If there’s one thing that my 20 years at GE taught me, it’s that any brand can come to life with the right story.

Complex brands can be simplified. Dry brands can sparkle. As an iconic brand with 130+ years of history, GE’s brand was at risk of becoming stale and out of touch. We therefore strove for deeply human connections through gutsy, awards-winning campaigns (a gamble that would ultimately pay off, reframing GE as a global innovation leader and restoring the brand value to new heights).

Our standing brief was that our marketing had to be as innovative as our products. This meant every brand activation had to showcase GE’s strengths in unexpected ways:

• To highlight our leadership in material science, we designed sneakers made from the exact silicon carbide used in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s original moon-landing boots.
• To showcase our hydrophobic coating, we invited YouTube’s “Slo Mo Guys” to film in our Research Center (the mesmerizing video garnered 14M+ views).
• To make science accessible and entertaining to the general public, we tapped into cultural moments like #Spring Break It and celebrated unsung heroes like scientist Millie Dresselhaus.

It’s this ethos of relentlessly searching for new creative angles that ultimately drew me to Said Differently, where as CEO I’ve helped to shape stories for multiple brands. With each new client, I become increasingly convinced that every brand has a compelling story to tell. You just need to know where to look…

If you know you know

The biggest brands in the world are recognizable for their stories:

• Starbucks is the “third place” to spend time after home and work
• Apple is for people who “think different”
• Dove promotes beauty as a source of “happiness, not anxiety”

These are powerful stories, and they’ve helped elevate these companies to become household names. But as much as I admire organizations like Apple and Dove, my heart leans towards less-understood brands–brands that do important work but are, for the most part, invisible. Let’s call them IYKYK brands.

IYKYK brands operate behind-the-scenes, quietly keeping our homes cool, our planes flying, our buildings secure. They provide knowledge, services, and products that are vital to the day-to-day functioning of society. Most people don’t know of Akamai Technologies, for example, which powers a significant portion of internet traffic, or Flexport, which manages global supply chain logistics.

And yet there are countless IYKYK brands like these, and they all have a story to uncover. The problem is they’re focusing too much time and effort on the wrong end of the funnel.

The magic in the middle

At Said Differently, two core principles guide our work:

• Any topic (no matter how boring, complicated, niche, or obscure) can be reframed to ignite emotion
• The middle-of-the-funnel – that elongated period where a customer is between learning about a product and completing a purchase – is where the magic happens

Top-of-the-funnel work gets attention and awards, and bottom-of-the-funnel work is where marketers demonstrate clear and measurable ROI. The middle-of-the-funnel is sadly rendered a barren wasteland, and oftentimes for good reason: content made for the middle can be dull and uninspired. It frequently fails to align a brand’s DNA with a truly compelling reason to engage with it.

A pity, since it doesn’t have to be this way!

Our teams, which are cast from a network of the world’s best creators, focus on making middle-funnel content that sizzles:

• For Kyndryl, we transformed their Readiness Report from a thought leadership piece into dozens of data visualizations.
• For Apollo, we took their existing narratives to a deeper emotional level with the “Think it New” campaign.
• For Brightspeed, we reimagined one of the least-loved industries – internet providers – by introducing a lovable rehabilitated internet troll (this captured customer attention and led to record-setting fiber sales).

We love unearthing insights for companies that the world may take for granted. It’s a kind of magic, and it’s always seems to be found in the middle-of-the-funnel.

Finding your magic

I believe to my core that EVERY brand can fuel passion and interest with the right story. Some brands just need to work a little harder to crystallize that truth, finding that magic in the middle to tell a story in a fresh and memorable way.

But doesn’t that challenge make the journey more rewarding in the end? I think so. As GE founder Thomas Edison was fond of saying, “there’s a way to do it better–-find it.”

If you’re interested in finding a way to make your brand more interesting, give me a shout.