We asked fifteen CEOs and marketing professionals how they leverage the power of storytelling in advertising to connect with their target audiences. From making products about the customer to sharing the brand’s origin story, discover how these leaders are using storytelling to drive deeper connections and engagement.
- Make It About The Customer
- Act on Storytelling Early
- Emphasize the Real-Life Applications
- Shift Focus From Features To Benefits
- Show, Don’t Tell
- Make Products Relatable
- Spotlight “Day-in-the-Life” Narratives
- Bridge The Gap Between Cultures
- Tap Into Emotions
- Use the “Journey of Change”
- Harness Influencer Storytelling
- Champion Your Unique Story
- Focus on The Human Side
- Link Innovation With Needs and Desires
- Share the Brand’s Origin
Make It About The Customer
As someone who’s coached over a thousand entrepreneurs, one common mistake I see is when people share their story without explaining why their target audience should care. Here’s the key: To use storytelling effectively, you have to make it about your customer and not about you.
So, for example, in my business, I work with people who are disillusioned by their 9-5 and want more freedom and income to live on their terms. That’s why I talk about how I grew up thinking that climbing the corporate ladder was the ticket to success—and how I changed my mind to create success through entrepreneurship.
My story resonates with my audience because they’re where I used to be, and they want to end up where I am now. So, bottom line: Make sure your storytelling is relevant to your audience.
Luisa Zhou
Founder, LuisaZhou.com
Act on Storytelling Early
Storytelling is crucial for building an emotional connection with customers, but delaying its execution can hurt results. For example, we worked with a client selling unique magnetic shelves. We suggested producing simple unboxing videos or home-décor showcases to highlight the product’s clever use. Despite spending years asking for these assets, the client didn’t act until after a change in ownership. The new owner finally implemented the videos, which quickly boosted engagement.
This taught us that timely action is key—overanalyzing can paralyze a campaign, while embracing storytelling early helps connect with your audience and drive results. Listen to your partners when they provide actionable feedback.
Mike Zima
Chief Marketing Officer, Zima Media
Emphasize the Real-Life Applications
We often use customer journeys as the framework for our storytelling, depicting the before, during, and after-experiences of real users. This method is pivotal because it provides prospects with a vicarious experience of the benefits and transformations the product or service can deliver. By showing real-life applications and results, we not only demonstrate the product’s value but also build trust and credibility, which are essential in converting prospects into loyal customers.
For a fitness brand, we launched a campaign that narrated individual stories of transformation and perseverance. Each video segment featured a different customer overcoming their unique challenges with the help of the brand’s products and community support. The campaign resonated deeply with our audience, leading to a tripled engagement rate on social media and a 50% increase in membership sign-ups during the campaign period.
Jason Hennessey
CEO, Hennessey Digital
Shift Focus From Features To Benefits
Our team uses storytelling in our advertising to create a deeper connection with customers by highlighting their real challenges and our solutions. Storytelling allows us to transform complex topics, like KYC and compliance, into relatable narratives that demonstrate value in a way that resonates emotionally.
For example, one successful campaign featured a small fintech startup struggling with cumbersome, manual onboarding processes. We shared their journey, highlighting their pain points—lost customers due to long waits—and how, after adopting Ondato’s automated identity-verification solution, they saw onboarding times drop by 80%. The story emphasized the technical solution and the human element: saving time, reducing stress, and improving customer satisfaction.
This approach is crucial because it shifts the focus from features to benefits and human impact, making our offering more relatable and memorable. When customers see themselves in the story, it builds trust and shows them how we can solve their specific problems.
Liudas Kanapienis
CEO, Ondato
Show, Don’t Tell
I always follow the rule of “show, don’t tell” in my marketing strategies. I believe in using storytelling to showcase how our legal firm truly makes a difference in people’s lives instead of just listing out the services we offer. We shared the story of a family who was struggling to reunite due to complicated immigration laws in our recent campaign for immigration services. We were able to connect with our audience and showcase our expertise in this area by highlighting their emotional journey and how our legal team helped them navigate through the complexities.
This approach helped us attract potential clients and build a strong brand reputation as a firm that genuinely cares about the well-being of its clients. It also helped us stand out in a crowded market by showcasing our unique selling point, like our ability to handle complex cases with empathy and understanding. Through storytelling, we were able to build a relationship of trust with our audience and show them that we are more than just a legal firm—we are partners in their journey toward justice and success. This helped us attract new clients and fostered loyalty among existing ones.
I believe that storytelling allows us to create an emotional connection and build brand awareness through relatable and impactful narratives. I always prioritize storytelling in our advertising campaigns and have seen the positive impact it has on our company’s growth and reputation.
Daniel Cook
HR / Marketing Executive, Mullen and Mullen
Make Products Relatable
In the fast-paced and changing terrain of e-commerce fashion, storytelling is an art that breathes life into our brand and products, creating an emotional bond with our customers. I have found it incredibly effective in not only amplifying the brand’s message but also in driving engagement and making our designer dresses relatable.
