Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to breathe life into your brand, if you are able to give products and services an identity by capturing the incredible features and differentiations they really have, you can then take your target audience on a journey they desire to experience.

In today’s overcrowded market place, where consumers are consistently bombarded with media messaging, the only way to cut through the clutter is to ensure that your brand forms a personal connection with your target. With the educated consumer one needs to craft stories that are authentic, creative and inspirational.
As a brand is a matter of perception, telling a story that resonates with human experience immediately creates an emotional appeal. Emotional branding is a progressive marketing strategy that manages to ensure client retention and brand loyalty.
E+I recently did this for our client Pentair, Kreepy Krauly. Our approach however was very unusual to that of your everyday storytelling product video – we decided to take a risky step down the mockumentary path. For those of you who don’t know what a mockumentary is here is a quick breakdown:
Mockumentaries are a type of film that takes on a style of film-making where one takes the most factual topics and literally flips it upside down. They are usually fictitious with quite a humorous side. They are usually made to look like a real documentary that feature hidden camera style shots with trained actors and loose scripts for the pure purpose of comedic value.
The purpose of creating this Kreepy Krauly mockumentary was to create not only brand awareness but to entertain the consumer and keep the brand top of mind for its own ridicule and personality – A winner in the South African market. The use of South African comedians among the likes of Jason Goliath and Glen Bidderman paved the way for a successful and hilarious video that gained incredible social momentum through more than 70 000 youtube visits within the first week and an amazing talkability index on programmes such as Maggs on media and 702’s Andy Rise Media chat.
The result was a creative but risky approach to a common advertising brief where balance and expertise brought a story to life, and a product to the eyes of its consumers – differently.