Sapir Levy
In August 2016, NFL star Colin Kaepernick made a stand after witnessing police brutality against black people in the United States and rising racism. His course of action was to sit on the bench during the national anthem that is played before every NFL League preseason game.
Nothing symbolizes the American spirit more than the national anthem, especially in the NFL, which is one of the most all-American symbols of all time. Kaepernick’s course sparked public outrage and drew in many supporters, including LeBron James, as well as widespread opposition, including then-President Donald Trump. Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem after a while, and other athletes have swept away. A year later, Kaepernick, who was a symbol of silent protest and of the Black Lives Matters movement, paid a high personal price and lost his place in the world’s best football league.
Nike saw Kaepernick’s story as having potential and decided to hire him for an iconic and well-remembered commercial with the slogan “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Just do it. ”
During the commercial, LeBron James, one of the best NBA players in the world, appeared, and in the background, we can hear Kaepernick’s voice saying, “Don’t try to be the best basketball player on the planet, be bigger than basketball.
The commercial featured disabled athletes with inspirational words in the background encouraging them and us to dream big, to try not to give up despite our limitations and the naysayers.
More than anything, this advertisement exemplified the new marketing era. There will be no more cliched and pointless commercials. It is now the era of educational message transmission, messages aimed at improving the world and our society. Because that is what is expected of brands and big corporations these days, the new era in marketing positions brands and marketers at the forefront as social opinion leaders.
In Israel, the “Startup Nation,” where every day we report on another start-up or high-tech company that has had an exit or raised astronomical sums, we have become indifferent, despite our initial jealousy. Today, good storytelling is critical for a start-up or high-tech company, and it can mean the difference between failure and success.
Good branding and true and accurate brand storytelling can attract investors, employees, and collaborations, all of which can propel the company forward on multiple levels.
Everyone has a story to tell. Every business has a unique angle and a compelling story to tell, whether it’s about the founders’ agonizing journey or the failures or losses they’ve faced in their lives, and much more.
Finding a personal angle for a company is not always easy, but a good and skilled PR firm should be able to find a good story beyond the dry technical details and the expected messages that everyone repeats, you just have to know where to look for it. Good Storytelling makes the difference.
Today’s audience is more interested in the story behind the startup than in how much money is raised.
How did we storytell the Siraj Technologies uniqueness?
For example, the Bedouin startup Siraj has become a media and social leader in integrating Bedouin into Israel’s high-tech industry, or Breezometer, which provides solutions for dealing with air pollution, health recommendations for those sensitive to air pollution and pollen, and fire warnings, among other things.
Ran Korber, one of the company’s founders, was looking for an apartment in an area with the least amount of pollution for himself and his asthmatic wife, but couldn’t find any app or website that provided data on air pollution in Israel.
The story succeeds in emotionally connecting us to a startup, high-tech company, or brand, making us want to buy it or be a part of its success. It’s no coincidence that Nike took a chance. Kaepernick was controversial in America. Nike has recognized that in order to tell a compelling social leadership story, the brand must be much more than a sports equipment or cyber or software company.
In today’s world, it’s critical to tell your story and elicit empathy and brand identification from others. It could be worth a lot of money if you could do that and connect with the audience, but a good brand story can also lead to social change, which is just as important.