Take an instance of a storytelling campaign we orchestrated at Pretty Moment, drawing on the anticipation, glamor, and emotion of a woman’s first prom. We created a series of video ads and social media posts presenting personal stories of young women experiencing this pivotal life event in our dresses, which resonated strongly with our audience.
This campaign led to a 30% increase in sales of our prom dresses and created a sense of community among our customers. It demonstrated the power of storytelling in making abstract product features tangible through relatable narratives, which I believe is crucial for deepening relationships with our customers and driving growth.
Eva Miller
VP of Marketing, Pretty Moment
Spotlight “Day-in-the-Life” Narratives
In my work, I integrate storytelling into our marketing strategies to forge a deeper connection with our buyers. People tend to relate more with narratives, associating our products with improved lives rather than abstract benefits.
For instance, we executed a successful storytelling campaign titled “Green Spaces, Happy Faces.” It spotlighted “day-in-the-life” narratives of varied consumers, from school kids playing on our safe, durable turf to families enjoying BBQs on our landscaping grass. The engagement was remarkable, as it helped customers visualize their lives transformed by our artificial grass. This campaign drove a significant uptick in our product inquiries, demonstrating the power of storytelling in advertising.
Joy Bian
Sales and Marketing Manager, RELYIR
Bridge The Gap Between Cultures
Incorporating storytelling into advertising strategies accentuates the emotional bond with customers. At Or & Zon, we believe it’s essential as it brings our products—crafted by global artisans—to life and bridges the gap between cultures. For instance, we initiated a campaign called “Behind the Craft,” where we delve into the journey of each artisan, the techniques they use, and the tradition it upholds.
Not only did this campaign celebrate their craft, but it also validated our customers’ decision to purchase a handmade, eco-friendly item, making them a part of the preservation of global handicrafts. The narratives were presented beautifully through engaging videos and editorial content on our website, leading to a significant increase in our consumer engagement and conversion rates.
Guillaume Drew
Founder & CEO, Or & Zon
Tap Into Emotions
Storytelling is critical to our customer engagement because it makes our products relatable. At Teak Warehouse, we don’t just sell furniture—we share the lifestyle that comes with it. In one campaign, we highlighted a couple transforming their backyard into a relaxing retreat with our outdoor furniture. We followed their journey from the planning stage to hosting their first dinner party under the stars.
This campaign worked because it tapped into the emotions of creating special moments at home, making the furniture part of that experience. It wasn’t just about features; it was about how our products fit into customers’ lives. That personal connection made it memorable, increasing both engagement and sales.
Chris Putrimas
CEO, Teak Warehouse
Use the “Journey of Change”
Storytelling is the most inherently human form of communication. Long before billboards and TikTok, we shared stories to ensure information was memorized and passed on; our safety relied upon it.
Today, the power of storytelling may be less immediately recognized, but its value is undeniable. Because of its ability to trigger chemical reactions in our brain—oxytocin, dopamine, cortisol—stories can turn rational ideas into emotional experiences. They help us see ourselves and the world around us.
Within advertising strategies, stories typically help to show customers how a product or service can improve their lives. Remember, the most crucial element of a story is the journey of change. If there’s no change, it’s not a story; it’s an anecdote. I incorporate storytelling in all forms of advertising and marketing where possible, beginning with defining an unmistakable, bold, and relatable Villain. Not a person or a corporation, like in the movies, but an attitude or belief that’s standing in the way of positive change. Nail your villain early, and your storytelling will unlock deep sentiment for viewers, as they will help the story to reach a happy ending.
As fear of the unknown and resistance to change is such a common enemy, one of my favorite advertising stories comes from Mercedes-Benz with their piece “Bertha Benz.” A masterclass in setting the stage for a powerful call to adventure to draw us in.
Fleurie Amorette-Davies
Freelance Marketing Director, fleuriedoesfreelance
Harness Influencer Storytelling
Harnessing storytelling through influencers is a game-changer. An influencer could share their story of how the product or service solved their pain point, showcase the product/service in use, and highlight the results it delivered. Incorporating such storytelling into the strategy with the right influencer became mind-blowing for our client, an innovative furniture company.
Influencers showed how they unpacked and assembled an unusual table, demonstrating how it transformed to suit its owner with one button and shared their impressions. This was the format of video integrations on YouTube, which demonstrated the product in all its glory and gained more than 140,000 views.
Dmitry Morgulis
Head of Global Business Development, HypeFactory
Champion Your Unique Story
As someone who has proudly built a roofing company from the ground up with my business partner and brother, I can confidently state that our strategy for marketing and evolving our business is heavily anchored to stories as entrepreneurs, innovators, and contractors, as well as our love for roofing and improving the lives of our clients through our solutions.
