Brand Journalism: Evolve Your Delivery

Big companies around the world are pausing and taking a serious look at the way they reach their target audience. Sure, they have the budget to keep pumping millions of dollars into television, radio and print advertising, but smart, adaptive business leaders are starting to take note. The big guys are making a shift from traditional marketing to brand journalism for a reason. That reason is to boost their bottom line.

Brand Journalism is basically the concept of telling the story of your company by letting real people and real stories dominate your message, rather than some manufactured 30-second spot dreamt up by marketers. This is a good article on the topic. More companies are realizing organic and honest storytelling can do more for a brand than all the ad time in the world.

Watch the video below created by General Electric to promote their health care manufacturing unit. It’s two-minutes, 53-seconds of heartfelt, emotional and genuine video. Was it set up by GE ad execs? Sure. Is it more effective than a crappy commercial? Absolutely.

The Healthcare Marketer Blog says this: “GE recognizes that technology is relevant because of the impact it has on real people. Connecting its employees with survivors lets us know that there are caring, motivated people behind the technology. In the end, it is much easier to relate to them rather than some multinational corporation.

“With this video, and others like it, GE gives itself a human face.”

McDonald’s is also wising up to the game. Their new marketing campaign revolves around the stories of their suppliers. The fast food chain wanted to take the focus away from low-quality and unhealthy foods by placing emphasis on the real people who your money is (supposedly) supporting. The series of three videos makes an emotional connection to the families who supply the ingredients we’re buying at McDonald’s. And these videos do a great job at holding the viewer’s attention and delivering the latent message.

You can see the effectiveness of brand journalism. You can see the biggest companies are doing this. Now it’s time you utilize brand journalism to tell the story of your company and grow revenue. You don’t need a huge budget or a four-month production timeline. You just need a creative thinker and solid journalist who can help your brand thrive. Let’s talk