Branded Content: Story Always Wins.

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Does a powerful documentary ever change the way you think? Shop? Eat? Do those Nike ads featuring little girls at the Women’s World Cup make you cry? Video pieces, whether made for explicitly commercial purposes or not, are great ways to send a strong message about your brand. 

Cut and dry advertisements are rapidly becoming passé. Consumers, as ironic as it is, are tired of consumer culture. Today, we want our products and our services to mean something in the bigger picture of our lives. Subtly branded videos are a superb way to communicate that your company isn’t out to bully buyers into purchasing. Instead, branded videos tell a story, and invite viewers to take part in the magic that is the brand. Think of Patagonia as one example. The maker of outdoor goods has an entire filmmaking branch that keeps busy putting out multiple environmental and sport films a year. These films sell Patagonia product without ever having to mention or display a single item. People who watch Patagonia films are enthralled with the feeling of the brand. They make the active choice to buy, they aren’t coerced or pushed to spend.

At Vermont Social, we excel at building ad content around images and stories. The videos we make for our clients have heart, soul, sick beat drops, and a kick of humor. We have seen time and time again that clients who invest in their holistic image and take story seriously, do extremely well on the internet and at the cash register. 

There is another slightly less recognized upside to branded content: the art vibe. Consumers of sports equipment and sports experiences love it when their favored brands support athletes and also the artists that document the sport. Think about a clip we know you’ve come across before. The screen opens on a twisting maze of roads high in the hills of an unknown country. Suddenly, we’re up close on a sweating face. A rider is near to breaking at the crest of a hill but they summit. We see a montage of the afterglow with crowds, cheers, perhaps a medal, perhaps a luggage carousel at the airport when the winner returns home. At the very last moment, we realize that this video that moved us and brought colorful joy to our eyeballs was made possible by Cannondale or Morgan Stanley or Wahoo. We rejoice and then quickly go google the brand to learn some more about the magic they have to offer.