13 Jan Ready, Set, Story: How Gaming Caught the Brand Buzz

At its most basic level, branding is all about telling a story. Your story, to be exact. While most businesses have caught on to this level of understanding, and have since been ringing the phone lines of branding agencies (both boutique and corporate), we’ve seen storytelling take off. Our commercials, our advertisements and our websites all work to create, edit and relay the messages we want to send about who we are, where we’ve been and where we are going. One such industry who has finally caught a grasp of this “storytelling” concept is a unique one—games. Not just any game, but video games!

You’re probably shaking your head in objection and thinking video games are to escape the stories surrounding us; it’s used to create our own story and blow off steam for a few minutes (or hours—if we’re being truthful)—right? Maybe a few years ago. Now, we’re way past the princess figure jumping up and down asking Mario for help. We have characters, stories, peril, truth and darkness, good and evil—all of the good elements of a story. And people are buying it faster than the games can be produced. So why stories? Why not just let people buy their game and twiddle with the buttons? Here are a few reasons. They speak to how games evolved into stories, and how your business can use this as a template to convince you that branding is essential for growth.

Stories:

1. Are Endearing—The commercials for Skyrim’s franchise aren’t a bunch of screenshots of cool moves. Nope, they are a short story to entice viewers.
2. Pull Us In—Those first few scenes prior to your turn at the controller get you amped up! You will defeat, conquer, save, inspire and survive!
3. Make Us Feel Connected—Games that can be played with strangers across the globe are rising in popularity. We’re communicative beings—we want to feel connected. Even if we’re in the living room on our couch eating Cheetos!
4. Encourage Us—Video games use audio, visuals and storylines to develop a plot that makes the player feel a bit in control. It gives us the sense that, were we to garner our best self, we could–not only beat—but be revamped ourselves by winning. Art, so often, imitates life.

So what’s to be said for your business after reading this article? You’re not a video game. But, you do have one hell of a story. If you’re willing to define it and most of all—if you’re willing to tell it. If you need help with any of that, give us a call at Visual Caffeine. We’ll take a break from Minecraft just for you.