Ryan Stoner's Blog

As a strategist, my goal has always been to know my customer and extract what “must haves” matters to them. This means: Search for real audience insights and opportunities to ensure all is known about the customer, brand, category, project, et cetera. Understand what makes this opportunity different, special or competitive (capitalizing on competitor weaknesses.) Once those insights have been identified turn the ideas around them into solutions: Marrying insights to a genuine product or brand truths and help to explain and clarify the logic of where we are going and why it matters in order to encourage customers to tell stories about us. Any savvy business person knows that identifying the target audience for a marketing message means more potential leads, conversions, and sales. In years past, this might have been tackled through demographic studies or charts of buying trends, but these hands-off approaches to best customer identification and development simply no longer ...

What a difference a year makes. As we look back on marketing campaigns over the past year, there has been a huge rise of more instances of interactive marketing as brands look beyond audience reach to bring higher engagement into their campaigns. There is a growing focus on attention as a qualitative measure of success. Numerous companies are pursuing routes that involve interactive marketing because it’s a great way to capture attention and drive audiences to take action. In this overly saturated media world attention is a scarce resource and marketers who simply seek to drive a click risk alienating the consumers they are seeking to attract. We’ve become immune to the flashing colors on the side of the article we’re reading and close pop-up ads without even looking what they’re about. With the continued use of social media and the increasing use of second screens interactive content will become even more vital for marketers. Brands should be focused on develo...

I’ve previously written about the importance of  crafting a quality brand story  for your business. If you want to see true success in your company, you need to grab the attention of consumers and help them invest in your brand’s story. It’s time to focus on the long-game and future goals for bringing the most value to your customers instead of focusing on short-term growth goals or focusing on quick growth tactics. The problem with how most companies do brand stories We’ve talked brand stories to death. Every company knows it’s important to have one. So then, why do so many companies fail when it comes to crafting an engaging brand story that draws in their audience? People opt for snappy taglines or lists of facts and numbers that they believe constitute a brand story. Writing a few sentences about why you started your company without any pep or heart does not make a brand story. Including facts is fine, but you need something else too. Recently, other people have be...

With each new country I visit, my entire perspective “morphs” toward something better. I feel more at home with friends and family than I do in a specific location we call “home”. When you  grow up overseas in third world countries you go on adventures that others have difficulty relating to  and people lack context for and often don’t want to hear about. Paradoxically, I never learned to recite the pledge of allegiance, but I did learn how to hail a cab before I could drive. My sense of home is not a physical location, it is wherever I am surrounded by the people I love.  My roots are people, not places. As a result of travel, I am more thankful, open and hopeful.  People are vibrant, beautiful, and crave community. The more we experience the more we realize there is hope and happiness all around us. Travel allows us to not only see the world but see perspectives.  WIth each  new adventure , my heart and mind continue to be open to the world’s cha...

People find meaning and connection through the stories they tell one another. If you want to truly connect with your audience, the best way is through using a brand story to engage people’s emotions and inspire them to action. Good stories make people think and feel and remember why something is important. Quality storytelling makes products and services relevant, which in turn makes companies successful. Learning how to craft a quality brand story causes people to stay loyal to your brand. A brand story helps people sincerely care about whether or not your business succeeds. It helps them cultivate an attachment to it and shows them how they’re a part of the brand’s story. Your customers experience the brand’s story for themselves and can truly see the value you’re providing for them. I’d like to give you some examples of how brand’s have successfully used story to tap into something people care about and also promote their business in the hope that you’ll take away somethin...

As technology becomes more prevalent, marketers must work to appeal to users that spend a  significant amount of time surfing the web. Fewer people have traditional television where  advertisers know commercials must be viewed. Most people install some kind of ad-blocker on  their computer so they aren’t bothered by ads when browsing online. Millions pay for online  streaming services that boast about their lack of ads, so people choose to watch television on  these sites. Even when browsing social media, users find a way to block ads or simply ignore them. There is a demand for technology-driven experiences because finally brands understand that  the key to breaking through is delivering an authentic impression on the audience. In order to  continue courting profits for companies and keep online marketing relevant, we must develop  new methods. We must strive to make online ads more enticing and increase the chance that  users will click...