Have I Got A Couple Stories For You

Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman has been legally deaf since age 3. He stars in a new ad featuring him and some of the loudest fans on earth. The result is moving and tremendous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E

Apple goes all Dead Poets’ Society in their latest for the iPad. What will your verse be?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0

Click me if you can’t see the embedded videos full of awesome.

The Super Bowl is coming… and so are new ads, but the Internet and social media have given content a much better – and more permanent – home. In the next couple weeks leading up to the big game, we’ll see stories, commercials, and making ofs in our news feeds, twitter streams, and on our favorite tumblrs.

The Olympics follow closely behind, and we’ll enjoy more human dramas of athletic competition replayed at our convenience in our homes and on our phones.

[Tweet “Boy, have I got a couple stories for you… have you got one for me?”]

The common thread? Stories that move us… and advertisers who figure out ways to link themselves to and through those stories. Many will be inspirational. Some might be funny.

And the best ones – through the stories they tell – will make it easier to recall (and like and trust) the companies that ran them when our need arises for those companies’ products or services.

You gotta know that if you own or work for a company that markets, these are the stories you’re competing with, and while you may not have the budgets of Apple or Duracell or WestJet or Nike, you need to think long and hard about how to bridge between the felt needs of your customers and how you scratch their itches.

How about you? Seen or heard any good stories lately? Better yet, have you told any?

If you’re having trouble, we know some people who can help.