4 Ways to Tell More Effective Stories Using DCO

In the past, brands were tasked with creating one narrative to convey a message about their image and core values. It was one-size-fits all marketing, designed to speak to everyone. But how can a single message possibly convey the value of your product to everyone who sees your ad?

Advances in ad tech tools like creative management platforms (CMP) have given brands the freedom to create 1:1 narratives that function as the thousands of stories, appeasing most consumers. Brands can finally move beyond spending millions of dollars on one narrative and, instead, use dynamic creative optimization (DCO) to ensure that every member of their audience is getting the right message.

Sure, there is still a place in advertising for high-impact Superbowl ads. However, more often you’ll see digitally-born prospecting campaigns that run across different channels and utilize data in a sophisticated way. As a brand, you’re constantly being challenged to create versatile and adaptable stories. Yet, you also have the opportunity to learn more about your product and your audiences.

With these transformations, the industry’s approach to storytelling had to change. In order to tell hyper-relevant and engaging stories to the consumer, you’re required to take a new approach to the process of telling stories. Knowing your audience is the cornerstone of intelligent storytelling. In Celtra’s work with clients, we’ve discovered that there are ways to tell more effective stories using DCO. Here are the 4 major findings.

1. Start with your story’s ending

Identify the potential outcomes. For instance, if you have 3 audiences, what are your 3 value propositions? You should be looking at endpoints, not starting points. Ask yourself, “What will be crucial in selling this product to individual audiences?”

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re advertising a product like hair dye. Your ideal outcome is to raise awareness and attract customers to your brand. Think about the 3 main groups you’re trying to attract: 1. People who dye their hair at home, 2. Salon vendors, and 3. Independent stylists. Each group may have different selling points. Group 1 may be motivated by ease of use, 2 by best sales package, and 3. By quality of product. Therefore, you will want the three value propositions to guide you when crafting your message for your different audiences.

2. Find out what compels people to engage with your brand, then reiterate

When it comes to developing the right strategy, there’s no substitute for the human brain. Uncover why people choose to engage with your brand. Which aspects of your creative are working? Do you have the visibility to see the impact of your message on customers in real time? What’s making people click? What’s making people buy? And how are you tweaking your campaign accordingly?

This is where your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come in handy. And even if you haven’t collected data, you can still assume your audiences are different, even if only by simple demographics like gender,  age, or geographic location. Enrich your creative with material that you find most relevant to a particular demographic and learn from there.

3. Define the problem you’re solving for

This essentially puts you back at the beginning of your brand’s story. But instead of having written 3 unique stories, you have 3 endings that map back to the same core message and values of the brand.

4. Grow and refine your strategy

You can’t build a spaceship from scratch. The same applies to your campaign. You have to start in your current situation and grow incrementally. It’s time to put what you learned into action. Look at a segmentation and enrich it with more learning and data. Audiences should be at the base of your strategy. As you grow the strategy, you should be constantly refining it so that you become knowledgeable about your audiences and how you address them.

Now that you’ve developed a better understanding of your audiences and honed your message, you’re ready to produce. This is where your CMP comes in.

Learn more about this topic in our article: How to Enhance Your Creative Production Using DCO