Overview
To begin with, I would like to emphasize that when I talk about advertising, I do not mean the annoying commercial you saw last night for some local car dealership trying to drum up traffic. Advertising, in the context of my thinking about it, is more sophisticated than such banal promotional noise. It is my contention that when advertising works, it is because the ad is a narrative for the experience of the brand. However, for the ad to really work, the narrative must be incomplete. The incomplete narrative is a way of involving the viewer and allowing the consumer to make the experience of the brand his or her own.
What is a narrative?
It is not simplistic to say that a narrative is just a story. But then, what is a story? A story is a series of
related events that follow some kind of pattern or convention that allows the reader to anticipate what might
come next. Furthermore, a story has at least one narrator and one reader. There is the narrator implied by the
context of the story as well as the actual narrator who creates the story. Likewise there may be an implied reader
as well as the actual reader who receives the story. In the case of advertisements, the actual reader would be whoever
sees the ad; whereas the implied reader would be the target the ad was conceived for.
Narratives are important to people because they help us make sense of our reality and shape how we interpret events.
As children we are taught social conventions and values in the stories we are told. Human beings make stories to
communicate and to interpret their thoughts about the world.
What is an incomplete narrative?
An incomplete narrative is simply a fragment of a story. It is recognizable as part of a larger story,
but that story may be ambiguous given the nature of the fragment. It is this ambiguity that is the heart
of the incomplete narrative approach because it is the key to the viewer's ability to take over the ad
and interact with it.
In order for the incomplete narrative approach to work it must accomplish several things
Intrigue simply means that the ad is different enough to break through the clutter and be noticed. A novel
story or approach to telling it can greatly aid this goal. Once intrigued the ad must attract the viewer's
further attention. An ad may be intriguing once, but if it is attractive, it will be looked at multiple times
with interest. The narrative fragment of the ad must resonate with its target audience. By resonance, I mean
that the ad's story is relevant to the target's life experience, sense of humor, cultural perspective, and values.
Inspiration is the most important component in my theory because that is where the "work" happens. Ideally
the ad inspires the viewer to create a longer narrative from the fragment he/she is given -- to make a fuller
story for the brand that is particular to his/her experience. Thus, the target actually begins an internal
narrative about the brand, one whose seed was planted by an ad. Among the many ways that the viewer can interact
with the ad is to embrace it by parody or other emulation.
Ideally, when the incomplete narrative is used, the ad begins to take on a life of its own. As viewers
notice it, pay attention to it, feel that it is pertinent to them, and recast it into their own lives and
experiences. It is then when the advertising works by creating brand equity, by making the brand a part of
the cultural fabric, by fertilizing a relationship with the consumer.