Elevate your brand storytelling with these ten actions

In today's society, characterized by its fast-paced nature and heavy reliance on automation and digital technology, the value of humanity has never been more pronounced. Businesses can no longer operate as faceless organizations.

This notion is critically important in the tourism sector, which is primarily built on the premise of providing memorable experiences. And thus, it is no longer sufficient for tourism companies to entice travelers to stay at their hotel and book their tour with low prices.

To thrive, brands must develop emotional attachments that tug at heartstrings like never before. This is where brand storytelling comes into play.

As author Clair Scobie puts it, “Stories are our intravenous sense-makers. They are our oldest ways to make meaning out of this complex thing we call life.”

The power of brand storytelling lies in its ability to create a strong emotional connection between a company, its products, and its customer to lead to many benefits:

Improved audience engagement
Stronger customer connection
Increased brand awareness
Clearer presentation of your brand values
A clear brand voice and persona, differentiating your brand from competitors
A connected community around your brand
Increased sales and revenue margins

However, before we dive into the effective brand messaging and storytelling practices in sustainable travel, let us make one thing very clear: sustainability communication and action MUST go hand in hand.

Brands have to walk the talk before communicating their sustainability initiatives, either internally or externally.

Here are the ten actions:

Get certified to build credibility to prevent greenwashing or greenhushing
Build a consistent and authentic brand narrative from the inside out
Contextualize your data to make your message make out
Apply a good mix of different types of storytelling
Make nature and people the stars of the show
Watch out for cultural & language nuances
Do not get too caught up in the format
Get creative with collaborations
Leverage user-generated content
Monitor and measure success

Tip 1: Afraid of falling into a greenwashing or greenhushing trap? Get certified to build credibility

Kelsi Kennedy, Consultant and Strategist of B Corp-certified MAp Boutique Consultancy points out, “With the fear of greenwashing looming large, companies struggle to communicate their sustainability story and competitive advantages in a credible way.”

“The younger generations in particular are becoming more skeptical about greenwashing. Therefore, brands need to back up their sustainability claims with concrete actions. This can be challenging for brands just starting their sustainability journey, but it's critical to be transparent about what steps are being taken and what progress is being made” according to Lam Minh Thu, Co-founder and Marketing Director at Alpha Creative.

The reverse effect is that “nowadays, companies even opt to downplay or not communicate their sustainability efforts at all to not be perceived as greenwashers,” says Kennedy.

This is known as Greenhushing — when companies under-communicate their sustainability practices.

Kennedy however highlights that “avoiding the trap of Greenwashing remains the number one challenge that MAp heard from its survey respondents.”

In this regard, building credibility by getting verified for sustainability practices is one of the effective ways to address this problem, so you can speak about your sustainability practices confidently.

Many brands seek a third-party internationally-recognized certification such as GSTC, B Corporation, and The Butterfly Mark.

Wondering how to choose the right certification? Check out our six-factor framework here.

Tip 2: Build a consistent and authentic brand narrative from the inside out

According to Holly Tuppen, Communications Manager of The Long Run and Author of Sustainable Travel: The Essential Guide to Positive Impact Adventures, “Sustainability messaging often sits with one team member, which means it has limited impact or reach. Every member of a team needs to be trained up in sustainability messaging and believe in it to hammer the message home”

Echoing similar sentiment, Cinthya Sopaheluwakan, Founder of The Big Picture, recommends that clarity within the internal team on core values, purpose, and mission helps shape the creation of a clear public-facing brand message and story. “Brands have to ensure that everyone in the team understands the raison d'etre, not only internally but also externally, including suppliers and organizations that they interact with.”

Kelsi Kennedy of MAp Boutique Consultancy suggests that to ensure a consistent sustainability narrative, brands must internally answer several key questions including:

what your purpose is (your WHY)
what inspired your sustainability journey
what your goals are
how you intend to reach your goals
what makes your sustainability approach different or unique
what action steps you are taking that are aligned with your overall strategy
what kind of impact you have achieved
how it’s calculated
how it benefits guests and improves guest experience

Once the team has the answers, the next logical step is to create an overarching brand narrative to encourage behavior change. Check out the 4 key narrative-building principles outlined by Sainha.

For example, Cempedak Private Island in Indonesia demonstrates how a sustainable hotel brand can proactively create a persona and narrative on social media that is consistent with its mission and values.

Tip 3: Contextualize your data to make your message stand out

Tuppen highlights that “making sustainability relatable can be a challenge. Statements alone don’t cut it — consumers need storytelling woven with compelling and up to date facts and figures.”

Sopaheluwakan recommends that brands must be radically transparent with sharing their data. This means brands should be talking openly about the tools, standards, and certifications that they use and be honest about the things that have not been achieved.

Another important point is to avoid cherry-picking data as it would prevent a business from providing a holistic story about its sustainability journey. Tuppen says, “Transparency is so important, and that often means being open about challenges and failures as well as successes. The travel industry has a history of glossing over anything negative for the sake of picture-perfect brochure speak. The brands that get real with their customers are the ones that stand out and cut through greenwash.”

Data transparency is also one of the 10 principles outlined in the upcoming Communication Handbook on The Sustainable Hotel that guides marketing and communication professionals in crafting their sustainability stories in the right way.

Further, don’t underestimate the power of data visualization to contextualize your topic and drive home your message.

Our team often refers to Visual Capitalist Green for visualizations that capture attention and help us understand complex topics. This visualization, for example, would give people in some Asian countries a pause to think why their countries top this highly undesirable list of ocean plastic polluters, and take meaningful actions.

