If you’ve been a fan of Gary Vaynerchuk and Simon Sinek, we know you create a concoction of great content and analytics while tying it to a purpose. Now, you followed Gary or Simon or Tony Robbins or Royal Enfield or Rolex because they created impact on you. So, was it the person, the product, the brand or their campaigns that made you follow them?

 

Social media is the hot seat these days but real impact needs more than just a shoutout about your offerings on a fancy buffet of social apps. You need more than that to be remembered, liked and followed.

 

Here’s our ‘super 5’ that will help you with creating lasting impact.

 

1. Storytelling
Yes, this probably is the most spoken about and written word at the moment but storytelling works! Tying experiences, hopes, beliefs, dreams, aspiration and purpose to anything that you talk of makes it relatable.

For instance, our #FundYourOwnWorth campaign for ICICI Bank (http://www.viscomm.co.in/icici-fyow.html) was successful in creating impact because it was tied to women’s aspirations, dreams and worth. It was a purpose-led campaign that wasn’t created only for digital consumption but involved real women outside the digital domain which brings us to our next important aspect of impact – keep it real.

 

2. Keep it real
You don’t create an impact by making things up all the time. Pick something from your brand or product that is a real solution to a current problem and tie it to a relatable experience. In a male dominated society, women empowerment is the most talked about subject because the problem is real and bringing out the solution in the open with the help of your product or brand makes your offering more acceptable and loved. How do you do that? By humanising your offering.

 

3. Humanise your brand or product
Your offerings are as good as any other until they’re just ‘things’. Stop focusing on the features and start talking about the benefits with the help of user generated content. Creating impact is about spiralling your offering across your target audience and that doesn’t happen unless you tell a story that involves a real user and his/her experience of the benefits of your product. Forget the lazy job of making your brand or product the hero. Let your offering be an enabler or a catalyst for the user to become a hero. The understanding of this comes from the next vital point – take your story to people.

 

4. Take your story to people
Creating a video or two and putting your communication out and expecting people to automatically go ‘wow’ is the biggest mistake you can make. With ICICI Bank’s #FundYourOwnWorth, we didn’t just put it out in the digital platform. Instead, we went looking for relevant women who could be a part of the campaign. Besides just picking Konkona Sen Sharma, we involved several other women by reaching out to them. They’re the real target audience themselves and there’s no brand ambassador better than them to send out a message that will resonate with other women across the country.

So don’t just create a profile of your TG and create something virtual. Find out the real people that could not only be the right people for your product but also be the best brand custodians for you. This brings us to something we all often forget – breaking stereotypes.

 

5. Break Stereotypes
In a world that’s always moving in one direction, create something that moves the other way, in a positive direction of course.
We all know how Pepsi tried to pull off their ad keeping ‘Black Lives Matter’ as a hook and it turned out to be a disaster. They intended well but they missed out on attention to detail while picking something so controversial.

Everyone wants to break Stereotypes but research well about your subject before becoming a broadcast machine and digging your own grave.

Picking out something controversial does work but only if you’re moving towards a positive direction with a relatable message that helps a community or the world without hurting sentiments of either side. Tough job but works very well if done right. With #FundYourOwnWorth, we picked up women empowerment without going extreme. The communication was based on uplifting women while not putting down men because that’s not what feminism is. Remember, content is King but context is the empire.

 

Go ahead with breaking Stereotypes without hitting a wall or opposition and that can be done only with a message that’s positive for all.

 

As we see, creating impact is not a tough job if we keep it simple. To sum it up, a real story that’s relatable is what makes an impactful campaign for you. As Simon Sinek puts it, “Two ways to influence human behaviour: manipulate it or inspire it.” Choose well.

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