, and measurement systems. Debra has experience with numerous database management system languages and applications and environments. Recent awards include the 2003 and 2007 PRSA Silver Anvil Awards for a database that measures public relations success and Denver Small Business of the Year Finalist, 2003.

Originally posted on Brains on Fire’s blog.

By Geno Church

I’m lucky to be the grandson of a storyteller. My grandfather told me a ton of stories growing up; they were a combination of tall tales and family stories. Often the storytelling took place in usual environments - in his garden, or sitting on the hood of his car eating hot dogs on the edge of the Greenville Downtown Airport.

And so it goes… I seek out storytellers for our clients.

I’m captivated by how people use stories to connect, especially when un-prompted. As fate would have it Brains on Fire is now working with the granddaddy of storytelling… Colonial Williamsburg.

John Moore and I had the opportunity to sit down with veteran Colonial Williamsburg costumed interpreter James Ingram (this is what the characters in the living museum are called). James plays the role of Gowan Pamphlet, an 18th century slave that also was a Baptist minister to a congregation of over 500 slaves.

James shared a story with us about a blond headed ten-year old boy from Alabama that came to Colonial Williamsburg with his parents… but he wanted to go to Bush Gardens. That day James was playing a man named Peter who was asking the Colonial Williamsburg guests if he should run for freedom? The young boy got caught up in the story and followed Peter around all day. At the end of the day Peter was caught on the Governor’s Palace grounds and taken to jail. The young boy came up to Peter before he was carried away and asked if he would be here tomorrow? Surprised Peter answered yes, I have no other place to go.

The next day the young boy informed his parents he didn’t want to go to Busch Gardens he wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg. After visiting the colonial store he arrived at the jail in Colonial Williamsburg wearing a colonial outfit, holding a toy musket and a bag of candy and cookies. He asked the folks at the jail where is Peter? They asked him if they could help him, why did he want to see Peter. He replied I want to take him to freedom.

James sees it everyday… it’s the stories that hook ya. They made history come alive and connect the dots to a ten year old boy from Alabama. We all tell stories about our lives… and on that rare occasion we even tell a story about a product or an organization we’re a part of. These stories connect us to people, place, and product. Yet storytelling escapes so many brands, their stories become old to them, or worse yet they’re afraid their customers might not care. Too often conversation creation about a brand is the focus instead of enabling your employees and your fans to simply share their stories.