How to Build Storytelling for Products?

Many brands still believe that the best way to sell a product is to keep talking about the product. The logic is simple. The more often a product appears, the more people know about it. The more advantages explained, the greater the opportunity for the audience to be interested.

If you think about it, that approach does make sense. However, as long as Media Buffet accompanies Pertamina Lubricants' various communication activities during 2024, there is one quite interesting pattern to observe.

The content that gets the most attention is not always content that talks about products. On the other hand, audiences seem more responsive when brands are present through stories, experiences, communities, sports, entertainment, and even figures they like.

At first we also thought this would only happen in one or two campaigns. However, after looking at various programs that run throughout the year, this pattern continues to emerge over and over again.

And perhaps that is one of the challenges of brand communication today. It's no longer a matter of how to get the audience to see the product, but how to make them 'interested' in the story the brand is telling.

When the Story is More Interesting Than the Product Itself

One of the most visible examples comes from Pertamina Lubricants' collaboration with national racer, Rifat Sungkar. When talking about the automotive world, many people usually imagine content about vehicle performance, engine specifications, or other technical discussions.

However, the results we found were slightly different. Content that shows Rifat's personal side, such as family stories, produces higher performance than content that focuses too much on products. In fact, some content with a storytelling and educational approach is able to generate around 20% higher reach than other formats.

Overall, this collaboration also succeeded in exceeding the target set by generating more than 1.6 million reaches, more than 1 million impressions, and engagement reaching more than 82 thousand interactions.

It's not just the numbers that are interesting. These findings show that audiences do not always come because they want to know about the products used by a racer. They are more interested in the story, experience and perspective of that figure. The final product is still present. It's just that you enter through a path that feels more relevant.

Audiences Prefer to Be Involved

Almost the same insight also emerged in the Motor Tangguh program. Instead of making the product the center of conversation, this program provides space for the audience to tell stories about their personal experiences with motorbikes that accompany their daily lives, interspersed with how Pertamina Enduro products accompany them on every trip.

The approach is simple, but the results are quite interesting. The number of submissions collected reached more than double the initial target. Meanwhile, from the digital side, this program generated a reach of more than 1.15 million.

From here comes a fairly important lesson. Today's audiences don't always want to receive messages in one direction. They want to get involved in an activity.

When given space to tell stories, opinions, or share experiences, the level of participation that occurs is often much higher than when brands only talk about themselves.

Other lessons can also be seen in various Pertamina Lubricants activations in the world of sports and entertainment.

Through the Jakarta Pertamina Enduro (JPE) volleyball team in Proliga 2024, for example. In terms of numbers, the results obtained are very significant. Reporting in national media received quite high publications, reaching more than 100 publications with positive sentiment. Content on JPE's social media managed to get more than 21 million reaches, 35 million impressions and more than 1 million engagements throughout the 2024 Proliga period.

However, there is one interesting thing when looking at the performance of the content. The content that gets the most responses is not content that explains the product. It is precisely content that shows players together, activities outside the match, and interaction with fans that generates the highest engagement.

The same phenomenon is also seen in various other collaborations.

Audiences come because of sports, entertainment, or figures they like.

Then in the middle of the journey, they met the brand. And it turns out that this approach often feels more natural than when the brand tries to be the center of attention from the start, so that the audience won't feel disturbed by the brand's presence.

When Product Alone Isn't Enough

If taken more broadly, Pertamina Lubricants' various communication activities throughout 2024 succeeded in generating more than 185 million reaches, 122 million impressions and almost 4 million engagements.

This figure is certainly a proud achievement. However, the most valuable learning does not come from the numbers themselves. But from a pattern that continues to repeat itself in almost every campaign:

Audiences are not always looking for products. They are looking for stories, experiences, communities, and figures they can trust.

Therefore, effective communication today not only talks about what a brand sells, but also how the brand is able to present things that are already meaningful to its audience.

And maybe that's the reason why some of the most successful campaigns start not with the product, but with the story around it.

Author: Farahdina