The Medium For Communicating Brand Values Today

By Jordan P. Kelley, Content Director, BrandStorytelling

Brand Storytelling 2023 saw the return of in-person attendance, and with it the event’s first year of in-person screenings from a variety of brands selected by committee. Two films screened in the Short Film category, Morning Joy for Kawai Instruments and Luck is Alive for Mami Wata, took creative approaches to their films, presenting a silent animated short and a surreal depiction of neo-animism respectively. Each were powerful, effective, and reflective of the labors and vision of the creatives behind them. However, films like these are rare due in large part to the fact that brands who invest in telling stories are out to do more than entertain – brands who invest in storytelling seek to communicate their values through the stories they tell. Fiction and abstract storytelling work swimmingly when they succeed, but the margin for error can be thin as a razor’s edge – they require a concise vision on the part of the creative and complete trust from the brand. Often brands who try this can miss the mark, with work coming off as too saccharine or insincere for lack of the essential base parts. With few great examples to point to, it may just be too early for brands to really get the hang of consistently telling rich fictional and art-driven stories.

It should come as no surprise, then, that eight of the ten films screened at Brand Storytelling 2023 in the short category were documentary short films. Contrary to fiction and abstract work, the crop of well-made, effective documentary films from brands has increased in quality year after year. More quality brand docs mean more visibility for the medium, more brands initiating documentary storytelling efforts, and more success on the part of brands who have refined their craft after giving documentary shorts several go’s. Documentaries are appealing to brands because their function is to communicate values around the ideas that are important to us, the viewer. Short docs are even more appealing when needing to make the most of a small budget and/or limited project window. When it comes to brands seeking to communicate values to audiences with storytelling, the appeal of the documentary short is hard to beat. And there’s no shortage of values to communicate, whether they seem like an obvious fit for the brand or not.

For example, Brand Storytelling showcased A Voice for the Wild, a conservation minded exhibition from Friends of the Boundary Waters. The event also screened Big Water Summer: A Creation Story from GoDaddy. These films came from two starkly different brands that one might not have associated with each other before, but their respective choice in documentary subject lets us know that they each support the preservation of American lands. Another example comes from Corona Studios and Fiverr – each choosing to spotlight the misunderstood members of a marginalized community as a reflection of their respective commitments to those communities. Also consider the event’s exhibition of the films High Road from Cannondale and Outride and Duct Tape and Dreams from SFMOMA, demonstrating that a museum and a couple of partnered bicycle companies share the values of resiliency and the spirit of getting outside. Each of these brands, disparate as they may seem, succeeded in communicating their internal values using short documentaries as the medium, giving audiences the opportunity to see their own values reflected at them, creating brand affinity and lift.

Although many brands are learning to successfully communicate their values with story for the first time, brands and companies that have been at it for a while are achieving another level of success, finding formulas that succinctly capture a brand’s essence repeatedly. Breakwater Studios has garnered a reputation for capturing and communicating brand values in a polished but earnest way. Director Ben Proudfoot took home the Brand Storytelling Director Award for his studio’s work on If You Have, a short doc that immaculately captures interviews to tell the origin story of UNICEF. Yeti Coolers, makers of rugged yet tender documentary shorts for nearly a decade, took home the Grand Jury Prize at Brand Storytelling for their work A Thousand Casts, which captures one man’s remarkable story all while he tries to capture a remarkable fish. Brands and creatives like these are setting the standard for others to follow.

This bevy of examples demonstrates brands’ current preference for telling stories and communicating values in short documentary format. With a solid, reliable catalog of content out there to emulate and inspire, brands can employ modest budgets and limited production days to great effect. And while it would be great to someday see more brands take greater risks and tell other kinds of stories in other ways, right now consumers can enjoy brands’ documentary shorts as the category hits its stride.