Getting Lost in Car Stories: How Narrative-Based Ads Can Drive Us to Act

The history of automotive marketing is more interesting than it sounds. A brief review shows a marked shift from the days of tongue-in-cheek specification adverts towards emotive, cinematic pieces that look like rejected applications from the Sundance Film Festival.

No one needs to balance martini glasses on their bonnet (hood) , nor do they really care about the aerodynamic properties of their car’s underbelly , but the old ads at least revved up the techie car nerds. Now, though, times have changed, and we appear to be firmly supplanted into the new narrative era of car advertisement. Some have pretty good storylines . Some look like Tim Burton fever dreams . Many, however, are desperate attempts at mini-movies that try, but ultimately fail, to make us feel any real emotion.

Case in point is this one for the Cupra Born . If you don’t know anything about this car, it’s the sort of thing a middle-management I.T. executive would buy with their first bonus. The advert itself is a stream of completely unrelated short clips that try to create an associative image of what Cupra want you to think it is like to drive their all-electric vehicle. You can tell exactly how the marketing strategy meeting went.

“We want the audience to come away feeling impulsive, so they rush out and buy it. You got that, Jeff?”.

Jeff scribbles down ‘IMPULSIVE’ on his otherwise blank notepad. He then goes on to make the classic mistake of thinking that if the advert says the word – four times in thirty seconds, no less - the audience will feel impulsive. Jeff then throws in a bit of funky music, sprinkles on some speech about how a car can profoundly shape one’s identity, logs off, and takes an early lunch.

A case for compelling car stories

Don’t get me wrong, the shift towards storytelling is a good thing. Stories are one of the most powerful mediums we have for connecting brands with audiences. But if we don’t tell good brand stories, we risk trading the genuine, persuasive force of narrative immersion for something akin to story voyeurism.

The main issue I have with these more recent car ads is the audience perspective. It feels like we’re watching someone else enjoy their car. It’s theirs, not ours. We can’t imagine ourselves sitting in the car. And we certainly can’t imagine ourselves going out and buying it.

Stories are more than just a way of painting a vivid picture. They’re invitations for the audience to peel back the plastic of the screen and step into it.

When we are invited to imagine ourselves using a product, we think about what we’d do with it. How we’d use it. How it would make us feel. We create our own internal narratives about driving our new Cupra on the upcoming camping holiday. When we feel the faux leather of the steering wheel or hear the dull murmur of the engine on the country road, we see ourselves in the driver’s seat. Not the actor in the commercial. Because it’s our holiday, and it’s our car.

The science bit

Fellow storywriters, brand executives, and Jeffs of this world, there are many things you can do to turn your advertisements into compelling stories. We’ll look at one way you can invite your audiences to peel back the screen and step into the driver’s seat through, what is called in the psychological literature, ‘mental simulation ’. But it’s worth noting that the science doesn’t just speak to things with four wheels. Reliant Robins, yes. Harley Davidsons, yes. But also any brand story you might be trying to write for any brand. Diet Coke, Crocs, you name it.

Mental simulation is a process by which we cognitively construct hypothetical scenarios and fantasise about things in the future or relive past experiences.

When you’re asked to, “Imagine what it would be like to drive a Cupra,” you are transported by your self-generated story. Transportation - we’re not referring to cars here - is your immersion into the story itself. We all know what it’s like to get totally lost in a story. In this case, getting lost is a good thing.

Watching a typical car advert? Low transportation. Reading The Great Gatsby? High transportation. And when you’re transported, you’re lost in the story. Thinking about how actually-not-too-bad driving a Cupra is, it creates feelings of positive emotion, where getting lost feels really good and you construct a world in your head of you and your new Cupra.

How marketers can use story to their advantage

Adverts can encourage mental simulation in two simple yet effective ways. The first involves framing scenes in a way that places the audience directly into the experience by using a first-person perspective, rather than a third-person viewpoint. When scenes are shot from the first-person perspective, viewers can more easily imagine themselves as the protagonist of the scenario, fostering a deeper sense of connection with the product or experience. This subtle shift in perspective provides the audience with a psychological "leg-up," making it easier for them to project themselves into the advertisement and mentally simulate the joy, convenience, or value the product brings into their lives.

The second method is to directly invite the audience to imagine how they would use the product in their own lives. By prompting viewers with questions or scenarios such as, "How would you incorporate this into your daily routine?" or "What would your life look like with this product?" advertisers can activate the audience's creativity and sense of ownership. Together, these techniques not only make advertisements more engaging but also create a lasting emotional impact, driving stronger recall and greater motivation to take action. Because there’s nothing in this world we care more about than ourselves.

The scene opens looking out of the windshield (windscreen) onto a quiet residential street, with a car parked in front. The camera pans down slightly as two hands glide over the steering wheel and the oh-so-sexy Cupra badge comes into view. The camera pans left to bring the rear seats in shot and we see it packed with camping gear and some visibly excited passengers start buckling up. Then it pans all the way back around over the driver’s right shoulder and we see a couple, arm-in-arm, waving us off from the driveway. The indicator ‘click’ comes on and the narrator asks, “Imagine how you’d spend your first day in your new Cupra Born”.