Wednesday, December 16, 2009

What Mustard teaches us

Stories sell.  Let me explain.

First, watch this video:

Unimpressed? I was too. I overheard this playing from my girlfriend’s computer speakers this morning while I was ironing my shirt.  My initial reaction went something like this, “Wow, it’s a raspy-voiced cover of a mediocre Radiohead song” (granted, “mediocre Radiohead song” means it’s still a really good song).  Then she explained that the guy is actually a bum who went on a radio show for a bit they were doing on bums.  During the show, they discovered he plays the guitar, so they handed him a guitar and he blew everyone away.

All of the sudden, the video became incredibly more interesting.  It’s still the same video but now it’s interesting.  Why?  The guy has a good story.

I shared the video on Twitter and Facebook as soon as I got to work this morning.  Chances are you will too.  People love being the first to show their friends something interesting.  Sharing things with friends is really rewarding.  I show my friends new music all the time for the same reason.

It’s not hard to see how valuable storytelling can be from a marketing perspective.  A good story gives your customers a reason to tell their friends about you.

Note: Gary Vaynerchuk expands more on the importance of storytelling in marketing in his new book Crush It!.  I’ve read it and I highly recommend checking it out.

Notes

  1. shaunchapman posted this