If your corporate message entertains, it will sell.

This week’s digital storytelling class asked for us to case study a transmedia (more than one form of media) story told from the point of view of the brand rather than the consumer. I thought this to be a great topic for the Millennial Boomer blog simply because it’s a bit counter intuitive. Then again, Business 2.0 and marketing today is altogether counter intuitive. Let’s see if some readers can carve out some unique angles for their corporate image. Remember, there’s no wrong or right. Rules of new media marketing are invented daily. So here we go.

If I’ve said it once, I’ll probably say it ten million more times, if you’re not telling your corporate story in an entertaining manner, people will not want to share with others. Viral is key folks. As absolute as that sounds, there’s a plethora of roads you can take when it comes to creating entertainment value.

I love the Flo character from the Progressive commercials. The creative team did an amazing job of selling the Progressive Insurance 

benefits through a quirky high pitched retro agent named Flo. She’s extremely entertaining and every commercial shares a different perspective from her day; sort of ‘a day in the life of Flo’. The creative team also made the message viral as well by posting interactive voting opportunities on YouTube.com
http://www.youtube.com/progressive?feature=pyv

Here, the viewer is invited to help Flo hire some help for her busy office. Progressive’s packaged her unique appearance, voice and their product into a series of entertaining clips. They’ve covered their transmedia objectives by having web based viral opportunities to interact with Flo. I think the series is genius and tells the story that Progressive has to sell quite well.

So provoking some thought here, what would you like your customers to whisper in the ears of their friends and family about you? Think of ways you can make a game out of it or ridiculous video. The more ridiculous the better…that’s what people love to share. Think about Flo with her giant hair and tripped out name badge representing a massive insurance company. You have geckos and ducks representing other insurance companies…why? Because it’s ridiculous, funny, whatever. Point is that it breaks up the consumer’s thought pattern, makes them laugh and that’s what keeps your brand top of the mind.