Storytelling with substance: crafting brand narratives that resonate, inspire and command audience attention in 2025

You’ve heard it all before – the marketplace is noisier than the New York Stock Exchange on a high-trade Monday. Your marketing needs to stand out, or your brand will be drowned out by others’ roars.

The answer to this conundrum is the same one that is always given – storytelling. It works, every time.

Here’s why: storytelling is fundamental to human nature. It’s theorised that humans first acquired language 20 000-odd years ago and it’s almost certain that since then stories have been told. Storytelling is as primal as our fascination with flame.

There’s science that demonstrates the effect stories have on us. When you hear or see a story, your brain’s neurons activate in the same way as the storyteller’s – a phenomenon called neural coupling.

Also, stories engage more areas of the brain than facts. When a compelling story resonates with us, it triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that enhances feelings of trust, empathy and generosity. 

If you want brand loyalty in your customers, a good brand story that creates an emotional bond between them and your brand is vital.

Let’s be clear: the story needs to be about the brand, not its products or services. Things like logos and colours are indicators of your brand, while the brand is the feelings that are invoked by brand symbols. A brand is something company executives and marketers do not have direct control over. Yup. Sorry, but it’s true.

You also have control of your company ethos – decide what it is, and defend it because over time your products and services emanate from your etho, as does your staff’s behaviour, even if the kicker for your company to start was, initially, a product or service. You need to live that ethos – and your living it and others experiencing your living it develops your brand. In motorcycles, think Harley-Davidson vs Honda.

Because humans are storytellers, the best way to convey the ethos of your brand is to show people by telling a story – creating a myth around your brand. A myth is not a lie, but a story that expresses a deeper truth that resonates with your audience.

The best brand stories are used like a golden thread, throughout every one of a brand’s marketing efforts. It’s mythmaking at its best. When you create a myth or legend for your brand, you craft a symbolic and cultural framework for the brand, based on shared values, beliefs and aspirations. 

A great South African example of this is Castle Lager. Like all good legends, Castle’s origin story has elements of truth. There was a man named Charles Glass who came to Johannesburg in the late 1800s, during the gold rush, and used his beer-brewing knowledge to quench miners’ thirst.

For a long time, however, his story was all but forgotten until marketers adopted Glass as the brand’s figurehead and the legend was born. The bedrock of the Castle story is the values of what the beer’s brand director, Wendy Bedforth, has described as “resilience in the face of challenges, a strong sense of community and what we believe is better defined as ‘courageous optimism’”.

The brand has used these bedrock values as a golden thread wound through its advertisements, but the way these values have been conveyed has changed, reflecting social changes within South African society. 

This brand story has delivered some of South Africa’s best-loved advertisements, such as the 1998 ad featuring the renowned track Africa by Toto, delivered as many South Africans returned to the country after the end of apartheid as a legislated system in 1994. The advert received awards and critical acclaim from around the world.

To craft brand narratives that command audience attention and inspire a deep connection with the brand, you need to decide what you stand for and the values that underpin your brand, and stick by these. The stronger the stand, the stronger the brand. You have to be brave.

Here’s why. When people can readily see what you believe because it shines through every action, they recognise that your brand is authentic. Audiences are increasingly canny about marketing ploys and easy catchphrases – you and all your colleagues need to live and breathe the brand.

Flow Communications has worked alongside the Nelson Mandela Foundation for nearly 20 years. The foundation promotes the values for which Madiba himself was famous – democracy, equality, social justice and more, with its key objective being finding sustainable solutions to problems that face humanity.

This is a thread that runs through everything the foundation does, from social media posts to the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. A strong example of how the foundation takes definite stands on controversial topics is its stance on Israel’s actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. 

One way to show what your brand stands for is to use real-life examples or employee stories to illustrate the brand’s commitment to its values.

So, ensure that your brand narrative comprises stories that evoke emotions such as joy or excitement, and inspire empathy. The best way to do this is to use vivid images and compelling personal anecdotes. Personalised storytelling can enhance audience engagement by making the narrative more relatable and relevant to individual experiences.

Another Flow client, the Good Work Foundation, is a non-governmental organisation focused on ensuring that people in rural areas have access to quality, future-focused education. This mission is on show in all of its public-facing communications, and it uses personal anecdotes and compelling images to good effect.