Advertising, marketing…what comes next in the series? If you’ve been keeping up with our Insights, you know full well that it’s storytelling. Considering the chaos of the last couple of months, which appears will be present in the many months ahead, we feel obligated to once again emphasize the importance of storytelling — particularly in a post-COVID world. Maybe you’ve already identified a powerful story in your company, and maybe you’ve already taken measures to tell it effectively. But is this story still resonating with your audience, given the circumstances? Can you stay true to your brand story in a world that has changed overnight?

Vogue Italia made a bold move by featuring a totally white cover for their April edition as a response to the Coronavirus crisis. No model, no cover star. With this white page, they honoured the first responders while staying true to their brand story and legacy:

“In its long history stretching back over a hundred years, Vogue has come through wars, crises, acts of terrorism. Its noblest tradition is never to look the other way,” said Vogue Italia editor in chief Emanuele Farneti, “White is, first and foremost, respect. White is rebirth, light after the darkness, the sum of all the colours. White is the uniforms of those who have saved lives while risking their own. It’s time and space for thinking. And for staying silent too. White is for people who are filling this time and space with ideas, thoughts, stories, verses, music and kindness to others. It’s a reminder that after the crisis in 1929, clothes turned white, a colour was chosen to express purity in the present and hope for the future. And above all, white is not surrender; it’s a blank page to be filled, the frontispiece of a news story about to begin.”

We’ve all encountered advertising that does more than just convey the benefits of a product or service. If you’ve kept an eye on story-driven social media campaigns or caught even a small handful of commercials during the last Super Bowl, you’ve seen some truly meaningful storytelling that doesn’t just inform, but also inspires. These stories are invitations to view our own lives through a particular lens, and they’re increasingly more focused on the story than the brand. When such stories resonate, we remember the brand because we remember the story, and associate the brand with it. This is powerful.

And while traditional advertising works well enough to drive sales in normal times, it simply doesn’t pass muster when catastrophe strikes and resources become limited. Many brands will be pared back; more still will be erased. It’s a difficult reality to face but there’s no avoiding it — this is a really tough time for everyone, on both sides of the equation. This crisis is forcing people to confront what they really need, and the reality is that they don’t need nearly as much as they’ve become accustomed to having. Those brands that have integrated into people’s identities by sharing who they are, rather than simply what’s for sale (yes, of course, through storytelling) stand a much better chance to survive this crisis and ultimately thrive once again once we return to normalcy. Or at least define a new normal.

So as we ride out these unprecedented times, we ask you to dwell deeply on this question: what’s your story, and what’s the best way to tell it?