Content expert and Head of Yahoo! Studio, Krane Jeffery on the art of digital storytelling
Storytelling matters more than ever in this interconnected age — tell great stories and you'll get liked, shared, commented, bookmarked and re-Tweeted. But, according to Krane Jeffery, Head of Yahoo! Studio, whilst the digital age has given consumers more freedom to engage with brands on different platforms, the technological capabilities of the web have stolen the limelight and creativity has fallen by the wayside.
Krane talked to the Yahoo! Advertising Blog before the Yahoo! PROVOKE Summit on Tuesday, November 8, and explained why brands should be partnering with online content to find their fairytale ending.
Yahoo! Scene: Tell us a little about what you and your team do.
Krane Jeffery: Yahoo! Studio's purpose is to put creativity at the heart of what Yahoo! offers to our customers, by providing best-in-class creative media solutions that bring together our editorial might and our advertising products to deliver relevant, impactful and effective brand-building content experiences.
Scene: You're speaking at the Yahoo! PROVOKE Summit about storytelling in the digital age. Where do you think the most opportunities for brand storytelling lie?
KJ: The Yahoo! Studio team believe that in order for a brand's communication to be effective, we need to consider that it has to go beyond just shouting the message, we need to influence, engage and persuade consumers. Great advertising campaigns always do this and at Yahoo! we believe that digital media has enhanced the ability for advertising to tell effective stories that resonate with the consumer. Digital has provided interactive, constantly connected platforms offering consumers the freedom to engage with the brand on different levels, which was not previously possible.
Scene: The question for the panel is whether the digital age has forgotten the art of storytelling. Do you think it has?
KJ: There are many great campaigns that have achieved a client's objectives in a compelling way through great content, but the burgeoning growth of online advertising every year since its inception has perhaps meant there has been less focus on great creativity, with the technological and data capabilities of the web taking centre stage. The Yahoo! Studio came into being in response to an increasing industry demand for creativity online, which we look to combine effectively with technology and data to create something really powerful.
Scene: Can you give any examples of brands that have constructed meaningful stories in the digital space?
KJ: A good example is a campaign we are running in eight European markets currently, 'Essentials of Photography' for Canon. It starts with great original content of photography tutorials to tell the story, but then encourages user interaction in a Canon Flickr community where users share learnings and ideas, culminating in a competition where they can showcase their developing skills by submitting their pictures. This campaign is going phenomenally well with more than 50,000 pictures uploaded in the first three weeks!
Scene: What do you think are the main challenges facing brands partnering with content?
KJ: There is definitely a reluctance from some advertisers to commit budgets to content projects, because it is something of an unknown concept to them, particularly in the online space. This is exacerbated by the constant need to show ROI for the online channel, which means that it is always the first question asked - but content projects by nature require a part of the investment into that content which does not immediately show ROI. So, it is our job to prove to clients that the overall campaign will be successful, that we'll be able to measure the effectiveness and that the overall piece will deliver ROI. We focus on ensuring that content is relevant to the consumer through our talented editorial team and combine that with the expertise and know-how of the Yahoo! Studio team of how to best activate and leverage this content. When clients do take this small leap of faith with us, they invariably continue to do more partnership type projects because of the success they enjoy.
-- Fiona McKenzie
Fiona McKenzie is a freelance writer in London and a contributor to Contagious magazine.
