Whether you’re a longtime George Lucas fan or have fallen in love with Star Wars since the franchise’s recent revival, the final episode of the Skywalker Saga has probably flashed across your social media feeds more than once Make Your Brand .
Since Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise from LucasFilm in 2012 for $4 billion (to the dismay of many George Lucas fans), Star Wars has become popular with a wider audience, reaching a record-breaking $2 billion in revenue in 2015.
However, it’s not just Disney that’s to thank for this. Over the past 43 years, azerbaijan whatsapp number data 5 million the brand has released nine films, and the franchise itself, with an estimated value of $63 billion, has become the fifth-largest media franchise in history.
The truth is that Star Wars has remained legendary for many years. In this article, we will talk about how to increase the impact of your brand by using Star Wars as a Jedi.
1. The Meaning (and Power) of History
Star Wars teaches us the value of good storytelling. We’ve all heard the need to tell your brand’s story in a way that resonates with your target audience. This tactic is nothing new. However, Star Wars is one of the best examples of how a culture or brand can rewrite folk tales with new characters and visuals, and give familiar storylines a whole new spin.
Here are some of the main themes that Star Wars touches on:
- Confrontation between good and evil
- Struggle for power
- The need for love and friendship
- Cultivating Courage
- Trials and tribulations in a classic coming-of-age story
- 12 steps along the “character’s journey” (familiar world, thirst for adventure, refusal of challenge, meeting with mentor, hero leaves familiar world, trials/enemies, search for allies, ordeal, reward, journey home, restoration, transformation)
It’s reminiscent of the folk tales we grew up with. Now add to those storylines the dramatic music of John Williams, special effects, catchy “may the force be with you” lines, and the mystery of space exploration, and bingo, you have a brand that people instinctively gravitate towards.
How to Incorporate the Power of Star Wars Storytelling into Your Brand
You don’t have to be in the film business to adopt George Lucas’ strategy and incorporate storytelling into your brand’s digital strategy.
To get started, follow these steps:
1. Formulate your main message.
Focus on deep emotions and calls to action. For example, the main message of Episode IV is about fighting evil together, software engineer working on mobile app development uniting to achieve a common goal or greater good. And the main message of the Always “Like a girl” advertising campaign is the desire to instill confidence in its customers and to break away from gender limitations.
The advertising campaign plays on the expression “Like a girl”, the Always brand gives this phrase a new, positive meaning, because being a girl and doing like a girl in our time does not mean being weak and insecure. The brand actively supports the equality of men and womenmphasizing that a woman should be soft, but without inner strength it is difficult for her to achieve anything. The message does not always literally reflect the essence of the goods and services offered, it should be deeper and carry the philosophy of the company. And what message does your brand carry?
2. Combine classic storylines with relevant elements that represent your brand and reinforce the message.
These storylines can be found on your blog, website pages, video ads, or social media. An example of a cool storytelling digital campaign is the project of the telecommunications company Globe Philippines. Their Star Wars-themed video was released on November 24, 2019, and instantly went viral (it received over 9 million views on YouTube in just 10 days). In this powerful story, barbados businesses organization we see a couple of kids join forces and use their initiative and any DIY gadgets available to give their friend a unique surprise.
3. Tell your story in a way that makes your client the hero and wants to join the journey.
Think of yourself as a mentor (or Jedi) who leads your hero to a point of transformation. For inspiration, watch the Clif Bar brand video , which begins with a call to adventure. The “hero” can either refuse or accept the challenge. Answering the challenge transports the hero to a special world of extreme sports.
This point resonates with the main trend of 2020 — gamification, that is, the inclusion of game elements in advertising campaigns, mobile applications and websites. Netflix releases films and series in which the viewer can choose the plot twists themselves. And the audience becomes not just outside observers, but a part of this story. The hosts of “Heads and Tails” hide $ 100 in a certain place at the end of each program so that viewers do not just watch their travels, but form an entire community of adventure lovers and look for hidden money, thereby transferring the idea to the real world.
A loyalty program for any brand can look like a card or a booklet for stickers, or it can become a real game, as in the case of the Russian quest house – you go through locations, collect stickers, choose which branch to pump. People like to be part of something special, show that something special is your brand.
2. Unprecedented cultural impact and relevance
While masterful storytelling gave Star Wars its originality, its underlying cultural sensibilities gave the franchise a fresh feel.
As Obi-Wan Kenobi noted upon sensing the planet’s destruction from a great distance, “I felt a great disturbance in the Force… as if millions of voices had suddenly screamed in terror and gone abruptly silent.” George Lucas probably felt the same at that moment.
Lucas was deeply fascinated by history and political issues when developing the original scripts for the films. The film’s hero, Luke Skywalker, and his courageous journey give audiences hope at a time when it was most needed – in the post-1970s economic and social decline in the United States and abroad.
The latest trilogy, the Sequel Trilogy, released between 2015 and 2019, continues to use cultural relevance to grow the Star Wars fan base by incorporating contemporary issues into its storylines.
Unlike the original trilogy, which had no black characters and only one female lead, the new films celebrate racial and gender diversity and equality, bringing an important cultural message to the big screen.
Despite the fantastic setting and location, everyone can find their own hero in this film, and therefore themselves.
So what can we learn from this lesson?
How to Bring Cultural Relevance to Your Brand
For example: the general trend of the cultural shift of our time is conscious consumption and environmental protection. H&M and their system of collecting and recycling old things with a discount on the purchase of new ones attracts customers, giving them a feeling of doing a good deed and joint efforts to protect the environment. Biodegradable bags made of corn starch in Green hypermarkets are also in trend. But the fresh example of tartare in a duck’s beak from the Lebyazhy restaurant just demonstrates how a brand can make a mistake, acting contrary to progressive cultural trends.
The fight for equality of all kinds—gender, race, physicality—is also a hallmark of our times. Consider Nordstrom’s “An Open Mind Is the Best Look” campaign , which focuses on the ongoing cultural shift of our time, observing how we live in the world as a tightly knit collective with diverse life experiences and histories. “It’s the world we love—where everyone is welcome, where people and their styles intermingle, and openness breeds opportunity.
“An open mind is your best self,” – Nordstrom. The example of Nordstrom shows us how a premium retail brand can constantly remain competitive and relevant by attracting people who share their core values, reflected in advertising campaigns . In this advertising campaign, the brand emphasizes the cultural, racial, age diversity of its customers and calls for accepting and supporting each in their unique individuality. This message is much deeper than the usual advertising in a glossy magazine. At the same time, the brand expands its target audience, causing trust and loyalty of customers.
