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We live in skeptical times. Poll after poll tells us that trust in institutions – and the information they promulgate – is at an all-time low. Before making major purchasing decisions in this environment, B2B decision makers want to see data on performance, projected cost/benefit, environmental impact, customer satisfaction, and more. As importantly, they want to deploy data themselves to establish credibility for their own company and its products. Research is obviously key to generating data. But equally critical is how to present it in a way that informs, reassures, and even inspires. Capitalizing on the power of creative data visualization approaches to reach attention-challenged decision makers is essential for branding, whether online, in presentations, on film, or in advertising.
Telling stories.
At heart, brands tell stories – about a company’s purpose, its products, its people, its vision. Memorable stories are told in words, of course, but also in images. It is estimated that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and that visuals are processed in the brain at 60,000 times the speed of text. It’s no wonder that sites like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube dominate so much of our time, and that posts on Twitter and Facebook that contain images generate more engagement than those that feature text alone. One of the most powerful and memorable image types is data. Presented creatively, data can simplify concepts, support and amplify a claim, and generate trust and confidence in your value proposition. Consider a long-standing client of ours, a leading global specialty chemicals company. The company’s products are vitally important to several major industries, including aerospace, automotive, and steel. Yet its role in the success of these industries was often unappreciated by customers, investors and, crucially, employees and recruits. We developed a brand based on the company’s ability to drive the success of its clients – and of entire industries. To demonstrate this, and to make it credible, we told the company’s brand story using both words and data. The data highlighted the number of companies within key industries that used our client’s products and the efficiency gains these products delivered.The unique advantages of data.
Using data to tell your brand story offers a number of significant advantages. These include:- Authenticity: Data adds credibility. Think of how many companies promote themselves as “the leading” – fill in the industry or product here. Consumers instinctively skip over tired statements like these. Add data, however, and consumers will sit up and take notice. A statement like “25% of Fortune 500 companies trust us to …” adds substance and authenticity to your story.
- Awareness: When presented creatively as an infographic, data stands out. Data can add visual interest to a text- heavy story while allowing the reader to access information quickly. Data is also highly shareable, which means your brand story will be exposed to more people.
- Deepening Context: Data can add context to text by going deeper in a highly concise manner. Rather than devoting a paragraph to comparing two trends, you can show them the comparison through a data visualization that quickly and memorably makes your point.