I opened up the proposal that I had written for the project. I winced at some of the language — I was just figuring out how to write proposals and I think I went a little overboard. “I am confident that my services will be of tremendous value to Hattaway. Following is a proposal for initial services in what I hope will turn into a long-term relationship.” I laid it on a little thick. Nonetheless, I got the project, and it was a project that tided me over through some lean times.

Then I came to the schedule. The kickoff meeting was set for September 4th. The final approval of the brochure was to be September 28th. One date stood out to me in particular. “Final Logo Approved — Sept. 12″ It strikes me that I have no strong recollection that this was my client in September of 2001, but I can’t imagine that the final logo was approved on September 12. I’m pretty sure Doug was busy that day.

It’s odd and wondrous how looking at an 8-year-old proposal can remind me of an indelible event, and I can marvel at the success of a long-lost client, and somehow at the end of it all feel a little hopeful that this economy and this country may actually turn around.

Disney has a successful brand for a lot of reasons, but I want to talk about the way they reinforce and strengthen their brand through the experience that visitors have at their Disney World collection of parks and resorts. I’m not a Disney astroturfer or cheerleader, but I can appreciate what they have done with their brand and pass along what I’ve learned from it in a marketing framework.

Here are the four main things that Disney does to consistently strengthen their brand:

1. Go Big or Go Home: Disney doesn’t do anything half-way. Their resorts are big and comfortable. The rides in the Disney theme parks take a theme and follow it through with well-produced introductory “stories” that introduce you to the ride while you’re still waiting in line. The ride itself might not be any more thrilling or complex that one you would ride at Six Flags, but the ride is much more engaging because of the entire story and immersive experience that is wrapped around it. There is a tendency in corporate marketing to “play it safe” — to find out what your competitors are doing and do exactly the same thing except using your own color palette. This strategy might keep you afloat, but it won’t turn any heads or make you a leader in your market. Don’t just give your audience the same ride as everyone else; engage them in an experience that they will remember.
2. Content is King: Disney has a ton of content and they use it in ways that are continually strengthening their brand. Your company probably doesn’t have 70 year’s worth of content to draw on, but if you’re inventive and tell a compelling story with your content, then the people you are marketing to will pay attention. One client of ours, Hyper9, developed a “character” — Hugh, the Alien — to engage their visitors and make them feel part of a larger world that exists separate from typical corporate marketing speak. As they grow their site and add new campaigns, they’ve found they are able to expand on the Alien theme in new and interesting ways.
3. Details Matter: Disney is great at details. From the styling of their resort hotels to the set dressing that surrounds their rides and park attractions, Disney excels at interesting and appropriate details. On one ride — the Tower of Terror — there is a open window into a bell-clerk’s office at the exit to the ride. The office is filled with period equipment and decorated flawlessly. I even peeked around the corner and discovered that the wall that faced away from the riders, which would normally never be seen, was decorated. That level of detail greatly aids in the immersive quality of the ride and gives riders things to discover upon multiple visits.
   
   In your corporate marketing, there are two ways to incorporate a detail-oriented framework. First, make sure your pieces are grammatically perfect, consistent throughout in fonts, colors and imagery. Nothing breaks a person out of an engaging experience more than a blatant typo or a misaligned paragraph. Second, add creative flourishes wherever it makes sense — graphical bullets instead of standard ones, decorative lines instead of flat and straight, callout boxes and drop quotes. All these small details will add up to an engaging experience and provide reasons for your prospects to dig deeper.




4. Be Engaging. Throughout the Disney parks, there are street performers who wander about, doing skits or magic tricks and engaging the participation of the park visitors. In Hollywood Studios, a director and his leads bring in extras from the crowd and shoot their feature, while in Tomorrowland, a robotic trash can follows children around and talks to them while they stare wide-eyed and wondering how it is done.
   
   Too often, corporate marketing is a one-way street. Brochures and direct mail pieces inform but don’t often elicit a response. Web sites can be more engaging, but most companies settle for brochureware sites that offer little in the way of true visitor interaction. The best marketing creates a dialog between a company and its customers. Develop a contest that rewards the best product suggestions; use social media to interact with your clients; invent an iPhone game that features your brand — there are so many inventive ways to engage your prospects. A little time, thought and imagination will help you discover them.

Let me know in the comments what you like or don’t like about Disney’s brand and how you’ve used these characteristics in your marketing.

