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Showing posts with the label Brand Storytelling

Your ‘brand story’ doesn’t matter if no one else can tell it back to you

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Every brand loves its own story. Stirring vision statements. Emotional launch videos. Slides polished to perfection. But here’s the brutal truth: if no one outside your leadership team can repeat that story in their own words, it’s worthless. Case in point: We once worked with a fast-growing tech firm. Their “brand story” filled forty slides and a glossy manifesto. The problem? When we asked ten employees, “What does your company actually do?” we got ten different answers. Some talked features. Others talked values. A few mumbled jargon so dense even the CEO wouldn’t understand it. If your own people can’t tell your story back to you, what chance does the market have? We stripped that bloated manifesto back to one line: a simple, human explanation of the problem they solved and why it mattered. Suddenly: Employees were saying it consistently. Investors started quoting it back to leadership. Customers shared it with peers -- unprompted. That’s when the story stoppe...

Why Brands Keep Looking Back to Move Forward: The Power of Nostalgia Marketing

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McDonald’s Malaysia just gave us all a throwback with its #YangKlasik campaign. VHS static , that grainy colour grading, and a Titiwangsa skatepark that looked like every after-school hangout spot in the 90s. For a second, you could almost hear your mum shouting, “Come home NOW!” while you were still nursing a 30 sen Paddle Pop ice-cream . It hit because it wasn’t just an ad. It was our ad - tied to memories only Malaysians would get. And it’s a perfect case study of throwback marketing in Malaysia , proving that sometimes, burgers aren’t what you’re selling... it’s belonging . Nostalgia Travels Well, But Speaks Different Languages Here’s the thing: nostalgia isn’t just a KL or Malaysia thing. It’s a worldwide play. But the way it lands? That depends entirely on culture . Around the world, brands are turning to nostalgic advertising campaigns to connect with customers: In the UK , brands go straight for personal nostalgia e.g., Saturday morning cartoons, 90s crisps, old j...