Tip 4: Apply a good mix of different types of storytelling

According to Lam, “Travelers are looking for authentic, relatable stories, and images can play a decisive role in communicating those stories. Brands will serve themselves well by using real people, places, and experiences to bring their sustainability story to life.”

With up to 14 types of storytelling from audience-centered to character-driven storytelling, travel marketing professionals can choose and mix whichever types that suit their business and marketing needs.

For example, Maringi Sumba by Sumba Hospitality Foundation in Indonesia showcases how to create memorable stories and messages around sustainability initiatives by combining data, authentic visuals, and first-person’s narratives.

Maringi Sumba Foundation — Photo by: Maringi Sumba

Asia’s Next-Gen Hotels and Sustainability Champions often use mission-focused brand storytelling to highlight why and how a company was founded and what motivates leaders within the brand to serve their customers. This type of brand storytelling allows a company to connect with their target audience on the basis of values to create customer loyalty.

Make My Money Matter campaign video titled ‘Hidden Relations’ highlights the toxic relationship between banks and fossil fuel companies with the use of a character-driven storytelling style. It appeals to the public to think and act by invoking common human emotions.

Video by: Make My Money Matter

Tip 5: Make nature and people the stars of the show

"Some marketers like the idea that the brand is the hero. But you're almost always better off making your customer the hero of your story," says Sonia Simone at Copy Blogger.

In the travel sector, Intrepid Travel masterfully connects with its audience on social media by centering nature and people in its stories. Prospective customers would feel compelled to travel with Intrepid Travel as they see tangible benefits of their money going toward offsetting negative impacts and providing jobs to local communities.

We have also been closely watching Sustainable Travel International’s Where Next, a short-form docuseries exploring sustainability initiatives led by local communities, organizations, and private businesses that are transforming tourism all around the world.

Photo by: Sustainable Travel International

Tip 6: Watch out for cultural & language nuances

Assuming that we would like to create a brand story that would work with all our consumers around the world. However, language determines perception and thinking. As per this hypothesis, the individual can only think what the language allows them to think.

For example, ‘mother nature’ may revoke a feminine and nurturing sentiment in English as evidenced by a quick Google Images search. But in Chinese, the equivalent term is ‘大自然’, which literally means ‘big nature.’ This term often brings about the image of wilderness for Chinese speakers.

To that end, Sopaheluwakan suggests that brands must avoid overusing jargon such as eco-friendly, natural, organic, green, and sustainable without being specific about their claims.

Tip 7: Do not get too caught up in the format

From Tiktok short videos and Instagram reels to audio podcasts and email newsletters, brands have no shortage of platforms to tell their stories. The popularity of Substack, Medium, and The Morning Brew among Millenials and Gen-Zs proves that long-form written content remains a dominant means of communication .

The decision of becoming Jack of All Trades, or Master of One rests on a brand’s capacity and resources.

When your story is riveting and resonating, it will connect with your audience.

Regardless of which format, Kelsi Kennedy at MAp recommends brands to follow the “Know, Feel, Do” model when crafting a story to map out what your customers should know, feel and do (what’s the Call to Action?) as a result of reading, watching, or listening to it.

Tip 8: Get creative with collaborations

Collaboration has become an important tool for businesses seeking to tell stories from a holistic perspective within the sustainability space.

Look for opportunities to partner with value-aligned and cross-sectoral organizations and experts who are making a difference in their respective fields, as well as amplify and promote each other’s stories. This will provide additional credibility to your message as you share success stories from companies that customers can relate to.

For example, Weeva and Regenerative Travel have recently teamed up to release a series of white papers to deep dive into best practices in sustainable and regenerative travel. Weeva itself draws on The Long Run’s 4C (Conservation, Community, Culture, and Commerce) framework — rather than reinvent the wheel, the team selected the model they felt best measured holistic sustainability within the travel industry.

By joining forces, these two organizations have been able to bring more attention to tested solutions to pressing issues in the industry.

Tip 9: Leverage user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC), such as reviews, feedback, and social media posts are the most honest sources of information when it comes to storytelling. Just like traditional marketing channels, UGC increases reach and visibility in a natural way – with an added layer of trust.

The best part? It’s free.

For example, The Wanderlust Contest by National Geographic used the power of photography to improve publicity, awareness, and brand development. Followers were encouraged to share their best nature shot using the #WanderlustContest hashtag to enter.

Reported by Raffle Press, hundreds of people responded to the call to stand a chance to win a 7-day photo expedition to Yosemite National Park in California. This was a genius move on National Geographic's part to increase the share of voice related to its core topics on social media .

Tip 10: Monitor and measure success

In order to understand your sustainability story’s impact, it’s important to monitor the performance of your online campaigns as well as track metrics that actually matter beyond followers and likes. Marketing expert Justin Welsh outlines 3 tiers of metrics:

Top of funnel metrics: Likes, comments, shares, followers.
Middle of funnel metrics: visits to your website, newsletter signups, page views, time spent on website, etc.
Bottom of funnel metrics: purchases, bookings, number of people impacted (aka. jobs created, children in school), number of trees planted, etc.

By keeping track of analytics and where you’re seeing the most traction, marketers can identify which content is performing best as well as tweak or optimize current strategies to further improve customer experience and engagement.

With this approach, you can create and adjust your sustainability story that resonates with your customers and helps drive business success.

The key is to stay true to your core values and purpose so that the sustainability story you’re telling is genuine and meaningful.