Brexit - Better stories always win.

In 2016 the Brexit referendum results were revealed on the 23rd June 2016, my birthday. It was a little depressing to think my birthday, not an overly significant date in history before the vote could be known from now on as “Britain’s Independence Day.”

And yes, as you may have guessed I voted remain incase you’re curious.

However I don’t have to agree with Brexit or how the Vote Leave campaign was run to recognise it is perhaps one of the most effective pieces of marketing in recent times and has since spawned more twists and turns than cheap garden hose.

My Father-in-law is now obsessed with Brexit (see above). It’s his favourite TV show, it’s all he talks about, and he’s also a remainer!

Brexit has polarised our society, with even families split between remain and leave. My Father voted leave because he heard that the EU was going to make anyone over the age of 75 resit their driving test. LOLs. 

Before the referendum vote on the EU was announced in 2015 there were only a handful of hard line Brexit supporters and people like my Father didn't really have a strong view one the EU way or the other. However as the Brexit campaign gained momentum almost everything wrong with the world, down to the shape of our bananas was blamed on the unelected Bureaucrats in Brussels.

So what can we learn from the story of Brexit that you should incorporate into your video marketing strategy to create a legion of die hard supporters of your brand?

1. Emotion sells better than Facts

No one can deny the passion vote leave had for their campaign and the reasons they put forward were extremely emotive and painted a positive vision for the future. They used words like freedom, independence and Take back control.

While vote remain used negative consequences to encourage people to stay. Phrases such as Increased food prices or economical decline if we left. They highlighted the the costs of leaving more than the benefits of staying which did not empower people in the same way Vote leave did.

Businesses who use positive, emotive storytelling will always make a much bigger impact on their audience. See below one of a number of videos made by Vote Leave about how the future of NHS would look inside the EU versus outside. It’s not the most subtle piece of advertising, but it was very effective. 

Takeaway: Emotion is involved in all our decision making (even for business) so don’t forget to include positive emotional benefits to using your product or service in your video marketing content. 

2. Keep your message simple

The Brexit message was clear and simple. Leave Europe and take back control of your life. Everyone likes the feeling of autonomy and this message was very appealing with a strong value proposition. 

The Remain message of “We’re stronger together” had the potential to win more support, but the politicians were divided in their approach and therefore weren’t convincing (I’m looking at you Corbyn). Vote remain relied too heavily on a rational, economical argument that was overly complicated to say the least.

Takeaway: Video works best when it has one message. Be clear on how you want people to think about your brand and produce content representing that overriding message.

3. Use strong Visuals

Everyone remembers the picture of THAT bus or the queues of refugees trying to get into Britain. Remember any pictures from vote remain? No neither do I. We are hardwired to process and react to images (especially emotive images of people).

Takeaway: Choose the thumbnail of your video carefully (not everyone has autoplay enabled) and remember the first 10 seconds of your video must grab your audience’s attention and curiosity. Don’t bore them with an opening title or long establishing shot if using your video as part of a targeted campaign.

4. Listen to your audience

Due to algorithms that run amuck it’s far too easy these days to get sucked into your own information bubble that serves up content, reinforcing your existing beliefs. 

Ironically the remain campaign also seemed to get caught up in their own echo chambers. I don’t think they realised how disillusioned many people were with the status-quo, especially those most effected by globalisation.

Takeaway: Do some market research before creating your content to find out what your audience wants or needs. Test small and see what works. Don’t decide the type of content you WANT your audience to consume, let them tell you and then make more of that.

5. Be Consistent and target effectively

Apparently the amount of ad spend on social media for Vote Leave and Vote Remain was the roughly the same. However the main difference that gave Vote Leave the edge was their targeting. They did a much better job of targeting the “persuaders” as the documentary The Great Hack called them. Small margins was all it took in the end.

Takeaway: Post content regularly and don’t rely on organic reach, which apart from on LinkedIn is almost dead on every other platform. Promoted social media posts can be extremely cost effective when done right.