StoryQuest Blog

So there they stand, side by side against a glowing white background. On the left is the Poindexter. A pudgy older man, wearing thick plastic glasses, arms placed ever so perfectly at his sides, awkward as ever in his ill fitting, out of date suit. On the right is the quintessential cool guy, a hipster if you will. Standing oh so coolly with his casual, yet fashionable clothes, with cool hair and cool things to say. “Hi, I’m a Mac,” he says, “and I am a PC” quips the nerdy gent next to him.

Even before either of them speaks, you already know whom you should listen to right? I mean, who is more like you, or some would say, whom would you rather be like? Though these Apple commercials would like you to believe through their stereotyping that you are either one, the helplessly awkward nerd or the devil may care hipster, they mainly want you to want to be them. Them being characterized through a cool, young, casual man. Though these ads did prove effective, there is one thing that they forgot; what their actual customers look and sound like.

Microsoft was quick to retort with a series of ads that show something that Apple never did; their actual users. People from across the globe, from a myriad of cultures, happily exclaiming, “I’m a PC!” These customers now had a face and a voice, perhaps an even more valuable asset than that of an actor playing the role of their touted user. Customers becoming a live reference for other users to point to in a visual setting.

A customer reference is sometimes the simplest and most effective way to sell your product. Though Microsoft does it in a very eloquent, and some may say “cheeky” manner, their approach is also very expensive. Now that companies can see the effectiveness of this they are implementing it more and more in the multimedia age.

Here are some tips from Casey Hibbard in her article, “Video or Written Story, Which Comes First,” on how to better enhance your customer reference program through video:

“In interviewing and writing a customer case study, you have a lot of flexibility in the way you present information, and customers go through the process of tweaking and approving their public comments on paper.

It’s a process that allows customers to think through their comments behind the scenes without being “on the spot” on camera – increasing the customer’s confidence level.

Creating the written story first also allows you to flesh out what your story is, and then work on translating that to video.

Once you capture your customer on video, you can’t easily go back and make changes. What’s recorded is what’s recorded. It’s better to be as prepared as possible before the video process.

So, with written first…

You can focus your on-camera questions more specifically.

You can loosely script out the video.

It takes less time to arrive at the sound bites you need.

You already know the story you want to tell.

Your customer feels more comfortable on camera because he/she has already thought through the answers.

You spend less time on the more pricey medium of video, and less of your customer’s time perhaps.”

To find out more about putting a face on your customer’s reference, check out StoryQuest’s Customer Stories page.