Personally, while I believe that our company, Roof Maxx Technologies, has generally strived through many factors, among the best aspects that we’ve championed is our story, as we’ve always thought that this was among the best practices to gain the trust and confidence of our clients. Especially when it comes to actually getting new clients and gaining their trust through referrals—in this competitive yet relatively obscure, letting our clients understand our company by learning our story is as important as talking about our professional brand.
When it comes to incorporating the aspect of storytelling into our advertising strategies, we’ve always committed ourselves to remaining true to what makes us unique and genuine, which are that we have been in the roofing industry for over 30+ years, we are strong advocates for roofing sustainability, and that we are, and always will be, fully committed to providing innovative and environmentally sound roofing solutions for our clients.
But to actually prove that our integration of our storytelling into our advertising actually works, we’ve even gotten the approval and investment from Kevin Harrington, an infamous American businessman with various businesses, more known as one of the original sharks on the show Shark Tank.
At the end of the day, I believe that connecting with your clients through a genuine storytelling advertisement strategy is among the best ways that you can increase sales, create a growing client base, and most importantly, have a unique brand that can help you compete in your industry.
Michael Feazel
CEO and Co-Founder, Roof Maxx
Focus on The Human Side
At Alta Pest Control, we incorporate storytelling into our advertising strategies by sharing real-life experiences and focusing on the human side of pest control. We believe storytelling is crucial because it helps us connect with customers on an emotional level. It turns what could be a routine service into a relatable and memorable experience.
Storytelling allows us to show customers that we understand their concerns and have been able to help others in similar situations. It’s not just about getting rid of pests; it’s about providing peace of mind and creating a safe environment for families. When customers can see themselves in the stories we share, it builds trust and strengthens our relationship with them.
One successful campaign we ran focused on a family dealing with a recurring pest problem in their home. We shared their journey, from the stress and frustration they felt initially to the relief and comfort they experienced after our team solved the issue. We highlighted the steps we took to identify the root of the problem, the treatments we used, and the follow-up care we provided. This campaign resonated with many customers who had similar experiences, leading to an increase in inquiries and new service sign-ups.
By telling this story, we were able to showcase not only our expertise but also our commitment to customer care and satisfaction. It demonstrated how we go beyond just eliminating pests—we create lasting solutions that make a real difference in people’s lives.
Faith Rock
Marketing Specialist, Alta Pest Control
Link Innovation With Needs and Desires
In the realm of emerging technologies, particularly with auto-adaptive Mixed Reality (MR), as in our case, storytelling becomes an essential tool for linking innovation with the customer’s needs. At 2Sync, we apply storytelling on two key levels: within our advertising strategy and the actual implementation of our technology.
In our advertising, we never focus on the technical workings of our MR technology, nor its basic capabilities. Instead, we focus entirely on the real-world use case for customers. This means creating a narrative that explains how our technology can specifically help the client achieve their objectives. For example, when working with a telecommunications provider, our storytelling in advertising was about how users could immerse themselves in new worlds using MR, showing how companies like theirs can present products in a highly engaging way. This approach created a direct connection with the client.
At the same time, we incorporated storytelling within the technology itself. By using MR, we created an interactive storyline that showcased the client’s product in a fun, engaging, and non-technical way. This immersive experience increased emotional engagement, helping users connect to the story behind the product, which, in turn, heightened product interest and conversion rates. It was a successful campaign because it not only won us the project but also demonstrated how storytelling through MR can engage end users and drive business results.
Julian Zietemann
Co-Founder & Managing Director, 2Sync
Share the Brand’s Origin
Storytelling has always been a fundamental part of our advertising strategy because the brand itself was born from a personal experience—my own frustration with the inefficient methods of dog-waste collection. The inconvenience of cleaning up after pets is something most people can relate to, and this shared pain point inspired me to create Curbicus, a solution to an everyday problem.
Storytelling allows us to connect emotionally with our customers. It transforms a simple product into a relatable solution, making it easier for people to understand and empathize with the challenges our brand addresses. When people hear the story of how Curbicus was created, they don’t just see a product; they see a real-world problem being solved through innovation and personal experience.
One of our most impactful storytelling campaigns involved sharing my personal journey across various platforms like podcasts, Instagram stories, and public-speaking events. For example, during a podcast appearance, I shared my own frustration with seeing waste littering sidewalks and how this pushed me to develop Curbicus to simplify the process of dog-waste collection for pet owners while keeping public spaces clean.
This approach helped us engage with an audience that understood the problem firsthand. By using multiple platforms to tell the story, we created an emotional connection, building both trust and community around our brand. Storytelling didn’t just showcase the benefits of Curbicus; it helped customers feel understood and valued, turning them into loyal advocates of the product.
Anna Gannon
Founder & Inventor, Curbicus
