Interactive Media
Rethinking Case Studies
This interactive project is emblematic of my approach to case study content that elevates your brand by honoring your customer’s.
Most clients I’ve worked with understand how important customer stories are for demonstrating the effectiveness and value of their product or services. However, too many of them tend to want their product or service to be the star of the story. Who wants to read that?
Key notes
- Make the customer the hero or heroine of the story.
- Your product is a key turning point in their journey.
- Text is not always the best way to tell a story.
Good brand storytelling means that you understand how your brand mission supports your customers in their respective mission. Your product is going to be in the story, don’t worry. But the story needs to engage readers on its own. The struggle has to be real. In long-form case studies I put a premium on showcasing a clear understanding of the customer’s challenges and goals before introducing the solution.
This dynamic was magnified when a long-term client I worked with finally scrapped its outdated web hosting platform for a modern one. The company’s old site was so big, page loading had been excruciatingly slow, or worse. The new site was lightweight, pages loaded fast, and it accommodated interactive plugins that could be used to enrich the user experience. Reviewing the new resources at our disposal, I conferred with my fellow creative director on how we could use this opportunity to revitalize some prime customer stories from head to toe.
The thing is, in order for an interactive site to deliver, the user or visitor has to want to engage. There experience is based on clicking, navigating one’s way through the story. In this context especially, “look at how our product works” is not the call to action many brands think it is. Interest in the details of the story should drive that engagement.
Not only did we pare away any unnecessary repetition of our own company’s name, but we also minimized text altogether, thinking of each entire page as its own infographic, where if any element of the story can be told visually, that’s how we’d do it. Believe me, a strong writer is required to execute on this. As editorial creative director, I guided each writer through my vision for our page templates, and was gentle in providing feedback on their earliest drafts, so that they understood the brutal cuts I was advising were necessary, and that the design would bring our story to life.
Any upfront misgivings our C-suite might have had about putting all the spotlight on our customer were allayed when they saw the finished product. Our company strengthened the brand experience it was delivering not through buzzwords or taglines, but through unifying elements like tone, composition, and visual cues. This approach also improved SEO for the website by distinguishing each case study with relevant pain points and topical industry challenges, instead of product names.
I’ve continued to tackle case study projects with great zeal. Even when confidentiality agreements require a customer story to be anonymized, like this one I created for a production studio, I am gratified by the payoff of helping the client get out of its own way in the service of storytelling.