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How Four Major Advertisers Use Data for Storytelling

September 27, 2017

Many brands want to be storytellers and use data to inform what content works and what doesn’t. C-level executives shared how they approach (three of the four):

Dustin Cohn, head of brand management & marketing communications, Marcus by Goldman Sachs – We use data-driven storytelling in our messaging, web design, advertising, product features and interactions with agents. For instance, our data shows that 77% of creditworthy Americans in credit card debt don’t know that a personal loan can be used to pay down their debt and our research shows people are frustrated by banks’ hidden fees. So we position Marcus as a service that lets people pay less interest with a lower fixed-rate loan, and highlight product features like no fees.

We often turn our data insights into content like infographics and social media posts to educate consumers on how they manage their debts. We share most content on Facebook and Twitter. Our basic KPI [of content marketing] is engagement that entails likes, shares and comments.

Doug Busk, former global group director of digital communications & social media, Coca-Cola – Engagement is a major metric for us. For instance, on Twitter, a standard retweet doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is engaging with your content, but if it is a quote tweet with comments, it is real engagement.

In terms of content engagement in the U.S., Facebook is still the king, followed by Google cards and Apple News, messaging apps like Line and WhatsApp and then voice assistants like Amazon Alexa.

Jeannie Chu, vp of social media, content and digital marketing, American Express – Data is important, but it doesn’t always help with good storytelling. Sometimes you need to use your judgment to think about the creative from a brand’s perspective.

For instance, we had lots of data showing that people reconsider their finances during big moments like having their first kid or buying their first house. But the character of first-time parent doesn’t make sense for Tina Fey because she already went through that stage. In the end, we decided to present ourselves through Tina, who in the ads sent congrats to people who embraced those firsts in their lives.

Yuyu Chen. How Equinox, Coca-Cola, American Express and Marcus use data for storytelling. Digiday.

To read the complete article click to visit Digiday.

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