Telling stories is the key to making customers loyal, declared Meetic, Famosa and MyTaxi executives yesterday at ESADE

“An individual is exposed to more than 3,000 advertisements each day, or more than 1 million each year. Sometimes the avalanche is so overwhelming that it’s very hard to know what it is that brands are trying to tell us,” commented Diego Sanabria, member of the Executive Board of the ESADE Alumni Marketing Club, at the start of the ‘‘Connecting Brands and Consumers’’ panel discussion yesterday in Madrid. The panel featured brand executives from Meetic, Famosa and MyTaxi, who argued that the way to break through all the noise is to tell good stories.

Paula Aranegui, Business Developer for Spain and Portugal at Meetic, commented: “Storytelling is our common thread; the more risks we take, the more we get it right.” Ms. Aranegui’s remark referred to her company’s latest campaign: #loveyourimperfections. With this campaign, “we wanted to go a step further and join the conversation in even more intimate situations, getting closer to our audience in order to present ourselves as an optimistic, reliable, serious brand,” she explained. To transmit its message, Meetic uses multiple channels, including a blog, which Ms. Aranegui described as “our own communication channel; a place where we generate content. It’s fundamental, but of course the content has to be relevant.” The key, she explained, is to “open, test and optimise”.

“If we don’t keep working to surprise people and tell new stories, we will fall victim to companies that do,” acknowledged Eduardo Garagorri, former CMO of Famosa. Mr. Garagorri explained that he sees Famosa not as a toy company but as a player in the entertainment industry: “For example, PinyPon has been a toy so far, but it’s about to become an animated series, which will premiere this Christmas.” According to Mr. Garagorri, digitisation and technology are major allies when it comes to transmitting this content. “However,” he added, “you have to be on all platforms and channels, and your ability to do that depends on the size of your company.”

Antonio Cantalapiedra, CEO of MyTaxi Spain and Portugal, spoke in favour of 360º campaigns. “These campaigns are able to reach all segments of the population, from the outskirts to the city,” he explained. “This capillary action allows you to be present everywhere,” he added, in reference to MyTaxi’s strategy of “going to various events to distribute water bottles with the MyTaxi brand on the label and a QR code that provides a discount on our services”.