Using Stories to Spark Conversation

CEO Urs Schaeppi pedaled hard for Swisscom on Thursday. At the booth in Zurich’s main train station, he gave it his all on an electricity-generating bike to recharge customers’ smartphone batteries. He wasn’t alone there. More than 60 of his most athletic employees pedaled alongside him. The Swisscom employees generated all the energy needed by passersby themselves—a symbol of how the telecom provider works tirelessly for its customers every day.

For Tim Alexander, Head of Marketing and Communications at Swisscom, this is the «future of marketing»: Instead of relying on traditional advertising campaigns, the company plans to focus more on creating experiences in the future. The campaign at the main train station is one of a whole series of initiatives and part of the telecom provider’s comprehensive content marketing strategy: Through storytelling, the goal is not simply to bombard customers, prospects, and partners with advertising messages, but to engage them.

The new communication platform, Storys, plays a central role in Swisscom’s content marketing strategy. It features articles on digital life, technology, sustainability, and modern work. Here, too, the focus is not on advertising messages but on topics related to the company. A 15-member editorial team is responsible for the content on the platform. Ten external contributors—including Newsnet blogger Reda el Arbi—and five internal staff members write for Storys on a part-time basis. The team also curates content that has been published on other platforms.

The articles generally take an optimistic view, in line with the slogan «Land of Opportunities.» However, as Alexander points out, there are also articles that take a critical look at digitalization. «That’s exactly where the opportunity for storytelling lies. It’s not about just sugarcoating products.» As an example, he points to el Arbi’s latest column, in which the blogger criticizes Facebook’s nipple censorship. The editorial team has the freedom to choose such topics on their own initiative. «There are no briefings for the editors. They go out in search of stories and have the freedom to publish them on our platform.»

Reach is not the main focus

Storys« primary goal is not to reach as many people as possible, but to deliver content that sparks interaction. »Times have changed. Reach without depth of quality won’t help us in the long run. We’re aiming for a slow, steady growth in reach that’s high-quality,« Alexander emphasizes. During the beta phase, what matters is that the people on the platform are truly engaging with the content. We measure how long visitors stay on Storys, how many and which articles they read, and how often they share or interact with them. »Only once this is working well—once we’ve learned from our readers—will we set goals regarding reach.”

Create Your Own Events

Swisscom also creates its own stories for «Stories.» «In the future, we’ll regularly organize events like the one at the main train station and then report on them on the platform.» Another example of this campaign-driven communication is the recently launched «Shot By Bryan Adams» campaign. Swisscom enlisted musician and photographer Bryan Adams and had him photograph Switzerland from his perspective online this October. “This way, a company can generate its own talking points,” explains Alexander.

Why focus on storytelling?

By shifting its focus to storytelling, Swisscom is responding to two key changes in communication that are closely intertwined: the shift from sales-oriented communication to relationship building, and the increasing fragmentation of the media landscape.

«In the past, the goal was for a brand to come across as likable and to influence consumer preferences in order to trigger a purchase intent. Today, it’s more important to support customers even after the purchase and build a deep relationship with them,» says Alexander. Since social media turns everyone into a media outlet, we need people who’ve had a good experience more than ever. The big challenge here is getting customers to share their positive experiences with others when they like a brand. On the other hand, the fragmentation of the media landscape—and online channels in particular—is constantly increasing. «The complexity of reaching each individual is increasing. Perception has become more selective because everyone is engaging with different media. It’s no longer enough to package the message in a TV commercial, an ad, or a billboard. You have a wide range of options at your disposal that you must use if you want to reach a broad audience, and you need relevant and engaging stories that are so interesting they find their audience on their own.»

EA field of experimentation with an open outcomeg

These developments are leading to new approaches in marketing. «Content marketing is on everyone’s lips. For us, too, the question arises as to the possibilities of marketing when our customers enter into a relationship with us and can become the medium that recommends us,» says Alexander. With its latest measures, Swisscom has found some initial answers. How will the story unfold?

Simone Isliker