In an era of AI and fragmented content ecosystems, a cohesive brand narrative is a marketing fundamental.
I’m not one for buzz words or jumping on trending marketing bandwagons. If anything, I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to ‘the next big thing’. Which you might think is a bit of a barrier for a Strategy Director in a brand and content agency but actually I think having a good bullsh*t radar is pretty important.
But there’s one buzz word, or buzz phrase, I’m all in on and that’s Brand Storytelling, and that’s because it’s what we’ve been championing at Editions all along.
Operating in the fairly homogenised world of B2B financial and professional services, we know that creating a strong brand narrative is crucial for building distinction, understanding, and crucially, trust.
In general though, our sector is not great at this. So much focus is on delivering tactical, product or service-led content, or in producing bigger campaigns in siloes, with no clear narrative thread connecting initiatives. I strongly advocate for more ‘top of funnel’ brand storytelling and am frequently citing Binet and Field’s 46% brand to 54% activation rule for B2B marketing.[1] Hopefully, now is the time this philosophy will start getting the traction it needs.
Benefits beyond comms
The process of establishing a clear and consistent narrative is in itself extremely important as it helps brands get a clearer understanding of who they are, what the stand for and how they do things. It helps them get a view on how they want to be perceived, and in the very best cases, if that doesn’t align with reality, it can actually affect internal change for the better.
Adam Morgan’s great book, The Pirate Inside, includes an exercise that encourages brands to think of themselves as countries. What are your brand’s defining beliefs and iconography? What common behaviours and attitudes do your citizens (employees) share? If your audience think of your brand, do they have same cues as if they were thinking of say, France, or Thailand? If you can build a brand with a culture as strong as a country, you’ll be better bound together and will have a wealth of stories to share with your audience.
Brand narrative in the age of AI
Brand narratives are rightly in the spotlight right now because it is being recognised that in the content marketing landscape, where AI now exists, a key differentiator for all brands is their humanity. Their soul, if you like. AI may be able to churn out SEO (or GEO) optimised content but it can’t express a human point of view or nuance.
And we know that audiences are already pushing back against AI. 53% of consumers distrust AI‑powered search results[1] and 61% want the option to toggle AI summaries on/off. 61.3% of US consumers say media should always disclose when content is AI‑generated; similar preferences show up internationally.[2]
When the Content Marketing Institute asked its members to name their biggest trends for 2026, ‘using your humanity’ was one of the most common responses[3]. “Share what AI can’t. Your voice,” was one strong articulation of this, from Ingrid Booth of Investec.
The new story systems
When communicating a brand narrative externally, consistency is important but less important than cohesion. The array of formats and channels available to marketers and more importantly, used by our audiences, demands flexibility in how we tell our stories. We sometimes talk now about story systems.
This means creating an ecosystem of narrative, themes, characters and messages that define and articulate who you are, what you stand for and what your point of view is, and then using these as the basis of a living narrative architecture. This allows for the creation of interconnected stories across platforms, formats and channels that work cumulatively to build a cohesive narrative in the mind of our audiences.
This approach helps brands scale storytelling because it provides a shared narrative blueprint that anyone in the organisation can use, or could even be the basis of increasingly influential external user generated content (UGC).
Most importantly, a brand story system helps a brand feel alive. Instead of telling one story over and over, the brand becomes a universe of stories that all reinforce the same emotional truth. That’s what creates depth, memorability, and long-term resonance.
Kevin Hearn
Director of Strategy