The most compelling story I have come across recently is The Drowned Man, an immersive theatre experience by the Punch Drunk theatre group. I didn’t read this story. I didn’t hear this story. I actually found myself in this story. And, I totally got swept up in it.

In an enormous disused warehouse in west London we were asked to wear masks, and told not to speak at all during the three hour experience. We were also encouraged to ditch our friends. Consequently, we found ourselves swept up in a meta-narrative that unfolded to each of us in different snippets, scenes and sequences. It was an extraordinary experience of letting go and submitting to what ever happened next. When I regrouped with friends over dinner, we realized that each of us had experienced and participated in this story in unique ways, although we had all understood the same over-arching narrative.

Immersive theatre can be an instructive model for brands because it shows that there is potential to engage with customers at a much deeper level.

Brands need to do more than just tell their stories. They need to live them.

By seeing the brand story as something to live rather than to tell, this gives us a framework with which to start constructing a “living narrative” for the brand, that is literally played out and experienced through every interaction that occurs between the “actors” (brand representatives) and “participants (customers).”

This approach works particularly well for brands that have service delivery or an experiential element at their core.  Here are the fundamentals of the approach:

Create your brand story

Here we cast the brand as the hero in the story, and use many of the core principles of great storytelling, some of which include:

• What is your brand’s heroic quest?
• Who or what is the antagonist to your brand’s protagonist?
  - Not literally a competitor, but a cultural or categorical construct that your brand is pushing against.
• What do we learn about your brand’s character in its struggle with the antagonist?
  - What moral qualities and tangible advantages does it reveal?
  - What shadow qualities or internal dilemmas does it reveal?
  - What lessons are learned from this struggle– this forms the basis of your brand’s core belief and value system. 

Live your brand story

Very often a brand story is just a back-story, living passively in a manifesto. Your story needs to be experienced through the interactions that your customers have with your brand and its representatives, at every key touchpoint.

Here are some things to consider in deciding how to bring your story to life:

• Do you want to reveal some of your brand’s “internal conflict” in order to foster  trust? Dominos Pizza embraced their flaws publically, and used consumer criticism as the inspiration to improve every aspect of their offering, winning back the detractors and gaining new customers.
• How can you manifest the threat posed by the antagonist to compelling dramatic effect? President Obama is particularly good at this. Through his social media campaign he engages his followers in his on-going struggle, always painting those who stand in opposition as the threat that he needs their support to overcome.
• How might your employees as “actors” be empowered to convey your brand’s story in ways that feel personalized, as with immersive theatre. Zappos are brilliant at empowering their employees to do what it takes to make each customer happy.
• What “props” could you use to help you live your story? On a recent stay in New York at the London NYC hotel I was struck by the fact that all calls from my room to London landline numbers were free. For a hotel that is playing into the fantasy of the NY-LON lifestyle, this is a simple prop that enhances the story. What would prevent the hotel from going further and using actors to stage “scenes” that could further enhance the fantasy?
• How will you unfold your story at different phases of the customer journey, and through different touchpoints? Immersive theatre gradually reveals its story, rather than telling it all in one go, promoting a sense of deep emotional engagement through discovery.

McQ Thinking is a boutique brand and communication consultancy that partners with the marketing and advertising communities. Find out more at www.mcqthinking.com.

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