Too many marketing campaigns that I’ve seen are based on features and benefits, rather than stories. A bulleted list rarely engages and inspires. A screenshot has no inherent drama. One of the reasons social media has become more and more popular with businesses is that it engages an audience in the story of your business as it unfolds.

So why don’t more businesses take their products to market with compelling stories? Because telling good stories is hard. Marketing professionals are rarely gifted with the same talents as good storytellers — a sense of character and motivation, a gift for drama and plot, the ability to create an engaging setting.

Here are some ideas for using good storytelling techniques to market your products:

1. Understand Your Audience: If you’re reading a young adult novel, and it opens with a discussion of theoretical physics, you’d probably put it down pretty quickly. Or if you go to a movie called Robot Invasion and it turns out to be a chick flick, you would lose interest and walk out. Delivering the right story to the right audience is crucial. You want your prospects to see your materials and think Yes! This relates to me!
2. Use Three-Dimensional Characters: The latest “laptop hunter” ads from Microsoft show how using what appears to be a real person involved in a genuine struggle (to find the right laptop) can create a compelling marketing campaign. Whether you use actual testimonials from your customers and clients, or you create compelling fictional characters whose motivations and experiences are believable, having great, relatable characters in your story is a must.
3. Provide Real Conflict: If your product is any good, it solves a real problem. Use storytelling to highlight in a meaningful way the pain that affects your prospects and show how your product delivers them from that pain. When the story gets to its satisfying conclusion, and your product has saved the day, your audience will appreciate it.
4. Deliver a Sequel: The best stories don’t end after the first installment. Keep your audience engaged by creating new scenarios, bigger drama and more powerful resolutions.

One of the ways we’ve put this theory to the test is by creating what we call “Hell and Heaven Slides” — PowerPoint presentations that use graphics, animation and text to tell a story. The first slide is the Hell slide and it shows the viewer how the world looks without our client’s product, and the second slide explains how that Hell is transformed into Heaven when our client’s product is introduced. It’s a simple concept that works because it targets the right audience, introduces relatable characters, and provides conflict and a satisfying resolution.

The next time you’re planning a marketing campaign, ask yourself: Is this a good story?

The truth is that most presentations — whether sales pitches or convention keynotes — are boring. The presenter may have chosen a sharp-looking template from the PowerPoint library, but most of the slides are long lists of bullet points, broken up by the occasional stock photo, clip art doodle, or line drawing. These rudimentary graphics can serve to break up the monotonous text-only slides, but they generally offer little else.

A truly engaging presentation will use graphics to articulate the speaker’s ideas, provoke thought and inquiry in the audience, and bring understanding to viewers who cannot grasp your concepts through words alone. If those graphics are professional and artistic, they will also cast your corporate image in a stronger light, priming your audience to trust your vision and believe your pitch.

We believe that presentation graphics should achieve three goals:

1. They should explain rather than simply illustrate: The best graphics tell a story, for which the presenter is the narrator. Layered graphics that animate and grow as the presenter speaks can make complex concepts appear simple and understandable. A screenshot of your product next to a list of bulleted features can’t compete with that.
2. They should enhance your brand, not limit it: A stock photo rarely does anything for your brand. A stylistic diagram that uses your corporate palette can reinforce your brand’s best qualities while elucidating a difficult idea. The higher the graphical polish, the more your audience will associate quality with your company.
3. They should promote order, not chaos: Most presentations that we receive for updating, contain a random mix of photography, clip art, line drawings and “smart art” scattered throughout the presentation as though the author thought each and every slide could be improved by some graphic. I think graphics should be used only where logical and they should all be of a consistent style and palette. A few well-designed and well-placed graphics can achieve much more than a multitude of bad clip art and photos.

Ultimately, the best presentations tell a story and engage the audience through clear, concise text and powerful, relevant graphics. Plenty of presentation authors are good at the text part, but neglect the graphics. We think success depends on both.

Our portfolio contains several examples of the types of graphics we think work well, and we have created a short video of a presentation, using graphics and text to explain our process. We also sell hand-drawn, professional PowerPoint artwork via PointClips.com. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Recently I put together a collection of my first 80 logos. I have done a few more since then, but this is a pretty good amalgam of my work. Click the image to view a larger PDF, or click here to see the collection organized by date.